The 2008 rehashing of the 1965 television show has 300% more action and 15% of the comedy. In other words, if you were looking for the silliness of the original show, you missed it by that much.
On the tv show, the 1960s cold war battle reigned between the super-secret spy agencies of CONTROL (good guys) and KAOS (bad guys). The film is set in modern day and CONTROL is alleged to have been disbanded, but of course, it hasn't. Maxwell Smart is a CONTROL analyst yearning to be a field agent and when KAOS learns the identities of the CONTROL agents, Smart is finally called up to go check on suspicious KAOS movements in Russia. Being a newbie, the Chief sends veteran Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) to go with him because, conveniently enough, 99's just had plastic surgery and KAOS will never recognize her.
Overall we have a bunch of people running around using the names from the original show and a few catchphrases but not much else. Steve Carrell's Maxwell Smart is actually really good at his job - and not just by accident. Of course he still is a bit klutzy like the original, but that's mainly used for gratuitous violence against him. The Rock makes a notable appearance as Agent 23, the super agent Max aspires to be like (more about him in the spoiler section). Meanwhile Anne Hathaway shows she can do some action movie moves, but her most impressive move is with her voice. About a half hour in, she slips on a bobbed wig (very reminiscent of an original 99 do) and slips into the voice of Barbara Feldon (the original 99). Whether it's intentional or not, It actually made me feel a bit more comfortable with this Get Smart alternate universe.
If they'd renamed the characters, agencies, and the movie itself this could have been a decent movie. But when it comes to the bar set by the original, this film does fancy tricks all around the bar but cannot quite reach it.
Rating: 2.5/5
Recommended for: People who've never seen the tv show.
Extended Review: A plot line taken from the first few episodes of the show is the ally who actually works for KAOS. For the film, it's Agent 23/The Rock. Between distracting us with just being awesome and the writers pushing him off screen for a large chunk of time, it is actually a surprise when he's revealed. The chase sequence that ensues is impressive, but perhaps too high-quality for this movie. It serves as another reminder that this movie could have been better if they called it something else.
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1 comment:
I understand the disagreement with this being a 'get smart' movie. I had a problem with that at first, but was able to just fall into the story. I think that it depends on how closely you loved the original series whether this will bother you or not.
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