By Aaron 6/21/2008

Carrel’s bumbling idiot + Hathaway’s beautiful super agent = a very smart movie. Steve Carrell returns to what he does best, playing bumbling idiot Maxwell Smart in this summer’s Get Smart. Anne Hathaway plays Agent 99, the veteran agent Smart falls hard for fast and early. The two of them, as well as the other actors are perfectly cast, creating an entertaining and fun summer comedy. The combination of these things creates a great action comedy that rises above its disappointing adaptation peers I Spy and Starsky and Hutch.

Smart moves quickly from over-working CONTROL analyst to his dream job: Agent 86 – and alongside the beautiful Agent 99. Sent by the Chief (an excellent Alan Arkin) to Russia to track down a bomb maker who may be working for KAOS the two waste no time stirring things up. Smart takes every opportunity to point out well the two agents work together – and they do – as does the surprising teaming of Carrell and Hathaway who share an unexpected chemistry and take advantage of great comic timing. From covert meetings to dancing to driving, this timing makes the movie very enjoyable and not to be left behind is Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson) who is great here as a hulking super agent who befriends Max.

Smart then tries to infiltrate KAOS by ingratiating himself with powerful KAOS agent Siegfried (Terrence Stamp) to uncover the location of missing nuclear materials in Russia. The obvious set backs are thrown in with Smart’s hilarious missteps as Agent 86 and Agent 99 race to prevent a KAOS nuclear attack on Los Angeles, endangering the President. The movie succeeds because it has great action sequences as well as great comedic ones and they are just as exciting as the next action movie but they also have the humor! It’s like a two for one – getting a Daniel Craig movie AND a Steve Carrell movie for the price of $13 – or whatever tickets cost in your area.

The movie also sneaks in some heavy themes absent in Get Smart’s spoof contemporaries like Meet the Spartans, Epic Movie, and Superhero Movie. While those movies wallow in B-movie gags that can only be described as tacky, Get Smart rises above with higher-level humor and slapstick. Balancing relationships and work, self image, bullies - something for all ages. Plus, Get Smart simply looks good – it does more than just parody spy thrillers, it is a pretty good spy thriller in it’s own right. This includes Bond-like-gadgets that are just a little bit over the top, like a shoe-phone that is not only funny, but also pays homage to the TV show.

What I really want is another movie – maybe Get Smarter or something. Just like Casino Royale revitalized James Bond with new realism, hopefully a Get Smart franchise can steer us away from The Love Gurus and The Superhero Movies. Hopefully it will keep Carrell from making any more Evan Almighties. And I wouldn’t mind seeing Hathaway in this role again either…8/10 saltystix.

If you want to read my rant about Evan Almighty, click here. Or if you have other questions or comments for me, don't hesitate to shoot me an email at aaron.saltystix@gmail.com.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.