On Get Smart

I saw the 2008 remake of Get Smart on DVD over the weekend. A few thoughts.

First, very well done! The film amply fulfills its modest ambitions. Its blend of action and comedy is comparable to the Bond films during the Brosnan era, especially in its nudge-wink over-the-top action sequences. In fact, Steve Carrell's version of Maxwell Smart is not unlike a typical James Bond, but without the edginess. I never watched the old television series, but my impression is that Don Adams played him as a nitwit. Carrell's Smart, in contrast, is a savant: a brilliant intelligence analyst who trains for years to make "agent". Finally paired with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) on his first assignment, Smart finds himself in possession of abundant competence in narrow technical areas (including, as it happens, gunfighting) but making various screw-ups due to inexperience. However, Smart has deadpan courage and dedication to the mission.

Carrell is a full 20 years older than Hathaway. Normally this kind of male/female age mismatch goes unremarked in the movies, especially since Carrell appears in excellent physical shape for his age. But this movie makes a point of telling the audience that Agent 99 is a lot older than she looks. Which leads to a comedy moment as Smart tries to convince her, in the context of their husband/wife cover story, that her "eggs will dry up and fall out" if she doesn't have children soon. I mean, wow: how often does a movie put that out there, even as a joke!

Come to think of it, the movie might be the most conservative film last year. Its handling of the intelligence/covert ops community is played with zero ambiguity. Bumblers they may sometimes be, but there is no question that CONTROL are the good guys defending America against KAOS' foreign bad guys. The president and vice president are loosely played as a good-ole-boy George Bush and a machiavellian Dick Cheney, but they come off here better than in any other movie I can think of.

Bottom line: a fun way to spend 110 minutes.

Addendum: I also saw the movie Pineapple Express, which, sadly, isn't even good enough to merit a full review. Seth Rogan and James Franco make of the material what they can, but . . . what was that movie about anyway? That illegal drugs make you stoopid? That's pretty much the story.