Get Smarter (Get Smart (DVD))

Member Name: JayHall1991

Product:	Get Smart (DVD)
Date:	08/09/08 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some Funny/Exciting Moments

Disadvantages: Irritatingly Dull

Maxwell Smart has spent his whole life watching his friends becoming secret agents - every year taking the entry test and every year being forced to work as an analyst for the United States government. However, when a national threat emerges and Agents are being assassinated, he is the last option to ensure the safety of the nation. Armed with the secret services full resources and the help of the sexy Agent 99, a spy with a shady past, he has to unravel the mysteries that are threatening the lives of his friends. But can he trust all those around him?

Get Smart is a relatively witty and stylish action/comedy which benefits from some strong performances and a few nice action set-pieces - but fails to entertain due to very slow stretches and some completely irrelevant sequences. It never really toes the line between funny and thrilling, succeeding in being neither, and despite a fairly solid script it feel stale and routine - offering very little in the way of originality or true entertainment. It feels completely unsure of itself, despite some a good premise and seems happy to trade off old nostalgia, never bringing the franchise into the twentieth century and never improving on its, rather plodding, pace. Every scene has potential but they are never given enough energy or fun to work and the central romance is completely ridiculous and more than a little off-putting. It such a shame, because it could have been a hilarious spy flick, but nothing seems to gel properly and for all its great casting and witty one liners it remains dreadfully dull stuff.

The main problem, and the most unforgivable, with Get Smart is the sheer boredom it inspires; it feels about ten hours long and the pace gets more and more stagnant as the film comes to its, rather predictable, close. By the half way point I found myself getting less and less interested in the character's, increasingly dull, escapades and more and more interested in leaving. It isn't that the film lacks content - there are explosions and fight scenes aplenty- it's just that none of them are particularly gripping and they are not handled with enough pace or style. The film stops and starts constantly, never finding its groove, and it sheer lack of edge (comedic or otherwise) keeps it from being all-that interesting to a passing fan of the franchise. For some reasons all of Get Smart's good points, of which there are a fair few, don't seem to add up to a whole lot....even the film's flashes of brilliance (Steve Carell has some genuinely funny moments) don't make much of an impact in amongst the sheer monotony of it ll. Perhaps if it had been cut down by a good half an hour it would have been a bit zippier, but as it limps along, it really does grow more and more tiresome.

Get Smart's cinematography is also weirdly unsuitably; swinging from high budget Hollywood gloss to shaky hand-held visuals in the blink of an eye - making for an, at times, disorientating experience. Other than the bizarre camera work Get Smart is a very stylish affair, with great set-pieces, impressive stunts and nice costume design. One sequence in an elaborate dance hall is particularly visually exciting and adds a lot of sparkle to the proceedings. All of the stunts are of good quality - with a lot of intense explosions and realistic fight scenes which are well choreographed and at least mildly exciting. Despite the fact that both leads are fairly unbelievable as action movie stars, the fighting is very well done and, surprisingly, well timed and tense with some fun ambushes that let the film's blood get pumping at least a little. The inner-workings of the secret agency are impressively and imaginatively rendered and there are some fun old-Hollywood stylistic flourishes which make the film look very appealing. All the special effects are beautifully created and the whole film looks polished and clean.

Steve Carell is appealing and witty as Maxwell Smart; anchoring the film ably with warmth and humour - but he does little to make the film any more entertaining despite instilling some energy and panache into the proceedings. He is better at the screenplay comedic elements than its action (he is not a particularly convincing secret agent) as he has a kind of loose limbed physicality which is quite funny. He is very relatable which makes some of the action more engaging - but he has zero chemistry with his female lead, making their characters sexual tension very redundant and irritating. He fleshes out his one dimensional character with some nuances but he can't stop the films anaemic pace. Anne Hathaway does a fair job as Agent 99 - strong, sassy and confident with a certain flair that makes the characters unappealing attitude just about bearable. She has some fun with the script and she is more convincing in the action sequences, but she still looks a little tired of it all.

Get Smart's screenplay really doesn't know what it wants to be; by trying to appeal to everyone it gets confused and dilutes the films comedic edge (which is it's most obviously appealing) in place of action sequences that never really pull off. It spends no time trying to instil a worth-while pace and what character development it does craft is haphazard and shallow. What should be a rip-roaring laugh-a-thon is actually quite dull as the script is firmly aimed at the teen/pre-teen crowd without any of the fun antics which would keeps them entertained. If only Tom J Aspel had tried to instil some semblance of fun, of energy, or tried to insight a few good belly laughs then the whole film could have been really entertaining. There are a few nice nods to the original show, which will appeal to long-time fans, but there is very little here to inspire anyone to go and check out the programme. Despite Anne Hathaway's somewhat convincing fighting prowess she is written as kind of pathetic and there is never a sense that the characters can actually do the things that we see.

Overall, Get Smart is a pretty irritating Hollywood blockbuster due to an awkward screenplay and a punishingly slow pace with some irritating and obvious plot twists. Overlong and silly, despite good performances and some graphics, with a really idiotic central romance that lack either chemistry or interest and an ending which is thoroughly anti-climactic. It isn't dreadful, or the worst summer blockbuster of the year, but it does commit the action genres biggest sin; it is painfully, depressingly, irritatingly dull.

Summary: Dull and silly big screen adaption