Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Get Smart (2008) - Segal presents another commercially mandated rehash

3/10/2021

Get Smart (2008) - Segal presents another commercially mandated rehash

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Steve Carell's tie flies in the face of his agent colleague Anne Hathaway on this amusing poster for Peter Segal's Get Smart

Our hero Maxwell Smart of top secret US intelligence agency CONTROL goes into active field duty, - his big dream - to fight the head honcho of terror organization KAOS.

Get Smart is written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember (Epic (2013), both), based on the same-titled 1965-70 TV-series by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, and directed by Peter Segal (Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)).

It is a calculated studio attempt to see whether (Mel) Brooksian comedy can be remade successfully, which in this case, however, also needs to function as action ... The result is a film that just doesn't take off despite the well-meaning efforts of its cast. Weak direction and a weaker script seem to be to blame.

The entire rehash is in some way too retrospective; partially set in Russia, and too obsessed with incorporating gags and details from the TV-series, which will be unknown to most audiences in 2008 and henceforth.

Steve Carell (Bewitched (2005)) is no Leslie Nielsen or Peter Sellers, leading men in the specific brand of duck-brained lawman spoof subgenre revisited here, but he does make Get Smart cheerful in his own dopey way.

Peter Segal: The Longest Yard (2005) - A few laughs register in shallow, overlong MTV-produced sports comedy remake

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 80 mil. $

Box office: 230.6 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.88 times its cost)

[Get Smart opened 19 June (South Korea + 7 other markets) and runs 110 minutes. Anne Hathaway (The Intern (2015)) was paid 5 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from March - June 2007 in Moscow, Russia, Québec, including Montreal, Washington DC and in California, including Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 38.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#3-#4) and grossed 130.3 mil. $ (56.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 14.1 mil. $ (6.1 %) and Mexico with 10.4 mil. $ (4.5 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches higher than this one. The film reportedly made in excess of 36.5 mil. $ on domestic DVD sales alone. Sequel plans never came to fruition. Segal returned with In Security (2010, TV movie) and Prodigy Bully (2012, TV movie) and theatrically with Grudge Match (2013). Carell returned in Date Night (2010); Hathaway in Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control (2008, video spin-off) and theatrically in Rachel Getting Married (2008). Get Smart is rotten at 51 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Get Smart?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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3/10/2021

Get Smart (2008) - Segal presents another commercially mandated rehash

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