Movie Review - “Get Smart”
** 1/2 STARS
I used to love watching old re-runs of “Get Smart” on Nickelodeon when I was a kid. It was one of the first spoof television shows and it set a trend for slapstick comedies like “The Police Squad” and “Sledgehammer” that followed. If anyone was born to play Max “Agent 86″ Smart it had to be Steve Carrell. He brings the same bumbling charm to the character as Don Adams did to the original.
The only major thing hampering this film from being great is the heavy presence of TV material in a PG-13 rated film. Even though it is entertaining the uneven feel of this film makes it feel about 20 minutes too long. The presence of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and the always cute Anne Hathaway as “Agent 99″ also lift this film from discount DVD bin obscurity. Alan Arkin is also fun to watch onscreen, all the actors look like they had a blast making this film and that always helps in setting the tone for a comedy.
The action and jokes in “Get Smart” are pretty adult hence the rating, but the jokes stay away from fart gags and potty humor. This movie is at its best when the action and comedy blend to make truly fun summer movie moments, but they don’t clutter up the whole film. We get some silly sight gags and hidden references that are always fun to look out for in TV to big screen movie adaptations.
I found myself laughing out loud more than once and that is a lot more than I can say about recent comedies that Hollywood has produced (”What Happens in Vegas” and “Maid of Honor” anyone??). This isn’t great summer movie material, but it was good filler to kill some time on a cloudy Sunday summer afternoon. Something tells me this film will translate much better on the small screen anyway.
July 10th, 2008 at 5:55 am
Get Smart looks okay overall, though Steve Carell seems to be veering more and more toward slapstick-style humor