The Nude Bomb (1980)

A Pretty Funny Movie

Before purchasing this movie, I've read a lot of reviews from all different sites. From people hating it to liking it to loving it, it was pretty complicated to decide. But being the Don Adams fan that I am I did the smartest thing... Okay,I bought it.
I saw that he didn't exactly play Maxwell Smart but more like an Austin Powers type, women falling all over him, the strange colorful villian that clones himself, but Adams didn't get too Risqué with the sexual talk like Austin Powers did. But overall I happen to think that this movie was pretty funny. I missed not seeing Barbara Feldman but my favorite scenes was the beginning of the film (very James Bondish) Him driving the desk all over the road after the bad guy and towards the end when Adams and the villian kept cloning themselves and you can even see a mini-Max for a few seconds.
So you can love it, you can hate it, but I personally thought it was a very entertaining spy spoof. July 17, 2008

Not So Smart

Would you believe this no-frills DVD carries a $19.98 list price? Would you believe you can get a collection of 8 much-funnier Abbott & Costello features for less? Would you believe I would have given this DVD a three-star rating if only it were less than ten bucks?

I first saw THE NUDE BOMB on its initial theatrical release in 1980, in a crowded theater. While the audience guffawed appreciatively all the way through the picture, I only found myself chuckling and laughing intermittently. Maybe this audience wasn't as familiar with the TV series as I was, because I came away thinking this was a misfire. Don Adams was a gifted comedic actor and a pitch-perfect Maxwell Smart, but without crucial characters such as Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), The Chief (Edward Platt, who died in 1974), and Siegfried (Bernie Kopell) for Adams to play off of, THE NUDE BOMB couldn't possibly achieve the TV series' level of comic brilliance.

As Don Adams lamented in later interviews, THE NUDE BOMB was made by a studio that didn't comprehend the appeal or intent of the original series -- and it shows. Even the title reveals this lack of understanding. In Europe the film was released as THE RETURN OF MAXWELL SMART -- a much better title, in my opinion -- yet in the U.S. it was distributed as THE NUDE BOMB, which makes it sound like a cheap softcore grindhouse flick.

Nevertheless, I don't believe THE NUDE BOMB is a terrible film. Don Adams tries hard to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation, and he manages to inject some laughs into this diluted affair. There are some clever and amusing moments, and a casual viewer may find it an agreeable spy-movie satire. But for those of us who love the original series, this is an awfully disappointing venture...and, ultimately, a pointless one.


July 1, 2008

Imagine Agent 86 in an alternate universe

I think the main reason this movie gets so many poor reviews is because it does not stay true to the original series. If you take this movie as a stand-alone film -- not expecting Agent 99 or the same Maxwell Smart as the old TV series -- then you may be able to enjoy it more.

There's a lot of good humor in this movie that just gets overshadowed by the "this isn't the same Get Smart I used to know" sentiment.

June 16, 2008

NOT The Return of Maxwell Smart

I don't know who Don Adams was playing in this movie. It sure wasn't Maxwell Smart..more like Austin Powers. Would Max ever say stuff like, "I thought our female agents were young and willing to fool around a lot." None of the original writers or production stuff that created the brilliant original series were involved. Don Adams said that the funniest bits were stuff that was cut from the film. Very painful to watch...doesn't capture the feel of the original show at all. There was no humor whatsoever from the extremely dull KOAS actors. See Get Smart Again another time instead of this. That movie is much better and doesn't mention this movie, even in passing. May 16, 2008

Tick...tick...tick...

Nude? Hardly. A bomb? Indeed. Not only is it a bomb, it's a DUD! May 5, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...