GET SMART AGAIN (1989)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological*



Nine years later, the franchise got another tryout, but this time, the producers decided to play the nostaglia-angle for all it was worth, bringing back many of the actors from the teleseries in their original roles. The most noteworthy of these was Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, who's once more married to Smart as she was at series-end, and there's even a quick continuity-reference to the twin sons seen therein, who are said to be "off at college." CONTROL has been dissolved and its functions taken over by newer agencies, who bring Agent 86 out of mothballs to track down a missing scientist (who bears the hilariously ethnic name "Hottentot)". In the course of his investigations Smart re-activates not only his old partner 99-- who's involved in a book-deal that turns out to be of great consequence to the plot-- but also Hymie the Robot and second-banana spy Larrabee (who admittedly had made an appearance in NUDE BOMB). In addition, Smart is once again pitted against his old series-nemesis Siegfried, though the villain himself is downplayed in favor of introducing his never-seen-before twin brother, who's not nearly as charismatic as the original comic-villain.

As for the jokes-- well, this time they're not just flat and forced, but they're covered with the dust of nostalgia, for almost every joke in GET SMART AGAIN is a swipe from the old series. The humor is also almost entirely verbal. The one half-decent attempt at aping the teleseries' penchant for slapstick takes place between Smart and a KAOS-agent, whose fight is continually interrupted by file-drawers that keep popping out and hitting both combatants.

I don't know what kind of budget this TV-film had, but frankly, most of the time the show reminded me of those old 1960s stag-films, shot in warehouses and apartments. Director Gary Nelson was a seasoned if not particularly outstanding TV-director by this time, so I tend to blame the drab, cloistered look of the telefilm on a miniscule budget-- though the lameness of the plot involving 99's tell-all book certainly does not help.

My verdict is that though both films are terrible, the earlier one is better if you want something that at least resembles a Bond-spoof, while the later one may work for anyone who simply wants to re-visit all the old schticks of the series-- though I for one would rather just watch the old show instead.