Post by BIGFANBOY on Jun 18, 2008 2:25:45 GMT -5
GET SMART
Review by Gary Dean Murray
As a kid, I loved the adventures of Maxwell Smart in the TV show Get Smart. The tales of bumbling Agent 86 and his girl next door interest Agent 99 were wacky and off the wall funny, just what you would expect from Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. But the cinematic experiences post the cancelled show were less than stellar. Both The Return of Maxwell Smart and The Nude Bomb weren’t just painfully bad but tarnished the reputation of the series. So it is with much fear and trepidation I entered the theater to see the Steve Carell take on the famous Control Agent doing battle with KAOS.
And for the most part I’m pleasantly surprised with the newest incarnation Get Smart.
The film opens with those famous series of doors opening and closing on Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell). He works for Control but is not an agent. He is a chatter specialist; an analyst who lives for perfectly researched documents for the spies. But he dreams of being an agent, even though he has failed the exam seven times before. It seems that our man had a weight problem that made him fail the physical tests. Most of the desk jockeys envy Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson) - the he-man, Alpha male of the agency.
But Control is attacked by KAOS, the enemy that has been dormant for 20 years. Everyone believes that they must have a mole in Control, so now the agency must have someone who has not been compromised to investigate the new phase of KAOS plans. Enter Agent 86 - Maxwell Smart. The Chief (Alan Arkin) also sends along Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) to be Max’s partner. It seems that she recently has had some plastic surgery and KAOS doesn’t know her new face.
Well, the two take off for Russia where we get a giant set piece almost lifted from Moonraker with a villain who is almost as menacing as the henchman Jaws. This leads our heroes to a fancy dinner party where Maxwell and Agent 99 dance with different partners to a brilliant comic effect. The party leads to the discovery of a cache of nuclear weapons. After Max destroys the weapons, Agent 23 comes in for clean up and says that there were no nukes on the side. Max is accused of being a double agent.
The rest of Get Smart is the clearing of Max’s name and finding both the nukes and the mole in Control.
Steve Carell proves yet again that he is one of the strongest comic actors working today. Even when he is in a film that doesn’t work that well (Evan Almighty), he still finds comedic moments that shine. As he shows in his TV hit The Office, Carell is a master of the slow burn take. It is a skill he uses in spades here. We don’t get the over the top Maxwell Smart, the boob who still wins over evil. Here Carell’s Maxwell Smart is more of a guy who wants to do the right thing; he’s just not that experienced in the field. We get all the big lines from the TV show like “Missed it by that much” and “Would you believe…” but in this Get Smart, they don’t come across as broad as they had been on the small screen. By changing the tone of the character, he gives the role an update as much as it is the homage.
Anne Hathaway has shown in many roles that she can handle comedy, but here she plays more of the straight woman to Carell. She does get a few moments of comedy, but her Agent 99 is a much tougher gal, kicking more backsides than most of the men on the screen. Not only does she compliment Steve Carell but also they do have some chemistry together. This is a winning team that should be used again.
Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23 comes across more as a stock character than a fully thought out role. He is all muscle and grit, but one knows exactly where his character is heading. I expected more from him and more from this role.
Alan Arkin as Chief is funny but not as strong as one would expect from Arkin. This guy is one of the senior thespians in Hollywood with a resume longer than most people’s arms, but he doesn’t bring anything new or different to the role. While one doesn’t expect him to have the frustration that the TV Chief role had, one expects some kind of different reaction.
Another great element that was taken from the show is the use of cameos. Without giving anything away, this little film has more comics in background roles than you would see in a dozen lesser films. Most do get a moment to shine while playing off Carell. Also, in the lobby of Control are all of the props that Don Adams used in the series, and some are used again in this film.
While this is not a perfect movie, it drags on a bit too long at nearly two hours; it is a very entertaining flick. It's never going to win any Oscars, but it will win over a group of new fans and please the old guard. Get Smart about how you spent your money, but don’t miss this little flick.
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