This week’s battle is between two overtly silly comedies pitting comic cloak-and-dagger hi-jinks against sex and scatological jokes, PG-13 division. They also pit a sophomore comedy star whose also a pretty talented actor against a once hilarious sketch comic whose now a…once hilarious sketch comic. Sorry, but I think this one is pretty easy.
* As much as I loved the original series — or perhaps because I loved the original series — I had no interest in a new “Get Smart” movie until I heard that Steve Carrell had been cast. It’s just one of those instances where an actor in a role makes so much sense that it’s pretty hard to resist. I mean even if this — actually the second film about Secret Agent 86 (let’s not forget 1980’s all but forgotten “The Nude Bomb“) — isn’t the greatest comedy ever, how bad can it be? According to the critics, including good ol’ Dave Medsker, the consensus seems to be, not all that bad, if not all that good either. Still, the bar is set not all that high for this sort of movie and while a mean person could make the case that Carrell’s film career peaked when he was a suicidal gay virgin Proust scholar hanging out with Abigail Breslin, he’s certainly built up enough good will from “The Office” to compensate.
Also helping: a strong back-up cast, including another of Carrell’s “Little Miss Sunshine” cohorts, the great Alan Arkin, cast just as perfectly as the Chief — not that anyone could ever replace the great Edward Platt. Then, because it’s a high profile movie made in 2008, there’s Dwayne “no longer the Rock” Johnson as the formerly unknown Agent 23 and Anne Hathaway stepping into the adorable shoes of Barbara Feldon. Even if the movie makes the somewhat counterintuitive step of making Maxwell Smart fairly, er, smart and casting Terrence Stamp, whose played his share of very serious villains (though we all know that General Zod can be downright hilarious) as Siegfried, audiences aren’t going to mind as long as there are enough laughs to go around, and it sounds as if this one might meet the minimum daily requirement.
Personally, though, I’m curious about the catchphrases. One thing about the old series that outpaced most of today’s lowbrow comedy is the use of not the all too common, endlessly repeated single phrase (“Are you having a laugh?”) but multiple, repeated running gags repeated with such borsht-belt shamelessness that this frequently annoying comedy trope achieved a kind of genius. Certainly critics remember: I saw at least two not quite positive reviews complaining that “Get Smart” “missed it by that much.” All I’m hoping for is that, at some point, Stamp as Siegfried dares to utter the lines so perfectly enunciated by the great Bernie Kopell to poor Shtarker: “This is KAOS, we don’t ______ here.” Regardless, however much “Get Smart” makes, or fails to make (there’s some pretty stiff competition this week), it’s almost sure to do better than it’s close competitor….
*So far, “The Love Guru” is most notable for generating some controversy — though nothing compared to the reaction that “The Love Rabbi,” “The Love Imam,” or “The Love Pope,” might have enjoyed/suffered. Religions tend to take it badly when you put religious figues in a context heavy on jokes about urine, feces, and hilarious male genitalia. Still, a defense from star Mike Myers’ real-life guru pal (who’s also has a cameo role in the movie, so we know he’s impartial), Deepak Chopra, probably made no difference to anyone except some Malibu pilates instructors, though this is clearly no “Life of Brian.” While the Indian-American market is a growing and lucrative one, this film has a lot less to fear from outraged Hindus than from outraged members of the critical-American community, who have given the film a moderately abysmal 11% on the T-Meter of life.
In any case, judging by the horrible buzz and the worse trailer, this really does seem to be kind of flick where the critical putdowns it generates are funnier than anything onscreen. Unfortunately, they’re not all not funny either, though I rather liked:
Thus Myers marries his two passions (hockey and not being funny) into one noxious ball. (Walter Chaw)
and
If Mike Myers is obsessed with poop, pee and penises, that’s his problem; if audiences make him rich for playing that out on-screen, then it becomes ours. (James Rocchi)
I hate to say it, but, while I’ve often found Myers hilarious (come back Dieter from “Sprockets”!), I’m kind of rooting against this one because Myers has fallen into bad entertainment habits, possibly stemming from a lack of respect for his audience. Still, it’s hard to overestimate the eternal appetite for jokes about the three “P”s. Or not. If audiences think Myers’ shtick is as played out as a lot of us seem to and “The Incredible Hulk” shows some legs (sorry, Mr. Shaye) a #3 spot for “The Love Guru” seems more than likely, and #4 or even #5 more than justified.
Meanwhile in Indiewood…. Among the limited releases, the aciton epic “Mongol” is going wider this week, opening in an additional 89 theaters, says the Box Office Mojo theater count. Still, while the Mongolian-American community is rather small, Anglo-Indian-Americans miffed at, or too mature, for “The Love Guru” can check out the semi-well reviewed melodrama “Brick Lane” opening in seven theaters. Members of the little-girl American community can see the aforementioned Abigail Breslin in the similarly modestly well reviewed “Kit Kittidge: An American Girl” based on a series of very popular books I had no idea existed until thirty minutes ago, opening in five theaters. And for us indie flick fans, there’s that less modestly well-reviewed, squirmy not-quite-romantic, comedy about parking enforcement we’ve all been clamoring for: “Expired” with Samantha Morton and Jason Patric.
