#1 With a Bullet : Get Smart

June 25, 2008 by Lord Jason  Send to a Friend

I just realized I had not written an intro into Jason’s column in a while so here is a rehash of an oldie but a goodie explanation of what this is all about: for over a year now, Jason Griffenhagen (of Death by Sexy , sharp dresser, and starlet) reviews (post-release) whatever movie was number 1 in the box office the previous weekend, and tells everyone why its fucking terrible. or good. If you go through the archives (or search “Nicolas Cage” on BYT) you will realize that he has suffered for his art. And all that just for you. So read. And comment.-ed.

This week: Get Smart
-Not only a good title, but also a great suggestion for America-

Life works in cycles. Not ON cycles, as that would be the domain of many a stink-pitted city bike messenger, but IN CYCLES. Before the recent past, there was the time-honored hollywood tradition of turning movies into awful TV shows. Just take the film Clueless for example. Actually, maybe that’s not a great example, because that show and movie were totally awesome, for sure. But there was the Planet of the Apes show, and the awesome show called Friday the 13th, which actually was about a thrift store that sold supernatural objects and had nothing to do with frisky teenagers being eviscerated by a psychotic wearing a hockey mask. Come to think of it, there was MASH, and of course one of my favorite shows of all time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Actually, completely disregard the whole first part of this paragraph. Sometimes the small screen versions of bigtime films DO work out better than the actual films.

But as Hollywood can’t seem to come up with anything totally original enough to make into a TV show out(although a sitcom based on There Will Be Blood would be awesome, it could be called “Who Drank My Milkshake?”), BIGSHOT Hollywood Producers have found that raiding the small screen for ideas often provides them with an excellent box office take.

Unfortunately, one only has to look at films like Charlie’s Angels or Sgt. Bilko to realize that these things can go drastically wrong. God forbid someone should buy the big screen rights to Deal or No Deal, because I’ve had about all I can take of Howie “Mr. Clean is a good look for me” Mandel. But once in a great while, a film like Get Smart comes along, and actually justifies looting TV for ideas.

Get Smart is based on Mel Brooks’ classic James Bond spoofing TV show, and is one of the few recent big budget action comedies I can remember that actually gets everything right. This is no Rush Hour 3 of a film, the jokes are spot-on, and the action sequences are exciting.

Steve Carrell stars as Maxwell Smart, a secret agent who walks the fine line between being as smooth as James Bond and as bumbling as Frank Drebin. Smart works for the top-top secret government intelligence agency CONTROL, a group with a CIA inferiority complex so strong that high level cabinet meetings involving both agencies often result in fisticuffs. Smart is reluctantly partnered with Agent 99, played with leggy moxie by the gorgeous Ann Hathaway, and tasked to go undercover and infiltrate the evil CHAOS organization. What ensues is easily the most hilarious action movie ever committed to film. At least one that’s purposefully hilarious. Under Siege 2 is pretty fucking funny, but I don’t think that Steven Segal thought he was making goddam Animal House.

Carrell maximizes his comic expertise and navigates the fast moving script with ease, and, my oh my, what a script! The dialogue is hilarious, the physical comedy is equally as funny and the jokes come so fast and non-stop that even the few gags that fall short are quickly followed up by ones that do work. Alan Arkin is at his goofy best as the director of CONTROL, and The Rock also is eyebrow-raisingly good in his role as an uber-macho superagent. The frequent cameos by a whose who of comic and non-comic actors also never fail to amuse. Look for Bill Murray as an agent stuck in a tree and James Caan, in a not-so-subtle send up of Georgie W., as the President who can’t pronounce the word nuclear correctly.

Get Smart is the best Mel Brooks movie Mel Brooks never wrote or directed, and coming from a guy who lists Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein as two of the top comedy films of all time, you should know I don’t throw that phrase around lightly.

Of course, maybe I just thought the movie was butt-slappingly funny because of all those mojitos I was drinking at TGIFridays before seeing the film. But everyone knows they don’t put any alcohol in those anyways, so it must have been the sniffing airplane glue in the parking lot. Yeah, that had to be it.

My reaction: awesome (4 out of 5)

Next week: Will the Summer of Actually Decent Movies continue? Next week is all about PIXAR, so I’m hoping WALL-E doesn’t disappoint. Til then, would you believe I’m going to eat plantain sandwiches? Indubitably. Stay away from mall food, folks.

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