# Mr. and Mrs. Smith **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823 "2005-06-11T01:16:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/21 "2005-06-13T00:22:39Z")
Slept with. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/22 "2005-06-13T00:26:34Z")
Deliberately ambiguous, writers probably never thought about which. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/23 "2005-06-13T00:40:13Z")
Deliberately ambiguous and the writers licked their lips about the arguments it would provoke. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/24 "2005-06-13T00:41:22Z")
heh Upon hearing the 50-60- vs 312 discussion, at first I thought it was slept with, but for some reason, when I watched Pitt’s reaction, I changed my mind to hits. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/25 "2005-06-13T01:01:53Z")
I assumed that we were \*supposed \*to think slept with, since that is a not uncommon question at the beginning of a relationship, but it was actually hits. Two things that make me think that: She says: “Some were two at a time.” For Angelina, we might not be surprised, but for Jane Smith, we don’t have reason to believe that she would do this Later she says: This isn’t my first time and he responds: “I think we have established that” ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/26 "2005-06-13T01:11:00Z")
It was deliberately ambiguous but I’m certain it was meant to be the number of hits. As for the movie itself, I enjoyed it. I’ve been in a very vapid movie mood for a few weeks now and this was exactly what I’ve been looking for, maybe a little more due more to chemistry of Pitt and Jolie than the screenplay itself. The jokes were all cliche but with Angelina delivering them, they took on a little bit more life than what they normally do and Brad’s physical acting was top-notch for the kind of movie it was. I especially liked the dancing scene where it looked like Pitt was breaking the fourth wall by winking at the screen but is actually doing it to the older couple staring at them and the moment at the end where John takes a knife to the leg and glares at Jane for it. All that aside, my biggest complaints were them living at the end (but you can’t realistically expect anything else) and Vince Vaughn’s character. I’m not familiar with his earlier work but everything I’ve seen him in recently has been the same character. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/27 "2005-06-13T01:24:23Z")
My only problem with the movie (just got back from seeing it actually) was the lack of body armor on the other hitmen. Assuming they all work for the same organization, why would only Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie wear the bullet proof vests? It was a ton of fun though. I loved the last line: [spoiler]“Ask me the sex question again.” _holds up 10 fingers_ [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/28 "2005-06-13T01:25:32Z")
Hey, look at that! I broke 1000 posts (actually 1009) and I didn’t realize it until now! ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/29 "2005-06-13T02:20:00Z")
> [@False\_God](#): > > My wife and I are having a disagreement over the scene where they’re in the van outside the courthouse trading tidbits about their real lives – Pitt says 50-60, I’v been around the block, and Angelina cuts in with “312” and “some of them were two at a time.” I say it’s the real number of people they’ve slept with, the missus says it’s the number of hits. > > What say the rest of you? Oh, it’s clearly hits, and not partners. The gag in the scene is that the conversation parallels the “how many have you slept with” conversation, and the “some were two at a time” line is a classy but wide-open double entendre. A few points: (1) How on earth would Angelina Jolie’s character have the _time_ to sleep with 312 people – even counting three-ways – while also leading a double life? Everything so meticulously planned out to the second… there’s no way her character goes and has 312 flings. (2) Anyone who sleeps with 50+ partners in “5 or 6 years” is well outside the norm by any standards. 300+ partners makes it a different partner each week. Someone with that kind of libido isn’t having _any_ sex with their actual spouse (as stated in the original interview)? I don’t buy it. (3) In all of their earlier conversations after the discovery, they’re talking shop. Nobody’s feathers get ruffled, and most of the revelations are “that was YOU?” or “oh, you did WHAT?” – but nobody gets mad. However, when Mr. Smith reveals his Vegas wedding, Mrs. Smith becomes visibly irate. A woman who has had 300+ sex partners during a marriage (and who can calmly listen to her husband say he has had 50+) is not likely to get upset about a “throwaway” Vegas wedding. Ergo, it’s not partners but kills. For the record, my wife and I, our best man, and our maid of honor went to see it today and all read that line as kills, not partners. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/30 "2005-06-13T02:24:22Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Yeah, don’t nitpick overly much. The entire movie - explosions, Brad & Angelina, the story, - is just eye candy. One big ol’ nitpick: Although the film clearly starts out in an Eastern city (It looks like New York City to me but I suppose it could be Boston, Philly, or even Cincinnati) complete with a large downtown area) it suddenly switches to Los Angels in mid-chase. No shit; once they blow up the house and steal the neighbor’s minivan, the next cut is to the Long Beach highway (where they repeatedly drive over the 710 bridge…I guess they were going back and forth) with palm trees and at one point even a clearly marked Los Angeles city limit sign. I was assuming the filmmakers just assumed nobody would know the distance, but Jane Smith’s stated escape route was a boat out of La Playa (del Rey) which makes it LA. Very annoying. Other than that, it was okay; the action scenes were quite a bit over the top, and were cut in the now-standard Michael Bay fashion which means that you can’t tell what the hell is going on half the time. In fact, the storyline is quite reminicient of James Cameron’s much underrated _True Lies_, and the plot of _Mr. & Mrs. Smith_ sounds suspiciously close to a once-pitched _True Lies_ sequel that was abandoned due to Mr. Swartzenegger entering a new line of work. My biggest problems with it were the poor pacing and the missed opportunities for irony and humor. The shooting up the house scene had plenty of available symbolism, and the shootout scene in the IKEA-type home store should have been a riff on consumer lifestyles; indeed, there were little hints of that here and there, but nothing tangible; nothing like the scene in _TL_ where Harry Tasker is under the influence of truth serum and has to (truthfully) answer the questions his wife puts to him about his secret activities. “Have you ever killed anybody?” “Yeah…but they were all bad!” Cameron did a great job of mixing humor, satire, and action together. I just wish this film could have been half as good. And the ending…should have been homage to _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_. Instead, it’s pretty standard by-the-numbers BS, more of a yawn-fest, and a pointlessly gruesome one at that. Ah well…Vince Vaughn is a good stand-in for Tom Arnold, Pitt and Jolie work very well together, the opening credit scenes are hilarious, and there are plenty of explosions and that kind of stuff for those who bask in it. It just…could have been better; a good summer blockbuster eyecandy crust on top of a filling methaphoracal satire of suburban life and the sacrifices of marriage inside. Now let’s see if all those spoiler tags worked out right… Stranger ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/31 "2005-06-13T02:30:36Z")
Just saw this movie also. Agreed that it works as eye candy. Also agree with Stranger that they missed a great opportunity for the Butch Cassidy homage. I thought for sure that’s what they were going to do. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/32 "2005-06-13T03:59:38Z")
Stranger there were a lot of jump cuts in the action sequences were the series of events could not have possibly taken place or things shifted position or changed. That was one of them and it didn’t help that it was really obviously LA in some of those shots; I’ve never been further west than Texas and I’ve seen enough of LA in the movies to recognize it. I swear some directors do an action scene and they think you don’t have to maintain continuity from shot to shot. And I thought they were the same with with copying the ending of the movie you mentioned since they were copying it so closely. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/33 "2005-06-13T05:29:38Z")
We just got home and I’ll give it a rousing … … meh. Didn’t do too much for me. There were parts that were fun but for the most part, I thought it lacked a good storyline. Some good action shots, though. I was disturbed at the scene immediately following the scene where Pitt and Jolie were trying to kill each other in their house. The “passion” that ensued was clearly of a violet nature and Pitt was the stronger aggressor. While I think that the director was trying to show that the violence sitrred up their long-forgotten passion, I came away with it feeling like Mr. Smith was forcing the little Mrs. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/34 "2005-06-13T12:08:30Z")
Who else noticed the kid “hostage” wearing the fight club t-shirt? That cracked me up! I liked it. For the first time since **Girl, Interrupted** , I can say I enjoyed Angelina Jolie in a movie. I’ll see it again. Now I have to find the Cinderalla Man thread, since I saw that this weekend too. E3 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/35 "2005-06-13T12:44:23Z")
> [@False\_God](#): > > What say the rest of you? Hits, of course! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/36 "2005-06-13T13:36:39Z")
Qpoilery Question but not too spoilery if you know what the plot of the movie is… I was a little lost on how Jane recognized John as the shooter in the desert. She watched that security clip over and over, never seeing his face, but seemed to recognize him by him shaking his foot. Why? Was it ever established that she saw pee on his boot at home or something? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/37 "2005-06-13T14:10:14Z")
> [@Max Carnage](#): > > Qpoilery Question but not too spoilery if you know what the plot of the movie is… > > I was a little lost on how Jane recognized John as the shooter in the desert. She watched that security clip over and over, never seeing his face, but seemed to recognize him by him shaking his foot. Why? Was it ever established that she saw pee on his boot at home or something? I don’t think she recognized the pee, or anything. I think she found him familiar right away but didn’t believe it. And after a few times, she just couldn’t argue anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Haniver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Jenny\_Haniver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Haniver)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/38 "2005-06-13T16:53:57Z")
> [@Ruby](#): > > I was disturbed at the scene immediately following the scene where Pitt and Jolie were trying to kill each other in their house. The “passion” that ensued was clearly of a violet nature and Pitt was the stronger aggressor. While I think that the director was trying to show that the violence sitrred up their long-forgotten passion, I came away with it feeling like Mr. Smith was forcing the little Mrs. From what I hear, this is entirely due to the edit they had to make in order to get a PG-13 rating. Curse you, censor-guys! ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/39 "2005-06-13T18:15:43Z")
I had just finished competing in a 48hr film festival which required all the brainpower I could muster for one weekend. I was also pretty tired. On the way home after handing in our movie, I was in the movie for something brainless…so I picked Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I wasn’t really expecting to like it and, frankly, was praying for an uncomplicated plot and lots of Angelina and 'splosions. I have to say, I enjoyed it. It was definately a doug liman film, a lot of the action was pretty similar to that which Jason Bourne went through. That worked for me as I liked that movie. I laughed a few times as well. It had it’s flaws but there was enough there for me to enjoy. It was a pleasant surprise for me. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823/40 "2005-06-13T18:44:12Z")
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went in and I found myself thinking that I saw the movie I should have expected. It was good entertainment and I enjoyed it. It was predictable in places, but no biggie. And like **Stranger On A Train** I got a _True Lies_ vibe from the movie as well. All in all, not a bad way to spend a 97[sup]o[/sup] Saturday. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mr-and-mrs-smith/307823.md?page=3)