It was movie night, and Sharon^* chose the 2008 remake of Get Smart.

Steve Carell … Maxwell Smart / Agent 86
Anne Hathaway … Agent 99
Dwayne Johnson … Agent 23
Alan Arkin … The Chief
Terence Stamp … Siegfried
Terry Crews … Agent 91
David Koechner … Larabee
James Caan … The President
Bill Murray … Agent 13
Patrick Warburton … Hymie
Masi Oka … Bruce
Nate Torrence … Lloyd
Ken Davitian … Shtarker
David S. Lee … Ladislas Krstic
Dalip Singh … Dalip

Of all the returns to this series, I think that this was the best, and that includes the 1970s “The Nude Bomb”, which was really pretty lame.

The character is definitely not the late Don Adams’, but Steve Carell of Smart as an overeager crackerjack analyst who has a knack for screwing up generally works.

I think that the weakest of the performances were by Alan Arkin as the Chief, and Terence Stamp as Sigfried.

Arkin’s Chief is a hot-head, as opposed to the reserved, and aggrieved Chief of the late Ed Platt, and I think that had he been played closer to the original, it would have worked better.

Stamp, who makes a marvelous heavy, was simply wrong as Sigfried. He was too evil. The original Sigfried, played by Bernie Kopell, who had a cameo, was more of a sort of mirror image of Adams’ Smart.

I also miss the German accent.

For both of these, I blame the script writer more than anything else.

Anne Hathaway, as 99, did a very good job capturing the extreme competence of the character, as well as the playful sexiness of Barbera Feldon, from the original series.

Dwayne Johnson, aka “The Rock”, was surprisingly good, but more details would be spoilers.

It does touch on all the bits from the original, the cone of silence, “Missed it that by that much”, “Would you believe….”, “In KAOS, we don’t…”, he drives both the sunbeam and the Karmann Ghia, the shoe phone, “The old $$$$ trick”.

The core of the movie, as it was in the series, is the relationship between Max and 99.

There is real comic chemistry there, though the development of the romantic aspects of the relationship were too compressed.

This is not a surprise, as the development of the relationship in the original went from toleration, to amusement, to affection, to love over about 4 seasons, and 110 minutes is just not enough time.

Recommended

^*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

It was movie night, and it was Natalie’s turn to choose, and she chose Shreck the Third. Charlie objected mildly, since he had already seen it at school, but he he enjoyed it once it was on.

Mike Myers … Shrek (voice)
Eddie Murphy … Donkey (voice)
Cameron Diaz … Princess Fiona (voice)
Antonio Banderas … Puss in Boots (voice)
Julie Andrews … Queen Lillian (voice)
John Cleese … King Harold (voice)
Rupert Everett … Prince Charming (voice)
Eric Idle … Merlin (voice)
Justin Timberlake … Artie (voice)

First and foremost, as with any franchise, the question is if it was true to series.

The answer is yes.

The plot is by no means throw-away, with Shreck trying to find a Nephew of the King, Arthur (Artie), so that he does not have to be king.

We also have the vengeful Charming, and some amusing sendups of dinner theater and high school along the way.

The use of music in this movie is the best yet. I’ll never think of Led Zepplin’s The Immigrant Song in the same way.

It is a worthy successor of the first two.

Recommended.

Well, it was movie night again, and this time, it was my choice (it rotates), obviously, I have to choose appropriate to an 8 year old and a 10 year old. I chose The Last Mimzy.

Chris O’Neil: Noah Wilder
Rhiannon Leigh Wryn: Emma Wilder
Joely Richardson: Jo Wilder
Timothy Hutton: David Wilder
Rainn Wilson: Larry White
Kathryn Hahn: Naomi Schwartz
Michael Clarke Duncan: Nathanial Broadman

First a spoiler warning, not about my plot synopsis, but about the first scene of the movie. It portends everything that is going to happen, and could have been left out, adding more dramatic tension to the film.

The film is based on the 1940s classic SF short story, written by husband and wife Henry Kutter and C.L. Moore, Mimsy Were the Borogoves.

The roles of the children, Noah and Emma, are clearly front and center, are well acted, and the adult roles are minor, even as potential nemisis.

Joely Richardson is a bit wooden, and Timothy Hutton is a bit underused (This may be influenced by my seeing his magnificent Archie Goodwin in the A&E Nero Wolfe series) as parents.

Rainn Wilson and Kathryn Hahn (who is probably best known for her role on Crossing Jordan) do rather well as the new-age science teacher and his live-in girlfriend as slightly kooky, if very earnest, comic relief.

It is a science fiction time travel story, which weaves in current events (Department of Homeland Security, Intel, etc.)

It was a decent movie, my son was dead set against it, but agreed afterwards that it was good. It’s a pity that the first 30 seconds of the film make it far less interesting than it would have been.

Additionally, there are some unrealistic bits (Homeland Security is remarkably nice and accommodating) that are clearly there because it was sold as a kids picture.

Our previous cable service was plain vanilla, no cable box, so now we get pay per view, and we checked out a movie list night, Happily N’Ever After, one of the more recent CGI movies to hit the small screen.
Cast:

George Carlin: The Wizard (Sort of)
Andy Dick: Mambo
Sarah Michelle Gellar: Ella
Michael McShane: Rumplestiltskin
Freddie Prinze Jr.: Rick
Wallace Shawn: Munk
Patrick Warburton: Prince Humperdink
Sigourney Weaver: Frieda

George Carlin is amusing, but he has perhaps 3 minutes screen time in this retelling of the Cinderella story, which is juxtaposed with the metaphysics of fairy tales.

Patrick Warburton and Wallace Shawn do a journeyman job of playing…Patrick Warburton and Wallace Shawn, and they are amusing.

For once, Andy Dick is not repellent

Sigourney Weaver is a wonderful evil stepmother, easily the strongest performance of the movie, with Weaver at her scenery chewing best. What’s more, she is the sexiest animated character since Jessica rabbit, and far more interesting, both libidinally and in terms of character development.

but the two leads, Gellar and Prinze are somewhat lackluster.

Freddy Prince, who plays Rick, performs well as the Prince Humperdink’s dogsbody and dishwasher, but Gellar’s performance as Ella is rather lackluster. Some of this is not her fault, as the character is written to be a bit of a ninny.. It doesn’t help that the stepmom is way hotter.

The plot, and plot device are a bit contrived, but I enjoyed it, and more importantly, my kids enjoyed it.

It’s amusing, if fluffy, and the hidden movie references will amuse the adults watching with their kids.

And of course, the happy ending.