Mr.& Mrs. Smith is glamorous, kicky, high-concept entertainment that remains largely on course thanks to crackling good chemistry between stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Pitt and Jolie are big personalities and big celebrities, but at their best, they have loose, frolicky instincts and they show them off here. Pitt especially is good at the little ticks that make a character more fun for us to watch (remember Ocean’s 11 and how in every scene, he’s eating something?) and presumably more interesting for him to play. In Smith (please don’t make me type Mr. & Mrs. Smith every time or I’ll go nuts), he plays John Smith, a deadly assassin working for a spy agency run by Eddie, played by Vince Vaughn. John keeps his deadly vocation a secret from his wife Jane (Jolie), who thinks her husband is a contractor. However, Jane, unbeknownst to John, is not just a dutiful wife who tends house and frets over the color of the new drapes. She’s also a paid assassin working for a rival agency. As far as I could tell, Jane’s competing outfit is comprised entirely of female spies, as if the FemBots from Austin Powers were reprogrammed to fight for the good guys.

We meet John and Jane Smith in counseling, talking to an off-screen marriage therapist. John kinda loves his wife, but “sometime I just wanna . . .” and he gestures as if putting his hands around her neck. Neither can quite remember the last time they had sex, nor how long they’ve been married. Their secret lives are so exciting that the mundane routine of a marriage is deadening by comparison. When John and Jane are unknowingly assigned to take out the same target, they begin to suspect the other is a spy. When their suspicions are confirmed, they’re assigned to kill each other, which leads to lots of wink-wink double entendres. When John and Jane throw down their weapons and just pummel the crap out of each other, Liman’s use of the song “Express Yourself” is a groaner, but damn if it doesn’t make you smile. The film is in love with this central idea, that a husband and wife really trying to murder each other ain’t far removed from how most married couples act anyway. Some days, you look at the person across the bed and think, “I love that person,” other days you think “I hate that person,” and still others you think, “I don’t know that person.” Smith takes this ball and runs it into the end zone, then keeps running through the locker room and out into the parking lot. It gets a lot of mileage out of the concept, even if it’s gasping for air by the end.

The movie is good, but isn’t perfect. Writer-du-jour Simon Kinberg (Fantastic Four and XXX: State of the Union, two scripts that won’t be taught in screenwriting class) needs to attend Screenwriter Finishing School. He has never shown more than a rudimentary sense of humor or plotting. Here, he leaves us with the feeling that a better screenplay would have better fulfilled the premise’s potential and we wouldn’t be relying so much on Pitt and Jolie to power it home. No surprise then, that Kinberg wrote Smith as a master’s thesis project at Columbia (if it’s that easy, maybe the student who made a periscope out of milk cartons can captain a nuclear sub). The Vince Vaughn character bugged me. There is something opaque about that guy; he’s always the hip little quipster operating above the movie, doing his Vince Vaughn thing. And while a paid assassin living with his mother sounds great for a full-blown spy spoof, it’s too silly for this film. Also, at two hours, Kinberg can’t quite find enough for the characters to do; their journey is logically over about ten minutes before the film decides to end. I could go on to mention the lameness of the villain (Adam Brody), but why take such an easy shot? What Kinberg’s script lacks, Liman’s direction makes up for. John Woo, who was briefly attached to the movie, would be proud of the flying bullets and debris (although he may be disappointed at the lack of doves and Christ figures). Liman makes it work because he keeps us at the appropriate distance: silly enough to not take seriously, but serious enough to keep it out of cartoon territory. It’s a dance and he performs it well. The movie has an almost old-fashioned feel, as if Tracy and Hepburn had strapped on rifles and started firing. Except Tracy and Heburn have been replaced by the very modern Pitt and Jolie. While Pitt is not a great actor, he’s a fun actor and he’s more interesting to watch than people give him credit for. As for Jolie, enough with the English accent, enough with Lara Croft. Thank the stars, here she stuffs her affectations in the drawer in favor of sophisticated glamour and feminist-embracing toughness. Combine the two and she’s as appealing and beautiful as she’s ever been on screen.

Although plausibility is not the film’s strong suit, the movie is too busy to let us stop and wonder about it. We’re here for two hours of light humor and heavy firepower featuring two glistening superstars. For Pitt, Jolie, and Liman, Mr. & Mrs. Smith is Mission: Possible, a film that is, when hitting on all cylinders, irresistible fun.

This unrated cut contains about five minutes of extra material. But be warned: its extended running time contains new material and the deletion of old material. So it’s basically a new cut. That being said, only hard core Smithheads will note any major differences. I certainly didn’t.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

This 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer is pretty damn nice. This is a rich, deep-looking picture with above average detail and sharpness. Colors show a nice depth and liveliness and the palette is a combination of natural and stylized hues. Much of the film takes place in dimly lit interiors and at night. Luckily, black levels are strong and shadow detail is excellent. Contrast is also above average and flesh tones stay realistic. The print is spotless. I did catch some minor edge halos, but it hardly affected my overall impression. In all, a fresh and enjoyable effort from Fox.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Audio fans rejoice. Fox has generously included a DTS 5.1 track along with a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Both share many attributes, mainly a heavy and dynamic feel that gives heft and fullness to the experience. There is activity everywhere, especially and not surprisingly during the action scenes. I was literally startled when a rocket flew from the surrounds, past my left ear, to the left side speaker. Suffice it to say, all channels are engaged at one time or another and often at the same time. The directional effects are smooth and the panning from side to side is also handled with aplomb. Highs were tight, with no shrillness. As for the lows, prepare your downstairs neighbors, because the subwoofer action is tight and epic. The songs in the soundtrack are punchy, while the score itself seems confined, but generally sounded nice. Dialogue is clear and distinct no matter what mayhem is happening around the characters.  The difference between the Dolby and the DTS is almost negligible; Dolby wears its separation on its sleeve more than the DTS, which is a tad smoother. Still, those with just a Dolby setup will be more than satisfied.

There are also French and Spanish Dolby Surround 2.0 mixes and English and Spanish subtitles.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

This two-disc unrated set contains all new extras, which is a good thing. Disc One contains a new audio commentary by director Doug Liman, who says that when he starts a film, he first tries to determine what the film is not. And Smith, he said to himself “is not The Bourne Identity.” From a directing standpoint, Liman didn’t let the budget dictate his choices. For instance, he seems proud that he chose to occasionally shoot his stars from the back, without revealing their million dollar faces. “Sometimes I’m getting more of a performance from the back of the head then the front of the head.” Gotta love that honesty. A good commentary.

The rest of the extras are on Disc Two. The supplements come under headings. Under the heading Confidential Files are 12 deleted scenes, adding up to about twelve minutes. Most of these are less than a minute and are spread throughout the narrative, including early scenes in Bogata, and later scenes, including one where Pitt and Jolie pick up their artillery from a dry cleaner There is also an alternate ending, involving Pitt and Jolie’s spy-worthy offspring. Also thrown in are a too-cutesy alternate screenplay ending and a three-and-a-half minute gag reel. 

Next is Domestic Violence: Shooting Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Thirty-three minutes in length, it includes the comments of Liman, writer Simon Kinberg, producer Akiva Goldsman, 2nd unit director Simon Crane, DP Marguerite Derricks, and actor Angelina Jolie. Kinberg calls his creation “50% a Nora Ephron movie and 50% a John Woo movie.” Studios didn’t know what to make of that concept, in terms of how to market it. So every studio passes at least once, “some twice,” Kinberg says. There are interesting split screens that give you the subtle differences between takes, including the seemingly-easy shot where the newspaper boy throws the paper and Pitt picks it up. Even that shot is damn complicated. There’s also footage of Jolie in the big mansion shootout. Much of this is played dry, without narration or music, which is refreshing. A good featurette.

Doug’s Film School contains the following short, but interesting bits, which all contain introductory comments from Liman. Framing Device shows what the domestic scenes would have been like with narration, which the studio briefly fought for. Mother and Father are two characters who were completely cut from the film, but we do have footage of two pairs of actors who read for the roles, Terrence Stamp and Jacqueline Bisset and Keith David and Angela Bassett. The big desert fight in the final cut was originally conceived as a Snowy Ravine fight. This extra shows us, via screenplay and computer graphics, what that battle would have looked like. Hood Jump is a collection of anamatics that helped Liman visualize and shoot a stunt involving Pitt jumping onto the hood of Jolie’s car. Underground Garage is about a scene in the original script where John and Jane Smith stood in a subterranean parking lot and discussed breaking up. But Pitt and Jolie’s interaction was so great, that the audience would never believe they’d ever split up. Liman salvaged the scene by changing its location. HomeMade explains that the climactic shootout originally took place during the day, but was changed to nighttime. Scenes, storyboards and screenplay snippets are provided. Finally, there is a collection of Previsualizations, which are pre-production animations of seven scenes, including two that were deemed to expensive to actually film.

We round out Disc Two with three Galleries: Director Doug Liman’s Album, Producer Lucas Foster’s Album and Mr & Mrs. Smith Crew Photo Album. The latter is the best, although I would have appreciated the various crewmembers being identified.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes it’s nice to put aside all pretense of art and just watch two of Hollywood’s most glamorous stars pummel the crap out of each other. In Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have great chemistry and director Doug Liman’s direction is both old-fashioned and new fangled. The transfer and audio are well above average, while the extras are an improvement over the previous DVD. If you like the movie that much, chuck your old DVD and pick up this new version.