We saw Get Smart this weekend. This is the film based on the 1960s cult classic TV comedy of the same name. I have to say that I agree with what a few reviewers said about it. I felt very much like the producers couldn’t make up their mind exactly what kind of movie they were making. It would shift back and forth from comedy to James Bond and then back again. The problem is that it wasn’t all that seamless. The movie would be funny and then get heavy in plot and push a lot of effects and so forth while being way too serious and then stop all that to go back to five minutes of joke lines.
The end result is a movie that was, at best, mildly entertaining. Much of it runs on too long and I have no interest in any sequel though I suspect we may get one.
The one major bright spot in the movie was Alan Arkin. He played The Chief wonderfully. This guy is great in most everything he does. Steve Carell did his typical decent job but he’s no Don Adams. The biggest thing I can say about him is that I spent a long part of the movie thinking he’s really balding and has a really bad comb-over that I hadn’t noticed before. Balding doesn’t work for him.
Anne Hathaway, as Agent 99, wasn’t bad. She just wasn’t able to give the character the same feels as Barbara Feldon did. Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23 did nothing for me, though I think his career is going in the right direction. The real disappointment was Terence Stamp. I love this guy and he was just way too serious for this role. He felt like a complete miss for me from the word go. I suspect the producers were even surprised he signed on and then couldn’t change their mind even if they wanted to.
In the end the movie was pretty forgettable. I’m already having trouble remembering most of it.
