Author: andy

For our anniversary last week, Brooke and I did the “dinner and a movie” thing and went to see “Get Smart.” Let me preface by saying that Mom and Dad didn’t let Kristen and me watch sitcoms back in the mid-90s…as “Seinfeld” and “Married…With Children” weren’t deemed “appropriate.” Thus, we watched a lot of Nick at Nite, back in the golden age when the shows included “Bewitched,” “Dragnet,” “I Dream of Jeannie” and, of course, “Get Smart.” So yeah, I’ve kinda got a fond place in my heart for the characters in that show and was hoping this movie would be handled with the care it deserves, as opposed to other old TV franchise reboots (I’m talking to you, “Dukes of Hazzard” and “Starsky and Hutch“).

So, despite my worst fears, I must say that it was a really fun movie. It’s more of an “origin story,” so we’re learning how Maxwell Smart becomes Agent 86, meets up with Agent 99, etc. Essentially, Smart is an analyst for Control, a secret government organization doing Cold War-style battle with the evil KAOS. Somehow, KAOS gets ahold of the list of undercover Control agents and starts knocking them off, leaving Smart as one of the few agents that can be called into service, as his records are unknown. We then follow 86 and 99 as they traverse the world trying to stop KAOS from getting ahold of nuclear weapons that they can distribute to other terrorist organizations, thus saving the world.

The story itself is relatively predictable, and many of the gags are only truly “funny” if you are familiar with the original show (one with Bill Murray in a cameo as Agent 13, hiding in a tree…), but it still has plenty of hilarious moments for those that don’t remember the show so well. There aren’t that many special effects, but when they’re in there, it isn’t too obvious (i.e. no obvious green screen shots or CGI explosions…). The acting was pretty good, of course, and there were plenty of people I’ve actually heard of playing in the main roles.

Overall, I think it was a pretty good movie. The story was simple, yet entertaining. The gags did not completely rely on knowledge of the old show (yes, the shoephone makes an appearance…), and I was certainly laughing out loud for most of the movie. I think, so far at least, this is the best comedy I’ve seen in 2008 and will have wide appeal for most people this summer.

Now, I was one of many (or few?) that saw 2003’s “Hulk” in the theater…and I was rather disappointed. We were just getting started with the “super-hero/comic book” craze in films and there were high hopes for this movie, especially because it had a high-profile director in Ang Lee directing it. It was, of course, an origin story where we see Bruce Banner test gamma radiation on himself, leading to his transformation into a large, green monster…but that’s just about all we got. We saw him transform into the Hulk a few times, and he fought some monster dogs…and the military…and, well, I personally got bored. The movie just wasn’t interesting. It had a decent plot to it, but it didn’t have much “movement,” as many would expect in an action film.

Apparently some execs agreed and made this new movie, “The Incredible Hulk,” a reboot of the franchise, with different actors, a different director, and a different direction. This one takes place a few years following the previous outing, where Banner (played by Edward Norton this time) is hiding out in Brazil trying to find a cure for his…”problem.” The US military finally tracks him down and sends a team to apprehend him, only to find out that they’re of little match for the Hulk. One of the military team, played by Tim Roth, decides to work with General Ross to bring down the Hulk once and for all by volunteering himself to take part in “super-soldier serum” research, making him as powerful and nimble as the Hulk is. Of course, as one can imagine, he decides to go a bit too far, goes a bit nuts, and the movie ends as expected…

This movie does everything right that the previous one didn’t. It has many more action scenes, with the Hulk fighting the military in Brazil, on a college campus back in the US and in NYC for the finale. Also, this iteration of the Hulk, an all-CGI effect, is much more convincing than the previous one, likely because of the 5+ years further advancement in CGI technology that movie makers now have to work with. While you could very easily tell that the CGI Hulk in the first movie was computer generated, this one was much more fluid and interacted with the surroundings in a much more convincing way (i.e. it didn’t look like Liv Tyler was standing in front of a green screen having everything else filled in around her…). Finally, the movie seems to have a stronger focus. Where the previous one seemed to focus more on Banner himself and his inner conflicts, this iteration splits between Banner and the Hulk, allowing for that “split personality” to be on the forefront…which is the whole reason people read the Hulk comics for so many years in the first place.

So yeah, it’s a good movie. Is it better than “Iron Man?” Probably not…but this movie does justice to the characters where the previous movie really didn’t…that, and it’s really sweet to see the Hulk throw tanks at helicopters… 😉