Get Smart (2008)
Directed by Peter Segal
When members of the nefarious crime syndicate KAOS attack the U.S. spy agency Control and the identities of secret agents are compromised, the Chief has to promote hapless but eager analyst Maxwell Smart to field agent. He is partnered with veteran and capable Agent 99, the only spy whose cover remains intact. Can they work together to thwart the evil world-domination plans of KAOS and its crafty operative?
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What critics compared Get Smart to
Hidden behind a suit-shop storefront on Savile Row, Kingsman HQ are accessed through a series of “Get Smart”-style secret doors and tunnels, while the group itself is presided over by an old blue blood played by Michael Caine.
Yet if we were to say what “Kingsman” most resembles, it would be the old TV show “Get Smart,” which was conceived as a Bond satire in the mid-1960s.
There are the Bond homages, of course (not least being a dagger-adorned shoe not unlike the one sported by Lotte Lenya in From Russia with Love), but other espionage sagas also factor into play, from a throwaway gag line invoking TV's Get Smart to the casting of Caine — Cold War spy Harry Palmer in three 1960s thrillers — in a key role.
A subpar spoof on '60s spy films clothed in dazzling, if not migraine-inducing, visuals, Kingsman is a cross between a James Bond film and a Marvel superhero comic, with a nod to Dr. No, Our Man Flint, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Get Smart.
There are also unsubtle references to The Avengers (the '60s TV series not the Marvel movie) and even (would you believe?) Get Smart.
It’s a pretty standard comedic premise, in a similar vein to other recent spy spoofs such as Johnny English and Get Smart — the one major difference being that Cooper is actually fairly good at her new job.
The film follows the tried a true spook spoof that worked for Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway in “Get Smart” pretty much from beginning to end.
Actually, that’s one of the few interesting things that happens in “Spy,” a cookie-cutter caper comedy that’s as dumb as the “Get Smart” movie.
If you like this, try: “Get Smart,” “Bridesmaids,” and “The Heat”…
Borrowing little more than character names and Jerry Goldsmith’s sleek musical theme from the original series, which ran from 1964-68 on NBC, Ritchie’s film is a surprising exception among so many recent classic-TV adaptations in that it doesn’t ironically parody its own source material (the way “Get Smart” and “21 Jump Street” did).
…never quite went the route of the spy spoof Get Smart (although the third season could get awfully campy, a side effect of the Batman craze), it offered enough of a wink-wink-nudge-nudge attitude to make even the playful 007 flicks look as serious-minded as The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by comparison.
Ritchie wants to have it both ways, to make James Bond and "Get Smart."
Unlike the overtly satiric “Get Smart,” “U.N.C.L.E.” (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) took a dry, tongue-in-cheek approach to international spying.
First, I love the idea that rather then merely stealing the name of the mid-’60s TV show and updating it to the present day (as has been done with Get Smart and Mission: Impossible), co-writer/director Guy Ritchie keeps U.N.C.L.E.
From the start, the franchise was a funny send-up of new and old, proper and not: Savile Row propiety cut with street-bred wit and gratuitous parkour, 007 suavity buttressed by affectionate self-ridicule à la Get Smart.
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But there are still those fantasy segments to contend with, and compared to similar comedies involving social misfits, lovable losers, or below-average schmucks with above-average dreams who are thrown into a situation in which they finally rise to a challenge—films like “Get Smart,” “The Other Guys,” or “Date Night”—this one doesn’t have the same consistent crackle of energy . . .
For American Ultra is The Bourne Identity with a pothead spin and Jesse Eisenberg in place of Matt Damon, a bit like Get Smart was to James Bond (in fact, there's a joke in Ultra cribbed from a Get Smart catch-phrase formula).
For grins, throw in a little Get Smart.
Franks house goes into safety mode like a modern-day "Get Smart," and the Eiffel Tower splits in two to launch a rocket from its center.