Welcome to a new installment we like to call “What Else Ya Got?” The market of home video is about much, much more than just owning your favorite movie these days; if a studio skimps on the bonus features – “What do you mean Alfred Hitchcock wasn’t available to do an audio commentary?” – some view it as nothing short of ripping off the customer, as if owning the movie were suddenly beside the point. We find this phenomenon amusing, but we also understand it; it’s what kept this writer from running out to buy either “Kill Bill” movie when they were released. Years later, he’s still waiting for the combo set that features Quentin Tarantino’s cut of both volumes together.
Our inaugural subject for What Else Ya Got? is “Get Smart,” Peter Segal’s high-octane reboot of Maxwell Smart’s Agent 86. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Disc One
There are two versions of the movie; the theatrical release, and the “Get Smart Takes” version, which has over 20 minutes of added jokes, alternate takes, etc. When a guy like Steve Carell is your lead, there is surely some comedy gold on the cutting room floor, so it makes sense that they would include a feature like this. The problem is that the only way of seeing these features is to watch the entire movie, meaning you’ll need two hours and ten minutes to watch 20 minutes of funny. Why they didn’t include the alternate jokes as a stand-alone piece is a mystery.
Disc Two
“The Right Agent for the Job”
This is a making-of featurette featuring interviews with Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson director Segal and the movie’s producers, and includes screen tests between Carell and Hathaway, where they realized that the two had incredible chemistry.
“Man in Moscow”
A quick featurette about shooting in Red Square, which features Hathaway again sparring deftly with Carell.
“Language Lessons”
Steve Carell pretending to speak French, Italian, German, and sign language
“Spy Confidential”
A quick gag reel.
“Spying on Get Smart’s Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control”
Shameless plug for the straight-to-DVD release featuring Masi Oka and Nate Torrence, the gadget makers at CONTROL. But hey, the movie also features the lovely Jayma Mays, so perhaps it’s worth a look.
There is also a digital copy of the movie on Disc Two.
That’s it, kids. We’ll see you soon, covering something other than “Meet Dave,” which has one, count it, one featurette. And a lame one at that. But hey, can you blame them? The movie stunk on ice, and made about six bucks at the box office.
I saw “Watership Down” in the theaters as a little kid, and I remember being both fascinated and utterly terrified by it. In the animated adaptation of Richard Adams’ journey of a small group of rabbits looking for a new place to call home, death isn’t just a hazard – it’s a major character. Death, known as the Black Rabbit of Inlé in the movie, leads the prophetic Fiver to his injured brother Hazel, while Art Garfunkel’s “Bright Eyes” plays in the background. It is one of the most beautiful yet saddest things I’ve ever seen in an animated movie. All I knew about death as a child is that I was afraid of it, and while that sequence completely freaked me out, it also left an indelible mark in my memory that continues to this day.
