What do you think? Personally, I was already jazzed, but now I officially cannot wait for May 8, 2009. The following admission will no doubt result in several of my friends declaring me to be dead to them, but if I’m to be truthful, I’m more excited about this film than I was to see “The Phantom Menace.”
True story.
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.
Earning the title of highest-grossing Vietnamese movie of all-time is sort of like a Vietnamese chef who’s renowned for the best American hamburger in his country – true, but not exactly as amazing as it sounds. Credit the makers of “The Rebel,” then, for not only delivering the first true Vietnamese actioneer, but actually making it good enough to compete with China and Hong Kong’s nonstop supply of martial arts films. “The Rebel” takes place in 1922 Vietnam where French colonial rule is being challenged by a group of resistance fighters. In response to the rebel activity, the French government has hired Vietnamese agents to track down and kill them, but when one agent (Johnny Tri Nguyen) becomes tired of spilling the blood of his own countrymen, he teams up with the daughter (Tranh Van Ngo) of the rebel leader and incurs the wrath of his boss, Sy (Dustin Nguyen, of “21 Jump Street” fame), who’s been promised a promotion if he can capture the traitors. Directed by Charlie Nguyen, “The Rebel” is just as much of a historical drama as it is a martial arts film, and as such, it has a pretty decent story to tell when its characters aren’t busy kicking ass. Of course, as with most Dragon Dynasty films, the main draw of “The Rebel” is the action, and believe it or not, there’s some really great stuff here. Johnny Tri Nguyen, whose biggest role to date is as Tobey Maguire’s costumed stunt double in the first two “Spider-Man” films, isn’t the greatest actor in the world, but he’s got moves that most action fans have never seen before, and that alone is worth the price of admission.
At last: the “24” trailer.
They’ve been linked since 1974 and “The Godfather: Part II.” Al Pacino, with only one major performance behind him, had become a major star with a perfectly modulated performance as reluctant Mafia prince Michael Corleone in “The Godfather.” Two years later, Robert De Niro‘s energetic work as the young Vito Corleone in the universally acclaimed sequel transformed the respected working actor into an almost instant superstar. The laws of time and space dictated that they could not appear together as father and son (this wasn’t “Back to the Future: Sicilian Style”), and so the two remained on separate tracks. Even in Michael Mann’s hugely successful 1993 action drama, “Heat,” the ballyhooed Pacino-De Niro collaboration was mostly limited to a single scene over a cup of coffee at a pricey Beverly Hills eatery. It was as if all that intensity could only be contained in a few minutes of caffeine-fueled conversation and posturing.
The release of the new cop thriller, “Righteous Kill,” promises more Bob-and-Al interaction, but there’s no reason these two acting powerhouses with Italian surnames can’t share the screen comfortably. There’s no taking away from the power of their most iconic non-“Godfather” roles: screwed-up vigilante-in-training Travis Bickle (“Taxi Driver”); hapless would-be bank robber Sonny Wortzik (“Dog Day Afternoon”); troubled boxer Jake LaMotta (“Raging Bull“); ultra-ambitious immigrant gangster Tony Montana (“Scarface“); or quick to kill wise guy Jimmy Conway (“Goodfellas“). And there’s a lot more to these two performers than barely concealed rage, well-wrought angst and occasional bouts of scenery munching.
Take a look at our list of 20 somewhat less well known performances showcasing the less obvious attributes of these two Italian-surnamed dynamos, and then come back and let us know what performances you might have added (or subtracted).
© 2026 Premium Hollywood
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑