Mr.
And Mrs. Smith (Widescreen)
Picture: B+
Sound: B Extras: C+ Film: C
The beautiful thing about 2005’s Mr. And Mrs. Smith
is the fact that if you’ve seen the trailer, than you have essentially seen the
film. It’s amazing how predictable and
pretentious a film can be; yet at the same time thinks it’s clever, witty, and
perhaps entertaining. Yet, this film
fails miserably despite the efforts of its two leads. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have, of course, pulled off
something amazing here…they have hidden identities both inside the film and
off-screen, which of course led to their recent involvement romantically
despite Pitt being married.
A married couple should know just about everything about
one another in order to be healthy, however, this marriage contains a huge
secret, but they are both living the secret out. Neither one realized the other’s ‘true identity’. Therefore the stage is set for the next hour
or so of the film as we see these two attempt to live separate lives, yet at the
same time live intimately. Think James
Cameron’s 1994 hit True Lies, only with both parties involved. However, True Lies was far better in
just about all aspects from it’s execution, to the comic relief, and was
charming overall. Here, we are not treated
to quite the same, but instead we are nearly bored to death by the same old
song and dance.
Presentation wise this DVD issue comes off fairly strong
in both picture and sound categories.
The 2.35 X 1 anamorphic image demonstrates good color and depth. The sound is also quite spectacular,
especially the much preferred DTS 5.1 mix.
The sound in general for this film is playful and fun, even the
soundtrack with some interesting choices for music, but the action scenes are
where the real sound design shines through.
It’s amazing how much more interesting a film can be when the audio
presentation is done well. Most people
think that only a full blown action film can demonstrate a home theater system,
but that is a flat out lie. In fact, I
prefer films that contain a variety of good sound experiences ranging from
traveling dialogue to various music cues, and of course non-stop action
sequences, which this film combines all very well.
Extras these days on DVD fail to impress me for the most
part. This is particularly true on
films that disappoint in all aspects and the extras here are a fine example of
such. The extras included here are by
the book with a commentary track by various people involved in the films
creation, deleted scenes, and also behind the scenes material. Most of this material will give your ‘skip’
button on your remote a good work out, but for those so inclined to find out
more about this film, so be it.
- Nate Goss
