OK, it's got as many plot holes as bullet holes. But summer's here, and nobody really wants to see Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie attempting some turgid arthouse materal, so what's the problem?

This is an action flick about a pair of married assassins who are both unaware of the other's lethal profession. Mr and Mrs Smith opens during a counselling session, in which they uncomfortably discuss the state of their relationship.

That's a great way to start, because the scene flaunts the film's key ingredient: the chemistry between its stars (much discussed in the tabloids) as they flirt and fight their way through an exaggerated version of the ups and downs of married life.

Things got tricky when the couple's covers are blown. When their respective bosses decide it would be best to terminate their employment, they rally together while fighting for their lives.

Some of the action scenes get bogged down in a welter of gunfire, but most are leavened with dry humour, such as when Pitt mutters the old cliche "We need to talk" while Jolie drives a minivan during a car chase.

Mr and Mrs. Smith is a straightforward satire -- of action movies and domestic dramas. But at its best, the movie presents relationships the way they can feel: as if they are a matter of life and death.