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need to get smart...er
29 Jun 2008 11:47 pmI haven't seen the original TV show, but I can see where the scathing SMH review was coming from. Get Smart movie humour was of the adolescent brand, slapstick and cheeky irony that never really involve a single neuron firing.
It's a cute movie, for sure. Steve Carrell does a great job of goofiness and makes the bumbling (and rather dull, in many senses of the word) Max Smart likeable. Anne Hathaway, much as I did not like her in Princess Diaries was great as Agent 99, exuding just the right amount of sexiness and capability. Funnily enough, in spite of the age difference between the two actors, their onscreen chemistry held up nicely.
But it didn't seem as funny a movie as it could have - or should have perhaps - been. It seems uncomfortably uncertain of what it's trying to be. Half the time it wants to be taken seriously in order so that the tension would seem real and threatening, but at the same time it's not sure whether to go the full length because every now and then it reminds itself that it's meant to be satire and comical. Sometimes its gags descend into awkward lameness after an unnecessary buildup of tension.
As a result it sits uncomfortably on the brink of being an action film and a comical film, without competently being either. The plot feels lax and is never resolved satisfactorily, a rather perilous strand of story to string a jittery sequence of events together. The gags take a while coming, and when they do appear, it's merely ticking off what was seen in the extended trailer.
It's a sad movie, it is, when all the gags were in the trailer ~~;
It's not a bad movie, but perhaps not as good as it could have been - or needed to have been, for fans of the original.
It's a cute movie, for sure. Steve Carrell does a great job of goofiness and makes the bumbling (and rather dull, in many senses of the word) Max Smart likeable. Anne Hathaway, much as I did not like her in Princess Diaries was great as Agent 99, exuding just the right amount of sexiness and capability. Funnily enough, in spite of the age difference between the two actors, their onscreen chemistry held up nicely.
But it didn't seem as funny a movie as it could have - or should have perhaps - been. It seems uncomfortably uncertain of what it's trying to be. Half the time it wants to be taken seriously in order so that the tension would seem real and threatening, but at the same time it's not sure whether to go the full length because every now and then it reminds itself that it's meant to be satire and comical. Sometimes its gags descend into awkward lameness after an unnecessary buildup of tension.
As a result it sits uncomfortably on the brink of being an action film and a comical film, without competently being either. The plot feels lax and is never resolved satisfactorily, a rather perilous strand of story to string a jittery sequence of events together. The gags take a while coming, and when they do appear, it's merely ticking off what was seen in the extended trailer.
It's a sad movie, it is, when all the gags were in the trailer ~~;
It's not a bad movie, but perhaps not as good as it could have been - or needed to have been, for fans of the original.
