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Yesterday was a big day for me. A day that I had marked on my Fraggle Rock calendar for quite some time, not that I needed a reminder from the over-advertising they did, but Get Smart opened yesterday! Now, I know some of the reviews haven’t been that favorable and the trailer didn’t look all that promising either, but it’s Get Smart. You can’t pass that up, at least I can’t.
Nick at Nite was a major part of my childhood and Get Smart was always my favorite. In fact, I bought a bootleg copy of the series before it actually came out on DVD, to clarify I don’t encourage doing that at all. I also bought it again when it was available in the legit way. I’m a huge fan, let’s just keep it at that and leave my sordid past out of this. Honestly, that’s as seedy as it gets with me. Someone who has a Fraggle Rock calendar with “Get Smart opens today!” written on it can’t be too much of a badass, I’m not hiding anything from you guys.

The movie is exactly what you’d expect it to be. If you go in wanting to criticize it you probably will. If you just want to have fun and enjoy two hours, maybe have a few laughs, then you’ll do that instead. As you could have probably guessed I went in with the latitude (that’s the portmanteau of “latter attitude”). It’s obviously not the most profound movie ever and it’s not even the funniest, but it’s a good time and well worth the matinee price I paid.

The ending was typical Hollywood and left me feeling all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Sometimes I like that though. Now that I think about it, the entire movie was oozing with Hollywood typicality. Boy meets girl, girl plays hard to get, but they end up together in the end, then you throw in some funny bits and action pieces and you’ve got yourself a big time Hollywood summer blockbuster. I’m sort of mocking it in that way, but I still liked it.

The best part was the casting. I knew Steve Carell would be the perfect Maxwell Smart. I can’t imagine any other current actor in that role. This is going to turn into me gushing over Steve Carell I can feel it happening already. Must fight the urge. He always plays the “endearing idiot that doesn’t know that he’s an idiot” so well. Two other small, but wonderful, performances were by Masi Oka and Nate Torrence, who play Bruce and Lloyd, two nerdy tech guys at CONTROL. On July 1st they’re releasing a spin-off DVD called Get Smart’s Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control, which follows what was going on with those characters while Maxwell and Agent 99 are off fighting the bad guys in Russia. It looks cheesy, but I’m sure I’ll watch it.

Let’s take a look at the trailers that have piqued our interest this past week.

The Dark Knight

Yeah, like this needs any explanation. Some new footage to look at.

Star Wars: Clone Wars

It’s another blatant attempt from George Lucas to milk the teet of his cash cow. We won’t blame him for doing so, but just because Lucas comes out with new Star Wars doesn’t make us interested. Especially when you come at us with this lame animation - the human characters look too angular.

In this Pixar animation world we live in you better come strong with an animated project and this doesn’t hold up. The other problem is that this animated movie/show takes place between Episode II and III. Do we really care about what happens between the prequels?

Yet. We’d be lying if there wasn’t some tiny part of our heart, possibly the seven-year-old part who dressed up like Luke Skywalker or possibly the sucker part that is curious.

Mirrors

We need more J-horror movies like we need more press coverage of Paris Hilton. But alas, Keifer Sutherland decided to star in one, so we’re obliged to shrug our shoulders and pretend to care. Ho-hum.

Miracle at St. Anna

When he’s not arguing with Clint Eastwood over such pithy things at depictions of African-Americans in movies, Spike Lee is also a filmmaker. And a pretty damn good one to. It’s interesting to watch the late career development of Lee. I get the feeling that something is going on and you can almost see him reinvent himself on the screen. Inside Man felt like a smart thriller and was a radical departure for the director. Miracle at St. Anna continues that trend. Here Lee combines a WW II war movie, Italian superstition, and an investigative journalist into something of a mystery. We haven’t been this jazzed about a Spike Lee movie since, well, never.

Punisher: War Zone

Count us among the five who didn’t hate Punisher, mostly due to Thomas Jane’s deft turn as vigilante Frank Castle. Yes, setting the movie in Tampa was dumb as was John Travolta’s hammy turn as the heel. However, it was okay in that bored on a Saturday afternoon I think I’ll see what’s on TNT, TBS or USA kind of way.

Now we get a redo, much like this summer’s Incredible Hulk. Director Lexi Alexander constantly surprises us and if this is a hard R than we’ll be excited. Ray Stevenson doesn’t look bad as the new Frank Castle.

Mostly, this teaser trailer makes us wish Thomas Jane had this kind of material to chew on.

Death Race

Another lame remake from hack director Paul W.S. Anderson. This time we’ve got Jason Stathem as some sort of criminal who must run the gauntlet against killer cars for his freedom. We’re still shocked that this material was able to secure a rather B-List cast, but with Ian McShane, Joan Allen, Tyrese Gibson and Stathem is it possible that the actors could elevate the material and direction? Also the use of G’N'R doesn’t hurt either.

Wanted

The first seven minutes of this summer action flick is online. James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie are guided by the ever mellow Morgan Freeman to assassinate people and bend bullets and essentially rip off the Wachowski Brothers, but it’s all good in the hood.

Also: The first seven minutes of the Steve Carrell comedy Get Smart are available for an exclusive iTunes download. But you can watch it below.

And yes, we’re huge supporters of releasing the first seven or five or ten minutes of movies ahead of time.

The interview between the two isn’t all that great, but it’s slightly strange to see The Rock make the full transformation from WWE superduper star into just a regular actor in Hollywood. The best part of the interview is when they start talking about comedy and Steve Carrell says that the comedy he loves is when you are watching something and the actor/actress doesn’t know they are in a comedy.

Hearing him admit that makes The Office that much better. It also never really dawned on me that that is essentially what his character Michael Scott is all about. It’s not that he’s aloof or an idiot, it’s that he doesn’t know he’s trapped inside a comedy show.

Also:Mel Brooks apparently loved to the movie as well. You’ll remember that Brooks is not only a comedy genius, but he also created the original television show, which the new movie is obviously based upon. So if anyone would be critical of the new movie it would be Brooks and he also knows what funny is.

Get Smart hits theaters June 20. Oh yeah and Anne Hathaway is purdy.

This summer’s Get Smart starring Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway (let me just say I watched a bit of The Princess Diaries the other night and her hotness could not have been predicted.  In this trailer she’s a total sex bomb), Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Alan Arkin and the fat guy from Borat.

This new trailer shows a bit of promise and this could become a sleeper hit of the summer.  It’ll make for some nice counter programming to the flurry of superhero movies we’ll be seeing.  Director Peter Segal’s new trailer premiered last weekend at WonderCon in San Francisco.

Get Smart hits theaters on June 20

Even with the dud of Evan Almighty, Steve Carrell remains one of the silver screens brightest comedic stars.  That reputation, solidified in part by The Office and The Forty Year Old Virgin, looks to get back on track with next summer’s Maxwell Smart update, Get Smart. 

Carrell stars as the titular Maxwell Smart, a bumbling secret agent.  A dash of James Bond and a big helping of Inspector Clouseau.  It’s based on the popular 1960’s tv show and the 2008 summer comedy stars Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as Agent 23 (looks like he’s dropping The Rock all together), Terrance Stamp as an agent of KAOS and Alan Arkin as the head of CONTROL.

Head over here to watch the teaser trailer.  And yes, we posted on this just to show the mundane beauty striking hottness of Anne Hathaway, even if she is just wearing a natty T-shirt.