Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

This lackluster popcorn flick borrows heavily from several more respectable sources, including Prizzi’s Honor (a story about a hit man and a hit woman falling in love with each other, despite accepting to perform hits on each other) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith (about a couple whose marriage isn’t what it used to be and they discover that they aren’t legally married, leading them to wonder where they can go from here).

This is a summer movie, so you can leave your brain at the door and ignore all the unrealistic gunfire, lack of ballistics continuity, and double entendres that are so cliché you hardly give the film enough respect to even roll your eyes at. The film is entertaining though, its lone redeeming quality. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are (unbeknownst to each other) private assassins and are married to each other. They get in the way of a mutually assigned hit and end up on the trail of each other.

Basically, Mr. & Mrs. Smith provides just enough ridiculously choreographed fight scenes and pent up sexual aggression to tide over the masses. The filmmakers make it rather clear during a fight scene that Mrs. Smith likes it rough, as she seems to get some pleasure out of being thrown around the room by her husband.

Perhaps this sado-masochism is part of the cultural consciousness; or maybe it just tantalizes us into further speculation of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s affair during the making of this film. I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.

I was still left wondering two things upon the film's conclusion: 1) If they’re such observant spies, how could they not detect each other’s hidden tools? and 2) How could two ridiculously gorgeous people like Pitt and Jolie suffer a boring marriage?

Flashy, silly and shallow sells at the summer box office, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith is more than willing to sink to those lows for your dollars.

RATING: 3 out of 5