I never saw the "Get Smart" movie that this direct-to-video movie is spun off of, namely because I can't stand Steve Carell and that I never thought the original "Get Smart" TV show was all that funny. But the opportunity to see this for free came up, and I decided to give it a try. Though the events of this movie seem to be playing at the same time of the events of the Carell movie, the events of this movie seemed pretty clear; you don't need to see the Carell movie to understand what's going on here.
It's a harmless but mostly forgettable movie. Though there was something in this movie that bothered me. Though the characters of Bruce and Lloyd are partners, when it came down to a scene focusing on just one of them, 95% of these scenes were focused on Lloyd, not the Asian-American Bruce. Subtle racism? Maybe. On the other hand, Bruce is shown to have a girlfriend (who is Caucasian - rare for a movie to show such a male Asian / female Caucasian relationship), while the poor Lloyd is shown to be hopeless with women. Judge for yourself.
It's a harmless but mostly forgettable movie. Though there was something in this movie that bothered me. Though the characters of Bruce and Lloyd are partners, when it came down to a scene focusing on just one of them, 95% of these scenes were focused on Lloyd, not the Asian-American Bruce. Subtle racism? Maybe. On the other hand, Bruce is shown to have a girlfriend (who is Caucasian - rare for a movie to show such a male Asian / female Caucasian relationship), while the poor Lloyd is shown to be hopeless with women. Judge for yourself.