Went to the movies last night

[nancylebov]

I didn't think there were any more movies I wanted to see this summer, but some of the trailers were very promising. Hellboy 2 looks really good. It'll be nice to see a movie that was clearly put together by an artist rather than just "I can haz CGI with a morfing program". Dark Knight will no doubt be grimmer than I like, but at least it also looks good visually. I'd rather slit my throat than see Step-brothers, but I already knew that. The surprise was a trailer for Switch Voter, due out in August. A ne'er do well guy's daughter (who has a Lisa Simpsonesque sense of responsibility) registers him to vote, and through a series of plot twists not shown in the trailer, this man's revote (his first ballot was spoiled) will be the deciding vote in a presidential convention. The whole focus of both campaigns lands on one man who doesn't care about politics. It won't necessarily be a good movie, but I'm curious to see what they'll do with it.

However, I was in the theater because I wanted to see the main attraction. *sigh* I wasn't planning to see Get Smart, but I'd heard from two sources that the scene with the fat woman shows her being a really good dancer. Ok, I'll spend my $10 and get three minutes of Hairspray.

She hardly danced at all. She was presented with respect, and I treasure the authority with which she took a fan from one of the thin snarky women, but damned if I can see how that translates into people hallucinating that she did a good dance number.

In general, it was an awful movie. Maybe it's just that we've calmed down a bit since 9/11, but the movie's sense of comic timing was so bad that it couldn't get a laugh by dropping an Islamic terrorist on a pig. There were a lot fewer laughs from the audience than there were joke-shaped objects.

So much of it was about bullying and humiliation, and I especially disliked it that Maxwell Smart was presented as a brilliant analyst who's constantly getting stepped on.

It reached a point when I was so sick of him chasing Agent 99 and her being nasty to him that I just wanted both of them to die, and I don't usually feel that way about fictional characters.

It wasn't awful all through. Max and the Chief were committed to the idea that you need to understand the enemy rather than just use satellites, and really knowing the enemy pays off nicely late in the movie.

Here's something I found deeply annoying, and I'm not sure why it pisses me off so much. When Agent 99 is cutting him down, she's taller than he is. In the big cuddly kiss scene (which in spite of everything, was pretty good), he's taller. Later on (with the course of true love running smoothly), their heights are more equal, but he's still a little taller.

The best moments were based on the original tv show. I really liked the highly arranged version of the tv theme, and the "would you believe" sequence wasn't too badly done. On the whole I want my two hours back.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

Maxwell Smart, a brilliant analyst?

I find that hard to believe.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

"Would you believe moderately clever cogitator?"

Sorry, rather thin on synonyms for analyst.

[captain-button.livejournal.com]

That's the second biggest retcon I've ever seen.

I can't see this. It is so backwards from the TV series where Max was a stupid fool with incredible luck. And a really good Ally, of course.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Ok, what was the biggest retcon?

[captain-button.livejournal.com]

Actually I was just invoking another one of the running gags from the Get Smart series. The "I find that hard to believe" "Would you believe..." exchange was one of the running gags.

Another was "That's the second biggest [#NOUN] I've ever seen". Max never said what was the biggest whatever, IIRC. A tradition I intend to honor here.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Here's something I found deeply annoying, and I'm not sure why it pisses me off so much. When Agent 99 is cutting him down, she's taller than he is. In the big cuddly kiss scene (which in spite of everything, was pretty good), he's taller. Later on (with the course of true love running smoothly), their heights are more equal, but he's still a little taller.

That may have been a deliberate nod to the tv show rather than a continuity problem with the movie.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I didn't see it as a continuity problem. I saw it as saying something about how people see body type and relationships.

Long ago, the Sonny and Cher show had them sniping at each other for most of the show with their actual heights (Cher much taller than Sonny) visible. When they sang "I've Got You, Babe" together at the end, it was a head and shoulders only song, with Sonny's head above Cher's.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Apparently it was considered a no-no for the supporting actress to be taller than her leading man, which meant that in the tv series, they had to do all sorts of stuff to compensate for Feldon actually being taller than Adams. I figured the height differences being obvious in the movie might be an allusion to this aspect of the tv series.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Aaaaa! Hairspray remake = Feh! Nah, predictably non-Waters watered-down? Now how does that work? Best scene? Cameo as the flasher gave me woodies, three of em!