Mr. & Mrs. Smith

As Jane and John Smith, Jolie and Pitt hit their movie-star stride. They complete each other.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith works on almost every level and against all odds.

The couple's dark, deadpan banter is amusing, particularly during a car chase in which they rapidly exchange some home truths. But there's a coldness to their characters that is never resolved.

What sounds in principle like a pitch for a TV pilot instead plays like an old-fashioned romantic comedy with updated hardware.

Less like therapy and more like good ol' fashioned domestic -- and audience -- abuse.

The weaponry and technologies have been seen before in one or two, or was it thirty-five, similar films. This is a work going through the motions in nearly every regard.

It's consistently funny, often charming, and occasionally insightful.

It would be far more see-able if it was compressed into a one-hour TV show. But for sheer aesthetics - beautiful people, beautiful settings, beautiful views of New York, beautiful gunplay -- it's well worth a dekho.

The perfect brand of mindless summer popcorn fodder.