GET SMART
US, 2008, 110 minutes, Colour.
Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Kerry Crews, David Koechner, James Caan, Bill Murray, Patrick Warburton, Masi Oka, Nate Torrence, David S. Lee.
Directed by Peter Siegel.
In the 1960s, the James Bond decade, with its multitude of imitations as well as spoofs, it was inevitable that there would be a television series that would send up the whole espionage game. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry rose to the occasion and created Get Smart in 1965, one of the very popular series of its time with 138 episodes (and revived in 1995 with 7 episodes). Don Adams was the goof-prone agent, Maxwell Smart, and Barbara Feldon was the attractive Agent 99.
Even though the Cold War is long over and the Soviet Empire has collapsed, audience appetite for spy films has not abated. James Bond was revived with Pierce Brosnan and has been re-reated with Daniel Craig. Matt Damon as Jason Bourne has shown that Robert Ludlum world conspiracies, so much a feature of the 1970s and 1980s, are still very popular. So, why not an update of the spoof?
Because Get Smart was humour-smart but not an exercise in Bond-sophistication, it was not, and is not, geared for the intelligentsia (unless they have a sense of humour). Mel Brooks is capable of the corniest of puns and jokes as well as getting to the funny core of a genre (just think The Producers, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Spaceballs). This is what the writers and director Peter Segal try to do here – and have made an agreeable update.
While there are plenty of throwaway jokes, spy situations sent up and some lively action sequences (including skydiving, chases and explosions – and a nuclear disaster set for the last note of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy in the Disney Theatre in Los Angeles), it is the performances that ensure that this all goes well.
Steve Carrell can do solemn comedy (The Forty Year Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine) as well as rubber-faced (Bruce Almighty). He plays it seriously straight here so that the comic results are more effective. Max is the research expert (listening in to the Russians (still!!) having cups of coffee and writing 800 page reports which actually do give the clues when action is required). When all agent identities have been compromised, Max gets the chance to go into action, botching plenty, getting away with accidental success but finally imprisoned as a double agent. Anne Hathaway turned glamorous in the Devil Wears Prada and continues glamorous and lethal doing her stuff in top fashion and high heels and gradually accepting Max (though their falling in love strains credulity).
Alan Arkin is, as always, very good as the Chief and Dwayne Johnson has good comic timing as the star agent in the department.
James Caan turns up as a Bushlike president (whom Arkin has to correct about his pronunciation of ‘nucular’ but the president doesn’t get it) and Terence Stamp entertains as the arch-villain who delivers the archest of lines with the archest of intonations.
Get Smart sets out to spoof espionage and that is what it does.
1.The popularity of the television series? Its echoing the movie themes of the 1960s? Mel Brooks and Buck Henry and the writing? Revived in the 1990s? The quality of spoof?
2.The film as an update of the series to the 21st century? Similarity of situations, enemies, the Cold War, espionage, eastern Europe?
3.The style of the humour: wisecracks, jokes, situations, farce and slapstick, parody? Bill Murray as the agent in the tree? The parody of President Bush?
4.The quality of the special effects, the constant stunt work, chases, explosions?
5.The organisation: CONTROL? The offices, Max and his entry, the phone booth, the lift, the doors opening, the atmosphere of the ordinary office, the range of agents, the sneering agents and their jokes, Agent 23 and his being agreeable? The Chief, his personality, his meetings, his admiration for Max, his patience? The two inventors, their work, their personalities, a comedy duo? Helping Max to escape? The fight against KAOS?
6.Max in himself, Steve Carrell and his performance, screen presence, taking it seriously yet being very funny? Comic timing? His working in research, his hopes to go into the field, his long reports and people’s reactions around the table, the situations, his wanting to go into the field and pass the exam, his getting his opportunity?
7.The background in Russia, the range of villains? The information about Kristic, Max and his listening in to the conversations and reporting them? Siegfried and his overall control? His assistant, Shtarker, the family relationships, Siegfried and his threats to kill people and wives? His crew, their plans, orders, the nuclear issues? Terence Stamp and his arch delivery of his humorous lines? His comeuppance – especially at the end?
8.Max and Agent 99, their first meeting, her unwillingness to work with him, his nice treatment of her, the episode on the plane, the chewing gum on the shoe, the terrorist scare and the repercussions? Her supporting him? The glamour, going to the social at Kristic’s house, the encounter with him, the dancing and the competitiveness, Max and his dancing with the large lady? Being caught, the confrontation, Kristic’s death?
9.Max, his being taken, thought of as a double agent, interned? His plea, the Chief and his reaction, the duo helping him to escape?
10.Agent 23, his style, comedy, catching the mechanical fly and destroying it, his support for Max, the discussions at meetings, the photocopier, the stapling of the agents? His perfect training? The surprise revelation that he was the double agent?
11.The build-up to the escape, the confrontations, the Chief and his discussions, going to Washington, the president – and the jokes about Bush and his manner? ‘Nucular’? Going to New York, the chase, the helicopter, the stunt work? 99 and Max confronting Agent 23?
12.Siegfried, going to the Disney hall, the discussions, Beethoven and his conducting the music, inserting the device, in the piano?
13.99 and the Chief, hurrying to the Disney hall? Max and the information about the piano – and waiting for the final note of Beethoven’s symphony?
14.The happy ending – and the pleasant spoof with the robot arriving? Romantic, comic, parody?
