Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Brad Pitt Vs. Angelina Jolie

Cool but silly, intermittently stylish but thoroughly senseless, Doug Liman’s “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” is a high-concept blockbuster of the worst kind, a hybrid of every popular Hollywood genre: screwball comedy, action-adventure, spy-thriller, and marital drama. Star-driven, this summer movie displays the charisma and good looks of Brad Pitt and Anjelina Jolie to an advantage; Jolie has never looked more beautiful or sexier.

Simon Kinberg’s screenplay is a mishmash of movieish clichs, with little concern for story, logic, and credibility—even by standards of mainstream Hollywood blockbusters. Indeed, the strong chemistry between the stars can’t cover the big hole at the center of this fraudulent movie, which is plotless.

Despite major flaws, reaching for the twentysomething and thirtysomething crowds, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” should prove a hot (or is it cool) date movie. Though there is not much overt sex in the film, there are enough double-entendres, and the sight of Pitt and Jolie in white underwear and tight outfits is never less than enticing.

Overhyped even before it went into production, when Nicole Kidman dropped out due to scheduling problems, and constantly in the news due to rumors of romantic affair between Pitt and Jolie, the media blitz spiraled out of control, when Pitt and Jennifer Aniston announced their separation, and the cast was reassembled to shoot a different ending as late as March.

I mention this seemingly superfluous staff to indicate that, by the time we saw “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” we had to work hard to separate the hype and media overkill of the troubled production from what was presented on screen.

Liman, a gifted director, who has made some small and edgy indies (“Swingers,” “Go”), seems to think to bigger and louder is better, for the mayhem in his picture just piles up, resulting in action sequences that involve the massive destruction of restaurants, department stores, Beverly Hills estates. But to what effect

The central idea, unhappily married assassins who find themselves falling in love all over again when each is assigned to kill the other, is not as novel as the filmmakers would like to believe. John Huston’s “Prizzi’s Honor,” with Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner, had a similar idea, and this kind of broad, nasty, and rude comedy of marriage is also to be found in Danny DeVitto’s “The War of the Roses.”

Of the two-hour actioner, which is overlong by at least a reel, about 15 or 20 minutes are witty and fun to watch. “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” has a particularly good beginning, a therapy session with a faceless psychiatrist, in which the two sparring spouses face the camera while discussing their marital problems. They reveal disagreement, or selective memory, about basic facts, such as the length of their marriage. John seems to think that it’s five years, whereas Jane holds it’s six.

A flashback, entitled “Five or Six Years Ago,” depicts the cutesy circumstances of the Smiths’ first encounter. John and Jane meet in Bogota, Colombia, where amidst a fiery revolution, they ignite in a dance marked by adrenaline, attraction and mystery. The first time John and Jane dance, they are both leading; sometimes he leads, sometimes she leads. Theyre competing, and they don’t know who the other person is and the excitement and energy of the space informs the dance.

Cut to the present and the mundane life of the Smiths. John and Jane are an ordinary suburban couple, going through a listless, passionless marriage. Each is hiding something the other would kill to know: Mr. and Mrs. Smith are highly paid, incredibly efficient assassins, and they work for competing organizations. As viewers, we are not expected to ask whom do they work for, or whom do they kill “Mrs. & Mrs. Smith” carries amorality to an extreme, celebrating it as the ultimate statement of being cool.

After theyre married, the Smiths learn that there are no accidents when it comes to love. The couple continues a ridiculous charade that leads to marital tedium. For a while, the comedy grabs our attention through the stylish looks and glamorous conduct of the sexy stars, who are meant to play extraordinary characters experiencing the same “ordinary” problems as other couples whose utterly sexless marriage is on the rocks.

The Smiths’ life as a couple is clouded by secrecy, lies, and ennui. This is reflected in their home, which symbolizes their dying relationship. It’s a space overflowing with comforts that exemplify the height of style but with no real warmth. Their house, a beautiful but gilded cage, keeps them from really experiencing each other

Since John and Jane are assassins, the house holds many secrets. John’s innocent-looking tool shed reveals a cellar-sized supply room containing stacks of cash, plus rocket launchers, grenades, and dozens of handguns. Jane’s oven, too, is a secret repository of high-tech weaponry. The “twist” is that neither Jane nor John is aware of the other’s covert stashes, until their fateful showdown inside the home.

Once their covers are blown, the Smiths discover that no marriage can survive without love and trust, and a clear knowledge of what one’s spouse does for a living. But first, they play a dangerous cat-and-mouse game, culminating in an explosive fight, a “dance of death” inside their suburban home. The Smiths discover a new source of excitement in their marriage when theyre hired to assassinate each other. When their lies are stripped away, and their secrets are exposed, they are liberated and at the same time, vulnerable. Ironically, from that moment forward, the movie becomes about the characters feeling safer, as life becomes increasingly more dangerous.

Most of the film constitutes one big spectacle, in which Mr. and Mrs. Smith put their formidable skills to work and their marriage to the ultimate test. But unfortunately, the transitions, from fighting to lovemaking, from wanting to kill each other to finally discovering their real passion for each other, are repetitive and increasingly more and more preposterous. Indeed, the movie’s biggest problem is its tone, or how to vacillating the sexy tone of the routine stuff (dinner at 7, table manners) with the action-adventure elements, which are filled with globetrotting action, state-of-the-art special effects, and stunts, some of which performed by the actors themselves.

This “big-event” large-budget summer picture actually had modest origins. Simon Kinberg wrote the script’s first draft for his Master’s thesis at Columbia University. The idea came from his passion for Hong Kong action films, as evident in his contribution to “XXX: State of the Union” and “X-Men 3.” Then listening to his friends’ stories about their marriage counseling, which sounded like mercenary experiences, Kinberg decided to graft a marriage comedy on the frame of an actioner. Kinberg and Liman set out to make a cool, sleek, sexy, and kinetic movie, a mix (more of a mishmash) of action, adventure, romance, comedy, and thrills.

“Mr. & Mrs. Smith” is meant to be about danger, sex, and misunderstanding, with the filmmakers substituting the traditional romantic comedy devices with big action set pieces, bombs, and explosions. It feels as if, even before detailing his characters, Kinberg structured the story around the action sequences, trying to find parallels between the action and the construction of a successful marriage. Unfortunately, the movie can’t decide if action is secondary to the character, or vice versa. In the film’s first half, the characters are primary and the action secondary, but the ratio is reversed in the second half.

The film asks the question of how do assassins, blessed with exceptional physical abilities, deal with their marital problems It’s based on the amoral, dubious notion that being a top assassin is a much easier lifestyle compared with the rigors of keeping a marriage afloat. The protagonists may be highly trained and glamorous assassins, but, ultimately, they are just like their viewers, since they have experience the same problems faced by all couples: boredom, lies, and soul-deadening routine. Liman, takes a duo capable of superhuman feats, and drops them in the middle of suburbia, making them face the same “routine” problems that we all do.

Since there’s not much text, perhaps one should dwell on the subtext. “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” implies that if your really ant to get to know your spouse, you better try to kill him or her first, because only under life threat, the real personalities and identities reveal themselves.

Indeed, more is disclosed about the characters in the film’s last 15 minutes than in the narrative that precedes it. John lies about his education (he didn’t go to MIT, he went to Notre Dame) and Jane about her parents (she’s a Jewish orphan, and the “father” at their wedding was a hired actor). The story is about a married couple that, assigned to hunt down each other, are forced them to pay attention to each other for first time! Learning the truth about one another, John and Jane Smith fall in love all over again.

Listening to the filmmakers, you may get the notion that they have made a relationship, push-and-pull movie about a couple who want to be together, but circumstances interfere, and yet somehow they have to work their way through it if they want to stay together. Actress Jolie even sees Mr. and Mrs. Smith as a feminist statement about empowerment: “It’s important for women to feel that they can be strong on their own, but it’s great to be involved with a film where a man and a woman need each other and are better when theyre together. There’s something great about people functioning as a team that movies haven’t focused on in a while.”

Apparently, John and Jane’s secret lives don’t leave much room for friendships, for there are only few secondary characters. The closest thing John has to a friend is a neurotic colleague, Eddie (Vince Vaughan who delivers the film’s best lines), who lives with his mom because she’s the only woman he can trust. Eddie and John work in the same field but are very different in manner. Eddie is frenetic and constantly arcing with energy.

Like John, Jane’s circle of friends is limited to basically one confidant, Jasmine (Kerry Washington) a co-worker who disapproves of Jane’s evolving relationship with John. Jane doesn’t allow herself to get close to anyone because that would make her vulnerable. For Jane, getting close to someone is the most dangerous thing. The film’s fifth character is Benjamin Danz (Adam Brody), a low-level operative who figures in John and Jane’s ever-changing lives as assassins and as spouses.

Pitt and Jolie have appeared in action films before, but separately. For this picture, they had to learn how to move in tandem with fully loaded pump shotguns, crossing each other, running into houses, breaking and covering an area, shooting at moving multiple targets. Here, theyre outfitted with the newest high tech weapons, including cutting-edge, non-lethal Taser and stun guns, and display a variety of the skills, such as firing rockets, driving cord bikes, rock climbing.

The film’s action, comedy and romance involve not only gunplay, but also dance. Inspired by the ballet-like grace of Hong Kong action films, Kinberg borrows ideas from musicals and actioners. The action is meant play like an exploration of character, but it doesn’t. “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” falls victim to a repetitive and tiresome structure: Big action sequences are interrupted by semi-witty marital disputes and occasionally funny one-liners and double entendres.

Imitating musicals, where the characters express their feelings and passion in dance, because they can’t express then with dialogue, John and Jane break into gunplay or a chase sequence, which is an expression of where their characters are in the context of their relationship.

The film’s biggest action sequence, in the third act, is the most choreographed. The sequence unfolds, then explodes, at a fictitious home improvement store, shot in a vacant IKEA warehouse in Torrance, California. The filmmakers combine a mixture of styles for each character for the finale. John makes up his plan of action as he goes along, whereas Jane is more succinct and direct in her approach. Jane uses a sniper rifle whereas John is blasting away as he moves around.

The “happy” ending, in which the Smiths join forces and reconcile, is fake and phony. Up to this point, the Smiths were having problems working together, but now theyve solved their underlying issues and are learning to work together as partners, like a smooth machine.

If the action set pieces of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” do not serve the story, it’s because there is no story. Admittedly, it’s a tough challenge to coming up with hilarious comedy beats within scenes that would still make John and Jane look like killers. Which is another way of saying that the film is not successful at combining its two central ingredients: comedy and action.

xosotin chelseathông tin chuyển nhượngcâu lạc bộ bóng đá arsenalbóng đá atalantabundesligacầu thủ haalandUEFAevertonxosokeonhacaiketquabongdalichthidau7m.newskqbdtysokeobongdabongdalufutebol ao vivofutemaxmulticanaisonbetbsport.fitonbet88.oooi9bet.bizhi88.ooookvip.atf8bet.atfb88.cashvn88.cashshbet.atbóng đá world cupbóng đá inter milantin juventusbenzemala ligaclb leicester cityMUman citymessi lionelsalahnapolineymarpsgronaldoserie atottenhamvalenciaAS ROMALeverkusenac milanmbappenapolinewcastleaston villaliverpoolfa cupreal madridpremier leagueAjaxbao bong da247EPLbarcelonabournemouthaff cupasean footballbên lề sân cỏbáo bóng đá mớibóng đá cúp thế giớitin bóng đá ViệtUEFAbáo bóng đá việt namHuyền thoại bóng đágiải ngoại hạng anhSeagametap chi bong da the gioitin bong da lutrận đấu hôm nayviệt nam bóng đátin nong bong daBóng đá nữthể thao 7m24h bóng đábóng đá hôm naythe thao ngoai hang anhtin nhanh bóng đáphòng thay đồ bóng đábóng đá phủikèo nhà cái onbetbóng đá lu 2thông tin phòng thay đồthe thao vuaapp đánh lô đềdudoanxosoxổ số giải đặc biệthôm nay xổ sốkèo đẹp hôm nayketquaxosokq xskqxsmnsoi cầu ba miềnsoi cau thong kesxkt hôm naythế giới xổ sốxổ số 24hxo.soxoso3mienxo so ba mienxoso dac bietxosodientoanxổ số dự đoánvé số chiều xổxoso ket quaxosokienthietxoso kq hôm nayxoso ktxổ số megaxổ số mới nhất hôm nayxoso truc tiepxoso ViệtSX3MIENxs dự đoánxs mien bac hom nayxs miên namxsmientrungxsmn thu 7con số may mắn hôm nayKQXS 3 miền Bắc Trung Nam Nhanhdự đoán xổ số 3 miềndò vé sốdu doan xo so hom nayket qua xo xoket qua xo so.vntrúng thưởng xo sokq xoso trực tiếpket qua xskqxs 247số miền nams0x0 mienbacxosobamien hôm naysố đẹp hôm naysố đẹp trực tuyếnnuôi số đẹpxo so hom quaxoso ketquaxstruc tiep hom nayxổ số kiến thiết trực tiếpxổ số kq hôm nayso xo kq trực tuyenkết quả xổ số miền bắc trực tiếpxo so miền namxổ số miền nam trực tiếptrực tiếp xổ số hôm nayket wa xsKQ XOSOxoso onlinexo so truc tiep hom nayxsttso mien bac trong ngàyKQXS3Msố so mien bacdu doan xo so onlinedu doan cau loxổ số kenokqxs vnKQXOSOKQXS hôm naytrực tiếp kết quả xổ số ba miềncap lo dep nhat hom naysoi cầu chuẩn hôm nayso ket qua xo soXem kết quả xổ số nhanh nhấtSX3MIENXSMB chủ nhậtKQXSMNkết quả mở giải trực tuyếnGiờ vàng chốt số OnlineĐánh Đề Con Gìdò số miền namdò vé số hôm nayso mo so debach thủ lô đẹp nhất hôm naycầu đề hôm naykết quả xổ số kiến thiết toàn quốccau dep 88xsmb rong bach kimket qua xs 2023dự đoán xổ số hàng ngàyBạch thủ đề miền BắcSoi Cầu MB thần tàisoi cau vip 247soi cầu tốtsoi cầu miễn phísoi cau mb vipxsmb hom nayxs vietlottxsmn hôm naycầu lô đẹpthống kê lô kép xổ số miền Bắcquay thử xsmnxổ số thần tàiQuay thử XSMTxổ số chiều nayxo so mien nam hom nayweb đánh lô đề trực tuyến uy tínKQXS hôm nayxsmb ngày hôm nayXSMT chủ nhậtxổ số Power 6/55KQXS A trúng roycao thủ chốt sốbảng xổ số đặc biệtsoi cầu 247 vipsoi cầu wap 666Soi cầu miễn phí 888 VIPSoi Cau Chuan MBđộc thủ desố miền bắcthần tài cho sốKết quả xổ số thần tàiXem trực tiếp xổ sốXIN SỐ THẦN TÀI THỔ ĐỊACầu lô số đẹplô đẹp vip 24hsoi cầu miễn phí 888xổ số kiến thiết chiều nayXSMN thứ 7 hàng tuầnKết quả Xổ số Hồ Chí Minhnhà cái xổ số Việt NamXổ Số Đại PhátXổ số mới nhất Hôm Nayso xo mb hom nayxxmb88quay thu mbXo so Minh ChinhXS Minh Ngọc trực tiếp hôm nayXSMN 88XSTDxs than taixổ số UY TIN NHẤTxs vietlott 88SOI CẦU SIÊU CHUẨNSoiCauVietlô đẹp hôm nay vipket qua so xo hom naykqxsmb 30 ngàydự đoán xổ số 3 miềnSoi cầu 3 càng chuẩn xácbạch thủ lônuoi lo chuanbắt lô chuẩn theo ngàykq xo-solô 3 càngnuôi lô đề siêu vipcầu Lô Xiên XSMBđề về bao nhiêuSoi cầu x3xổ số kiến thiết ngày hôm nayquay thử xsmttruc tiep kết quả sxmntrực tiếp miền bắckết quả xổ số chấm vnbảng xs đặc biệt năm 2023soi cau xsmbxổ số hà nội hôm naysxmtxsmt hôm nayxs truc tiep mbketqua xo so onlinekqxs onlinexo số hôm nayXS3MTin xs hôm nayxsmn thu2XSMN hom nayxổ số miền bắc trực tiếp hôm naySO XOxsmbsxmn hôm nay188betlink188 xo sosoi cầu vip 88lô tô việtsoi lô việtXS247xs ba miềnchốt lô đẹp nhất hôm naychốt số xsmbCHƠI LÔ TÔsoi cau mn hom naychốt lô chuẩndu doan sxmtdự đoán xổ số onlinerồng bạch kim chốt 3 càng miễn phí hôm naythống kê lô gan miền bắcdàn đề lôCầu Kèo Đặc Biệtchốt cầu may mắnkết quả xổ số miền bắc hômSoi cầu vàng 777thẻ bài onlinedu doan mn 888soi cầu miền nam vipsoi cầu mt vipdàn de hôm nay7 cao thủ chốt sốsoi cau mien phi 7777 cao thủ chốt số nức tiếng3 càng miền bắcrồng bạch kim 777dàn de bất bạion newsddxsmn188betw88w88789bettf88sin88suvipsunwintf88five8812betsv88vn88Top 10 nhà cái uy tínsky88iwinlucky88nhacaisin88oxbetm88vn88w88789betiwinf8betrio66rio66lucky88oxbetvn88188bet789betMay-88five88one88sin88bk88xbetoxbetMU88188BETSV88RIO66ONBET88188betM88M88SV88Jun-68Jun-88one88iwinv9betw388OXBETw388w388onbetonbetonbetonbet88onbet88onbet88onbet88onbetonbetonbetonbetqh88mu88Nhà cái uy tínpog79vp777vp777vipbetvipbetuk88uk88typhu88typhu88tk88tk88sm66sm66me88me888live8live8livesm66me88win798livesm66me88win79pog79pog79vp777vp777uk88uk88tk88tk88luck8luck8kingbet86kingbet86k188k188hr99hr99123b8xbetvnvipbetsv66zbettaisunwin-vntyphu88vn138vwinvwinvi68ee881xbetrio66zbetvn138i9betvipfi88clubcf68onbet88ee88typhu88onbetonbetkhuyenmai12bet-moblie12betmoblietaimienphi247vi68clupcf68clupvipbeti9betqh88onb123onbefsoi cầunổ hũbắn cáđá gàđá gàgame bàicasinosoi cầuxóc đĩagame bàigiải mã giấc mơbầu cuaslot gamecasinonổ hủdàn đềBắn cácasinodàn đềnổ hũtài xỉuslot gamecasinobắn cáđá gàgame bàithể thaogame bàisoi cầukqsssoi cầucờ tướngbắn cágame bàixóc đĩa开云体育开云体育开云体育乐鱼体育乐鱼体育乐鱼体育亚新体育亚新体育亚新体育爱游戏爱游戏爱游戏华体会华体会华体会IM体育IM体育沙巴体育沙巴体育PM体育PM体育AG尊龙AG尊龙AG尊龙AG百家乐AG百家乐AG百家乐AG真人AG真人<AG真人<皇冠体育皇冠体育PG电子PG电子万博体育万博体育KOK体育KOK体育欧宝体育江南体育江南体育江南体育半岛体育半岛体育半岛体育凯发娱乐凯发娱乐杏彩体育杏彩体育杏彩体育FB体育PM真人PM真人<米乐娱乐米乐娱乐天博体育天博体育开元棋牌开元棋牌j9九游会j9九游会开云体育AG百家乐AG百家乐AG真人AG真人爱游戏华体会华体会im体育kok体育开云体育开云体育开云体育乐鱼体育乐鱼体育欧宝体育ob体育亚博体育亚博体育亚博体育亚博体育亚博体育亚博体育开云体育开云体育棋牌棋牌沙巴体育买球平台新葡京娱乐开云体育mu88qh88