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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Sunday, June 22, 2008
Movie Reviews: GET SMART
IN THEATERS





GET SMART




When the headquarters of U.S. spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief (Alan Arkin) has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell), who has always dreamt of working in the field alongside stalwart superstar Agent 23 (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). Smart is partnered instead with the only other agent whose identity has not been compromised: the lovely-but-lethal veteran Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). As Smart and 99 get closer to unraveling KAOS' master plan—and each other—they discover that key KAOS operative Siegfried (Terence Stamp) and his sidekick Shtarker (Kenneth Davitian) are scheming to cash in with their network of terror. Given little field experience and even less time, Smart—armed with nothing but a few spy-tech gadgets and his unbridled enthusiasm—must defeat KAOS if he is to save the day.




Cast: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Ken Davitian




Director: Peter Segal




Genres: Action Comedy, Parody/Spoof, Comedy, Spy Comedy




Opened June 20, 2008 | Runtime:1 hr. 50 min.




Rated PG-13 for some rude humor, action violence and language




Review:




I'm a huge Steve Carell fan but after last years abysmal Evan Almighty I was more than a little worried about Get Smart. Being a remake of an old 70's show sure didn't help, just see Starsky and Hutch to see how bad things can go. Thankfully I was more than pleasantly surprised to watch this wonderfully madcap spy spoof. The cast is top notch as they all play it straight while delivering incredibly witty dialogue. Carell was born to play Smart and he gives his character a perfect blend goofiness and suaveness needed. While the easy choice would be make Smart a total incompetent buffoon, having him be goofy but still capable at the same time was a great move. Anne Hathaway is just radiant and has some great comic timing which was something I wasn't quite expecting. Dwayne Johnson has a small role but he's cool as they come and seems to relish his spy role. Alan Arkin as the chief is great and has a scene that harkens back to Dr. Strangelove. I'm not a big fan of Peter Segal's previous work, mainly because they has a talent for creating generic films, but here he keeps the film moving at a great pace. Segal has some great action set pieces that are both thrilling and inventive, the mid air fight is great fun. Only drawback to the film is that the movie feels overly long, it's nearly 2 hours long, and it could have probably been trimmed done a tad. Still there's plenty to enjoy about this comedy and it's a great blend of action and comedy that'll keep you grinning throughout.




B+

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