The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

I feel like this movie was a little funnier than the second Naked Gun, although it again didn't stand up to the first. That was pretty obviously unlikely from the beginning though, so I mostly just tried to enjoy it for what it was, the most 1994'd 1994 movie to ever 1994 in 1994. I still feel like this style of comedy feels like it belongs in the 80s, but so much of the actual content just screams out 1994. O.J. Simpson's back, right before the whole trial thing blew up. Anna Nicole Smith is the stunt casted famous-for-little-reason hot chick who causes trouble, at the height of her good looks. The final act of the movie takes place during an Oscar telecast, and it's stuffed to the brim with people who were more famous then than they are now, like Weird Al, Vanna White, Florence Henderson, Olympia Dukakis, Elliot Gould, and Raquel Welch. A bit of it's funny in places, although it mostly seems like forced celebrity ball washing after the funnier first hour of the film. It's hard to remember the funnier bits now all of about a week later, but there's some solid jokes revolving around a prison escape and marital troubles that kept me entertained enough to keep watching. There's really a boatload of familiar faces everywhere you look, and while it's far from the pinnacle of edgy comedy, it's hard to dislike too. Not brilliant but certainly watchable if you like Leslie Nielsen.

Get Smart

Get Smart wasn't great, but it was enjoyable enough that I don't feel my New Years Eve was completely wasted. I like Steve Carell a lot, and he stars among a great cast of all kinds of people, from recognizable comedic faces to great classical actors. Unfortunately, most of them aren't used to their full potential. There are just too many jokes that fall flat for it to be a good comedy. At times, it really seems more like a spy movie with some goofy jokes than a comedy movie about spies, which I feel is more how it was advertised. I've never seen Mel Brooks' original series, so I have no idea how well it compares or how true it is to the show's spirit, so I'm not sure what exactly it was supposed to be, but judging by the reactions of others it's not really waht it should have been.

I actually sort of feel like it does the spy thing better than the humor thing, maybe understandable considering Peter Segal's record of directing mediocre comedies. But there are some fairly interesting missions and the climax is genuinely pretty exciting. Anne Hathaway is hot enough to be a real Bond girl, and matches up against Carell pretty well, although the romance seemed forced to me. Alan Arkin reunites with Carell after his questionable Oscar-winning performance in Little Miss Sunshine and plays an interesting take on the veteran chief character, and Dwayne Johnson should really be in more movies. There's really not much more to say about the movie - it was mostly okay with a few moments that were pretty great. Definitely less than I hoped for after the teaser trailer.