|
||||||||||||||||||||
Get Smart - Review
Rated: PG-13 Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Release Date: 2008-06-20 Starring: Steve Carell (Maxwell Smart), Anne Hathaway (Agent 99), Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (Agent 23), Terence Stamp (Siegfried), Alan Arkin (Chief of CONTROL), Ken Davitian (Shtarker), Masi Oka (Bruce), Nate Torrence (Lloyd), David Koechner (Agent Larabee), Terry Crews (Agent 91)
Directed by Peter Segal
Produced by Andrew Lazar, Charles Roven, Alex Gartner
Written by Tom J. Astle & Matt Ember
Visit the movie's Official Site!
Along comes Get Smart: a standard, formulized, slick Hollywood comedy in the mold of Bruce Almighty or yes, Wild Hogs. Except this one’s not only straight down the middle mainstream, it’s also blissfully funny. Everyone can have a laugh, without feeling guilty about supporting the increasingly embarrassing career of a Tim Allen. It works because the original Get Smart worked, and the movie does a good job of translating the charm and wit of Don Adams’ classic television series to the screen. In particular, Carell is the perfect stand-in for Adams, as the well-intentioned, sometimes egotistical, usually in over his head, shoe phone lovin’ secret agent Maxwell Smart. We meet Max as a lowly analyst working for a secret government agency called CONTROL. CONTROL’s mission is to fight KAOS, their evil counterparts in Russia. Max is a brilliant (if overly detailed) information analyst, but all his life he’s dreamed only of being a field agent, like CONTROL’s number one badass Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson). He gets his chance when KAOS uncovers the identity of CONTROL’s agents, and starts knocking them off one by one. With no one else to do the job, Max gets promoted to field agent, and teamed up with agency bombshell Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). Their partnership is predictably, hilarious. Carell and Hathaway have surprisingly great chemistry, with Anne playing straight man to Steve’s pompous yet utterly clueless antics. The movie works best when it’s focused on their partnership, and the first three-fourths of Get Smart is a laugh riot as Max and 99 skydive into Russia to infiltrate a fancy dress party. Unfortunately, it runs out of gas in the last quarter, as they return to America and the film becomes increasingly focused on the action elements obligatory to any spy genre film, even a funny one. The action isn’t particularly compelling or creative, and the wait becomes much too long in between jokes. Luckily most of the movie, especially early on, is dedicated almost entirely to letting Carell and Hathaway pull off wacky hijinks, of the sort that would have made the dearly departed Don Adams more than proud. Less successful is some of the supporting cast, which suffers from an attempt by Warner Bros. to use their film as an advertisement for a DVD spin-off tie-in. Released the same week as the film will be a DVD starring the characters of Bruce and Lloyd, who appear in Get Smart as two of CONTROL’s tech-nerds. While Bruce and Lloyd work in small doses, the film sometimes feels as if it’s going out of its way to shoehorn them in where we really don’t need them, as if its acutely aware of that impending DVD release and the pressing need to pimp those supporting players if they’re going to sell copies of their solo movie. Luckily the rest of the supporting cast works much better. Terence Stamp is Siegfried, and while he may not have the comedic chops of the original Siegfried Bernie Kopell, he makes up for it by simply being over-the-top evil. Alan Arkin is perfect as The Chief, while an appearance late in the film by Patrick Wharburton as Hymie and a cameo early in the film by a knotty Bill Murray, really kill. Get Smart is unquestionably a watered-down, formulaic Hollywood comedy, but it’s also a pretty good adaptation of something that was funny. While it can’t entirely escape the obvious mediocrity that comes with hilarity by numbers, Get Smart works well enough on a surface level to get a lot of laughs. What else do you want? It’s a comedy.
Image Gallery for Get Smart
     Comment on “Get Smart”Note: This website is not meant for use by minors. The views expressed in the comments section below are not our own. This section is intended for discussion of the topic in the post above. Disagreement is encouraged, however comments which attack, insult, or threaten the author in a personal manner won't be published. Similarly, comments that we deem to be poorly worded, or wildly off topic will also not be approved and may be mocked. For free, uncensored, unfettered, and possibly dangerous discussion visit our forum.
Leave a ReplyMAIN SITE NAVIGATION
HOME l ABOUT US l l SEARCH l MOVIE NEWS l MOVIE REVIEWS l MOVIE PREVIEWS l DVD REVIEWS l DVD NEWS l SOUNDTRACKS l FEATURES DATABASE l TELEVISION l MUSIC l GAMES l CELEBRITY l TECHNOLOGY l RSS 2.0 FEEDS l MESSAGE BOARDS l LIVE CHAT l SYNDICATE US l LINKS | CB STORE | MUNCH MONSTER This site is operated by Cinema Blend LLC. For advertising inquiries, contact Gorilla Nation. CinemaBlend.com is a private, independently owned website which is intended only as entertainment. The views expressed on this website may or may not reflect those of its owner. Don't take us too seriously. Made in Webta Labs 
|
|
June 19th, 2008 at 23:22
Do you think this movie is appropriate enough to take my daughter to see who's 12?