3 New Movies I Saw This Week

Due to a strange set of circumstances, I actually saw three movies in theaters this last week (one of which doesn’t come out until this Friday) and only paid $7.50.  My wife managed to score a pair of pre-screening tickets for Wanted last week, then on Friday we joined some friends at Woodbury’s Vali-Hi Drive-In Theater, where you can catch three shows for $7.50.  Playing that night were the newly-released Get Smart, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls, and Jumper (which we’d already seen and didn’t stick around for because it was really, really late).

Here are my brief reviews of each film:

Wanted: Based on a comic book miniseries by Mark Millar, this movie is expected to be the bang-wham action flick of the summer.  It’s about a cubicle-dwelling nobody who finds out that his dad was a big-time assassin when he’s unexpectedly recruited to join the same guild.  We follow him through his training and the adventures that ensue.

Quite honestly, while the movie looked great visually and had some fun stunts and action pieces, it was pretty bad.  The dialog was unsubtle (I’ve used the term “ham-handed” when telling others about it), the plot was derivative, and despite its R rating, I felt like it was made to cater to the sensibilities of thirteen year old boys.  Not only that, but the movie spends most of its duration encouraging you to identify with the main character, then insults you at the end for doing so.  Nice.  Lop off the first and last ten minutes of the film and it wouldn’t be terrible, but overall I found it to be a disappointment.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls: Even though this was the third of three that we saw, I’m saving the best for last and getting this out of the way early.  Despite mixed reviews, I really had high hopes for this one, but even my nostalgia can’t coax me to give a glowing review.

In large part, I really enjoyed this movie.  It had some great “Indy” moments, and occasionally I was able to forget that it was made last year instead of twenty years ago.  While the filmmakers did an admirable job of justifying Indy’s age and the new era in which he lives (it takes place twenty years after the first three), and while Indy’s definitely “still got it,” much of it felt like Indy was bewildered and trying to play catch-up with what he doesn’t understand.  It’s fine line to walk between that and the competent-but-in-over-his-head Indy we’re used to from the original three movies, but the difference is there, and it can be tough to watch sometimes.

The plot takes us places that, for a film set in the ’50′s (with all its post-war uncertainty and science fiction craziness) make sense, but still feel out of place for an Indiana Jones adventure.  Also, while Spielberg and company tried in many places to create the movie the way they had in the old days, they still went with some scenes of obvious CGI that immediately ruined the illusion of an older film.  Add in a few other scenes that were way too silly and self-aware for even an Indy film and I found myself being frequently jolted out of the world of the movie and back into the real world.  Even for me, it was hard to suspend disbelief that much and that frequently.  Consequently, the result was a film that was mostly fun, but overall unfulfilling.

If Spielberg is in earnest about a fifth adventure possibly being on the horizon, I would suggest an even more complete return to the look and feel that made the original trilogy classic in the first place.  Dig out the stop-motion models for the SFX, base the plot around an archaelogical discovery that’s rooted in ancient mythology or tradition (but then don’t explain it away with a concept that’s only half a century old), and tone down the silliness.  The final result needs to be campy but thrilling, action-packed but not over the top, and humorous without being too tongue in cheek.  It’s a formula that worked in the days of the original Star Wars and Indy movies, but which is apparently a little elusive in this era of modern filmmaking.  Here’s hoping it can be rediscovered soon!

Get Smart: Thank goodness for this movie!  With two movies I’d been excited about turning into letdowns, this third one was a shining moment.  Get Smart is as funny as you’d hoped it would be from watching the trailers.  It’s a great mix of physical comedy and smart, dry humor.  With a PG-13 rating, there are a few gross-out or innuendo-related jokes, but not nearly as many as you’d expect.  Steve Carell is as close a match to Don Adams for Maxwell Smart as you could probably get, and the rest of the cast is equally brilliant in bringing some beloved (and brand new) characters to life — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is, as always, especially great.

Aside from the humor, the movie is well-rounded with a fun plot and some great action.  Some of the effects do seem a little half-done, but I think that’s okay because the movie is definitely just a comedy, even though the finale is very big.  The screenplay is so full of quotable lines that it’s tough to remember many of them after the movie is done because they kept coming too quickly to dwell on them.  Overall, Get Smart was really the funniest new movie I’ve seen in a very long time, and it’s one that I hope to enjoy again.