Random thoughts on most things from A. M. Craig.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Review: Get Smart

I think I can sum this one up for you in four words.

Don't waste your time.

I had wanted to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (how have I not seen that one yet?) but it's been long enough for that to be rare in theaters. So we saw Get Smart.

It started out well enough. Steve Carrell plays Maxwell Smart, though only barely. He really just seems a deadpan Michael Scott. I can hardly criticize him for that, everybody loves the Michael Scott act. But he's no Don Adams, and makes no attempt to be.

Anne Hathaway is Agent 99. Again, she does a fine enough job, I guess. Nothing special.

I watched Get Smart and wondered, who are they trying to sell this to? It's too vulgar, violent, and laden with sexual inuendo to be a family film/kids' film. It's too juvenile to play to a fully grown-up audience. Are they trying to reach people who are nostalgic about he original series? If so, their source material is the only way they've reached out to that demographic, everything else is muddled. The plot was pitifully predictable. Every character was a characature, to the point of ethnic stereotype, but wasn't slapstick enough to be a clear parody or lampoon on decades past spy stories. It just came off as insulting and offensive.

In the end, I concluded the group they must be trying to reach is dumb adults, who only need a pretty girl, a dumb guy, and minimal action to keep them entertained/sedated for 110 minutes.

If you really liked Get Smart, I'm sorry, this isn't meant personally.

The final straw was this: there wasn't one ounce of creativity expended in the creation of this film. Every move, every scene, every line, everything in Get Smart, is a pale imitation of every other action spy story.

There were some funny lines, don't get me wrong. They had a great cast and some great cameos. But in the end, you'll need more than starpower and an aged pre-canned script if you plan on making anything worth seeing.

And can somebody clue me in to their advertising campaign? What's with the obscured faces? I don't get it.

4 comments:

pam said...

Too bad, I liked the original series so many years ago, and I like Anne Hathaway, but I am never too disapointed when I don't see a movie.

D Smith said...

I know nothing of the story, but I would guess the ad campaign is in reference to the characters involved. Anne Hathaways character is to concerned with own beauty to realize she's occluding Maxwells face, and Steve Carel's character is too dense to realize the same.

David said...

amen. of course, i was in the theater with you, so i already knew what this review would look like. in fact some would say that i actually wrote half of this review. except for the thinking of the words or taking the time to write them down or any of the work involved.

Jasie said...

way to sum up a dumb movie. wish i hadn't wasted my time...