Mr. and Mrs. Smith

A man and a woman are having marriage problems. They’ve been married about 5-6 years, and the spice is no longer there. Then one day, each discovers that the other has actually been hiding a deep, dark secret, and as it turns out…it’s the same secret! They’re both clandestine assassins, and now that they’ve uncovered one another, they have to whack each other out, in order the move on. So how does it all turn out? Will one of them die? Will their marriage survive? Will Brad and Angelina finally tell the world that they’re dating? Stay tuned, Bat-fans…

This is it. This is exactly what I look for in my summer popcorn flicks. Fun, fun, fun. Slap a couple of sexy, great-looking leads into a motion picture, add a twinge of romance, a ton of action, a surprising amount of potent comedy, and you can’t really go wrong if you’re looking for an all-around good time, without much effort, meat or discussion afterwards (unless, of course, you wanna discuss who is better looking, Brad or Angelina– although that debate can go on for hours). Add some nifty directing into it all via Doug Liman, a good dose of comic relief via the best wing-man in the biz, Vince Vaughn (he’s money and he knows it!), a complementary soundtrack that mixes grooves with classic dance stuff, and oh, did I mention the wink of the eye and the fun, fun, fun? That’s right, if you look closely enough, you’ll catch the homage to FIGHT CLUB and if you’re into the movie, you’ll adore the literal wink of the eye that Brad gives the audience as his lovely wife drops down and out of the camera’s range. Just please don’t be that bozo sitting in the theater busting all over his friends about how such-and-such couldn’t happen in “real life”, guess what, asshole…it’s a friggin’ movie…enjoy it! I had a blast watching Angelina and her crew smashing windows high atop skyscrapers, flinging arrows into the adjoining building and zipping their way over there. Is it something that might be remotely possible in “real life”? Of course not, but then again, would an awesome looking couple like Brangelina really NOT be having sex in “real life”? You see my point, right?

And speaking of which, let’s give it up for both Pitt and Jolie who are great in this film, play the tones just right, have fun with it all, generate a tremendous amount of both chemistry and charisma, and only left me with one question on my mind: which one am I gonna whack off to later on tonight? Seriously though, a stunning looking Jolie truly gets into this character and Pitt is surprisingly very adept at comedy. The film also moves at a clip – although the only small issue I might’ve had with it, is that it does feel like it’s a little longer than it should be (but then I would just look at the big screen and fall in love with the perfect symmetry of the two actors’ faces versus my own mess, and smile, once again). The action scenes were also fun and believable, the fight sequence between the two lovers, cute, the final shoot-out is a blast, and all of the one-liners, the hip retorts, the double-entendres, all of it…worked for me and slapped me full of entertainment. Straight up, I had a good time watching this film and in the summertime, when the weather is hot, my sex life is cold and movies are a great way to complement an afternoon or evening, this is the perfect addition to a bag o’ popped corn, a bottle o’ soda and a hunkering for fun!

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian