Got Smart?

Due to the economy's stranglehold on the everyman in this time of economic duress, Hopefully Entertained has been forced to cut back on operation costs. In time, the management will rebound and continue to bring you more timely reviews, but for now, please enjoy the dated, though still-topical articles. If you desire more timely dissection's of films, books and comics, I recommend e-mailing me and we can discuss donations. Oooh, won't that be fun.

Pandering aside, cash is strapped here, so I'll spend the next few weeks going over films, books and whatnot of past because on the internet it's not the when, it's the fact that you're talking at all.

First up is a film I caught just before moving the homebase of Hopefully Entertained: Get Smart. Fortunately or not, I actually grew up a bit on this show thanks to the efforts of cable staple Nick at Nite. Don Adams and Barbara Feldon were enjoyable presences in my household at tender ages, so I went in with just a hint more bar for the movie to pass muster. Granted, I also gave it a lien since I also remembered the failed relaunch that added Andy Dick to the cast, so it all probably evened out in the end.

Catching your eye first off is that this is no Cold War spoof/rehash. Moving with the times, the film updates everyone and everything in attitude, style and presentation. Gone is the tripping-over-my-shoes nasal amusement of Don Adams's Max Smart, and here is Steve Carrell who is competent until he overcompetents and does something just as bad as Adams's take on the character. Such an update really shows the tone of the movie, blending a fair degree of action and comedy that made me think it was more an action comedy than satirical send-up of olde.

While a manuever such as this may alienate some fans, I was comforted to a degree. Trying to retread gold has not been Hollywood's strong suit, so this approach of a real world spy organization that's just a bit goofy really worked for me. What really worked though were the subtle and not-so-subtle homages that cropped up throughout the film, delivered with style and panache by a slick script and clever leading cast.

Would you believe they snuck that old gag in? Would you believe they made an attempt? Would you believe I'd be doing this gag if I hadn't seen it a thousand times? Well, there you have it then.

If you're a fan of the old show, the new movie comes across as a young whippersnapper who saw Mom and Dad's spy show and wanted to do something similar while showing Mom and Dad that they really dug the original, and it works.

Steve Carrell is his own Max Smart that is charming in a bumbling way, but not in Don Adams's bumbling way. Anne Hathaway kicks ass just as efficiently and with the same wink that Barbara Feldon brought to Agent 99. The biggest treat though was Alan Arkin's grizzled I-can-still-fight war vet Chief over Ed Platt's half-in-the-field, I'm-too-old-for-this exasperation. His line to a smarmy, youthful security guard after slamming the youth with an impressive right hook- "What's that sonny? I'm an old man, you're gonna have to speak up!" had me rolling.

Such charms are good for the old crowd that still carries around a shoe phone in our cellular days, but does such homage hold up to kids who've never heard of this sixties malarky? I like to think so. The added jokes and parallels are just easter eggs for us old fogies, like when Stan Lee makes one of his many Marvel Movie walk-ons: they never really detract from the plot and it hurts no one to throw them in there.

Maybe this version of Get Smart is trying to spin too many plates at once with a wink to the old fans, promising arms open to new and still maintaining a story and characters throughout, but it never feels that way. I was laughing at most of the jokes and enjoying the ride as it played out quite cleverly- a notion that seems lost on the comedies of today with their blatant parody and over-the-top gross-out humor. Such goofiness has it's place, and this film has its share, but I've always enjoyed clever wordplay and satirical wit and that's still the strength of this side splitting film.

Would you believe it?