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Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Starring Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, and Keith David. Cinematography by Bojan Bazelli. Edited by Michael Tronick. Produced by Lucas Foster, Akiva Goldsman, Eric McLeod, Arnon Milchan, and Patrick Wachsberger. Written by Simon Kinberg. Directed by Doug Liman.
Five or six years have passed since John and Jane met each other amidst the violent revolutions in Bogotá, Columbia and their once burning passion has cooled significantly. Hoping to revitalize their stale relationship, they decide to enlist the services of a marital therapist. But what they can’t tell their shrink, or even each other, is that they are both highly paid assassins working for competing firms.
Their professional lives eventually cross paths when they are both hired to kill the same mark. This dilemma is the start of a series of events that leads to Mr. and Mrs. Smith targeting each other for elimination.
The first draft of Mr. & Mrs. Smith was crafted by screenwriter Simon Kinberg when he was studying at Brown University. Drawing from his love of the slick and kinetic action films produced in Hong Kong, Kinberg infused his idea of a troubled relationship with a series of highly charged action sequences. While still in school, Kinberg was lucky enough to find a mentor in acclaimed filmmaker Akiva Goldsman who offered his support for the project and agreed to produce it.
But despite both of their best efforts, Mr. & Mrs. Smith could not stir up any enthusiasm. After graduation, Kinberg moved on to ColumbiaUniversity to pursue his Master of Fine Arts. For his senior thesis project, he fell back on his old pet project for another round of revisions.
The reworked script soon found its way into the hands of Nicole Kidman, who liked the story and ushered it into the spotlight with her interest. Soon to follow was Brad Pitt. When Kidman had to drop the film to finish her work on the 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives, she was promptly replaced by Angelina Jolie. Now that Mr. & Mrs. Smith had an all-star cast, and an influential producer, all it needed was a director.
Doug Liman (who coincidentally also attended Brown) first read the script for Mr. & Mrs. Smith shortly after production had wrapped on The Bourne Identity, but decided to pass on it to pursue his television project “The O.C.” His interest was rekindled, however, when Goldsman and Kinberg sent it back to him with Pitt’s name attached. With the success of The Bourne Identity under his belt, Liman couldn’t have been more primed and ready for another big budget challenge.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith starts off a fairly clever action film, and provides a few genuine laughs, but the disappointment of the unimaginative closing sequences is hard to forget. The last twenty minutes don’t discredit the entire picture, but a sour taste is most certainly left in the mouth. But if what you are looking for is a fast paced and mindless summer blockbuster featuring two of the hottest actors working in Hollywood today, then Mr. & Mrs. Smith may be your holy grail.
Note: this film is not a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1941 Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Budget: $110,000,000
Total US Gross: $186,336,103
Genre: Action
Runtime: 120 Minutes
US Release Date: 6/10/05
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: TBD
Tagline: none
Quote: “Come on, let's talk about this! You don't want to go to bed angry!”
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