Get Smart

Movie description
IThe spy spoof series gets the screen treatment with this action comedy starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. Agents 86 (Carell), 99 (Hathaway), and 23 (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) lead Control against the evil entity KAOS.

Credits
Producer: Alex Gartner, Andrew Lazar, Charles Roven
Cast: Alan Arkin, Anne Hathaway, David Koechner, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, James Caan, Ken Davitian, Masi Oka, Nate Torrence, Steve Carell, Terence Stamp, Terry Crews

Details
Edition: Bonus Disc

Editorial reviews
"[T]he film is breezily entertaining....Carell does a fine, goofy job."
USA Today - Claudia Puig (06/19/2008)

"[W]ith funny jokes, brand actors and enough special effects to give you some bang for your summertime buck....The most crucial of those recognizable faces in the GET SMART movie belongs to the comic actor Steve Carell, putting an amusing deadpan spin on the blundering CONTROL spy Maxwell Smart..."
New York Times - Manohla Dargis (06/20/2008)

"[D]irected by Peter Segal with a refreshing lack of look-how-meta-clever-we-are egotism, the movie references enough of the original touchstones to please those who lived it the first time." -- Grade: B+
Entertainment Weekly - Lisa Schwarzbaum (07/11/2008)

3 stars out of 5 -- "In many ways, Maxwell Smart is the role Carell was born to play. The 007 wannabe exudes the guileless quality of his 40 year-old virgin..."
Empire - Tony Horkins (09/01/2008)

Adams To Carell:Missed It By THAT Much...

Being a TV obsessed kid in the mid 70's, my afternoons were usually filled with syndicated shows of the decade before. One of those shows that caught my eye was Get Smart. Started in 1965, this was a spy comedy as USA's answer to James Bond but with a comedic flair. Don Adams played Maxwell "Agent 86" Smart, a bumbling yet charismatic spy working for the secret organization Control in the fight against Kaos, the Russian Cold War equivalent. Surrounded by a cast of equally interesting characters including his younger, more competent female partner Agent 99 and his always frustrated in Max's foolishness boss The Chief. Get Smart was a mix of old-school spy tricks and gadgets with good word-play humor.

Now flashing forward over forty-five years later, the Hollywood remake machine once again dips into it's pockets and pulls out yet another classic for, to put it kindly, modernization. But can a new team of actors bring back these spies to a world where the Cold War is a forgotten memory?

Just looking at the new cast, you can tell that visually director Peter "50 First Dates" Segal wanted to preserve and respect the original cast in that aspect, and does so very well. Just looking at Steve Carell's resemblance to Don Adams is uncanny, and with Anne Hathaway (who's career is a bit too big now for a role like this) as Agent 99 and Alan Arkin as The Chief, you'd be hard-pressed to think of any other actor in these roles today. But one thing noticable to fans of the old series to this film will be that even though they look like the originals, acting-wise they're nowhere near close. Carell's Smart is downright dead-panned completely ignoring the standards set by Adams. Once funny lines like "Would you believe..." and "Missed it by that much" out of Carell's mouth lack any humor or flair that Adams gave them week after week. Agent 99 now seems cold and calculated lacking any of the warmth Barbara Feldon originally gave her. And as for The Chief, well he now acts like, well, Alan Arkin, instead of depressingly frustrated with 86's antics, he's angry and hot-headed to the point of violence. Add in new cast members like over-acting Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Agent 23, Max's rival and mentor, and nerdy tech guys Bruce & Lloyd (who during the production of this film made a spin-off film of their very own), something is very missing in this remake. Simply put, this 2008 production is just too weak as a modern day spy film and not funny enough to be a successful comedic parody. It sort of lays flat, playing out as a reminder of how great and entertaining the original 60's show was. Sure, the Russian scenes are nice (be it I doubt they were really there on set), a couple of the gadgets have a tad of laughs, and the cameos by some famous faces are cool to see, overall this film should land in the "forgotten remake pile" with copies of I-Spy, and The Wild, Wild West.

The only special feature here is an option to see the film in an "Expanded 62% More Laughs" version with an introduction by Carell. With it, you can see different takes and versions of scenes that already are in the film. In the end, I can only suggest this to die-hard fans, as newbies to the franchise will find this too typical & not funny enough. And each true fan should realize that one of the movie's best accomplishments is that it was made after Don Adams' passing, so he couldn't call Carell on his shoe and say "Missed it by that much".
(RedSabbath Rating:6.0/10)

Get Smart

Comedian Steve Carell is back in this hilarious comedy as Maxwell Smart which hit theaters last Friday. Taking a look at the poster for Get Smart gives a great idea of the cheesey humor that you will see and experience throughout seeing Get Smart. Although I can't say much for the promotional techniques used for promoting Get Smart, the little effort that was done was highly successful to promote the film.

The storyline of Get Smart starts with Maxwell Smart working as a pencil pusher to some extent before he gets promoted to Agent 86 for CONTROL about 15-20 minutes into the film (this is not a spoiler if you know the concept of Get Smart or have seen the original series). Maxwell Smart (Carell) and Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) join forces as partners to take on KAOS (a company making nuclear weapons with plans of taking over the world).

Writers Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember did an excellent job writing the script for this film and keeping the film fresh and funny. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry both worked together on the characters to help bring them to life. Some old references to the original show were there to make any fan happy including the shoe phone, the original car from the show, the original Maxwell Smart suit from the show and of course Hymie, everyone's favorite robot.

The film brings in some comedic elements which will appeal to the whole audience both children and adults alike. For any fans of the show or newcomers just trying to check something out in theaters go check out Get Smart. Carell and Hathaway work great together onscreen and I can't wait to see them appear on screen with each other again. Coming supposely July 1st either to theaters or straight to dvd is a Get Smart spinoff of the movie starring Bruce and Llyod from the film, Smart's geeky companions and friends.

good movie

Before I watched this film, I read the reviews of the press and most of them weren't great. I am unfortunately one of those guys who will put himself off watching it because of those bad reviews. I'm gutted I did as this film was simply the personification of brilliance from start to finish. It's slick, stylish and downright comic excellence. Even for a film like this, the special effect and general action would put even James Bond to shame. It's exciting, quite emotional at times, cool at others and just downright silly at the times that are left.

Steve Carell plays Maxwell Smart, a secret agent who desperately wants to get on the field. The government agency he works for known only as CONTROL are infiltrated by an evil agency known as KAOS which compromises the identities of all the current field agents. So in order to battle this force and still stay a secret, the chief of CONTROL puts smart on the field and assigns him the title of agent 86 partnering him with the much more experienced Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). Max looks up to his close friend and one of the best agents on the field, Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson). He is the James Bond of CONTROL and it's no surprise that Max wants to be so much like him.

This is just a really light hearted and fast paced film. I guess it could just be labelled a comedy, but that would just ignore the other great aspects of the film. The action is done really well and isn't the tacky type comedy we have come to associate comedy movies when they feature action. Some of the sequences are genuinely unique and truly edge of your seat. The chemistry between Hathaway and Carell is great and one scene in particular expresses the comedic chemistry between the two. The laser room scene which is somewhat of a cliché for spy movies is superb in this.

Carell is the usual silly guy we have come to know and love, his ridiculous expressions and perfected comic timing are all present. It's also very pleasant to see the wonderful Anne Hathaway in a leading role where she isn't the damzel in distress, or the naive teenager. The Bill Murray cameo is also something quite special as agent 13, he's only there for a moment and has about three lines but it's always great to see Bill Murray on our screens. It also seems quite a wrestler fest as well, obviously with the inclusion of Dwayne Johnson as agent 23 but also WWEs The Great Khali as the cliché middle eastern, giant bad guy. Johnson doesn't take his character too seriously, which is something he always manages to shine in playing but manages to pull out the acting stops when he has to enter into the action man role.

An awesome movie all round and is definitely worth it just for the sky diving scene and the laser room.

Would You Believe ... A Great Movie?

This movie was such a hoot! I enjoyed it in the theater and I enjoyed it on DVD! A fun movie which fans of the original TV show from the late 60's will enjoy and I'm sure, even if you've never seen the original TV show, you will enjoy this movie because of the brilliant actors and their performances.

Steve Carell is amazing! While I was watching the alternate scenes from the Special Features on the DVD, I was reminded of Robin Williams and his comedic genius at improvisation. [I also enjoyed "Date Night" with Steve Carell but I've never seen "The Office" and I wonder if I should look into that as well now.]

I don't like to write a "spoiler" type of review, but I did want to mention a couple of specific things that were terrific nods to the original TV show starring Don Adams, as when Steve Carell donned Agent 86's suit and stole his car from the Smithsonian. Also there was a wonderful cameo appearance by Bernie Kopell who was "Conrad Siegfried" from KAOS in the original "Get Smart" TV series. Also a cameo appearance by Bill Murray as Agent 13 (Agent 13 is the surveillance agent who is always in a tree or a mail box or some uncomfortable, lonely place in the original TV show.)

The opening scene (entering Control HQ) of the movie paid it's respects to the opening of the original TV show as well - complete with the phone booth (the stuff of legend!)

Also, there was an hysterical scene that was a spoof on a similar scene from Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise (I think it was) - hint: it uses laser beams for security.

I recommend this movie if you want to laugh and you don't even have to be a fan of the original TV series to appreciate it's humor and enjoy it.