Get Smart

Get Smart (Rated PG-13)

Running time: 1 hr 50 mins

Cast:

Steve Carell
Anne Hathaway
Dwayne Johnson
Alan Arkin

Critical consensus (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/):

**1/2 out of *****

My consensus:

**** out of *****

The premise: Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 for CONTROL, battles the forces of KAOS with the more-competent Agent 99 at his side.

My review: I have never seen the original television program to which this movie is based off of. I have however seen the types of movies (James Bond namely) to which the show, and the movie are meant to be mocking. Well, a light mocking actually, not full on spoof by any means. So going into this movie I have no bias towards it seeing as how I have never seen an episode. It's like going into a movie based off a popular book. If you've read the book you have some bias about the movie. If you haven't read the book, then you are just seeing a standalone film. So that is how I shall review the movie.

Now with that in mind, I very much enjoyed this action-comedy. The action-comedy I feel is a rare thing these days. At least good ones. Ones that tell a "serious" action type story, but blend humor throughout (i.e. Rush Hour). I have never been a real fan of the James Bond films, at least the ones I've seen, and since we don't have a Bond film this summer, Get Smart is our fill of spy-action summer film. I prefer the latter. Get Smart is by no means, a smart comedy. It goes for all the slapstick jokes, and the witty little humor mixed in with the action scenes. But the film itself is never a joke. The characters are aware when someone is being an idiot or doing something dumb, and not just ignoring someones catastrophic mistakes and brushing it off as something...funny. The story was standard action-comedy that we've all grown to love, nothing original here. But that's not the overall point of the movie.

I wasn't expecting this movie to look the way it did. For an action comedy, it really did take time to focus on a lot of the action and visual effects and stunts and not make them secondary to the comedy. I'm not going to lie, the fight scenes, the chase scenes, and the scenes where things blew up truly looked like a legitamate action movie. I was very impressed by that. While there were the jokes placed delicately throughout each intense moment, the scene still did remain serious and the characters were actually in peril. The special effects were great.

With the cast, I couldn't have asked for any better. Starting with the lessers, I liked Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock. He was very standable when he's playing an almost regular human being and non-scorpion king. He was funny, which was surprising to me. Oscar winner Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) was really good here, and delivered one of the films funniest lines. Anne Hathaway I think has established herself as an above average actress, especially with a film like The Devil Wears Prada. She may not have been the core funny lady in this one, but she proved she's capable, and I liked her. Steve Carell (40 Year-Old Virgin, The Office) was perfect here. It was a little bizzare though. I was expecting him to be a little like his Michael Scott persona, but he wasn't. Maxwell Smart is not an idiot, he's actually quite an intelligent human being. He actually is good at his job. But he is a little slow at grasping onto some situations, making him slightly careless and clueless but still damn good fun! He was hilarious, I don't care what anyone says, I really enjoyed him in this movie. Not as much as Michael Scott...but still really good.

The film is getting slightly mixed reviews, which I can totally understand. Even my movie review partner in crime Matt (the Siskel to my Ebert; http://theprezzies.blogspot.com/), didn't truly love this movie like I did. I swear, we should do our own "two thumbs up" blog. But my point is, I think people who have familiarity with the TV show may have a different opinion on the film. Which is totally cool. So you have my perspective from a non-watcher of the show, and now you should read Matt's review to get the other sides opinion. So now no matter what kind of Get Smart fan you are...you have our opinions!