Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Long time no see!

I had planned to talk about these movies I saw last week but I kept procrastinating. Well, no more.

The first of these movies I watched almost two weeks ago and it was simply great. In Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie star as a couple who has lost the spark over their five (or six, they are not sure about that) years of marriage. What none of them know however is that the other one has a secret, and a big one that is. Both John and Jane are assassins, working for different, and apparently rival, organizations. When both are assigned the same mark, and each of their attempts makes the other one fail, they come face to face with the striking truth. Now their agencies want them each to kill their counterpart, resulting in a string of hilarious action packed situations that lead to the rekindling of their relation.

Director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) manages to mix the right amount of comedy and action. The movie starts with Pitt and Jolie talking to a marriage counsellor --whose face we never see-- and from that instant we get a clear idea of the movie's vein. The couple --who met in an hispanic country in the middle of a revolution-- is bored and later we see why as they get up in the morning and go at their usual morning routine talking about traffic and a dinner they have to attend but don't really want to. Before the night arrives however, John has killed four men while passing for a clumsy poker player, and Jane has snapped the neck of an arms dealer and then plunged 40 ft to the ground (while taking a hair strand off her face). We begin to catch glimpses of the real John and Jane Smith, he keeping an arsenal in the basement; she, in the kitchen.

Then the secret is out, and the fireworks begin.

The chemistry between Pitt and Jolie is absolutely great. My favorite part is when both of them are escaping in a high-speed chase, shooting at their persecutors while comparing each other's "lies" about their marriage. At one point, while they are in mortal danger, John confesses he was actually married once. Jane loses it and starts hitting him. Scenes of striking visual appeal like when Jolie and her vixen squad escape from their hideout by sliding down wires, are mixed with funny, precise dialogue, the sort of "Let me drive, I'm the suburban Soccer Mom, sweetheart" or "You keep undermining my authority in front of the hostage".

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a movie that will guarantee you a good laugh without sacrificing the thrills (you'll still get yor generous share of explosions, shootings and car crashes).