Get Smart

Instead of watching The Man With The Golden Gun, I put on Get Smart instead.

Get Smart was originally a television series in the States, pastiching James Bond. Unfortunately, I only ever saw one episode when malingering as a teenager, so I missed out on any reference to the original. It feels more like a slightly inept facsimile of True Lies, itself a reworking of the Bond myth.

I don't get along with Steve Carrell's movies. 40 Year Old Virgin was good, as was Little Miss Sunshine, but Dinner For Schmucks was an hour and a half of schmaltzy mugging, which wouldn't be so bad if Carrell wasn't hailed as the second coming of Chevy Chase or somesuch.

However, it has got The Rock in it, a man who can singlehandedly rescue a dire film (Be Cool, Doom) or add more to what was already a work of heart-rending genius (The Fast And The Furious 5). So in between over-long set pieces with Carrell dancing with a fat lady / clambering through some lasers / being clumsy, there's the sight of an ex-wrestler stapling things to a man's head. Foreshadowing the staple gun in The Wrestler, perhaps?

Still, even him and Terence Stamp flounder somewhat. Anne Hathaway shows up with THE BIGGEST EYES in the world, a role she always fills reliably, but the mood overall is uneven - comedy? Thriller? Inept thriller? Sluggish slapstick?

There is a lovely sight gag with a birthday celebration and a uranium ore, though. So it's not all bad.