Quick Cuts

Getting Smarter
A spy who’s more lucky than adept bumbles his way through outlandish adventures with a beautiful (and probably smarter) female associate at his side.

That description of course brings to mind the ’60s TV sitcom “Get Smart,” in which Don Adams’ nasally-challenged Maxwell Smart and Barbara Feldon’s glamorous Agent 99 spoofed “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” James Bond and the rest of the decade’s spy mania. And for the moviegoing crowd, it encapsulates the new big-screen adaptation of "Get Smart," starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway.

But it also sums up another, very different spy spoof currently in theaters: “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies,” a French farce starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo.

My friend Mark Gunter, mentioned here in the past as a reliable source of pop culture recommendations, talked me into seeing “OSS 117” with him last weekend, and then my daughter Olivia and I joined Mark in seeing the new “Get Smart” film this weekend.

Despite their similar setups, the two films are very different, and yet both accomplish their missions.

"OSS 117" is based on a very popular series of post-World War II French spy novels predating Ian Fleming's 007 books by a few years. Past movie adaptations were straight espionage adventures, but this latest film (released in France in 2006 but only out in the U.S. since May) takes off on the "From Russia With Love" era of Bond films before the gadgets, plots and stunts became high-tech. It's set in 1955 in Cairo, where agents representing France, Britain, the Soviets and even the nascent Islamic fundamentalist movement are all stabbing each other in the back, literally as well as figuratively. The film satirizes cheesy spy film conventions of the time, including obvious rear-screen projection behind the characters while they're supposedly riding in a car or on a motorcycle, and day-for-night photography.

Dujardin has the early Sean Connery look down pat ... until he gives one of his goofy grins and goes off on a hilarious tangent like a French Maxwell Smart. In addition to making fun of spy movies, "OSS 117" takes some shots at the condescending colonial attitude Westerners had toward the Middle East and particularly Muslims in that era. The French agent manages to antagonize just about every Egyptian he meets with his cavalier ignorance of and dismissal of the various tenets of Islam that he finds strange. (He opines that no religion that bans the use of alcohol can last.) It also has quite a bit of fun with the lead character's sexual insecurity.

As his trusty (or maybe not) local assistant, the very appealing Argentine-born Bejo does a nicely understated job, managing to keep at least one foot planted in reality. There are occasional cartoonish elements to the comedy, mostly involving Nazis, and a running gag about the agent playing with the lights at a chicken plant to turn the birds' clucking on and off gets a little silly, but a mid-film musical number performed by Dujardin is an unexpected delight.

As you would expect of a French indie film, "OSS 117" takes a much more low-key approach than a Bond extravaganza, and in fact uses this as part of its satire, replacing the usual shootout at one point with the French agent and a mysterious hooded antagonist throwing dead chickens at each other in the poultry plant (which provides the French secret service's decidedly downscale undercover headquarters).

In contrast, "Get Smart" spoofs the big-budget special effects-laden deadly battles of the latter-day Bond films (it, in fact, works quite well as an action film) while at the same time paying affectionate tribute to the original TV show and its various iconic images (the series of elaborate automatic doors leading to the phone booth that provides entry to CONTROL headquarters, the shoe phone, and the original Max's sporty red convertible) and fondly remembered catchphrases ("Sorry about that, chief," "the old [fill in the blank with an elaborate scenario] trick" and "Missed it by THAT much").

I knew from past films that the drop-dead gorgeous Hathaway would be an on-screen treat (though I'd underestimated just how sexy and Emma Peel-ish her Agent 99 would be), but I wasn't sure what to expect from Carell replacing the wisecracking Adams as Smart. In fact, I think Carell does a better job of humanizing Max and making him more than a one-note joke. Adams' Smart was clueless; Carell's is smart but clumsy and inexperienced. (In a smart departure from the TV version, the film has Max being promoted in a pinch from analyst to field agent and teamed with 99, who is initially cool to him and reluctant to mentor a novice.) In their game of one-upmanship, Carell's Max actually scores some points against (and impresses) the more polished 99. The on-camera chemistry between Carell and Hathaway is another plus.

Dwayne Johnson (formerly known as "the Rock") shows a nice comic touch as a disdainful superstar agent, Alan Arkin provides his usual solid support as the Chief and Masi Oka and Nate Torrence are amusing as Max's geeky CONTROL pals Bruce and Lloyd.

There are a lot of laughs in the film, but probably the single best bit takes place in an airliner lavatory as Max awkwardly tries over and over to sever the ties binding his wrists with a miniature crossbow built into his Swiss Army knife and winds up looking like a pin-cushion.

I've seen a lot of spy spoofs going back to the "In Like Flint" films and the original "Casino Royale" on through the more cartoonish Austin Powers flicks and the forgettable "Johnny English," but both "OSS 117" and "Get Smart" improve on the standard, the former by taking the genre back to its roots, and the latter by fleshing out a character who previously was more of a caricature. Plus Anne Hathaway is worth the price of admission all by herself.

I found both films quite enjoyable. For more on "OSS 117," which is currently on the art house circuit, go to:
http://www.oss117movie.com

REMEMBERING: Over the years, I enjoyed the work of comedian George Carlin — who died last week at age 71 — going back to his more mainstream routines in the mid-'60s when he was a slick-haired regular on the Sullivan show and other variety hours and especially after he grew his hair and started doing more "hip" anti-establishment material in the late '60s and early '70s, most notoriously with his famous seven-words-you-can't-say-on-TV routine. In recent years, he seemed to have fallen into doing old-hippie character parts, but in his HBO specials heyday, he was much more of a thoughtful wordsmith than your usual stand-up comic. This past weekend, in tribute to Carlin, NBC decided to rerun the very first edition of "Saturday Night Live" from back in 1975, which featured Carlin as guest host. Two things struck me about the show: First, it was not Carlin at his best. In fact, some of the brief bits were among the least funny I ever saw him do. Secondly, in that first show the acclaimed first group of Not Ready for Prime Time Players took a definite back seat to the guest host (who did numerous stand-up bits throughout the program) and musical acts (Janis Ian and Billy Preston). Throw in the filmed bits, a long, not particularly funny attempt by the Muppets to do edgy humor, and another routine by a now long-forgotten female stand-up, and there wasn't all that much time devoted to Belushi, Aykroyd, Radner, et al. Chevy Chase, with his "Weekend Update," was the most prominently featured of the Players. Interesting to see how tentative that first "SNL" effort was.

GOTCHA COVERED: You probably saw the results of the Total Guitar magazine survey where Celine Dion was credited with the worst-ever cover version for her rendition of AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long." Conversely, Jimi Hendrix's cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" was named best cover, with The Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout" (first recorded by the Top Notes and popularized by the Isley Brothers) in second place, followed by the Guns N' Roses version of Wings' "Live and Let Die." Which got me to thinking about when we focused on the most popular Beatles cover versions in Beatlefan magazine a few years back. For my money, the best (in terms of most artistically successful) Fab cover of all time is Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help From My Friends," which went on to be the theme of "Wonder Years" on TV. As was the case with The Beatles and "Twist and Shout," Cocker practically made the song his own, and Generation X probably associates the tune more with him than the Fabs. Which, it seems to me, is the mark of a great cover.

QUICKIES: Six of One, one of the more notable appreciation societies for the classic TV series "The Prisoner," has published unconfirmed details about the upcoming new miniseries version of the show being done for Britain's ITV and America's AMC. They say Jim Caviezel (“The Passion of the Christ”) will play the titular role originated by Patrick McGoohan and that Ian McKellen will play No. 2, his chief jailer/interrogator. (The TV version had numerous No. 2s, most prominently Leo McKern.) Six episodes go into production in Namibia and South Africa in August for airing next year, the group says. ... CBS/Paramount, not my favorite home video outfit for the way they mishandled some aspects of "The Andy Griffith Show" on DVD, has gotten a lot of flak lately for completely replacing the original background musical score (except the title theme) on the second-season release of "The Fugitive." The problem appears to have been that rather than just featuring the work of one composer written specifically for the show, "The Fugitive" pulled works from various music libraries (one of which is now defunct), and getting clearance to use those pieces was considered too complicated and costly by Paramount. The package, which features only a tiny disclaimer that "some music may have been changed," drew some of the most heated customer comments ever on Amazon.com. No wonder there's such a demand for so many of these old shows on the bootleg circuit. ... The new episodes of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" currently airing on USA and NBC will be the last with Chris Noth's Detective Mike Logan alternating with the quirky Vincent D’Onofrio's Bobby Goren. For the eighth season of the show, Jeff Goldblum (“The Big Chill,” "Jurasic Park"), also known for his quirky portrayals, will play the newest addition to the Major Case Squad. That’s a lot of quirky in one squad room.

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Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Orleans' "Still the One" (a free iTunes download from buying Coldplay tix)

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