Posted on: Friday, June 27, 2008
'Get Smart' is action-packed slapstick
By Roger Moore
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Mini reviews of new movies from a family perspective.
'GET SMART'
Rating: PG-13 for rude humor, action violence and crude language.
What it's about: Intelligence analyst Maxwell Smart realizes his dream to become a secret agent when he is sent, with lovely Agent 99, to find missing yellowcake uranium.
The kid attractor factor: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, all shooting and blowing stuff up.
Good lessons/bad lessons: "Until we understand our enemies are also human beings, we cannot defeat them."
Violence: Slapstick, a tiny bit of blood, and a staggering body count for a comedy.
Language: Reasonably clean.
Sex: "Missed it by THIS much."
Drugs: None.
Parents' advisory: The most benign of the big summer comedies, contentwise, aside from a prolonged trip to the toilet and the presence of "The 40-Year Old Virgin" and "Her Hotness," Anne Hathaway.
'THE LOVE GURU'
Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, vile language, comic violence and drug references.
What it's about: An American-born guru tries to crack the self-help racket by reconciling a star hockey player separated from his wife.
The kid attractor factor: The voice of Shrek, Mike Myers, doing live-action puns and shtick, randy jokes, juvenile potty humor, the works.
Good lessons/bad lessons: Love yourself and others will love you, or "Intimacy: Into ME, I SEE."
Violence: Hockey breaks out from time to time.
Language: Some profanity.
Sex: Innuendo and chastity- belt jokes and elephants reproducing and Jessica Alba.
Drugs: A pot joke.
Parents' advisory: If your kids have seen the "Austin Powers" movies, there's nothing here that will shock them, or you — it's a little naughty in that bawdy Brit-com tradition.
