Blu-ray Review: Get Smart

Even better the second time around

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Tuesday, November 4th 2008 at 6:34 PM

I was shocked to find out I actually enjoyed Get Smart even more the second time around and this isn't to say I didn't like it when I saw it in the theaters, but I do think my C+ review may have been a little on the light side. This pic has plenty of great quotes, a subtle does of humor rather than an abundance of over-the-top amount of slapstick and some great performances. I am surprised to say this, but I wouldn't be against recommending this film for a buy, something I rarely do when it comes to comedies since I grow so tired of them so quickly.

Some of my favorite moments include when Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 says, "How could I help? I'm just a woman with a dusty old uterus." As well as when Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart says, "He left us here, what a douche." But I would say the performance of the film belongs to Alan Arkin who simply seems perfect for his role as The Chief.

One moment in the film that gave me a good laugh in theaters and again on Blu-ray was after The Rock as Agent 23 staples a paper to David Koechner's head. When confronted by The Chief about it Agent 23 says, "By letting what he did slide you know what that means we are?" The Chief then says, "I'll tell you what we're not. We're not people who jam staples into other people's heads. That's CIA crap!" For some reason I just start imagining a bunch of CIA agents stapling paper to each other's heads and can't stop laughing.

The Blu-ray edition does its best to keep the laughs coming with a whole slew of features as well as a bonus disc with the "Get Smart: Kaos Control" DVD game, something I skipped for the main reason I have no interest in DVD games, I am yet to find one that manages to keep my attention for more than a few seconds. Actually, despite the fact there's an abundance of features there really is only one worth watching, which is the making of the extremely gross sight gag when Max vomits all over himself in the cockpit of a fighter jet.

What is called "The Vomit Reel" shows Carell on a soundstage and is made up of five minutes of him coughing up chunky vegetable soup all over himself and the small portion of a fighter jet they set up for him to sit in. It isn't the making of the scene that is so enjoyable it's how much fun Carell seems to be having making it as well as how equally embarrassed he seems to be at the fact this is his job. There is a moment when someone gives him direction on how to push the soup out of the barf bag to make it fall all over that really gets him laughing. At five minutes it is certainly the best feature of the bunch.

The movie does come with an option to watch it with branching "alternate takes" and deleted scenes as you watch, which is a good way to kill two birds with one stone, but it interrupts the flick a lot considering there is over 45 minutes of material they branch off to. Most of it is worthless, but you do see how they edited the film down from a movie that would have shown Maxwell Smart as a complete moron and actually brought a little more reality to the feature in doing so, and for what it's worth made it a better movie altogether.

Then you have your typical grouping of making-of features (the Russian feature is sorta cool), a very dumb gag reel and an even dumber short featurette with Masi Oka and Nate Torrance, who play Bruce and Lloyd, pointing out the homages to the television series that are featured in the movie. The set is then wrapped up with a digital copy of the film for your PC, iPod or whatever the hell people put those things on.

The high definition picture on this one looks and sounds great and, like I said in the opening, I don't have a problem recommending this one for a buy. I know I will be watching it again.