Get Smart(2008)
Get Smart
Genre: Action/Comedy/Crime
Released: 2008
If you can look past the formulaic plot, predictable jokes and sometimes awkward chemistry, you will find yourself slapping your knee a couple of times during the film. Now, is that a positive review? I will let you decide that for yourself. I am just going to be brutally honest and tell you that I have never seen the T.V. show this film is based on. It came out back in the 60's and I am only 24-years old. Is that an excuse? Not really! I have gone back and watched most of the necessary classic films. The T.V. show starred Don Adams and was apparently very popular and very funny back when it came out. Now, if you have seen the show and you want to know how it compares to the movie, I can't really help you in that department. I can only tell you what I thought about the movie itself, which is how I think movies should be judged anyways. It is ok to compare movies sometimes though. For example, when comparing Ang Lee's abomination The Hulk to the new Edward Norton's action-packed The Incredible Hulk; that is ok to do. Get Smart stars Steve Carrell (The 40-Year Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine), Anne Hathaway (Brokeback Mountain, Havoc), Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine), Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (The Rundown, Gridiron Gang) and James Caan (The Way of the Gun, The Godfather). There is also a pretty funny performance from the Masi Oka (“Hereos”) and Nate Torrence (who plays Lloyd in the film and looks just like Jonah Hill).
The movie revolves around the typical serious/slapstick style of comedy where they are dealing with a serious subject but the jokes are made constantly throughout. The plot picks up with "Maxipad" (Carrell) and he is the main analyst for a government spy group called CONTROL. He is obviously in his late 30's/early 40's and is tired of doing the DESK work. He wants to get out in the field and become an agent. The star of the agency is AGENT 23 (The Rock). Max wants to do all of the action and assassination jobs like him. One day, CONTROL gets broken into and all the agents' information, along with information on nuclear weapons is stolen by a terrorist group called KAOS. This leaves the Chief of Control (Arkin) no choice but to promote Max to agent and send him out with special Agent 99 (Hathaway). Agent 86 (Carrell) and Agent 99 make their way to Russia to find out who was behind the break in and stop a terrorist attack lead by a guy named Siegfried (Terrence Stamp). That is the most simple and basic plotline that I can give you without giving any of the surprises away.
Overall, though I realized the movie had a ton of terrible jokes and was completely PREDICTABLE, I just found myself oddly liking the flick and enjoying the time I sat in the theatre. There were a lot of jokes that fell flat and could have been tweaked and there were a ton of moments where I could predict exactly what was coming just based on all the movies I have already seen. That's fine. I will admit that the movie is a mess but it's a fun mess.
I thought Carrell did a fine job but he played pretty much the same role he always plays; the dumbfounded guy who seems to do everything right eventually, i.e. The 40-Year Old Virgin, Evan Almightly. See, to me, his best roles ever were when he played Brick in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and then Evan Baxter in Bruce Almighty when he was slurring his speech on T.V. That was a classic moment.
Some issues I had with the film were all the political jokes. The stabs at the President just seemed old and overdone. You have heard all of those jokes before and it just seemed like they were going for easy laughs. There were two critics sitting next to me who kept wondering why the crowd kept laughing at certain scenes. While they were right for half of the jokes, I thought the other half were pretty funny. The jokes they were referring to were the cheap shot laughs where people get injured, etc.
Is it me or does Anne Hathaway have some of the most amazing legs ever. She was showing them off in this little skirt she was wearing during part of the film and I just couldn't close my mouth. She is definitely a hottie. Yes, I am aware that has nothing to do with a professional review of a film, but I felt like putting that in there, so deal with it.
If you are in the mood for a good laugh, I would recommend the movie but just wait for the rental, hence the 3 BDK rating. I would say only about 50% of the jokes work, but when they work, they will have you laughing hysterically. I know it was a dumb joke but I loved the Chuck Norris reference.
posted by bollywood review @ 6:08 AM
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