Louder than Bombs

No, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is not a a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 Robert Montgomery/Carole Lombard screwball comedy. In the 1941 outing, very married Mr. and Mrs. S discover that their marriage was not legal and break up as a result. In the 2005 version, bored, very married Mr. and Mrs. S discover that they are both secretly government assassins and try to kill each other.

You might come to this expecting an action comedy with a marriage twist. It is actually a relationship comedy with an action twist. It shows our heroes, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, in typical (stereotypical or even sitcom-ical) relationship problems, but the twist is, they are secretly trained killers. It would be completely different if they got into typical action setups, but the twist is, they are a bored married couple.

Or would it?

Anyway, the relationship comedy would be pretty stale by itself: She wants him to get interested in window treatments, he hates her cooking but won't tell her. Their married life seems completely phony - but I guess it would. I wonder what a real social critic would make out of a premise like this? Vince Vaughan as Mr. Smith's would-be player buddy increases the fantasy for me. I don't get the whole Swingers thing.

How about the action? Around halfway through the movie ***SPOILER*** Mr. and Mrs. start trying to kill each other. It's kind of sweet actually. It's how trained killers work things out, I suppose. There are a couple of scenes where they do worry they've gone too far, but those are kind of glossed over. You are made to understand that these guys are bulletproof. When Brad knocks Angelina down and kicks her repeatedly, at least they hide it behind the sofa. They may have felt that took it a little too far.

The best parts were the little twists on domestic life - like the minivan car chase:

• Mrs. Smith takes the wheel because, after all, she is a suburban housewife.
• Mr. Smith hits the automatic hatchback opener to shoot out the back.
• When a bad guy climbs in through the sidedoor, Mr. Smith opens the opposite side and throws him out through it, commenting, "These extra doors really are handy"

OK, so the jokes are kind of lame. The action scenes aren't the greatest - Angelina Jolie seems to be leaning heavily on stuntmen/women. My wife figured this out in Tomb Raider. She hardly takes 2 steps without a double standing it. Neither of us care, though. The idea of the kickass Angelina Jolie is enough.

All in all, we found this a thoroughly enjoyable popcorn movie. It's got action and Angelina for the guys, relationships and Brad for the gals. Who could complain?