I've been a fan of Get Smart ever since I was a kid watching reruns on New York's WPIX Channel 11. It was a funny show then and still remains a funny show now (one of the few classics I watched as a kid that I still laugh at time and time again -- unlike Gilligan's Island or The Brady Bunch which I also watched as a kid).
The premise was a James Bond spoof about a bumbling American spy who worked for a secret organization known as CONTROL. Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 (Don Addams), would stumble in and out of situations and inevitably save the day by accident. Most times he was helped by Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) while he exasperated his Chief (Edward Platt) in his fights against the forces of KAOS. The best episodes were the ones that featured Siegfried (Bernie Kopell) as the KAOS frontman (he always had a superior we never saw). The show aired for five seasons (four on NBC and one on CBS).
The original series is currently available on DVD only from Time Life and only as a full series set with oodles of extras. This is the right way for any TV series to appear on DVD -- full series first and then break it up into seasons because the other way is just becoming obnoxious at this point. The first season will be available in retail stores at the end of August.
The original series gave way to a few revival attempts and remakes. The Nude Bomb in 1980 featured Don Addams as Maxwell Smart and Robert Karvelas as the even more bumbling Larrabee, but little else from the original series remained. While Max had to fight the forces of KAOS again, he was now doing it working for an organization known as PITS. The film was just released on DVD in widescreen and this was probably the first time I had seen it in over a decade. While funnier than I remembered it being, it was still an odd and pale shadow of the TV series.
In 1989, a TV Movie aired on ABC entitled Get Smart Again. This time everyone from the original show was reunited (except for Edward Platt who had died in the 1970s) and the laughs came as fast and as furious as they had during the 1960s TV series. This movie is available on DVD in bargain bins if you can find a copy.
The success of this TV movie led to another attempt at a relaunch, this time on FOX (making Get Smart the first and only show to have aired on every major network at some point). While both Don Addams and Barbara Feldon returned as Max and 99, the show's focus was mostly on their son bumbling Zack (Andy Dick -- before he was really Andy Dick) and his much smarter partner Agent 66 (Elaine Hendrix). The show was lacking the spark of the original and only seven episodes were made. The show is now available on DVD (mostly to piggy back on the new big screen remake) and there's only one episode that even comes close to the original series in quality: the sixth episode features a return by Bernie Kopell as Siegfried and gives Don Addams more screen time as the two old "enemies" continue their battle from years ago. Its a fleeting glimpse at what the original series was and shows what the new series could have been.
Which brings us to the big screen remake starring Steve Carrell. Honestly, I was unsure of what they could do with this series to make it fresh for the movies. The Addams Family kept it fresh by staying close to the original material. The Brady Bunch kept it fresh by staying close to the original look and feel and modernizing everything around the family. So how does one take a 1960s spy spoof and modernize it and make it relevant to today's audiences while staying true to the material? Exactly how these guys have done it.
Max (Carrell) still works for CONTROL, but now he's an analyst who dreams of becoming a field agent. The Chief (Alan Arkin) wants Max to remain an analyst because he's the best there is, but when CONTROL is infiltrated by a KAOS spy and the covers of all their secret agents become compromised, Max is teamed with 99 (Anne Hathaway) to get to the bottom of KAOS ultimate goal.
Almost every major character from the original series gets remade and updated in the right way. We get appearances by Larrabee (David Koechner -- now more of a stupid bully towards Max, but it works), Agent 13 (Bill Murray in a pointless cameo), Hymie the Robot (Patrick Warburton in the most perfect bit of casting who doesn't get nearly enough screen time), Siegfried (Terrence Stamp in the biggest mistsep in this film as this Siegfried would be more at home fighting Jason Bourne or Jack Ryan -- Stamp is so out of place as Siegfried he seems like a villain from a more serious film and its made all the more apparent once Bernie Kopell puts in a cameo) and Shtarker (Ken Davitian). The weapons inventor from the original series, Professor Carlton, has been replaced by Bruce and Lloyd (Masi Oka and Nate Torrence) with great effect.
The film moves at a brisk pace and the humor comes more from the characters and situations as opposed to being slapstick for slapstick's stake. There's stuff that will feel familiar from plenty of more recent films like The Bourne Identity or Patriot Games, we even go back as far as 1979's Bond film Moonraker for a sky diving scene (that's almost an exact remake of the one from that Bond film), but it never feels old, or tired or spoofy. The script treats the main characters with respect and as far as big screen remakes of small screen shows go, this isn't quite as good as The Addams Family or The Brady Bunch but its pretty damn close (and a far cry from Car 54 Where Are You or My Favorite Martian).
This is definitely a comedy worth seeing.
Now, while we saw this film on opening day, it has taken me a few weeks to get around to my review because I wanted to also see the direct to DVD film, Get Smart's Bruce & Lloyd Out of CONTROL, being release in conjunction, but after, Get Smart. If the new Get Smart were Hamlet then this film is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Here we see Bruce and Lloyd (still played by Masi Oka and Nate Torrence) as they try and recover some stolen technology during the events of the plot of Get Smart (of course, the two plots have nothing to do with one another, but there are scenes and characters that do dovetail in and out). We get scenes with Hymie (who gets more screen time here than he does in the main film), Agent 91 (Terry Crewes who is pretty much Larrabee's partner in crime in the main film) and Larry Miller (who plays a CIA operative in the main film, but here he's also playing that character's twin brother who is called Under Chief since he's one step below Alan Arkin's character in the chain of command). There's also a funny cameo by Anne Hathaway as 99.
The film works well enough. Its not as funny or as well made as Get Smart, but its still fun (kind of in a "we're hanging around after work to have fun" kind of way). It's got some very funny moments, but they are few and far between. For a direct to DVD release, I've seen a lot worse.
Anyway...that's all for today. I'm trying hard to get back on a schedule with writing so with luck you'll be seeing reviews closer to once a week. I hope to be back with some small catch up reviews in a few days before we tackle the new big summer release we plan on seeing: Hellboy II: The Golden Army and then after that is The Dark Knight (woo hoo!!!!).
Be seeing you.
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