Eric D. Snider
Get Smart
Movie Review
"Get Smart"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: B+
Rating: PG-13
Released: Friday, June 20, 2008
Directed by:
Cast:
The slick new version of the dusty 1960s television comedy "Get Smart" is one of the better TV adaptations to come along in recent years. It's faithful to the original without being overly reverential, it modernizes the premise without mocking it, and you can fully enjoy it even if you've never seen the TV series. Oh, and best of all -- it's funny.
Steve Carell deserves much of the credit for that, easily rebounding from the dubious "Evan Almighty" (which I thought was OK, thanks to him) and reminding us of the 40-year-old virgin we fell in love with. Carell is a master with awkward, inept characters (as he demonstrates week after week on "The Office"), and Maxwell Smart proves to be a perfect fit for his skills. Or maybe he's just so good that he can make ANY character seem like it was tailor-made for him.
[To read the rest of the review, please visit Cinematical.]
Grade: B+
Rated PG-13, a little mild profanity, a lot of comic violence
1 hr., 50 min.
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This item has 8 comments
June 20, 2008 at 12:36 am
I'm so glad you liked this! I was scared that it would be bad. :) Yay Steve Carell!
June 21, 2008 at 12:53 am
Mr. D and I went and saw this movie today and we both agree with your review entirely, Eric. This movie made me laugh SO much... I think I'll actually even buy it when it comes out on video.
This is why we like you the best Eric! If we read any other critic, we wouldn't have gone to see this movie. :P
June 23, 2008 at 8:45 pm
While I found the movie to be amusing and entertaining, I was VERY surprised that Eric was so generous with his B+ grade - that seems out of character for Eric to be so easily 'sucked in' to this movie. I expected much more from this after seeing the B+ grade. Disappointing.
June 23, 2008 at 8:48 pm
It's out of character for Eric to disagree with you?
July 3, 2008 at 11:26 am
Great review Eric. I didn't like the movie as much as you did, but it was still better than what most of the critics have said about it. I agree about the forced romance and a little too much action, but it was pretty funny. You bring up genius points about Max being kind of flawed but still pretty awesome at the same time. I do wish they had a little less crazy action and a little more comedy, since most of it was kind of "smart".
July 11, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Hilarious movie! I just saw this last night, it was very much worth it.
The thing that kept striking me as amazing is they never lost the plot. It kept seeming to teeter on the edge, but they kept the seriousness of the plot throughout.
I have never seen the old TV show (too young), but this movie was very enjoyable in itself. (It's odd for me, because usually I've seen the old versions of all the "remakes" that they do these days.) Some fans don't agree, but for me the BEST part of this movie was that the story was actually coherent.
Like I said, I kept expecting a descent into the nonsensical (like making Carell a bumbling buffoon who still gets the bad guys), but was pleasantly surprised when the script continued to take itself seriously.
And of course, it was funny as hell at the same time. A lot of "funny" movies never make me laugh out loud (pretty much any "crude humor" movies like White Chicks, Dodgeball, Date Movie, etc etc etc...), but Get Smart was not one of those movies, it was funny by being funny, not by making poop jokes.
Anne Hathaway was also an unexpected high point of the movie. I loved her in Get Smart, makes me want to go watch something else she was in (which I'm looking into today)
July 15, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I used to watch Get Smart on Nick at Nite when I was a kid, and I was really happy to see that they made this movie just as silly and funny as the tv show. And the guy who played Siegfried in the show had a cameo, too!
July 29, 2008 at 3:43 am
It's a good flick, but it's not "Get Smart". At least to me, it's nothing like the series. Which isn't a bad thing, the movie is good all on it's own. But people who expect something similar to the series will be disappointed. It should have gone by another name and stood on its own merits.