Oh yes, I know I should be doing my civic duty and watching election coverage on one of 899 channels… I will wait until tomorrow to find out who the new owner of America country will be. Instead, I caught another film that I missed out on last summer. I believe that my introduction to the television series Get Smart
came in the 7th grade. My cousin (whose last name is Maxwell) became a favorite target of our junior high phys ed instructor. He was known as Maxwell “Get” Smart and I was known as “Get Dumb.” It was about this time that reruns were playing on Nick at Nite (whatever happened to the “classic tv” that was promised on this channel and its sister channel TVLAND).
The movie
I will not dwell too much on the plot because like the series it is just silly, mindless fun. However as always Max and 99 are hot on the trail of KAOS’ own Ziegfried and (no… not Roy) Shtarker. Some of the villains had an almost Bondian quality. There was an 8 foot behemoth whom I almost expected to have a mouthful of steel teeth. I could have sworn that it was Richard Kiel, the same actor who played Jaws (of The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) as well as Mr. Larson from Happy Gilmore, but alas it was not. Shtarker also bore a similar appearance to Oddjob (from Goldfinger).
All I can say is that if you enjoyed the original or if you enjoy Steve Carell’s work, go out and rent Get Smart. There are enough in-jokes from the series to keep the fans pleased and enough fun and excitement to keep the new entertained.
You mean you don’t consider Home Improvement and George Lopez classic tv?
Oh yeah – and are you going for the record for longest post title?
No, I do not… :(. And now they are playing Scrubs that is still in first-run.
Not really… just another tie-in from the series.
and for the record for most comments on a post (not really, but I keep pressing submit and then thinking of more to add) – I clicked on Richard Keil and in his credits it lists him as playing the Hulk in one scene only on the tv show – what’s that about?
he was originally cast as The Hulk and was filmed and used in one scene. I think it says somewhere why he was replaced
I don’t think I’ll be seeing Get Smart anytime soon, at least if I wait for it at my library. This is what I get when I look it up:
“230 holds on first copy returned of 27 copies”
Though I guess with that many copies the wait can’t be too long, unlike with The Office season five and their measly three copies… 😮
Okay, I just reserved it along with Iron Man (177 reserves/27 copies) and Hulk ’08 (121/17). I should have Get Smart in about nine or ten weeks…
I meant Office season four of course.
I missed it by that much. Never got to the theaters to see it either. Don’t know why not.
Very nice, J. Alll of the familiar catchphrases were there. Just a fun update but enough to satisfy.
Quick note to Derek and the rest of you Office fans
Season 4 is available at IMDb
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386676/episodes
Most season 4 episodes seem to be clips only. All season 5 episodes so far are available in full though.