Fabulista Applauds: The “Get Smart” Effort.

Those in the know, and those who are young at heart (at thereabouts only) would do well to remember the 60/70’s series “Get Smart”. I am one of those in the know *ahem*.

In any case, as the Fabulista, I also know and have thus watched the latest movie franchise of the series. “Get Smart”, the movie stars (overexposed) Steve Carrell, (saucer-eyed) Anne Hathaway, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Alan Arkin. There are many tiny nods and homage to the original series. These were made blatantly in the beginning of the film in the form of a public museum exhibiting all the gadgets from the series – the “Cone of Silence” that never worked, despite Smart’s faith in it; the red Sunbeam convertible, the telephone shoe; the suit; etc.

There were others, of course, in terms of characters and one-liners. The apologies (“Sorry about that, Chief…”); Agent 13 who is always stuck in weird places; Siegfried from KAOS and amongst others, Larabee who appears at the end (appropriately, since he appeared in the last season on the original TV series) but as a robot.

Is it a faithful production of the original “Get Smart” series? I can’t tell for sure. But I can say that I truly enjoyed the movie with its non-stop, laugh-a-minute gags and one-liners. There were also attempts at updating and connecting the sniggers:

When KAOS attack was imminent: “Hmm, I wonder what the president could be doing in L.A.”. Flash to president reading inanely to group of young children. (Think Bush, 9-11)

President - …a new-kew-ler threat…

Control Chief – NUCLEAR! (again, think Bush)

My opinion, don’t expect a faithful reproduction of the series. It’s not meant to be that (what with the end of the cold war, amongst other stuff, like technological advancement, etc). But just go expecting a good laugh and an enjoyable session with the somewhat incompetent, accident-prone secret agent who gets away from trouble by the skin of his teeth and always manages to save the day at the end of it all. In this aspect, even if you’ve never heard of Don Adams or even the “Get Smart” the TV series, you can still enjoy the movie (though you may not be able to appreciate the little inside jokes; like the cone of silence that NEVER works, even now...).