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Here's my review of Get Smart, which I saw on Friday. Good flick; about what I'd hoped it would be. Definitely one of those "if you like the look of the trailers, you'll probably like the film" deals.
Get Smart
One would think that there wouldn't be a lot of comedy left in spoofing spy movies. From 1984's Top Secret! to Austin Powers to even Johnny English, we've seen lots of James Bond wannabes bumble their way through covert operations.
Enter Get Smart, based on the popular TV show that preceded all of the above. Steve Carrell replaces the late Don Adams as Maxwell Smart. Max is an analyst for CONTROL, a secret government organization. He harbors a transparent desire to become a field agent, and has taken the entry test eight years in a row. He scores brilliantly on it, but The Chief (Alan Arkin) says he's just too good at his current job to be promoted. That is, until an ambush reveals the identities of many of their field agents, leaving them with a dearth of staffing at the position.
But enough with the plot; what you really want to know is, is it funny? The only way I can answer that is to tell you whether or not I laughed: I did. I chuckled early on, guffawed now and then, and chortled most places in-between.
One of the things that keeps Get Smart from feeling stale is that Max isn't just a bumbling idiot in a competent man's job. He's actually pretty good at what he does. Most of his errors are slight, but have a way of snowballing on him. Whereas other spy satires have had characters Mr. Magoo their way through complicated situations with nothing but luck on their side, Max is usually the opposite. We laugh at his misfortune, rather than his obliviousness.
Having a working comedic formula in place, the only thing that could potentially derail things is an over-emphasis on plot developments, or any half-hearted attempts at excitement. For the most part, Get Smart avoids this. The missions are excuses for the comedy, and not the other way around. It drifts a little near the end while trying to manufacture a thrill or two, but it never makes the mistake of becoming a comedy-action hybrid. It keeps the focus on the funny, and is more enjoyable because of it.
Of course, comedies are often only as good as their casts. Many of the jokes are funny in and of themselves, but lots of them wouldn't have landed without the right lead. Carrell is the ideal choice to play this new take on Smart, who is constantly excited by what's happening around him, but is trying hard not to show it. Anne Hathaway's Agent 99 is the straight man (straight person?), providing the right mix of gravitas and exasperation. Dwayne Johnson plays top spy Agent 23, and Arkin plays The Chief as a man who tries to be serious, but keeps finding himself dragged into absurd situations by his subordinates.
The cast really shines in the smaller roles, though. Masi Oka and Nate Torrence are Smart's two-headed Q, and Terry Crews and David Koechner play a similarly inseparable duo. This is at least the fourth time Koechner has played a sleazy character in the last few years, two of which were downright lecherous. And at risk of giving a compliment that may actually be an insult, he does it effortlessly.
As in any comedy, a few jokes fall flat, though it's easy to see the humor even in the ones that don't make us laugh. It would be impossible for Get Smart to feel completely new given the degree to which James Bond and his derivatives has been satired over the years. But the film mostly works because it mixes physical humor, wit, and absurdity, and has plenty of gags which stand on their own.
One would think that there wouldn't be a lot of comedy left in spoofing spy movies. From 1984's Top Secret! to Austin Powers to even Johnny English, we've seen lots of James Bond wannabes bumble their way through covert operations.
Enter Get Smart, based on the popular TV show that preceded all of the above. Steve Carrell replaces the late Don Adams as Maxwell Smart. Max is an analyst for CONTROL, a secret government organization. He harbors a transparent desire to become a field agent, and has taken the entry test eight years in a row. He scores brilliantly on it, but The Chief (Alan Arkin) says he's just too good at his current job to be promoted. That is, until an ambush reveals the identities of many of their field agents, leaving them with a dearth of staffing at the position.
But enough with the plot; what you really want to know is, is it funny? The only way I can answer that is to tell you whether or not I laughed: I did. I chuckled early on, guffawed now and then, and chortled most places in-between.
One of the things that keeps Get Smart from feeling stale is that Max isn't just a bumbling idiot in a competent man's job. He's actually pretty good at what he does. Most of his errors are slight, but have a way of snowballing on him. Whereas other spy satires have had characters Mr. Magoo their way through complicated situations with nothing but luck on their side, Max is usually the opposite. We laugh at his misfortune, rather than his obliviousness.
Having a working comedic formula in place, the only thing that could potentially derail things is an over-emphasis on plot developments, or any half-hearted attempts at excitement. For the most part, Get Smart avoids this. The missions are excuses for the comedy, and not the other way around. It drifts a little near the end while trying to manufacture a thrill or two, but it never makes the mistake of becoming a comedy-action hybrid. It keeps the focus on the funny, and is more enjoyable because of it.
Of course, comedies are often only as good as their casts. Many of the jokes are funny in and of themselves, but lots of them wouldn't have landed without the right lead. Carrell is the ideal choice to play this new take on Smart, who is constantly excited by what's happening around him, but is trying hard not to show it. Anne Hathaway's Agent 99 is the straight man (straight person?), providing the right mix of gravitas and exasperation. Dwayne Johnson plays top spy Agent 23, and Arkin plays The Chief as a man who tries to be serious, but keeps finding himself dragged into absurd situations by his subordinates.
The cast really shines in the smaller roles, though. Masi Oka and Nate Torrence are Smart's two-headed Q, and Terry Crews and David Koechner play a similarly inseparable duo. This is at least the fourth time Koechner has played a sleazy character in the last few years, two of which were downright lecherous. And at risk of giving a compliment that may actually be an insult, he does it effortlessly.
As in any comedy, a few jokes fall flat, though it's easy to see the humor even in the ones that don't make us laugh. It would be impossible for Get Smart to feel completely new given the degree to which James Bond and his derivatives has been satired over the years. But the film mostly works because it mixes physical humor, wit, and absurdity, and has plenty of gags which stand on their own.
in the theatre, also I was laughing when others weren't 
great review Yods 
it is the movie of the TV show Get Smart it was a comedy show