The "would you believe" bit is used sparingly, and only when they have a genuinely funny progression to work through.
The Rock's character is not secretly Hymie. Thank goodness. I am so glad the rumors were false.
Bill Murray has a totally random cameo as Agent 13. Quite amusing.
They gave Don Adams his due in the credits. Nice touch.
When Hymie does turn up, albeit briefly, he's played by Patrick Warburton, an actor who'll actually do the role justice, should this film merit a sequel.
Some of the sight gags with the CONTROL gadgets are belly-laugh funny. Some.
They realized that Maxwell Smart is not stupid... he's just oblivious to anything outside the small, anal-retentive details of life. It's an important distinction to unlocking the humor of the character.
Anne Hathaway and Steve Carell get a genuine chemistry going as reluctant friends.
Things that didn't work:
Unfortunately, they don't have a believable chemistry as a romantic couple. While I buy Smart totally crushing on Agent 99, I don't think her character had gotten to that stage yet. Should have saved it for the sequel.
They kept giving Alan Arkin one gag: He's really old, and really short-tempered. A waste of Arkin's considerable comedic chops.
Man, there's a remarkable lack of energy in the KAOS scenes. Grinds the film to a halt. Especially wasted is all the build-up to the capper KAOS gag, which really should have happened far earlier in the movie, plot be darned.
While the film mostly avoids gross-out humor, there were a couple instances that jarred me out of the film. They just didn't fit.
Already, I have forgotten almost everything about the bad guy's scheme. Something about music, Disney, and an ur-Bush president? Yeah.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I pretty much agree. I really enjoyed a lot of the humor. It jived with me, seemed like a nice mix of American slapstick and British dryness. Several parts really had me laughing out loud, which is pretty hard to do. That said, there were several parts that were jarring and unnecessary. I also agree completely about the Agent 99/Max chemistry. I think it would have been vastly better if they had just acknowledged that maybe there was something there, maybe even kiss, but nix the cliche "end up together in the end" crap. It just didn't flow. It seems like it would've been much more in character for 99 to be uber-cautious about jumping into a relationship. Oh well.
I never saw the old show/movie/whatever it was based on, so this was a first exposure. I enjoyed it a lot. I'd give it a solid 7/10, maybe going on 7.5/10. Not really for plot or even for character development, but rather for making me laugh so darn much.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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*grumbles* I want to see it for our anniversary but my mom is sick and my aunt can't watch the kids that long and my dad is busy. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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