Madagascar and Mr. & Mrs. Smith Review
So rather than writing two separate reviews, I am going to couple these together because they are not deep movies, so there really isn’t much to say.
First I will review Mr. and Mrs. Smith. What a great movie. I was so impressed. I did not say that it was an oscar caliber movie, but as fun summer movies go, it does the job it is meant to do. And that job is to entertain. Pitt, as always, fits the role very well. He and Jolie do have a very strong on screen chemistry. The clips of the two of them in the marriage counselor’s office were very realistic and not forced at all. There is quite a bit of action, but it is really, for the most part, a comedy. Not in the slapstick comedy way, but instead, in a witty and comedic way. Vince Vaughn’s presence is made known by the dialogue that is so indicative of his style of acing and comedy. At times, it reminded me of Desperate Housewives in that, it is hard to quantify what category it really fits into. Like I said before, the movie is mostly comedy, but the action scenes are very good. I would say that if you just want to go numb and enjoy a movie, then go see this. It is a fun summer flick and fits that role very well. I will give it a 4 out of 5.
I was really expecting a lot more out of this movie. I hoped that it would be a good follow-up to the Shrek movies that everyone has grown to love. And even Shark Tale wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t one of my favorites, but it was watchable and I could see why kids would like it. But this movie really did not set the bar too high for their next endeavor. I really don’t see how it came in number one in its opening weekend box office numbers. I would think that most people would talk to their friends who saw it on Friday and would tell others to wait until it came out on video. I was thoroughly disappointed in this movie. With Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith as the primary characters, you would think that this would be a very funny movie. But instead, what you get is great one liners from the secondary characters, and an annoyance with the aforementioned primary characters. Cedric the Entertainer and Ali G are secondary characters who are enjoyable with their personas. And the tertiary characters of the penguins and the monkeys are hilarious. When a monkey says "If you have poo, throw it now" then you know it is going to be funny. But they spent their good lines on these other characters. If the primary characters are on the screen, you can almost bet that they are either reaching for a laugh, or are just uninteresting as a whole. Since Dreamworks is starting to push out quantity over quality, be expecting more like this in the future. I give Madagascar a 1 out of 5.
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