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Friday, June 20, 2008
Get reasonably Smart - and funny
Try this for a new Get Smart catchphrase - “Hit it by THAT much!”
I know, it’s supposed to say “Missed it by THAT much!” But the new movie does the opposite. Instead of just missing, it just hits. Get Smart is solidly entertaining, but it could have been funnier.
My memories of the TV show are pretty fuzzy, but as best I can tell, this movie isn’t exactly the 1960s series writ large. In addition to being a spy spoof, the movie is also a James Bond adventure - and that approach turns out to be a mixed bag.
Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is an analyst for the spy agency CONTROL who longs to be a field agent. He gets his chance when the enemy agency KAOS hatches a plot to detonate a bomb in Los Angeles. His partner is Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), who’s none too pleased to be working with an inexperienced klutz. Of course, like so many couples, what starts as animosity ends in amour.
Combining the zany antics of the TV show with the high octane of a 007 movie makes sense on paper, but on film it’s a bit of mess because comedy director Peter Segal (Tommy Boy, 50 First Dates) isn’t skilled with action scenes. He stages a good sequence that’s a nod to the one great scene in Moonraker, the skydiving chase. On the whole, though, the fights and pursuits are a blurry mess, marred by overediting and too many close-ups.
As for the comedy, it’s uneven. Segal makes too many of the jokes obvious, and some are flat-out misfires, like the revelation that Max was once grossly overweight. However, there are some hilarious scenes, such as the escape through a laser-filled room, which 99 navigates quite successfully and Max … doesn’t. A dance-off between the two leads gets increasingly ridiculous, and increasingly funny.
Standout scenes like these work because of the great cast. More than anything else, the actors, especially Carell and Hathaway, keep Get Smart afloat.
Carell doesn’t take the easy way out, playing Max simply as a lovable screw-up. Max is also a bit full of himself, but with good reason - he knows he can be a good field agent, and Carell sells Max’s increasing confidence very well. Hathaway has never had a sexier part. She enlivens every movie she’s in, and if she’s not already on the A-list where she belongs, Get Smart will put her there permanently.
Most of the supporting players are fun too. Alan Arkin is perfect as the put-upon chief, and Dwayne Johnson has fun with his image playing an impossibly perfect agent. Casting Masi Osaka from Heroes as a tech nerd is particularly inspired. Only Terence Stamp draws the short straw, playing a villain who isn’t given enough to do.
As much as I enjoyed Get Smart, I still found myself wishing the movie were as funny as its ads, or as good as its cast. Maybe for the sequel, the producers ought to let the marketing people take a crack at the script.
GRADE: B
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