Mr and Mrs Smith
Released : June 10, 2005
directed By :Doug Liman
Genre : Action/Comedy/Romance/Thriller
Primary Cast : Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Efren Ramirez
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If you two are separate, then you have a shot. If you’re together, you’re as good as dead.
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It’s an out an out action movie with dollops of situational comedy.
Brad Pitt is John Smith. His wife is Jane Smith, played by Angelina Jolie. (Bet you didn’t know that). They are an unusual couple - each work as hired asassins for their respective agencies. Of course, each is oblivious to each other’s means for earning their bread. Things are not smooth on the marriage side, however. John and Jane are gradually drifting apart due to non-communication. They also visit a marriage counsellor, in fact the movie starts and ends at a session with the counsellor.
Barring marital hiccups such as a tiff between the choice of the curtains that will be put up, things go fine. Until one fine day, both John and Jane are hired by their respective agencies to kill the same person, Efren Ramirez. As Efren appears amidst a convoy of security cars, Jane positions herself to shoot him. Lo and behold, a crazy guy playing loud music appears out of nowhere in a monster truck. It’s none other than John. They have a shooting spree here with each trying to send each other knocking on heaven’s door. In this fiasco, everything goes wrong and the target escapes death.
Naturally, in the world of high crime, it takes a matter of hours to figure out that they’re playing the death game against each other. So this time, the John has to kill Jane, and Jane has to do away with John. Within 48 hours, no less.
What goes on from here is all out action. There are plenty of comical situations as well. For instance, the scene when they discover that their better halves are standing in their way. John comes back to dinner to find Jane waiting with a drink. When she’s not looking, he smartly drops it into a tree-pot. He’s also comically uncomfortable while chewing his steak, wondering whether the garnish will be the last one he’ll ever taste.
There are quite a few attempts to kill each other, each time accompanied by appropriate dialogue. After a shotgun bullet narrowly misses John in a gun-fight, Jane calls out - ’’Still alive, baby ?’’. After some such gunfights, they discover that both of them are in the line of fire from their respective agencies. In short, the agencies have combined to kill the duo as their identities have been revealed to each other and could prove costly to them since both are undercover agencies. So John and Jane have to stick together to save their neck.
The story unfolds again from here with the couple playing cat-and-mouse with their contracted killers. Whether they succeed in their mission, watch it to find out. I am not revealing too much yet or the fun will disappear for the ones who are going to watch this movie after some time.
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Some memorable scenes from the movie
The introduction scene to Jane’s secret life. She’s assigned to kill a drug dealer, and after her mission is accomplished, she escapes from a multi-storeyed building using a high-tech wire, dropping straight onto the main portico, where she calmly takes a taxi and zooms away.
An action sequence between John and Jane which occurs in their house. After a long drawn out blasting of bullets that fail to put any scratches on anyone, they resort to a fist fight. Fist fight leads to lust, and lust leads to cutting to the next sequence. There was a lovemaking sequence in this section which has naturally been erased by our censor board.
A fantastic car chase sequence where Jane handles the wheels and John, the action behind. The shots are fabulously taken, the stunts are a treat to watch and the climax to this sequence is fabulous as well. Jane appears cooler and calculating and does a better job than John, who’s more of a gung-ho character.
There is also a fierce gun battle where the couple fight against several bad guys in a warehouse. This is the climax scene and is extremely well picturized as well, and will remind you of the better shooting scenes you have watched. Although there are the few unbelievable ’’Mithunda’’ touches where Jane eludes a high-speed mini-rocket launcher by merely ducking her head.
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If you’re game for an afternoon of fun, I’d say go for it. The story is not the strong point of this movie, and actually the movie is quite predictable. The on-screen chemistry between Jolie and Pitt is good, and both the actors look in great shape. Both the characters match their intelligence against each other which calls for some cool dialogues and action sequences in which they outwit each other. The humour will leave a lasting impression. The camerawork and editing is slick as well, and the soundtrack is pretty cool too. In fact, very apt music appears at the right moments pushing those particular scenes to a more enthralling level.
Go for it is what I say. It’s a Hollywood masala movie, and a definite paisa vasool film. It gets about three (and three quarters) stars from me.
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Remember the initial dialogue. It’s the crux of the entire film.
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