Movie Review: Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Originally uploaded by wailer2000.

Friday night, Jennie and I had a friend offer to watch Allie as a favor. After some terrific eats at Ruby Tuesdays, we went out to see the new action-spy movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Incidentally, for a great blog discussion involving Brad Pitt's fight against poverty, click here. Add your comments too!

Anyway, since I have wanted to do a movie review sometime on this journal, I figured now would be a good time to tell you a few of my impressions of Mr. & Mrs. Smith...

John and Jane Smith are have been married for five years and experiencing some problems in their relationship. They keep a lot of secrets from each other, not the least of which is the fact that each one of them works for some sort of CIA/Spy/Secret Hit-man unit. Eventually, as you know if you've seen the previews, they discover the truth about each other, and are apparently "hired to kill" each other.

I don't want to give away what happens in the movie. I'll just give you my amateur review on some of the key components of the movie.

Since the movie is from the same director as The Bourne Supremacy, you can expect some action, some intrigue, and some nice spy weaponry. If you're out for action, suspense, and a fast-paced plot, I think you'll like this movie.

For acting, they probably could not have picked better actors to fit these roles. Originally, they tried to get Nicole Kidman to play Jane (Mrs. Smith), and that would have flopped. Angelina plays the tough girl with some serious attitude.

As a parent, I would say the violence and shootouts were too extreme, sometimes overdone. Not graphic violence, just relentless shooting. It gets old. I get tired of movies where the good guys seem to dodge a zillion bullets while their one shot hits the target every time. The "pastor in me" would just say watch out for some of the violence and sexual innuendo. It is PG-13.

But the movie fan in me got exactly what I expected. Two hours of great action, spy drama, and intelligent, witty dialogue. Everyone knows Brad Pitt (Oceans Eleven, 12 Monkeys, etc.) is capable of entertaining comments.

Let's just say it was an intelligent, well-acted, fun action movie. I've seen too many worthless action movies with bad dialogue and unintelligent plotlines (like Sahara and National Treasure) to even want to see another. This was definitely better.

The movie actually says some pretty profound things about marriage, which was an enjoyable surprise.

Overall rating: 3.0 stars.