We saw Get Smart last night and I thought it was great. Sometimes old t.v. gets made into good movies, and other times, well… not so much. I hope, for instance, that the Incredible Hulk is a big improvement over the Hulk movie made a few years ago. They got a new actor, a new director, and tried to rethink the concept. Everything I’ve heard has been good. When the Brady Bunch updated in the 90’s, they left the family stuck in the 70’s and brought the setting up to modern day. It was funny, but in the original series the Brady family was perfectly normal; chronologically speaking anyway. I think they did a good job with Get Smart.
Steve Correll is hilarious. He makes deadpan funny, and not just everyone can do that. (If you haven’t seen Evan Almighty, give it a chance. I didn’t think I would like it either, but it’s great.) I didn’t care much for Matthew Broderick as Inspector Gadget, but Correll nailed Maxwell Smart to a T. Don Adams would be proud. Anne Hathaway plays agent 99, and if you don’t know who she is, go educate yourself. She was in the Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Proda. If anything, Correll’s Smart is a little too smart. He really knows his stuff in this movie, and has just been moved up to field agent. At the beginning of the film, he’s an annalist. With no field experience though, he is bumbling, and hilarity ensues.
There are a couple of send-ups to the original series, notably the Control museum tour at the beginning. I don’t want to spoil it, but watch for the shoe phone to make an appearance. The movie does deliver some action toward the end, so it’s not just nerd jokes and 3’s Company style sitcom humor. The movie is mostly clean, perfectly cast, and plays out very well. This might be one I buy on DVD. I wouldn’t mind a sequel in a year or two, either.
