On Second Thought

For a change, I bought and actually watched a DVD this past weekend: Mr. & Mrs. Smith. When I first saw this movie over the summer, I rated it a B/B+, but after a second viewing, I am upgrading my grade to a solid B+. Mr. & Mrs. Smith clearly got a bad rap because of all the Brangelina hype, and too-high expectations from literal movie critics. Now that some time has passed ... well, the film is really fun — a great mix of humor and action with some great showpieces, and Brad Pitt gives a typically deadpan funny performance. Personally, I think Pitt is one of the more underrated comic actors out there. For evidence, check out Ocean's 11 or, perhaps a better example, The Mexican — which few people have seen and which was widely called a bomb because of its box office performance (don't forget, Julia Roberts is also in it). And Doug Liman did a pitch-perfect job of keeping the film moving and mixing music and action (especially the big fight scene, scored to "Express Yourself," by Charle Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rythym Band). Liman, of course, also directed The Bourne Identity and even better, Go. And duh, Angelina Jolie looks great and kicks ass. And it's fun to see Brad Pitt and Vince Vaughn acting together as friends, given all that's transpired in the past year. So yeah, I just wanted to say that I've had a change of heart and that I highly recommend Mr. & Mrs. Smith as one of my favorite movies of 2005.