Mr. And Mrs. Smith Flops

At first glance this action movie with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie looks like a no-brainer hit, with the rumored relationship between the two stars rocking the screen and creating a hot summer hit - but unfortunately in this case smoke doesn't equal fire. In fact, I found myself wondering many times if I hadn't tripped into the editing room and wound up watching a rough cut of the movie distributed only for internal viewing.

The premise is interesting and different - a couple find themselves in marriage therapy because they've drifted apart after five (or six) years of marriage; Brad Pitt bemoaning the fact that he just can't connect with his wife (Angelina Jolie) and that they've fallen into a rut.

Of course, the truth is that they're assassins, each working for different firms and constantly out on assignments away from each other and lying to their spouse about their activities. You would have thought having names like Mr. And Mrs. Smith would be a bit of a giveaway, along with their first names being John and Jane, but so it goes.

Angelina Jolie does a good job as a housewife who claims to be working in data retrieval in her day job; racing into her downtown office tower to lead a team of women analysts that would make Alias fans jealous as they plot and plan their next target. Taking orders from an unseen boss she gets an assignment to take out a government witness and sprints to the location.

Brad Pitt's working cover as an engineer requires a bit more dirt and grime, with his office resembling a junkyard at the best of times. But he gets his orders from his mysterious client to take out the same witness and prepares to do the job.

Of course, nothing is like it seems. And thanks to a bad scene inserted early in the movie, we know a lot more than we should in order to keep the tension going. So when the two killers find themselves facing each other down over the "government witness"; it's not much of a surprise.

The amount of residual damage to their house and their secret identities is hysterical as they quickly drop any pretense of being the happily married couple living the suburban life and get down to the dirty business of attempting to kill each other.

Pitt does a good job of the woeful husband attempting to salvage something of his marriage; trying to negotiate some way out of the situation without one or both of them dying. But he tends to whine a lot and you can't help but wonder why he hasn't been killed earlier in his career by some hapeless thug who just wouldn't listen to him anymore.

Angelina Jolie is a cool, calculating killer who is trying to sort out her feelings about the man she married five (or six) years ago and if she still can love him and remain true to her calling. She's slick, deadly and one can see quickly why she's at the top of her game.

But she doesn't really come across as the disturbed woman trying to come to terms with a marriage that could either have been a huge fake or possibly the real thing. When she's kicking butt, she's in her element - but outside of it she comes across as a bit of an annoying businesswoman who really isn't that likable at all. Her attempts to kill her husband and/or offer him a chance to get out of the city and possibly survive don't really come across as believable at times.

As Mr. And Mrs. Smith goes on you get a lot of action - explosions, gun battles and a lot of humorous events that will bring a smile to your face. But you can't help but feel that something's missing; that the editor went a bit overboard with the cuts and slices and that when the "Special Edition" is released in time for Christmas that there'll be at least another half hour included, if not more.

And the wild sex scene we were all reading about in the tabloids; the one that might either be a true reflection of Angelina and Brad's relationship or just good acting? Too little, too fast and too rushed - just like this movie.

Which is sad, because you can tell that scenes have been cut either for the sake of length or for inclusion in the DVD. There's a lot of great scenes that were shown in the preview trailers that haven't made it to the big screen and the movie suffers for it.

Having said that, the special effects are the best in recent memory, with plenty of explosions, car chases and snappy commentary to satisfy the majority of the audience. The ending battle is a wonderful series of verbal and physical performances that will stay in your mind's eye long after the credits roll.

Overall Mr. And Mrs. Smith is a good movie and certainly poised to be one of the summer's top draws. But I can't help but wonder if it would have been so much more if these extra scenes had been put in now, instead of waiting for the inevitable "Director's Cut" or "Special Edition" DVD for which Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie fans will gladly shell out the cash for.