Get Smart (9/10)
posted in Movie Reviews |
I’ve been a huge Get Smart fan since I was a kid. It’s a series that has always been pretty much in line with my dry sense of humor, so it’s been a natural favorite of mine. I own the series collection on DVD. I’ve got the soundtrack CD’s. I’ve got beat up old novelizations from the 60’s. Heck, I think I even have a Get Smart thermos around in a box of stuff somewhere. It was with some trepidation when I started to first hear about this new feature film in the works, wondering if it would end up as bad as most TV-to-movie translations over the years. Frankly, Get Smart has already had one disastrous feature film version from 1980, titled The Nude Bomb. They did make up for it with a surprisingly fun made-for-tv movie years later in 1989 titled Get Smart Again. However, this new version would be the first time somebody other than the late, great Don Adams was playing the role of Maxwell Smart. As soon as it was announced that Steve Carrell was taking over the role, I began to think that this new version might actually work.
Writing: The greatest thing I can say about the writing is that it does a marvelous job at referencing and respecting the source material. It touches on a good majority of the catch phrases, characters and dry humor that made the original so great. And while it may be rather vague and convenient in the plot department, I can’t really knock it too much, cause that was always a secondary concern to the original series as well. All we need to know is that there are bad guys trying to do bad things (as Max himself pretty much paraphrases during an intelligence briefing). One criticism I would make in that regard is that KAOS is shortchanged a bit in the film. I think they could have tossed another 5-10 minutes of screen time to that side of the story to round it out a bit. I do like a lot of the little character touches, like Maxwell Smart being the secret agent that would rather make friends with the henchman than defeat him. Overall, the plotting does little more than hold the character writing, jokes and dialog together into a narrative arc, which is fine.
Production: I never quite expected to ever see a version of Get Smart with such a high production level. There’s no shortage of big action scenes, most of which are well executed in terms of production, performance and timing. And it’s all done in the correct, “let’s have fun with it” approach that the rest of the film has.
Cast: The highlight of the movie is the casting. Steve Carrell is fantastic as Maxwell Smart. His dead-panned delivery of jokes is spot-on. And his earnest, loyal personality is perfectly offset by his knack for unfortunate situations. Carrell nails Maxwell Smart, without even trying to mimic Don Adams. That’s an impressive accomplishment. The same can be said for the casting of Anne Hathaway as Agent 99. While I was a little bit surprised to hear of her casting in the role, primarily for the age difference, I was a fan of hers and figured she could make the role work. I was later a bit cautious when they started to show pictures and clips of her being this kick-butt super agent. But that was a bit of a misleading partial representation. They certainly portray her in that manner, but only as far as need be to make the softer side of the character that much better. It’s actually a fitting enough reworking of the character that holds true to the source material. Carrell and Hathaway manage to pull off the cute relationship factor that always made Max & 99 work in the series. And they even adopt a dog named Fang, which is a fun little touch for us fans. Alan Arkin is fantastically funny as The Chief, landing a few of the funniest moments in the film. Arkin’s always had a wonderfully dry sense of humor, so he was an easy bit of casting for this role. Dwayne Johnson gets to have fun chewing up the scenery as Agent 23, and he plays well against the other cast members. Terence Stamp, an actor who always seems to enjoy playing bad guys, does so with maniacal glee. He’s a nice bit of casting for the arch-nemesis role of Siegried. James Caan has fun playing a no-nonsense and somewhat inept President. Masi Oka (from Heroes) and Nate Torrence (from Studio 60) are a great duo of tech nerds. They get one particularly funny scene later in the film. Patrick Warburton gets to make a brief appearance as the robotic Hymie, in another nod to us fans (and perhaps setup for a sequel film, perhaps). I can’t think of a better bit of casting for Hymie than Warburton. And they get no less than Bill Murray to play the secluded and lonely Agent 13, turning up in a typically unusual location. Other small appearances are made by a fun roster of actors, from the likes of Kevin Nealon to Larry Miller. But I think the greatest bit of fun for us fans are the cameo appearances by Bernie Kopell (the original Siegfried) and Leonard Stern (executive producer/writer/primary dude during the run of the series).
Music: For the most part, Trevor Rabin does a great job with the score. He works in Irving Szathmary’s theme tune quite a lot throughout the score, in quite a few ways. There’s no doubt that Rabin can score action scenes, which he does here pretty well. He also gets the “spy” kinda vibe right in the scenes of the them sneaking around. Overall, a good score.
