The source book for the Lifetime series Army Wives is a good read in its own right, while being different from the series in various ways. The show's characters in some fashion are represented by real part counterparts in the book. As a member of a military family, both as daughter and eventually wife, the author clearly had a special perspective beyond her skills as a reporter. This surely helped some of the individuals involved to let her provide a quite intimate look at their lives. The real life events and characters, sometimes in striking ways (e.g., who was killed) of the book and show, however, are different. To be expected, but weird to see/read at times.
There was a few digs at real life people in Get Smart, including the something of a boob President reading to children, but the differences here involves the fictional source material. I was a fan of the television show, available to me in reruns, it being an enjoyably silly exercise. Something like this can be best portrayed in small increments, but there are enough movies (Naked Gun) that successfully follow the formula too to not limit ourselves to the short form. Still, it generally has been hard to translate television to good movies, though not out of some inability to do so.
At least, I don't think so. It is more out of laziness and bad decisions. For instance, The Fugitive generally was treated as a pretty good movie, but I did not really like it. The reason is really based on the television show, the source material not just another way to get material, but something you think about while watching. And, the point of the television series here was not a fixed mystery of who killed his wife, but the ongoing struggle of a man on the run, who place to place has little dramas while seeking the truth. This was not the point of the movie and the fact Tommy Lee Jones' character by the force of the actor became a story himself also was troubling.
The Brady Bunch Movie, on the other hand, was a loyal reflection of the show, even if it was translated in a tongue in cheek sort of way. Compare this to Mission Impossible -- the WHOLE point of the series was that a group of agents, admittedly one or two clearly the "star" of the show, worked together on a mission. The movies were about Tom Cruise. Yes, a movie can be judged on its merits as much as its loyalty to its source, but this rankles. Besides, the whole one man against a conspiracy or whatever (the original movie) bores me. A movie really about the team would be for me more interesting. After all, the Ocean's Eleven movies suggest some possibility of success here.
Anyways, what about Get Smart? Mixed loyalty to source material and mixed value of entertainment. I think the two to two and half (out of four, basically) type of ratings that were typical in my area tends to explain how I feel about the movie. The leads are generally well chosen (Alan Arkin is a great choice as the Chief) and making Maxwell Smart an expert analyst who dreams of being a field agent works okay. Still, the movie is not really funny enough (a few bits, including the dance scene, do work), including making Siegfried (the evil Russian) too serious. And, MS is expert in the field basically off the bat (strategy? fine ... weaponry? not so much), even vis-a-vis 99 at times.*
The reviews I read are on the money here -- the movie is not terrible, has some good points, but a bit strangely, works more as an action movie at times than as a comedy. In fact, the movie if anything is saved by a largely action packed final third (with some light moments too -- it's the best part of the movie by far), which might be somewhat telling. The movie probaby misses by more than "that much" (the movie could have used more of the original show's touches) and not only because I wanted it more like the show. It was like the show in various ways, but as a whole, not quite enjoyable entertainment.
And, just stretching a half hour show to three times that length (the good finale alone handles around 1/3 of that) is not an excuse.** IOW, something of a miss, though enough there to make it not a complete one. [The person I went with, however, enjoyed it as a whole, so clearly it has some fans, See also, various IMDB comments.]
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* On the show, 86 and 99 finally got together after about five seasons, give or take. This time, it took less than eighty six minutes, though explaining why Anne Hathaway looked so young by noting the older agent had plastic surgery was a nice touch. To the degree, this was standard plot fare, fine (though not a great judge of her professionalism for her to keep falling for partners), but, there was literally -- Roger Ebert probably nodded since the cliche is in the glossary of his movie guide (Tarzan lead Jane) -- moments where the two were running and Max led 99 -- how stupid is that?
** Movies as a whole do at times have only enough real good material for about an hour, often resulting in tedious filler. The best thing to do here is to make necessary plot material as painless as possible. Perhaps, this makes the old 1930s sort of sixty eight minute (in the days of double features and extended previews, like cartoons) a better sort of affair.
Who wants to spend $12 for that, though? Anyways, after a pleasant enough start, the film is hurt by a middle portion that is pretty lame. Laziness factors in here, probably -- a bit of effort and style makes even the pretty routine film wortwhile.