Summer of '08: Get Smart, The Love Guru, and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

Missed it by that much!

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Welcome back to the latest edition of Summer of ‘08!

We’re back with reviews for a pretty good comedy, a terrible comedy, and a forgotten family franchise.

Get Smart (2008)

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?

June 20, 2008

Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Terry Crews
cinematography by Dean Semler
music by Trevor Rabin
screenplay by Tom J. Astle, Matt Ember
produced by Leonard B. Stern, Alex Gartner, Charles Roven, Andrew Lazar, Michael Ewing
directed by Peter Segal

Mel Brooks, seventeen years ago a young and spry 81 years old, never shies away from rebooting one of his parody movies in an attempt to take it from film to film franchise. In the past 20 years, we’ve seen a Young Frankenstein musical, a Producers remake based on the Producers musical, a Spaceballs cartoon, a History of the World sequel series, and, just announced this past week, a Spaceballs sequel.

2008’s Get Smart, based on the ‘60s spy series created by Brooks and Buck Henry, was the second attempt at a Get Smart reboot following a 1995 sequel show that lasted a measly seven episodes. Though rarely mentioned now, the movie holds up now for a number of reasons. First, it’s a straight-up comedy, the kind that we never get anymore, one that doesn’t rely on the kind of laughing-at-another-person’s-expense jokes that ruin so many 2000s comedies. It succeeds as a secret agent parody in the wake of a Bond reboot, repurposing gags from the original series, like Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone, the cone of silence for classified conversations, and the weird and random hiding spots of Agent 13, here played in a cameo performance by a comedy icon.

Above all, it’s the cast that’s bulletproof. Smart is played by Steve Carell, playing a variant of the lovable loser character he played so well on The Office, which was in full swing at this point, and movies like Anchorman and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. His stupid sincerity is essential to the Brooks brand of humor. Anne Hathaway, now a certified star but then still on the rise, plays Agent 99, and while she does get the chance to be a little funny and lotta kickass, her main job is to be the beautiful foil to Carell’s dork. Similarly, Dwayne Johnson, still working out his acting skills, is there to be the Adonis of CONTROL, the kind of person who would really be a secret agent. Alan Arkin plays their chief, reminding everyone just how funny he is.

Eleven days after the release of Get Smart, the direct-to-DVD spinoff Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control, starring CONTROL techies Masi Oka and Nate Torrence, hit store shelves. If we can get 100 new subscriptions between now and then, I’ll review that too.

The Love Guru (2008)

Born in America and raised in an Indian ashram, Pitka returns to his native land to seek his fortune as a spiritualist and self-help expert. His skills are put to the test when he must get a brokenhearted hockey player's marriage back on track in time for the man to help his team win the Stanley Cup.

June 20, 2008

Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, Verne Troyer, John Oliver, Ben Kingsley
cinematography by Peter Deming
music by George S. Clinton
screenplay by Mike Myers, Graham Gordy
produced by Michael De Luca, Mike Myers
directed by Marco Schnabel

The Love Guru is a terribly unfunny, a bomb that basically sent Mike Myers into a semi-retirement, aside from his “Wait, is that Mike Myers?” bit parts in Inglorious Basterds and Bohemian Rhapsody. It is so unfunny, in fact, I will tell you about the funniest thing that The Love Guru ever did.

It’s May 21, 2008, and on this Wednesday night, over 31 million people are tuned in to the American Idol season 7 finale. American Idol is still at the heights of its powers, and the world wants to know if singer-songwriter David Cook or baby-faced David Archuleta will be crowned the winner. I don’t know if this is still true because I don’t watch the show anymore (are there people who do? I thought we all just watched the blind auditions from The Voice on TikTok, and that was the extent of our singing competition consumption, but they keep making it so that can’t be true), but back in the Simon, Paula, and Randy days, the finales were marathons. Announcing the winner from a pool of two people was a multi-hour affair, filled with cameos and product placement, often going past the scheduled end time and screwing up people’s TiVo recordings.

A month before The Love Guru was set to release, in what could have only been a seriously expensive marketing campaign, the Davids were shown getting to see the film early, laughing at a scene where Verne Troyer, returning to the Mike Myers-verse after playing Mini-Me, is hit in the head with a hockey puck and knocked over. Hilarious! Then, Myers joined the finale in character as Guru Maurice Pitka. Ryan Seacrest, always happy to lob an alley-oop, says, “Guru, you are a mystical and wise man. You must have some prediction about the winner tonight.”

“Yes, Mr. Seafoam,” Myers cracked. His big joke? As the camera zooms in, Myers pans, “I will predict that the winner’s name will be…David.”

It’s still funnier than anything in the movie, a comedy where Myers’ character greets people with the phrase “Mariska Hargitay” and where Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley’s character is cross-eyed because he masturbates too much.

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008)

In order to keep their home, Kit and her mother must take in boarders - paying house - guests who turn out to be full of fascinating stories. When mother's lockbox containing all their money is stolen, Kit's new hobo friend Will is the prime suspect. Kit refuses to believe that Will would steal, and her efforts to sniff out the real story get her and friends into big trouble. The police say the robbery was an inside job, committed by someone they know. So if it wasn't Will, then who did it.

June 20, 2008

Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond, Chris O'Donnell, Jane Krakowski, Wallace Shawn
cinematography by David Boyd
music by Joseph Vitarelli
screenplay by Anne Peacock
produced by Ellen L. Brothers, Jodi Goldberg, Julie Goldstein
directed by Patricia Rozema

It’s surprising to me that the American Girl movies weren’t the biggest franchise at the time, considering the popularity of the dolls. Maybe that’s just 2025 me talking because now they would be a franchise hit starring Nikki Glaser as a grown-up American Girl or something. Maybe Amy Heckerling would still be making movies, I don’t know.