Anne Hathaway

In ‘Get Smart’ Lifeless Retread, Steve Carell Can’t Fill Don Adams’ Shoe

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:37:59 -0700

CHICAGO – Observing the new “Get Smart” film, which is based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name, is to note how much has changed since the Cold War ended.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

KAOS and CONTROL – the U.S. and Russian spy agencies that square off in the movie – seem like relics of another era. In this age of homeland security and unlimited government wiretapping, it’s difficult to create fictional comedy that can compete with real-life absurdity.

The film version of “Get Smart” lives up to that truth. Combining dull action-movie elements, badly cast movie stars and an uncomfortable romance, the film has forgotten all about its TV roots and most of the humor.

Read Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Get Smart” in our reviews section.

View our full, high-resolution “Get Smart” image gallery.

Played by Steve Carell, Maxwell Smart is a Russian interpreter and communications administrator in the secret government spy agency CONTROL.

The chief (Alan Arkin) wants Smart to stay in the administration even though he longs to join spies like Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson) and work in the field.

After KAOS – a rival Russian agency – infiltrates and wrecks the CONTROL offices, Smart is promoted to field agent and partnered with super-spy Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). Their mission is to find out who’s behind KAOS and identify their evil plans.

“Get Smart,” which stars Steve Carell, Anna Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Bill Murray and Ryan Seacrest, opened everywhere on June 20, 2008.

Steve Carell stars as Maxwell Smart (left) and Anne Hathaway stars as Agent 99 in “Get Smart”.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Anne Hathaway (left) stars as Agent 99 and Steve Carell stars as Maxwell Smart in “Get Smart”.
Photo credit: Tracy Bennett

Read Patrick McDonald’s full “Get Smart” review.

‘Snow Angels’ an Essential Examination of Yin, Yang in Our Vulnerable Lives

HollywoodChicago.com — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:56:43 -0700

CHICAGO – Staying sane is truly an edge-of-the-knife proposition. We are all the sum of our past environments, our present circumstances and our future worries. The sludge that is generated by such a mixture becomes the psyche that’s ready to interact with other psyches we deem important or are forced to be around through family or commerce.

Director David Gordon Green inspects the tipping point of this interaction in the unsparing new film “Snow Angels”.

Arthur (Michael Angarano) is the teenager who walks through all the lives of this multi-storied road. His old babysitter, Annie (Kate Beckinsale), is amid a separation from her husband, Glenn (Sam Rockwell), who has attempted suicide because of the relationship’s fallout.

Click here to read Patrick McDonald’s full review
of “Snow Angels” in our reviews section!

Click here for our full “Snow Angels” image gallery!

Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale in “Snow Angels”.
Photo credit: IMDb

Michael Angarano in “Snow Angels”.
Photo credit: IMDb

First-Look Production Stills: New ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Get Smart,’ ‘10,000 B.C.’; ‘Speed Racer’ Poster

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:00:16 -0700

Following our Dec. 11 post, which featured a slew of new production stills from 2008 Warner Bros. films, even more have just been released by the studio. We now see the first stills from “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “10,000 B.C.” and “Get Smart”.

Steven Strait as D’Leh in the epic adventure “10,000 B.C.”.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”.
Photo credit: Jaap Buitendijk

Anne Hathaway stars as Agent 99 and Steve Carell stars
as Maxwell Smart in “Get Smart”.
Photo credit: Tracy Bennett

Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart in “Get Smart”.
Photo credit: Tracy Bennett
Also, I’m adding a sweet “Speed Racer” production still from Dec. 11. Below it, we see a new lenticular “Speed Racer” poster that – in person – is literally in 3D. /Film says: “The helmet under [Speed Racer’s] arms pops out at you and the background is also in 3D.”

Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer in the Mach 5 in the film “Speed Racer”.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Lenticular “Speed Racer” poster in 3D.
Image credit: FirstShowing.net