Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) [PG-13] ***/****

A film review by James Berardinelli.

The problem with Mr. and Mrs. Smith is that it's really two movies in one. The first is a sly comedy/thriller worthy of Hitchcock, and the other is a big, noisy summer action flick. The marriage of these two, like that of the title characters, is tempestuous, with each side in a constant struggle for dominance. When Mr. and Mrs. Smith is smart and sassy, it's a lot of fun. But when it's loud and dumb (which is too often for my taste), it's mindless and a little tedious. This is mediocre, forgettable entertainment. It doesn't really satisfy, but you probably won't exit the theater feeling gypped.

The premise is simple enough: John and Jane Smith (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) are a happily married couple who work as assassins for rival firms. Neither is aware of the other's occupation, and, to the outside world, they look like a traditional, upper-class suburban couple, albeit without the dog and the 2.5 kids. In fact, to keep the spark in their marriage of five or six years, they visit a marriage counselor. Then, one unfortunate day, a client double-books a hit, with John and Jane unknowingly assigned to eliminate the same target (played by Adam Brody). When their take-down schemes prove to be incompatible, they lose the mark and discover a few things about each other. The resulting domestic strife makes the events of War of the Roses seem tame by comparison.

When director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) focuses on the characters and their non-traditional relationship, he's on safe ground. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie smolder, and their chemistry (regardless of whether it did or did not expand beyond the screen) couldn't be better. Whether they're shooting at each other, tossing around double entendres, or ripping each other's clothing off, Mr. and Mrs. Smith's two stars are sexy and magnetic. Foreplay for the Smiths involves not only disrobing, but disarming. And Simon Kinberg's screenplay gives the actors plenty of delicious lines to chew on.

Unfortunately, the script also calls for too much action, and that's where everything falls apart. Although Liman tries to juice things up by using atypical camera angles, all this does is to lend an artistic flavor to a series of otherwise banal explosions, shoot-outs, and car chases. The film has so much action padding that it becomes tiresome after a while. Ten or fifteen years ago, this sort of thing might have been cutting edge, but the bar has been raised so many times that not even a car racing the wrong way on a freeway can generate more than a half-hearted shrug.

The film also doesn't have the decency to give us a legitimate payoff. The film just… ends. There's a big, violent action scene, complete with John Woo-inspired choreography and more ammunition than Rambo ever laid eyes on, but the opponents are faceless. There's no uber villain to rub out in a climactic showdown. And, the more you think about it (I know, I know… not something we're supposed to do with this kind of movie), the less sense it all makes. I mean, how can this really be over when it's over? What about all the loose ends that the interior decorator and marriage counselor can't resolve?

For the most part, the movie belongs to Pitt and Jolie. The supporting cast, includes Vince Vaughn and Michelle Monaghan as Pitt's teammates, and Kerry Washington, Stephanie March, Jennifer Morrison, Theresa Barrera, Perrey Reeves and Melanie Tolbert as Jolie's teammates. They play their respective best friends/cohorts, but they don't have a lot of screen time. Vaughn makes the best of his. This may be the actor's most entertaining performance in a long time. He has his share of funny moments, but Liman wisely keeps him in check. Washington doesn't fare as well. Unlike Vaughn, she doesn't have a single memorable scene.

This is one of those films where the pluses and minuses almost exactly counterbalance each other. For every scene that works because of the snappy dialogue or the Pitt/Jolie rapport, there's a drawn-out action scene that causes everything to grind to a halt. Mr. and Mrs. Smith's need for blockbuster pyrotechnics undermines the black comedy (there's plenty of that) and the offbeat romance, both of which are strong enough to form the foundation of a quieter motion picture. The only legitimate tension in the story is between Mr. and Mrs. Smith. When they are turned into superheroes fighting against teams of nameless, clad-in-black foes, the time has come to tune out. It's too bad that Liman didn't streamline his production better and leave the fireworks for the Fourth of July. [Berardinelli's rating: ** 1/2 out of 4 stars]

Blogger's comments: I enjoyed Mr. & Mrs. Smith much more than James Berardinelli. For me, the lack of an arch-villain is refreshing. Every James Bond, every Spider-Man, every Mission: Impossible, every Jason Bourne, they all come with an arch-villain, and after a while it becomes a little tedious. Actually the ending of Mr. & Mrs. Smith reminds me of the ending of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but with a positive, upbeat outcome.

Berardinelli also refers to the on-screen chemistry between Pitt and Jolie, and he probably wrote his review (there's no date) while the whole off-screen drama was playing out. But it was the Pitt-Jolie locationship that ended the Pitt-Aniston marriage and began the real-life love affair that ended in 2016 when Jolie filed for divorce.

Labels: action, Brad Pitt, comedy, rom-com-faves, romance, spy, thriller
IMDb 65/100 
MetaCritic (critics=55, viewers=60)   
RottenTomatoes (critics=60, viewers=58)  
Blu-ray  

The Deal (2005) [R] **

In the near future, the U.S. and its allies are waging war against the Confederation of Arab States (CAS). An oil embargo makes it illegal for U.S. oil companies to buy CAS oil, because the purchases would help CAS fund the war. The U.S. is starved for oil; there are gasoline lines and the economy is sinking into a depression. Then a business associate of investment banker Tom Hansen (Christian Slater) is murdered, and the following day Hansen is offered an opportunity to put together a $20 billion deal in which a U.S. oil company would buy a Russian oil company with proven reserves in Kazakhstan. While Hansen is investigating the Russian oil company, he uncovers some disturbing facts which cause him to doubt the existence of oil. Is this actually an illegal deal to allow the U.S. to import embargoed oil? Is Hansen's life and that of his girlfriend Abbey (Selma Blair) in danger? Was his associate murdered because he threatened to expose the deal?

While the film's concept is good, there are several holes in the plot. Also, Hansen is far too trusting and naive; it takes him much too long to figure out that he was picked to investigate the Russian oil company specifically because of his ignorance of the industry and the global region. And, finally, there isn't a lot of chemistry between Slater and Blair, so we really don't become emotionally invested in them or their story. Nevertheless, if you enjoyed political thrillers like The International, Lord of War, Sentinel, Shooter, State of Play or Syriana, you might enjoy The Deal. As a note, this could be a prophetic film. There is a heightened risk that Israel and the U.S. might attack Iran in order to destroy its capacity to produce nuclear reactor fuel, fuel which could also be used to build nuclear weapons. If this happens, Iran would likely retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which travel supertankers carrying 20% of global oil supplies. The result might be the same as that depicted in this film. 

Labels:  crime, drama, thriller  
Internet Movie Database    
Metacritic 46/100    
Tomatometer (critics=21, viewers=21) 

Rumor Has It… (2005) [PG-13] **/***

New York attorney Jeff Daly (Mark Ruffalo) has finally become engaged to lovely but fickle Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston), who brings him west to introduce him to her Pasadena family, at the event of the wedding of her younger sister Annie (Mena Suvari). But Jeff does the math and causes Sarah to doubt that her dad Earl (Richard Jenkins) could be her biological father. Once Sarah learns that her family was the inspiration for the 1967 book and film The Graduate, and that she just might be the offspring of that well-documented event, she begins to look for more clues. Suspecting that the book’s author, well-known technological visionary and womanizer Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner) is her biological father, Sarah is consumed with curiosity and decides to introduce herself to him. Like her now-deceased mother Jocelyn Richelieu (Jennifer Taylor) and her very-much-alive grandmother Katharine Richelieu (Shirley MacLaine), Sarah finds herself in bed with Beau, a decision which might end her relationship with Jeff.

Those of you who grew up with The Graduate and were looking forward to seeing Rumor Has It… for the connection, are probably going to be disappointed. Unfortunately, although Rumor Has It… has an excellent screenplay, and great direction, editing, and soundtrack, Jennifer Aniston is a major disappointment. She has absolutely no romantic chemistry with either Ruffalo or Costner, and that chemistry is vital for the plot to be believable. As an example, when Aniston wakes up in the morning in Costner's bed, and remembers the previous night, she doesn’t smile and stretch voluptuously, reliving the passion. Nor does she blush with guilt at the realization that she has cheated on her fiance. No, she plays it as this isn't me; she disowns the physical experience; it's as though some other girl had been in the bed all night. Later that morning, as she and Costner are taking off in his jet to spend a day in the Napa Valley vineyards, she asks him: Does every girl in my family have to sleep with you?, referring to her mother and her grandmother. She’s neither flirtatious nor humorous; there’s no attempt to develop the relationship. She plays it as though it was some kind of a curse, something completely out of her control, about which she had no choice.

Lest you think I’m being too hard on Jennifer Aniston, here’s a challenge: see if you can think of a motion picture in which Jennifer Aniston had great romantic chemistry with her male lead, in which you can remember seeing her press her body against her lover coyly and flirtatiously, or, heaven forbid, wantonly and seductively. No, Jennifer Aniston is always stiff, tense, and guarded, occasionally with a furrowed brow and a facial expression just about to break into a scowl. Even the movie posters for her recent films almost always show her that way:  Along Came Polly, The Bounty Hunter, The Break-Up, Friends with Money, Horrible Bosses, Just Go with It, Management, The Switch, Wanderlust. In every one she’s either pensive or scowling. Only in Love Happens with Aaron Eckhart, and in the ensemble film He’s Just Not That Into You, do we see her smiling. I wonder if Jennifer Aniston even enjoys being an actress. My conclusion is that Jennifer Aniston is just a sexless All-American good girl, a newer version of Debbie Reynolds who was an earlier good girl who also lost her husband (Eddie Fisher) to a seductress (Elizabeth Taylor), the same way that Aniston lost Brad Pitt to Angelina Jolie. Jennifer Aniston may have been great in Friends, one of television's least-sexual ensemble comedy series. However, in a romantic comedy-drama like Rumor Has It… she is totally miscast. 

Labels: comedy, drama, romance, rom-drama-faves
IMDb 55/100   
MetaCritic (critics=35, viewers=49)  
RottenTomatoes (critics=21, viewers=41)   
Blu-ray1   
Blu-ray2

James Berardinelli's film review (** out of 4 stars)

Love Surreal (orig. title: Everything You Want) (2005) [TV-PG] ***

Abby (played by Shiri Appleby) is the only child of parents who suffered from wanderlust, but, instead of taking her with them on their adventures, they always left her with her aunt, where she made lots and lots of jam, and expressed her creativity by drawing and painting. Finally out of loneliness she invented an imaginary friend named Sy (played by Orlando Seale) with whom she shared childhood secrets. Now, a decade later, Abby is a college art student, painting portraits of Sy, and still using him as a shield to avoid real friendship and love. Then Abby meets Quinn (played by Nick Zano), the cousin of her roommate Jessica (played by Alexandra Holden). Quinn, by coincidence, happens to be in Abby's contemporary art class; he needs the Humanities credit for his pre-law degree, but he's failing the class. When Abby agrees to tutor Quinn, the stage is set for her first love affair, but what will happen to her relationship with Sy?

Made for TV and with a PG rating, Everything You Want is what pre-teen girls imagine romance is all about with a real, live boyfriend. In this film there's no smoking, no alcohol, no four letter words, no tattoos, piercings or Goth clothing, and only the fewest of hugs and soft kisses. Shiri Appleby has a sweet, shy, doe-eyed, creamy-skinned, soft-focused kind of beauty. Nick Zano is a flawless, Ken-doll boyfriend, with clear skin and no bad habits... a younger, softer version of Brad Pitt or Chris O'Donnell. While this film might be perfect for your pre-teen children, there are versions of the love-triangle story that are much more suitable for adults, and one that I can highly recommend is Lucky Seven, starring Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Patrick Dempsey. 

Labels: comedy, romance   
IMDb 58/100   
RottenTomatoes (critics=tbd, viewers=62)  

How I Met Your Mother (2005-2009 - TV) [UR] ****

It's the year 2030 and the narrator (Bob Saget) explains to his two bored and restless teenage children how he, as the youthful Ted Mosby, lived as a twenty-something single in New York City, over two decades earlier, and how he eventually met his wife – their mother. Each episode in this charming and hilarious TV series tells a story about an adventure that Ted (Josh Radnor), a college architecture professor, has with his four closest friends: Marshall (Jason Segel) - Ted's college roommate, now an attorney; Lily (Alyson Hannigan) - Marshall's fiance, who's a kindergarten teacher; Robin (Cobie Smulders) – a Canadian immigrant who's a TV broadcast news anchor, a gun enthusiast and who has five dogs; and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) - a corporate marketing suit for the same company where Marshall is an attorney, whose motto is score chicks and be awesome. Episodes are typically set in McLaren's Bar or in Ted and Marshall's apartment, above McLaren's in the same building. The basic storyline is Ted's search for his soulmate. As he observes Marshall and Lily's deepening relationship, and Barney's shallow existence, Ted intensifies his search for his soul mate, depicted in Haven't Met You Yet. Periodically Ted believes he's found the woman of his dreams in Robin, until she rejects him once again. Here's a video of Ted & Robin - Never Say Never.

Each time Robin or another woman rejects Ted, Barney once again tries to lure him into his life of seduction and meaningless sex, often with hilarious results. The writing is fresh, the casting is perfect and the acting is excellent. The series has won several Emmy awards, and Neil Patrick Harris has been nominated twice for a Golden Globe award for his portrayal of the womanizing Barney. If you enjoy romantic comedy dramas like Love Actually, Definitely, Maybe, He's Just Not That Into You, (500) Days of Summer or Valentine's Day, then you will really enjoy How I Met Your Mother. New episodes air Monday evenings on CBS, and repeat episodes air frequently during the week. The first five seasons are also available on DVD. 

Labels: college, comedy, rom-com-faves, romance     
Internet Movie Database 8.3/10     
Metacritic 69/100  
TomatoMeter (critics=83, viewers=82)
Blu-ray     
Wikipedia - HIMYM Characters

Here's a video of Robin drunk and remembering a Stanley Cup hockey match. One of the funniest lines is when Lily tries to take Robin's hockey stick away from her. Robin responds: I'll give you summer teeth... some're here, some're there. Give Me The Stick. While Ted and Robin have really good chemistry, Ted doesn't marry her. We know this because as Ted tells the story to his two children, he mentions Aunt Robin.

One of Ted's greatest loves is Victoria, played by Ashley Wiliams. Here's a video of Ted and Victoria from the episode where they first met... at a wedding: Ted & Victoria Ted and Victoria broke up after Victoria left for a two-year culinary school internship in Germany, and they couldn't make the long-distance relationship work. They met again, at the Architect's Ball, after Victoria had returned to the U.S., but by that time she was engaged to someone else.

NOTE: While the first five seasons of How I Met Your Mother were excellent, sadly, the last four seasons (2010-14) did not have the same freshness and energy that the first five seasons had, as though the creator (Chuck Lorre) and writers had lost their focus. After seven seasons, viewers really want Ted to find the woman he is going to marry. It seems to be typical of Chuck Lorre that he does not know when to pull the plug on a series. He is presently making the same mistake with both Two and a Half Men, and The Big Bang Theory. 

Match Point (2005) [R] ****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net.

In my review of Woody Allen's previous misfire, Melinda and Melinda, I wrote the following: Lately, Allen's films have sunk into a state of heightened mediocrity - sporadically entertaining, but often disappointing, at least for those clinging to the hope that Allen will return to 'form.' I no longer expect great things from a Woody Allen movie… Indeed, it has been over a decade since Allen has produced a memorable motion picture. Match Point puts an end to the drought, and does so in an impressive and unexpected fashion. Not only could one argue that this is the best serious work the director has ever attempted, but it's presented in a way that even the most seasoned Allen fan will have difficulty recognizing the iconic filmmaker's fingerprints.

Some of the differences are immediately evident: Allen does not appear on-screen, the setting has been shifted from New York to London, and the cast and crew are predominantly British. Other aspects, although no less important, are more subtle. Allen's usual voice is absent. Match Point does not deal with a neurotic character and there are no May/December romances. The comedy is minimal. This is a character piece that develops into a slow burn thriller. And Allen proves himself to be a master of misdirection. I thought I knew how Match Point was going to end; I was wrong.

Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is a retired pro tennis player who has signed on to be a tennis instructor at a posh British club. One of his first clients is Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), an affable fellow who invites Chris out for a night at the opera when he discovers that he and Chris share some of the same tastes (opera, classic novels, etc.). There, Chris meets Tom's family: his father, Alec (Brian Cox); his mother, Eleanor (Penelope Wilton); and his sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer). Chris and Chloe begin seeing each other, and it's not long before Chloe falls for the dashing athlete. Chris' feelings are more reserved - he feels affection for Chloe, but no great passion, but he recognizes the kind of stepping stone that a liaison with the Hewett family could represent. Enter Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), Tom's headstrong American fiancée. Chris is immediately smitten. Even as he woos Chloe with the intention of marrying her, he becomes obsessed with Nola. And, as with any romantic house of cards, this one seems destined to collapse spectacularly.

Without giving away plot details that are best discovered by the individual viewer, I can't say much about the film's final act, except to note that it's much different from what comes before it, and that's what elevates Match Point from a solid, character-based story to a near-masterpiece. No Allen movie since Crimes and Misdemeanors (16 years ago) has left as lasting an impression. In an era when the filmmaker has churned out one disposable motion picture after another, it's a welcome surprise to find a gem like Match Point lurking in multiplexes.

This is Chris' story, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Bend It Like Beckham) is perfectly suited to play the part. Although there are less-than-laudable aspects to his character, Meyers plays Chris with sincerity. He's a flawed, but not evil, individual. There's a little of Stephen Glass (Shattered Glass) in him. He's a sycophant social climber who's not beyond using a little groveling to ingratiate himself with someone who can advance his opportunities. And he has a genuine, almost pathological need to be liked. Rhys-Meyers shows no difficulty handling the demands of this complex character.

Emily Mortimer and Scarlett Johansson show different faces of womankind. Mortimer's Chloe is the nurturing, supportive female: one who takes her husband's denial of an affair at face value and whose primary goal in marriage is to give her parents grandchildren. It's a role that Mortimer slides into without difficulty. Johansson, on the other hand, is simultaneously self-sufficient and needy. The qualities that attract Chris to her are the ones that make the potential of a long-term relationship harrowing. This gives Johansson an opportunity to show a little of the femme fatale. Experienced British thespians Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton have supporting roles as the matriarch and patriarch of the Hewett clan.

One of the most keenly observed elements of Match Point is the way in which it shows how infidelity can erode a marriage. Most movies that delve into this subject do it in a heavy-handed, melodramatic fashion. Allen's approach is quieter and has the ring of truth. We are taken through the stages of the affair: its passionate beginnings, the slide into routine, and the growing gap between what's real and what the characters want. For Nola, it becomes a question of whether Chris will leave his wife. For Chris, it becomes a question of whether he can give up his comfortable lifestyle for a woman who makes him feel, but may be unstable.

Had Match Point simply been about the Chris/Nola/Chloe triangle and the way the deceptions and willful ignorance impacts all three lives, it would have been a compelling motion picture. But Allen takes things to the next level, and that's what makes Match Point memorable. For the first time in a long time, we understand why Allen is considered a master. If this is what filming in London does for him, maybe he should move there permanently. [Berardinelli's rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars = 87%

Labels: drama, romance, thriller

IMDb 76/100 

MetaScore (critics=72, viewers=77) 

RottenTomatoes (critics=77, viewers=81) 

Blu-ray 

The Corporation (2004) [UR] ****

A film review by Roger Ebert, on July 16, 2004.

Land agent: It ain't anybody. It's a company. -- The Grapes of Wrath

I was at a health ranch last week, where the idea was to clear your mind for serene thoughts. At dinner one night, a woman at the table referred to Arizona as a right to work state. Unwisely, I replied: Yeah -- the right to work cheap. She said, I think you'll find the non-union workers are quite well paid. Exercising a supreme effort of will to avoid pronouncing the syllables Wal-Mart, I replied: If so, that's because unions have helped raise salaries for everybody. She replied: The unions steal their members' dues. I replied, How much money would you guess the unions have stolen, compared to corporations like Enron? At this point our exchange was punctuated by a kick under the table from my wife, and we went back to positive thinking.

The Corporation is not a film my dinner companion would enjoy. It begins with the unsettling information that, under the law, a corporation is not a thing but a person. The U.S. Supreme Court so ruled, in a decision based, bizarrely, on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. That was the one that guaranteed former slaves equal rights. The court ruling meant corporations were given the rights of individuals in our society. They are free at last.

If Monsanto and WorldCom and Enron are indeed people, what kind of people are they? The movie asks Robert Hare, a consultant who helps the FBI profile its suspects. His diagnosis: Corporations by definition have a personality disorder and can be categorized as psychopathic. That is because they single-mindedly pursue their own wills and desires without any consideration for other people (or corporations) and without reference to conventional morality. They don't act that way to be evil; it's just, as the scorpion explained to the frog, that it's in their nature.

Having more or less avoided the corporate world by living in my little movie critic corner, I've been struck by the way classmates and friends identify with their corporations. They are loyal to an entity that exists only to perpetuate itself. Any job that requires you to wear a corporate lapel pin is taking more precious things from you than display space. Although I was greatly cheered to see Ken Lay in handcuffs, I can believe he thinks he's innocent. In corporate terms, he is: He was only doing his job in reflecting Enron's psychopathic nature.

The movie assembles a laundry list of corporate sins: Bovine Growth Hormone, Agent Orange, and marketing research on how to inspire children to nag their parents to buy products. It is in the interest of corporations to sell products, and therefore in their interest to have those products certified as safe, desirable and good for us. No one who knows anything about the assembly-line production of chickens would eat a non-organic chicken. Cows, which are vegetarians, have been fed processed animal protein, leading to the charming possibility that they can pass along mad cow disease. Farm-raised salmon contains mercury. And so on.

If corporations are maximizing profits by feeding strangelovian chemicals to unsuspecting animals, what are we to make of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that living organisms can be patented? Yes, strains of laboratory mice, cultures of bacteria, even bits of DNA, can now be privately owned.

Fascinated as I am by the labyrinthine reasoning by which stem cell research somehow violates the Right to Life, I have been waiting for opponents of stem cell research to attack the private ownership and patenting of actual living organisms, but I wait in vain. If there is one thing more sacred than the Right to Life, it is the corporation's Right to Patent, Market and Exploit Life.

If I seem to have strayed from the abstract idea of a corporation, The Corporation does some straying itself. It produces saintly figures like Roy Anderson, CEO of Interface, and the largest rug manufacturer in the world, who tells his fellow executives they are all plundering the globe and tries to move his corporation toward sustainable production. All living organisms on Earth are in decline, the documentary argues, mostly because corporations are stealing from the future to enrich themselves in the present.

The Corporation is an impassioned polemic, filled with information sure to break up any dinner-table conversation. Its fault is that of the dinner guest who tells you something fascinating, and then tells you again, and then a third time. At 145 minutes, it overstays its welcome. The wise documentarian should treat film stock as a non-renewable commodity. [Ebert’s rating: *** out of 4]

Labels: documentary, history

Internet Movie Database 

Metacritic 73/100 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=74, viewers=80)