I checked out Get Smart this weekend, and my very short review of it would be this: if you're not planning to see it, I'm not going to try to talk you into it; if you're planning to see it, I'm not going to try to talk you out of it.It's a pretty average affair, and it's really hard to say exactly where it goes "wrong." At the script, I suppose, because it's basically "kinda not funny" throughout. A lot of the best parts were in the preview. There are a few other good laughs scattered far and wide, and maybe two or three genuine great moments. But as I said, they're scattered far and wide. I spent a lot of time fidgeting in my seat, waiting for the funny.
Strangely, the movie actually delivered on action more than comedy. There's a great skydiving sequence that sort of brings to mind the intro to Moonraker, and an excellent final chase sequence that's better than you'll find in most true action movies.
Steve Carell doesn't play as dopey a Maxwell Smart as Don Adams did, but that turns out to be a pretty good thing over all. Anne Hathaway turns out to be a decent enough pairing for him in this movie. But they're saddled with weak material. Somewhere in it all, I sense that the two of them were capable of leading a really funny movie, if only the jokes had been there. But all the good lines in the film seem to have been given to Alan Arkin.
...and the cameos. There are quite a few in the movie, and they're really the best part. Bill Murray and Patrick Warburton in particular shine in their 30 seconds each of screen time.
But again, I've got go back to "overall, not very funny." Or, to rate it on your Steve Carell-o-Meter, any given episode of The Office has twice as many laughs in it as Get Smart -- and lasts only a quarter of the time. I'd rate it a run of the mill C.
4 comments:
I have opted to rent it in a few months. I was a fan of the series growing up.
You are not the first person to vacillate about this movie's nature. Some say it works better as an action movie than as a comedy. Others say the comedy actually hurts what is a decent action movie.
The action comedies I have seen do not completely come together. Lethal Weapon was probably the last one I can recall that worked -- the sequels leave much to be desired. The Last Action Hero might have worked, but it could not decide whether it was taking its parody of the action genre seriously. The first three Die Hard films were good action movies that were elevated by Bruce Willis's quirky performances.
Hey, Dr. - look at it this way.
You could have watched "The Love Guru."
'Nuff said. :P
I tried to post and Blogger crashed. I'm not gonna post again.
Okay, maybe I will.
As a big time fan of the old series, I loved the movie. It hit all the grace notes and the casting was terrific. Just what I was looking for.
I had a great time with this one. I liked that most of the humor was... smart. ("that's profiling and I'll have no part of it!") and seamlessly integrated *into* the action (like the phone-throwing and laser trap/rat scenes to name a few.)
I was totally drawn into the identity of the character, who was "too valuable to promote." and while I haven't had to deal with any sort of massive weight loss, I was uplifted by the positive message this movie tried to convey about it (without over doing it.)
I wouldn't really call this an action movie, but certainly it was a different comedy movie than I'm used to seeing, and I was rather refreshed by it.
the mole
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