Sunday, December 28, 2008

Movie #32: Get Smart

Steve Carell is one of those comic actors who, for me, walks a very fine line between hilarious and irritating. His shtick is heavy on physical humor and funny sounds, not unlike a Jim Carrey. But, unlike Carrey, Carell has thus far in his career managed to mostly dance on the funny side of that thin line...usually because he has both better material to work with, and because he seems to sense when too much is too much. In Get Smart, while he sometimes peers over the line and threatens to venture into Ace Ventura territory, Carell makes the most of a standard-fare script and produces enough laughs to make it enjoyable.

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise in Get Smart is the decision to not make Maxwell Smart an incompetent narcissist. Sure, there's a few (hilarious) scenes where Smart makes stupid mistakes, but this isn't Ernest Goes To Secret Agent Camp, and it's a lot better the movie for it. Carell also manages to infuse the role of Smart with genuine vulnerability, something which makes it hard to not like him. While I was a "fan" of the original television show, I'd be the first to admit that the Don Adams's version of Smart was not nearly as sympathetic or likable as Carell's.

The film bogs down in an action-heavy final act which is neither funny enough nor exciting enough, but there's enough worthy moments preceding it to recommend it.

Grade: 6/10

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you are going to use our picture, I would at least say where you got the image from, especially since you are taking it directly from us and now uploading it to your own server. Thanks

G Style Magazine
http://www.gstylemag.com

February 2, 2009 at 12:35 PM  
Blogger Kraig Smith said...

Actually, no---it's not on my server. The image is a direct link to YOUR web site, not mine. Also, I'm pretty sure this is just a production still that you don't even own. Plus I'm not a commercial blog.

February 2, 2009 at 12:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No you are linking the image from off our server on our website, therefore you are stealing our bandwidth by using the image on your site. At the very least, you can say that the image came from us and then put a link to our site.

April 23, 2009 at 11:34 PM  
Blogger Kraig Smith said...

Image removed.

Lame.

April 24, 2009 at 12:04 AM  

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