Signs of Life 2008: Best Music
Leona Naess - "All is Fair"
the everybodyfields - "Worth Keeping"
Paste celebrates 10 years
Album Stream: Listen to Mindy Smith's Christmas album My Holiday
Despite the occasional slip-up, Steve Carell has shown admirable restraint as the major studios have tried to turn him into a generic clone of his contemporaries. So perhaps we owe him the benefit of the doubt—even when, as The Hollywood Reporter states, his next movie might be the story of a man obsessed with a beaver puppet.
Many of the actors on beloved hit show The Office can credit its success for helping them launch fledgling film careers. Steve Carell, for one, has catapulted into one of today's biggest movie stars, with big hits (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Get Smart) and successful smaller-scale flicks (Dan in Real Life, Little Miss Sunshine).
On Monday, Variety reported that Steve Carell has inked a three-year first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, has started Carousel Prods., a shingle set to take offices at the WB lot and is still expected to return as Maxwell Smart in a sequel to the hit summer remake Get Smart. Phew. Carell has more distractions than Michael Scott at a Hooters happy hour! That's what she said!
Michael Scott hasn't always been lucky in love. There was that time that he made Ryan clean out his car to impress Katy, that time Jan proved to be the worst girlfriend ever, that time...
"Steve Carell...is the hardest working man in Hollywood and the harder he works the better it is for me." 
Earlier this week, a fellow known only as Kravis17 uploaded the latest in a series of most likely illegal (as opposed to barely legal) movie trailers to his YouTube account. Featuring Steve Carrell, Dwayne “No Longer The Rock” Johnson, Anne “The Girl Who Turned Down Knocked Up” Hathaway, Alan “Steve Carell’s Co-Star In Little Miss Sunshine” Arkin and Ken "The Naked Guy From Borat" Davitian, the most recent trailer is for a film titled Agente 88. And if it sounds a suspiciously like the Get Smart movie that’s coming out this June…
...well, that’s because it is the Get Smart movie that’s coming out this June! Just with Portuguese subtitles. And also a Portuguese title. Basically, it's the Portuguese Brazilian (props to Rodigo for the catch!) trailer.
Given that the name of the movie itself couldn’t quite scale the language barrier, we wondered if the film’s dialogue suffered a similar fate. Quite conveniently, Tiago, one of our editorial interns, happens to speak fluent Portuguese, and was thus tasked with reviewing the trailer for any potentially comedic lost-in-translationisms. The following verdict was delivered approximately two minutes later, via Instant Message:
tiago: It's all correctly translated
rachael: ohh ok
tiago: they make a portmanteau even with shoephone
rachael: whoa!
Oh well. The English-language version looks funny enough, and is set to hit theaters on June 20.
Thanks to Vulture for the tip.
Related links:
YouTube: Trailer Legendado de Agente 88 (Get Smart)
Vulture: ‘Get Smart’ Trailer: Steve Carell Returns As Steve Carell
IMDB: Get Smart (2008)
Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.
Director: Tom Shadyac
Writer: Steve Oedekerk
Cinematographer: Ian Baker
Starring: Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, John Goodman, Wanda Sykes
Studio/Running Time: Universal Pictures, 95 min.
"Get on the boat, people.
Get on the boat now.
We got room for a hundred more.
Good God!
-Prince “Get On The Boat”
Oh, God! Just when you thought it was safe to picture a supreme being in your own fashion, Hollywood brings its power of persuasion to give you its version of the Great Almighty. Who could forget George Burns’ three takes on the immaculate perspective? (Lord knows I’ve tried.) And how about Alanis Morissette as an all-powerful goofball in Dogma? And now Morgan Freeman reprises his GQ-cool role in Evan Almighty, though His Holiness appears to have aged a bit since Bruce Almighty.
Evan Baxter, as you may remember, was the obnoxious news anchor in the first Almighty. But he is a kinder, gentler soul in this film. In fact, he has just been elected to Congress on the incredibly "original" platform of wanting to change the world. God hears Evan’s prayer, but the change He has in mind is of biblical proportions. Turns out there is a flood on the way, and Evan will play the part of Noah. Soon the sight gags come “flooding” in - a load of gopher wood and some ancient tools are dropped on Evan’s doorstep, plus a Dummies book on ark building, and, of course, numerous pairs of animals. We’ve seen it all before though, in the aforementioned films and others, including Eddie Murphy’s Dr. Doolittle.
Speaking of seeing it all before, Lauren Graham plays the freaked-out wife who leaves but comes back—just like Bobbie Landers (Terri Garr) in Oh, God!. John Goodman plays the evil senior congressman, much like Claude Rains in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. And everyone plays straight man to Wanda Sykes’ rapid-fire one-liners—just like every other film Sykes does.
But before you think it might be a long time before a studio pulls this kind of shameless rehashing once more, think again. Next year's remake of Oh, God! is currently in production.
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TV: Jenny Lewis & Elvis Costello on David Letterman TV: Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... Series Premiere on Sundance |
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Episode 70
August 19, 2008
