Posted on 06/24/2008 6:55:54 AM PDT by yankeedame
June 20, 2008 - by Kyle Smith
Get Smart hits so many wrong comedic notes it’s as if it’s playing the piano in boxing gloves.
A few minutes into the movie, when (a version of) that briskly sinister title theme kicks in and Maxwell Smart heads for the sliding doors you’ll be happily ensconced, thinking: why mess with the classics? But shredding a classic is exactly what the filmmakers set about doing.
The latest big-screen adaptation of the 1960s TV spy comedy, originally conceived as a mashup of James Bond and Inspector Clouseau, completely misunderstands Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell), who in the original was arrogant but childlike, incompetent but unerring. He would say something utterly absurd with ironclad bravado and a stone face, then turn out to be right.
The new Smart is just a whiny nerd who is constantly being beaten down, often by his partner Agent 99 (a brittle and sarcastic Anne Hathaway, who will make you long for the airy adorableness of Barbara Feldon). In their first encounter, 99 literally knocks Max down on the sidewalk, like a middle linebacker.
Carell seems at a loss for ideas. He can’t imitate Don Adams, who played the original role with such dapper daffiness and got many of his laughs just by speaking in an officious quack (modeled after William Powell’s in The Thin Man).
Carell doesn’t do much of anything except project a general air of frustration and weakness.
When called upon to issue the series’ signature catchphrases (“Would you believe…,” “Missed it by that much,” “Sorry about that, Chief”) he sounds sheepish, except on one occasion midway through, which was the only time in the entire movie that I laughed.
Chasing some stolen nukes in Russia (the chief villain is Terence Stamp, aka General Zod in Superman II), Max and 99 go on a series of adventures that aren’t so much parodies of other movies as blurry copies.
There’s a midair parachute chase like the one in Moonraker, starring a hulking actor who looks exactly like the guy who played the steel-jawed assassin in that film. There’s also an interlocking-laser-beam field like the one in Entrapment and a dance scene at a black-tie party a la True Lies.
Instead of parodying these scenes, director Peter Segal (50 First Dates) simply restages them with some cheap har-har element. Example: when Max dances, it’s with a really fat girl. (There are also three different scenes during which we’re supposed to laugh for no other reason except that Carell is shown in flashback in a fat suit.)
Perhaps the worst idea was stealing an idea from the men’s room scene in Austin Powers, which only serves to highlight how much zanier and more original that spoof was.
The script roams desperately around a large ensemble of unnecessary characters in search of a laugh (Masi Oka, of NBC’s “Heroes,” and Nate Torrence, a sort of Jonah Hill clone play two superfluous young nerds who keep dropping in to clog up the movie).
It turns out they are on hand solely to prop up interest in a spinoff movie that is being concurrently released on DVD.
Only in scattered moments is the satiric silliness of the original Get Smart even visible, such as when Smart asks the new character Agent 23 (the Rock), “How was the assassination?” or when Smart meets an agent who is stationed inside a tree. That guy — the sap? — is played by Bill Murray, but instead of playing it straight while discussing the next mission he whines about being stuck in a tree, which ruins the joke.
One key to TV’s Get Smart was that it was deadpan — the characters never knew they were being funny. But the film is full of joshing that’s so witless it sounds like the dull banter of actual locker-room meatheads: fellow agents call Max “Maxi-pad” and “Maxine.”
After a mishap at a bakery, Smart and his fellow spies are derided as “the fabulous bakery boys.” The whole movie is as strange and clunky as that attempted joke. To put it another way, this is the Aughties equivalent of the unspeakable Tom Hanks/Dan Aykroyd version of Dragnet.
The characters cringe at their own failure to be funny, and so do we. As Max tells 99, “Not much of a laugher, are you?”
GET SMART
Directed by Peter Segal
Starring: Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Bill Murray
1 star/ 4
111 minutes/Rated PG-13
Max asks the overweight woman to dance, snubbing the more conventionally attractive woman, because he was once 150 pounds overweight himself, and shed the weight at least partly because he wanted to pass the CONTROL fitness test to be a field agent.
That scene shows how thoughtful and sympathetic Max could be in that kind of situation. The same sensitivity helps him deal with Dalip, the giant KAOS agent.
Eddie Murphy made some classics early on.
One of my all time favorite films.
Steve Martin has made several good movies in the last 20 years or so. The Three Amigos is very funny (1986 I think, 22 years ago), as is LA Story and The Lonely Guy.
How can they make a good Get Smart movie without Mel Brooks contributing to the writing? The TV series has Mel’s stamp all over it.
“Hollywood has completely run out of ideas. Get a 1965 TV guide to see what movies are comming out next year. Who’s going to get the lead in “My Mother The Car - the Movie”?”
LOL.
Yeah, thing is - whatever Hollywood would churn out would be significantly WORSE than the original (and in this case that would take some doing!). :-).
I generally agree, with the exception of King Kong. I was surprised that his role there did seem to be a departure from his usual schtick, and I thought he did a great job.
Haven’t seen the movie, but it seems to be lacking the wit and humor of Buck Henry and Mel Brooks.
Yes, but do you carry a spare?
Yeah, LOL, love the use of the words, "razor sharp". Funny as can be,,, and so true.
Incredible Hulk: Entertaining, but limited by the source material. Tim Roth is underutilized. I thought that the Ang Lee film was far superior.
Oh who knows, I was in a theater that is located in a very upscale Republican area of Memphis, Tenn. and that line got little or not reaction.
That Pink Panther remake was done with getting kids to watch in mind. My kids love that movie, but of course adults who saw the original with Peter Sellers would know it pales in comparison.
Nothing that a little more hummus wouldn’t cure.
Loved the effects but I didn’t like the movie very much.
Maybe I am just getting cynicle in my old age.
“Now Scott Baio, they just don’t make actors like that any more. He was fantastic in ZAPPED!”
Agent 13 always complained about where he was hiding.
-PJ
"Thrill, thrill, thrill. Kill, kill, kill. Make the scene, bump off a dean".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.