The Nude Bomb (1980)

You won't be disappointed!

Simply Perfect

Overrated and overhyped

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

What I want to know is how can a picture called the Nude Bomb could get a PG rating. Yeah, I would actually like to know this. This quote is the quote that appears at the beginning of this movie and it is the one thing that stuck in my mind when I first saw it years ago. Personally I think that the Nude Bomb is a classic for the reason of this one statement, though when we do go to watch it there are numerous other aspects with make quite classy in itself.The Nude Bomb is a movie about a secret agent named Maxwell Smart, the famous agent from the series Get Smart. Now I do not have the information as to the dates of the series, but what I do know is that what occurs in this movie comes straight from the series. We have Smart's infamous shoe phone, his quotes, his clumsiness, and his attempt to intimidate the bad guys by telling them that they are surrounded by good guys. The funny thing about Smart is that the guy is so stupid that he will never admit defeat. It is not that he is strong and confident about his strength, but rather that he believes that the most stupid of statements is liable to go his way. The bizarre thing is that they generally delay the bad guys long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Oh, and they also have the cone of silence.Kaos, the international organisation of evil has devised a bomb to turn the world nude and demand a ransom of 20 billion dollars. In fact they decide to charge the world rent. The curious thing about that is that firstly Max does not believe in the existence of a nude bomb, and secondly they seem to look on the bright side of things.I can't remember much about the series, but the only original actors are Maxwell Smart (Don Adams), Laramy, and I think Agent 13, the one that seems to hide in those ridiculous places. Agent 99 (who later becomes Max's wife) is replaced with Agent 22 and the movie develops a bit of a romantic thing there which is more of a payout to James Bond than anything else.I guess if you like Get Smart then you should like the Nude Bomb. My sister didn't like it, and she is a Get Smart fan. I haven't really watched the series for a while, but thought that this movie was great. Especially the quote at the beginning.

The first version of the TV show GET SMART to be released to theaters, THE NUDE BOMB was made in 1980, and its parachuting and airplane scenes were combined for the new GET SMART movie. Don Adams returns as that indefatigable secret agent, Maxwell Smart, and this time his mission is to save the world from a spoof of the atomic bomb, the Nude Bomb. It is no wonder that this element of the plot made viewers uncomfortable when this movie appeared in theaters all those years ago, and this may have resulted in the movie being panned and becoming only a modest success. The camaraderie between the Chief and Max is missing here, but I feel that that could not be helped, since Ed Platt, the original Chief of CONTROL, had already died and (SPOILER!) the Chief is revealed here to be an impostor, a recently cloned double agent who is reporting Max's every move to KAOS HQ. There is a wonderful chase scene through the old Universal Studios back-lot involving the Jaws and Battlestar Galactica (correct me if I'm wrong) areas, neither of which are around anymore (at least, to my knowledge). The wonderful gadgetry and beautiful anamorphic widescreen photography (this was originally intended as a TV movie) help overcome the somewhat meandering plot, and the character of Agent Twenty-Two also adds character to the movie (I wonder why Agent Ninety-Nine wasn't brought back). All in all, a most satisfying mystery movie with a most satisfying ending.

"THE NUDE BOMB" looks and feels like a cheap attempt to resurrect a 60's TV show for 80's Movie audiences - a la "Star Trek". And it is. But there's nothing terribly wrong with the film, if only that it jettisons practically every character the "Get Smart!" show created and introduces an all-new spy agency for Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) to work for. The film might make die-hard fans a little disappointed, but casual viewers probably won't care.The plot makes very little sense - a evil fashion designer blackmails the clothes-wearing world with potential, full-blown nudity via The Nude Bomb - and it seems to zig-zag in an half-hearted attempt to string together as many mildly-silly gags, low-budget set pieces and James Bond-ian spoofs into it's brief running time. For a very tenuous plot point, Agent 86 ends up cavorting through many of the attractions of the Universal backlot in a lengthy chase scene that plays out as a mid-film "When In Southern California, Visit Universal Studios" advertisement. It serves less to the story than as a very visual and perhaps only reason why this film was greenlit by executives in the first place.But it does have it's charms. Pantyhosed Vittorio Gassman is a good villain, and of course Don Adams is a treat. Adams' energy and delivery does about as much as British director Clive ("What's New, Pussycat?") Donner to keep this thing moving. Agent 86's gadgets are inspired, and Don's bell-bottom slacks collection are also quite funny, although probably in only retrospect."THE NUDE BOMB" has a breezy pace, is relatively sunny and undemanding. The film and has some funny moments, including a nifty opening credit sequence and some zingy one-liners - and for that Maxwell Smart gets a pass - but of what could have been? Missed it by THAT much.

As a long-time "Get Smart" fan, I was very disappointed. Max was NOT Max. He used language and acted so completely unlike the character in the TV series, it was shocking. What were the writers thinking . . . No 99? A crime!! The reason the original series worked so well was the relationship between Max and 99 and the chemistry between Don Adams and Barbara Feldon and the rest of the cast. There are several funny scenes, but mostly the movie is pretty awful. See "Get Smart, Again" (wonderful!) or (I hate to even say it) . . . the horrible Fox series. Both are better than this.