The original Get Smart, the creation of the comic minds of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, was a great spoof on the James Bond films of the ‘60s. The show was smart and laced with great lines, sight gags and memorable characters, notably Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 and a great cast of supporting characters.

 

Don Adams as Agent 86
Don Adams as Maxwell Smart (Agent 86)

 

There’s nothing wrong with Steve Carell as a comic actor. He is brilliant on The Office and when given a decent script (which isn’t often) he delivers. The problem with the film version of Get Smart is that the filmmakers assume that nobody remembers the original series and since the target market for today’s film are teens and twenty-somethings, let’s just populate the movie with car chases, explosion and special effects. That’s the new Get Smart – short on gags, long on special effects. And what’s with this Siegfried as portrayed by Terrance Stamp? Give me Bernie Kopell any day (who does make a cameo in the film). Stamp is humorless, meaner and darker then the villains in the actual Bond films. This Get Smart is just not funny. I was shocked when such credible film critics such as Roger Ebert actually gave it a thumb’s up.

 

Am I talking in the wrong shoe phone, or is Get Smart really dumb?

Message Edited by TVLTheLink on 07-23-2008 03:09 PM