Mr. & Mrs. Smith parents guide

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Parent Guide

Overall D+

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a couple which have never confided to each other the true nature of their day jobs. Coincidentally, they both work as assassins for hire. When their employment secrets are accidentally discovered, their marriage becomes murder.

Release date June 9, 2005

Violence D
Sexual Content C
Profanity C-
Substance Use C

Why is Mr. & Mrs. Smith rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Mr. & Mrs. Smith PG-13 for sequences of violence, intense action, sexual content and brief strong language.

Parent Movie Review

Movies often portray marriage in a bad light, but in this case, it’s literally murder—in three acts.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie provide copious amounts of eye candy in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a movie that shares its title with a 1941 release… and nothing more. In this 2005 version, the Smiths live a comfortable existence in suburbia, and after five or six years of marriage (neither can agree on how long it has really been), neither of them is aware of what the other truly does for a living.

End of Act One.

In Act Two, the inevitable revelation is brought forth during a very bad day at the office. Both operatives have been hired to take down the same man near the Mexican border. Instead, they start firing at one another. Ignoring the dangers of bringing their job home, the next half hour of the film shows the Smiths shooting and beating on each other while destroying their lovely house. Fortunately, common sense eventually prevails and pistols are traded for passion… and more eye candy.

Now that love has been reborn, everyone else wants the Smiths dead, making Act Three a parade of bullets and bombs. Hiding out in a huge hardware store while waiting to be attacked by a force of faceless warriors, Mr. and Mrs. Smith wonder if they will be forced to break-up and head to separate corners of the world in order to stay alive.

Certainly the much reported off-screen chemistry between Brad and Angelina is working in their favor. Obviously having a good time, even as the couple pounds on each other there’s still a glint of “only joking” in their eyes.

But parents may not be as jovial after examining the content in this PG-13 release. With violence literally wall-to-wall, when the pair isn’t kicking one another around the house, the screenplay provides a continuous onslaught of other murders. This action leaves little time for dialogue or plot development.

For those who claim the MPAA ratings haven’t grown more tolerant of increased violent content, Mr. and Mrs. Smith definitely qualifies as “Exhibit A.” The inclusion of a sexual expletive, discussions of sex, and portrayals of sexual activity, along with dozens of killings suggests the next death may be the trust families have for the motion picture rating system.

Theatrical release June 9, 2005. Updated

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Parents' Guide

In one scene, Mrs. Smith throws many knives, with deadly accuracy, at various nameless attackers. Humorously, when one accidentally stabs her husband in the leg, he pulls it out and isn’t affected by the wound. Why are audiences so willing to suspend belief when presented with situations like these in movies?

After discovering they have lied to each other about virtually every aspect of their personalities, this couple is still determined to stay married. In reality, do you think a marriage could survive this enormous breach of trust?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Mr. & Mrs. Smith movie is November 28, 2005. Here are some details…

DVD Release Date: 29 November 2005

Delve into the dark secrets behind the Smiths with the three commentaries offered by Director Doug Liman and Screenwriter Simon Kinberg, the crew, as well as Producer Lucas Foster and Producer Akiva Goldsman. The DVD release also provides three deleted scenes, a making-of scene, and theatrical trailers. Although you’ll have to choose between wide or full screen versions, both feature audio tracks in English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround) and French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), with subtitles available in English and Spanish.

Related home video titles:

Connie and Carla are pals who hide behind a mask of lies to protect themselves after witnessing a murder. The 1941 Mr. & Mrs. Smith features a feuding couple that has just discovered their three-year-long marriage was never legally sanctioned.