Get Smart

I never really saw much of the original "Get Smart" TV show. Made in the sixties, it was a moderately successful spoof of all the spy shows that were popular at the time.

Since Hollywood these days seems to be based on strip mining the past for movie ideas it was only a matter of time before they got around to making a film. Get Smart the movie is actually quite good. The original Maxwell Smart  character was a bit of an idiot. Steve Carel stars as the new one and does a good job of portraying him as more of a nerd than a buffoon, as he and Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) take on the forces of Kaos. Some of the comedy is a bit broad, and the script creaks a bit under the weight of the big budget that seem to have been thrown at it. But there are laughs to be had and I enjoyed it a lot more than the reviews say I should have.

One thing that did irritate though was the way that the projectionist at CineWorld neglected to open up the gate on the projector, so that rather than seeing the film in proper widescreen we just got the same dimensions as we can get on the telly at home. They did this last week when we saw Hellboy as well.

I'm not sure if this is a new policy, with films being made to fit DVDs rather than cinemas, but you do feel a bit cheated. The actual print itself was pretty horrid too, with poor definition and muddy colours. I think from now on we will go to Vue in town, where they have an all digial setup which is far superior in quality.