Something Old/Something New; Something Borrowed/Something Lewd
When you think about it, Steve Carell only has two levels: absolutely real and Absolut Psycho. In what was arguably the pinnacle of the Frat Pack movies, Anchorman, Carell's comedic style minted gold as a zealous court jester in a lackadaisical circus, and he stole every scene he was in; in Dan in Real Life he flexed his creepy-strong performance muscles1 as romantic foil to Juliette Binoche, who is a real actor. But much like his slightly more famous and blander companion, Will Ferrell, the middle ground is where things tend to get rocky. This vague medium of comedy-within-reason does not suit either gentleman. It is in this grey area where jokes yield stunted, half-baked chuckles where fertile, rich laughter should have been. You go in expecting a kid-friendly 40 Year-Old Virgin, which is a tad unreasonable, but you're done a far deeper injustice because you get Evan Almighty. So it's with disappointment and chagrin and, yes, a little reluctance that I deem Get Smart an inappropriate choice for Carell to make. This sort of buffoonery is pat and benign - I like Steve when he's sharp, coy, disaffected and burning below the surface2. I also was a huge fan of the original series as a kid, and I don't like to see deliciously dated acts updated for broader modern appeal3. Couple that disillusionment with a puzzling, mixed cast and writing credits whose best work not only includes but is limited to Failure to Launch, I suspect this "action comedy" might have the same effect on its audiences as a Cone of Silence.
Yet somehow, I don't think Carell has to worry about losing his edge anytime soon (a couple sports-oriented farces couldn't kill his predecessor, and Carell still has years before that kind of hubris could strike him). Hollywood might be a-buzz over the potential the conflict of comedic titans and the disastrous effects of demographic overlap, but I wouldn't let that fluster me if I were Carell, because I do not think of Mike Myers as competition.
Myers has had the unique ability to translate SNL skits into feature films, with generally positive if uneven results. He has in common with Ben Stiller a sort of paradoxical rebelliousness (see Austin Powers; Zoolander) coupled with a sellable soul (see Shrek; any of Stiller's rom coms), which has earned him a slot as an auteur. But when Jim Carrey did The Grinch and Myers did Cat in the Hat, it kind of felt like being in one of those debates over who is hotter, MJ or Prince? We already kind of knew, even before the artificially whitened skin started creeping us out. So whereas Get Smart might suffer from too many kooks at one typewriter, Mike Myers has been hitting the same set of keys for so long that he should have written twenty Hamlets by now. With a banshee-like persistence his attention-seeking caricature has summoned the death knell4 and, if we're lucky, its relative failure will signal the end of this brand of comedy and we can all cheerfully forget the discomfort of this summer5.
What cracks me up is that, in the end, he still gets away with wearing a fat suit - although it admittedly does a poor job of augmenting anything other than his nose.
1. Just like a friend's dad who wears those drab polo T-shirts that one day seem to hug his chest a little tighter than you remember, in just the oh-so-right (and oh-so-wrong) ways.
2. Proust scholars are notoriously angsty.
3. Unless, of course, we're talking about Speed Racer. Bastardize that franchise to high heaven!
4. Jessica Alba, a.k.a. the kiss of cinematic death (for the love of God, don't see: Fantastic Four, Good Luck Chuck).
5. I'm talking to you, Sandler. You owe me.
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