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130 Ninjas Didn't Get SMART!!
Merrick here...
130 Ninjas sent in a review of the forthcoming GET SMART movie (how many Ninjas does it take to type a review?)
I've been anticipating this film since seeing its most recent trailer (HERE) - which I really liked.
Unfortunately, this review is less-than-enthusiastic...in a well-reasoned sorta way that's worrisome. Can 130 Ninjas be wrong? And, who would dare tell them if they were?
Here's 130 Ninjas...
Sorry about the length but I'm kinda verbose. Longtime listener, first time caller.
I love Steve Carrell. I think he's hilarious, I love his comedic style, I think he's awesome. So when I got an opportunity to see a free screening of "Get Smart", I was pretty excited. See a movie I had a small interest in seeing for free? With one of my favorite actors? Sure I'm going to miss "The Office", but free movie. Heck yes.
Now, I'm too young to remember Get Smart. In fact, I wasn't alive during Get Smart. I've never seen any episodes, although I recognize most of the pop culture references made in the Simpsons and other modern media. So maybe I wasn't the target audience. Of course, no one in the room would have been if that was the case. It had many funny moments. I laughed a few times. But as I drove home, I had a bitter taste in my mouth that got worse the more I thought about it. Yes, there were funny gags. Yes, there were lots of cameos, almost a "Where's Waldo" of comedians, Kevin Nealon, Bill Murray, the guy that plays Todd Packer. And yes, it was a spy movie, with the assorted gadgets and twists. But that's all it seemed to be. There was no cohesion to the story. Characters would appear for scenes then disappear for long periods of time. There were about 4 or 5 characters whose sole purpose was comic relief, and who could have been funny and built into an awesome subplot sort of situation, but never were and never did. And they had not one but two, possibly three "hanging props".
When there's a prop introduced into a scene, it has to payoff later in the movie. Not like a guy picks up a random pen, takes a drink, something like that. No, I'm talking when a gun is talked about and sits above the bar, it has to be fired. Or used. The rest of the movie you're basically waiting for it to go off. It's like an itch in the back of your mind. You want the gun to go off. You know it's going to go off. You hope it's awesome when it does. But the gun has to be fired. A hanging prop is when the gun isn't fired, isn't used. It is talked about in some form of detail and is never used after that. There were a few hanging props in this one, where a prop was talked about and not used, or it was but the payoff was so small and insignificant you wondered why they put it there in the first place.
I believe that a movie has to be greater than the sum of its parts. A comedy can't just be a series of jokes and gags, an action film can't be a series of fights and explosions, and a drama can't be a bunch of awkward and thought provoking situations. There has to be cohesion. There has to be themes. There has to be story. This is what separates the mediocre C level films from the good and the great. On this level is where I felt "Get Smart" failed. There were references to the original TV show, there were cameos, and there were funny moments and jokes, but the story wasn't there. People flipped sides without any explanation, characters changed emotion without any transition. Half the characters I didn't know what their "Holy Grail" was, that one thing that would complete their character. The actors simply moved through the scenes and I didn't know why they were even there.
So I didn't like the movie that much. One of the other audience members said he felt it was worth what he paid. I felt like I should have stayed home and watched "The Office".
Drive fast. Take chances,
130 Ninjas
I love Steve Carrell. I think he's hilarious, I love his comedic style, I think he's awesome. So when I got an opportunity to see a free screening of "Get Smart", I was pretty excited. See a movie I had a small interest in seeing for free? With one of my favorite actors? Sure I'm going to miss "The Office", but free movie. Heck yes.
Now, I'm too young to remember Get Smart. In fact, I wasn't alive during Get Smart. I've never seen any episodes, although I recognize most of the pop culture references made in the Simpsons and other modern media. So maybe I wasn't the target audience. Of course, no one in the room would have been if that was the case. It had many funny moments. I laughed a few times. But as I drove home, I had a bitter taste in my mouth that got worse the more I thought about it. Yes, there were funny gags. Yes, there were lots of cameos, almost a "Where's Waldo" of comedians, Kevin Nealon, Bill Murray, the guy that plays Todd Packer. And yes, it was a spy movie, with the assorted gadgets and twists. But that's all it seemed to be. There was no cohesion to the story. Characters would appear for scenes then disappear for long periods of time. There were about 4 or 5 characters whose sole purpose was comic relief, and who could have been funny and built into an awesome subplot sort of situation, but never were and never did. And they had not one but two, possibly three "hanging props".
When there's a prop introduced into a scene, it has to payoff later in the movie. Not like a guy picks up a random pen, takes a drink, something like that. No, I'm talking when a gun is talked about and sits above the bar, it has to be fired. Or used. The rest of the movie you're basically waiting for it to go off. It's like an itch in the back of your mind. You want the gun to go off. You know it's going to go off. You hope it's awesome when it does. But the gun has to be fired. A hanging prop is when the gun isn't fired, isn't used. It is talked about in some form of detail and is never used after that. There were a few hanging props in this one, where a prop was talked about and not used, or it was but the payoff was so small and insignificant you wondered why they put it there in the first place.
I believe that a movie has to be greater than the sum of its parts. A comedy can't just be a series of jokes and gags, an action film can't be a series of fights and explosions, and a drama can't be a bunch of awkward and thought provoking situations. There has to be cohesion. There has to be themes. There has to be story. This is what separates the mediocre C level films from the good and the great. On this level is where I felt "Get Smart" failed. There were references to the original TV show, there were cameos, and there were funny moments and jokes, but the story wasn't there. People flipped sides without any explanation, characters changed emotion without any transition. Half the characters I didn't know what their "Holy Grail" was, that one thing that would complete their character. The actors simply moved through the scenes and I didn't know why they were even there.
So I didn't like the movie that much. One of the other audience members said he felt it was worth what he paid. I felt like I should have stayed home and watched "The Office".
Drive fast. Take chances,
130 Ninjas
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with my 500 samurai
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Too bad. This movie really needed a clever script to work. Guess I'll go rent Johnny English.
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"Now, I'm too young to remember Get Smart. In fact, I wasn't alive during Get Smart. I've never seen any episodes"
Then why bother seeing it if you know nothing about the original show? -
Kills WIll Farrel and Adam Sandler's careers
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gotham_night, which one of the farrelly brothers are you? And in response to LargoJr: "Good."
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GET SMART was never about action and everyone who has seen this said they tried for some sort of RUSH HOUR and it doesn't come off. The story is lousy, the gags tried and the plot follows JOHNNY ENGLISH verbatim. Also, aren't we sorta done with spy spoofs after AUTISM POWERS ran them into the ground with those two sequels?
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Hope the reviews don't trend this way... this seemed like it would work - such perfect casting
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Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell naked - yet the only full-frontal in this movie comes from the dude?!? The world's gone MAD, I tells ya, MAD!
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Shows what happens when you're drunk online, kids!
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wanted to get naked again, I'd be down with that.
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Nick at Nite was rerunning Get Smart into the late 90s. They still do, I think. How old is this poster? Ten?
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And completely missed the point.
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taste it. taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaste iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
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My opossums will defeat you all.
Peace.
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Get Smart is a great movie. I saw it last week too. It was hilarious. The cast was great! The story was great! The mix of comedy and action were perfect! You never looked at your watch. The movie never slowed down. It was awesome!
Anne Hathaway is hot!
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Bitter, cynical PLANTs and an old Mayan temple...Don't ever pay to watch The Ruins. Ever.
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Read the reviews on IMDB. Are those all plants? Don't think so. They all hate it. This movie sucks harder than Marilyn Monroe from the 50s.
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Young film student. Not even a college film student. More like a high school kid that has an interest in filmmaking. Or possible somebody older that just picked up a book on screenwriting. I remember being this guy. In fact, I remember trying to write reviews for AICN when I was this guy. Being overly critical of a movie that i really just didn't get. Movies that now, looking back, i can see i missed on the boat on. Pretty much the idea was to pick away at a movie if it didn't follow the exact rules that I was learning. Eventually I realized that movies are like people, each is different and has a distinct personality, and can be made and behave in a multitude of different ways. Not saying "Get Smart" is necessarily good, just saying that if it's not good, it's not good for more reasons then "hanging props" and absent "holy grails". (P.S. I was born about 13 years after "Get Smart" went off the air, yet not only am I aware of it, it was one of my favorite shows to catch on cable as a kid, along with Dick van Dyke.)
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There have been a couple of action/comedy spy movies that were alright, like True Lies or The In-Laws. I think that is the kind of movie that Get Smart is trying to be. I don't think it will slip into stupidity like Austin Powers.
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Thanks to the AICN staff for some new posts. We desperately needed something new to bitch about.
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When James Bond movies started to parody themselves the spy parody died. I'd say it started in the mid 80's with A View to a Kill. When the most famous spy series becomes a joke you can't parody it any more. (Herb West, if you compare any spy comedy to The In-Laws every single one will loose.)
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I'm not saying it was great, just that it was alright, and somewhat amusing. I really don't see how A View to a Kill was a parody. Give me one reason why you think that.
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Come on, man. I'm starting to "loose" my patients.
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Yeah, it was pretty cheesy.
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Needs to lay off the screenwriting books. Holy Grail - gimme a break.
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looks better than G.I. Joe or The Spirit.
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I'm still waiting for you to tell me how A View to a Kill was a parody. Come on, you don't want to loose this argument, do you?
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Original was written by Mel Fucking Brooks and was nearly always hilarious, holds up today. Same with Adams Family, Bev Hillbillies, Hogans Heroes and the Munsters. Shows that were way ahead of their time and very edgy. Why didn't the douchebag studio go to Mel Brooks and ask him to oversee the treatment???? Prob because they didn't know it was his show. Stupid Shitfucks!!! Another thing those shows were brilliant in 30 minute formats. 30 fucking minutes !!! If they had any balls, and they don't they would have gone to Brooks and set the movie in the mid-sixties complete with retro over the top Cold War characatures, sharkskin suits, cool little convertibles and losts of scotch on the rocks. This movie will tank but it won't deter them they already butchered the Hillbillies, Wild Wild West and Bewitched and more I am sure I am forgetting. I imagine they are already planning a hiphop version of Genie a more urban Munsters starring Fiddy Cent and aa gay version of Hogan's Heroes. Talentless Eastern European Eurotrash hacks. Who are the dumb fuckers that piss money away on these projects I'd like to pitch an idea for a Marlon Wayans Bonanza remake with the Rock as the new Little Joe
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Don't forget McHales Navy, Dragnet, Honeymooners, My Favorite Martian and the Dukes of Hazzard.
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Time's up. You loose.
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Right on Brother !!! Even more horseshit, it's endless!!! Michael Clark Duncan for the new Hoss!!! Hip Hop Bonanza in 2009!!! Chrome 22" spinners on the conastoga wagons !!!! Seriously who is financing this shit???
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Bow Wow as the new Major Nelson. I smell bank !!!!!!
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and while we're on the subject..Brady Bunch, Aeon Flux, Miami Vice and I, Spy.
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has there ever been a good movie that was based on a TV show?
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Let's limit it to 60's remakes though we'll be here all day otherwise. Don't think they fucked up Green Acres yet, prob too rural can't fit in enough pop culture references and endless product placements may be hard. Oh I know how about An MTV-esque Partridge Family remake with the cast of High School musical and Beyonce as Ms. Partridge??? And Sean John could design the costumes and Rueben the manager could be Chirs Rock, no Bernie Mac yes Bernie Mac. God I smell money !!!! And Danny could be a girl, a slutty 16 yr. old girl, that Vanessa Hutchins chick !!! Let's greenlight dis biotch!!! We could get the writers and director of Bring it On !!! See it all falls into place!!! M O N E Y !!!!!!!
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True Lies and The In-Laws? That's like mentioning classic action movies like Die Hard and Cop and a Half.
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well it isnt going to work on this board.
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Apr 19, 2008 10:53:05 PM CDT
has there ever been a good movie that was based on a TV show?
by the dolphins are in the jacuzzi
Actually, the first Adams Family movie was pretty good (the second one fell victim to the now dreaded cliche of the Hip-Hop theme song - M.C. Hammer, the Addams Family? - WTF?!? and a hokier script, but the first one was good.)
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Apr 19, 2008 10:55:08 PM CDT
has there ever been a good movie that was based on a TV show?
by the dolphins are in the jacuzzi
The first Addams Family movie was pretty good. Second one had a hokier script and that damned M.C. Hammer theme song, but the first one was pretty decent.
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Well of course there have been good movies based on TV shows. Take Schindler's List for example. Great movie based on that Holocost series from the 40's.... wait, you mean that really happened? But Mel Gibson's dad...
In all seriousness though, I assume we're talking about TV shows REMADE as movies later. Because if we're lumping in big screen versions of TV shows into the mix, I think Star Trek II and South Park kill that argument. If not, then no, I can't think of any either. Although to be fair, I do remember somewhat vaguely enjoying the Adams Family movie. Raul Julia was pitch-perfect. -
this new movie bears startling resemblance to that other movie that starred rowan atkinson as a spy. I'm worried for steve carell.
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It's still "ninja." 150 ninja wrote this. It's part of what makes ninja so awesome: it's simultaneously a singular noun, plural noun, and adjective(as in teenage mutant ninja turtles). Like the ninja themselves, the word can strike from any angle at any time.
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those who viewed get smart in its original tv run are not...first, the makers are hoping that a younger audience has seen snippets on nick at nite just for flavor, but no way do they want us old guys going to see the flick, cuz they know we would spend our time comparing carel to adams...and their is no comparison...the audience for this movie is the same as the audience for martin's pink panther....teens and 20 somethings who know little about the original source material...it will make money, i just wish they hadnt called it get smart
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the fugitive, the first mission impossible, and star trek 2,3 and 5
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hmm... he uses Simpsons as the gauge of pop culture references... and he likes the American version of The Office. Mayhaps the reviewer also turns to SNL for cutting edge comedy? Perhaps to Catie Couric for news and context of the day's happenings in the Middle East? Considering Simpsons hasn't been good for 10 years and The Office hasn't been good since they ran out of the Gervais episodes, it's probably not a bad thing that he didn't get this movie.
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jesus, a well reasoned and rational review submitted to aint it cool? GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE BUDDY.
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put down the syd field. you're review was good and all but seriously man, movie's are allowed to deviate from the plot set out by two assholes who haven't even written good films (field and mckee)
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is a damn good movie based on a TV show.
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Was a pretty good movie along with two good tv series as well as being filmed in the 40's and a radio program to go with it. Though, Val Kilmer was actually entertaining in the role of Simon Templar, it will always belong to Roger Moore. Plus, Kilmer's an arrogant dick to work with.
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Just curious.
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Seems like the troglodytes fiending for "jokes and gags" will enjoy it. Good for them. They can watch this and then watch a Family Guy marathon and go to bed with boners. Oh, and The Office is GREATNESS.
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So if studios are willing to pay someone to write a positive review "It was awesome! And Funny! And totally cool!" I assume they'd be willing to pay someone to trash another studios release if they have something opening up the same weeked. The plot thickens...DUN!
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damn you!!!!!!
my ronin is killed. -
especially when they run away at the end, naked. with "the end" written on they asses
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Explaining the structure of cinema, no less.
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To suck my cock! zing!
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I just got this cool buttefly bush, planted it out in my front yard. Butterflies are pretty.
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At 1AM. Made me very nostalgic.
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Hanging props that appear in the first act must return in the third act. Not to the letter exactly, but movies do that all the fucking time. So when a movie does it more than a few times, that makes it a bad movie?
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You try working on a pic where Bulgaria doubles for New York. Plus, there's was another flick that I did three days on in he was in. Fucking guy thought he was the Pope. Like I said, the guy's a good actor, he just needs to come down off his high horse. He's almost 50 and Hollywood tends to forget you after a certain age. I'm sure you know the story about him on the fiasco "Dr. Moreau."
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...was the boomerang bowtie in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. They made such a big deal out of it... and, nothing. I didn't know it was called a "hanging prop" when I was a kid, but it still irritated me. :)
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its time to stop givng a free pass to shit movies. "stupid popcorn movie" has become a bad excuse to make bad movies. I'm looking at you TRANSFORMERS!
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It was very close to been a good adaptation of the TV show and it's a lot better film than most give it credit for.
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Apr 20, 2008 12:21:10 PM CDT
mr muggufin's hanging props, next to the red herring shop
by ironic_name
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but if he disliked it (and gave pretty much valid reasons for it) then so be it. To each his own.
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This pic and Universal's 'The Love Guru' are going head to head on June 23....guess which one has the good buzz and which one has the shitty buzz...
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And I was less amused by the trailers.
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Why do so many reviews here start with comments like "never saw the original material..."? Whether its a TV series or remake of a movie or a comic book series, it seen no one is old enough to have been exposed to the real deal. Where are the old farts like me who saw the material when it was new?
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As you said, you've *seen* the god awful POS trailer. It looks like Evan Almighty with a freakin' gun. How could that be good?
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It was hilarious and awesome. Surpassed my expectations and indifferent approach to it going into the theater. It's really funny and the action scenes are very well done, especially the finale in downtown LA with the Walt Disney Center being the centerpiece. I felt they could have put it out in the form it was unchanged and it would be AWESOME. Hopefully the crappy focus groups didn't get it dumbed down.
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Isn't a leading man. I yeah he works well in little tid bits on TV and on the Office Show. But as for a whole movie for him, he just doesn't have it like Jim Carrey and William Farrel before him. Thats why even his dramatic turns are just so-so. And like some critic said, the worst thing you can do is make a bland movie. Thats Steve bland. Family Friendly. Keep him with a tighter budget and he's box office friendly. Though people seem to think Little Miss was some god send, it was good and enjoyable but I don't think I'll ever watch it again.
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