Get Smart movie review

I always enjoyed Steve Carell on The Daily Show but when I watched him for the first time in "The 40 Year Old Virgin," I was disappointed. The humor was lame and the plot was weak despite some good acting by Carell. Then I had a chance to watch "Little Miss Sunshine" and I realized that if the plot was right, Carell could be at his best.

I have been a big fan of Anne Hathaway since I saw her in "The Devil Wears Prada."

In "Get Smart" movie, Carell and Hathaway are both agents (Maxwell Smart and Agent 99) for a fictitious intelligence agency. The two go on a mission together to Russia to find out how KAOS, a terrorist organization, was getting nuclear weapons. There is a lot of action-filled comedy and eventually Smart is suspected to be a double-agent. He proves that he is not a double agent by preventing the explosion of a bomb at a concert in Los Angeles attended by the president.

If you are looking for spy-thriller, this is not the movie for you, but if you like satire and comedy, it is a good one. I was also pleasantly surprised that there is a lot more action in the movie than I would have expected from demure Hathaway and least likely spy Carell.

The Devil Wears Prada movie review

Most magazine editors become very powerful but Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, is above them all. The top designers in the world have to be on good terms with her because Vogue is literally the Bible for the fashionistas and nothing gets inside the magazine until Wintour says so.

She is reportedly the inspiration for the book and the movie. And those of us have had the misfortune of dealing with mean bosses know what it feels like and how frustrating it can be to work with nasty supervisor.

Miranda Priestley (a role that was literally made for Meryl Streep) hires yet another assistant Andy Sachs (I would have never thought that Anne Hathaway was such a fine actress) not just to answer phone calls or to act as an executive assistant, but also to bring coffee for her boss and be treated worse than a maid.

It is the story of a right-out-of-college graduate with all the aspirations of making it big and always doing the right thing, but then finds out that the world of business is one ugly place where there is no place for sweet, polite, considerate people.

She learns a lot of lessons about work and life from her boss but like anyone with even a bit of personal values would do, she quits (as dozens of assistants have done in the past). In the end she realizes that a great job is not worth it if it means stepping on people's toes and sacrificing your personal values.

Strongly recommended if you like fashion, comedy, New York, and Paris.