This Week's Hot Pick: 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith'

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

This was the film that spawned hundreds of magazine and tabloid covers this year.

Unfortunately, what was happening off-screen turned out to be a lot more interesting than what was captured on film -- even though the movie took in $186 million at the domestic box office.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play a married couple who find their relationship boring and lacking spark. Neither knows the other is a trained freelance assassin. And when they learn this after the film's first few scenes, they're instantly estranged and out to knock each other off.

Despite its glamorous stars and the gossip industry's heavy breathing about the Pitt-Jolie relationship, Doug Liman's film has no nudity, no passion and only a few brief, embarrassed clutches and teasing allusions. Like all big Hollywood movies these days, this one is scared to death of sex: It's all violence and explosions -- one more emotionless, brainless, overproduced action film.

Neither of the stars comes off well in this mess, but Jolie is the least offensive. She has a strong and unique presence and a commanding sexual confidence. With his burr haircut, his macho posturing and tendency to chew junk food through every scene, Pitt seems out to deliberately stomp all the soul out of his glamorous screen persona.

Ironically, Vince Vaughan, who has been romantically linked with Jennifer Aniston, Pitt's ex, steals his scenes in a comic-relief role as Pitt's mama's boy associate.

The DVD includes a making-of featurette, commentary by Liman, the screenwriters and technical crew, and deleted and extended sequences. 120 minutes. Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence, intense action, sexual content and brief strong language. (William Arnold)

GRADE: D