Two Movies You Wouldn’t Think to Pair

I was watching “Get Smart” today, the movie with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. It is a thoroughly enjoyable movie and I was just thinking how lucky I am that two of my favorite franchises of all time — this and “Star Trek” — have been treated to really great resurrections lately.

What makes both of these movies stand out together — because I’m sure they wouldn’t usually be taken into consideration as pair usually — is that they are both fantastic stories by themselves and made all the better by playing hommage to the originals and being a real treat to the fans.

I remember seeing “Get Smart” in the theater with a couple of people who’d apparently never seen the original series. Though they were enjoying the movie, I remember laughing at all of the “inside jokes” (the original Sigfried’s cameo) and classic lines and loving the movie even more for it. I worried going into the movie that there would be too much slapstick or that the movie would be a parody of the classic — which was a parody, itself, of all the spy genre at the time. But, honestly, Mr. Carrell and Ms. Hathaway did two of my favorite characters proud and made a most enjoyable movie experience all around.

And “Star Trek,” oh, “Star Trek,” was so great on just so many levels that I can’t think of a better movie experience ever. Aside from also being true to the classic series and the characters millions have known and loved for decades, it was the most amazing action/comedy/buddy movie ever. The entire thing is well-paced and the humor is always there but never overpowering — and a bit tongue-in-cheek like the best episode and movie moments. And, again, the J. J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman made the effort to take the fans into consideration with classic lines and inside jokes without alienating newbies to the franchise.

Some would consider these movies an odd thing to considering a blessing, I know, but I can’t help but feel it’s true. Too often a classic is taken and re-made in an effort to make a quick and lazy buck; relying on name recognition to lure audiences in without delivering the nostalgia they’re looking for. “Get Smart” and “Star Trek” delivered two separate and completely different movie experiences but they offered this viewer, at least, one thing pure delight.