The Cocoanuts, Horse Feathers, & Mr. & Mrs. Smith

The Cocoanuts and Horse Feathers were two Marx brothers films I apparently hadn't seen. I know I've seen all of the other famous ones. I thought I'd seen these two before, but I hadn't. The Cocoanuts suffers immensely from having craptacular musical numbers that really just drag down the film and make it the worst Marx Brothers film I've seen. Plus, there were many points that just screamed early (sound) film and each of those things was worse in this one than in any later Marx film. Horse Feathers has Whatever It Is, I'm Against It and Everyone Says I Love You, two of the best songs in the entire Marx Brothers film catalogue. That really helps, and that the film is a very streamlined 70 minutes helps as well. Of course, the ending football game is silly, but there's enough other stuff that's worth watching that it falls just behind Animal Crackers, Duck Soup, and A Night at the Opera as the best Marx Brothers films.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith has two very attractive leads. Everyone else really doesn't do much in it, although Vince Vaughn continually wants to remind everyone that he exists. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are more than capable of carrying the film themselves, and Doug Liman lets them. Of course it's ridiculous, worse than a John Woo film for amount of bullets shot to amount of death brought, and the ending gunfight is very silly (you're telling me these guys are worse shots than stormtroopers?), but it doesn't really matter much because Pitt and Jolie are so very good together. Considering I don't really care for Jennifer Aniston, I say Go Brad (and Angelina). Make movies that are at least fun.