New ‘Get Smart’ isn’t dumb, but it’s not genius either
By Ben Saylor
Insights
Published June 25, 2008

I’m a bit young to be much of a fan of the original “Get Smart” television series. Beyond a few reruns I might have glanced at as a kid, I really have no connection to the show, which makes it easier to objectively assess this film version, which is both funny and flawed.

Steve Carell (of “The Office” fame) steps into Don Adams’ shoes as Maxwell Smart, an analyst for super-secret spying agency CONTROL. Max longs to be a field agent, going on exciting missions, but his superior, the Chief (Alan Arkin), feels Max’s laborious, several-hundred page intelligence reports are too valuable, so Max is kept in the office.

Until, that is, most of CONTROL’s agents are wiped out by the organization’s evil counterpart KAOS, led by Siegfried (British acting legend Terence Stamp). By default, the awkward, bumbling Max becomes Agent 86, and is paired up with the attractive, more-than-competent Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway playing Barbara Feldon’s role). Together, the two embark on a series of spy games having something to do with stolen nuclear weapons in Russia that eventually leads them back to the United States (L.A., specifically), to prevent KAOS from assassinating the President (James Caan).

Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway star in "Get Smart."

“Get Smart” is at its best when it remembers it’s supposed to be a comedy, not an action flick. The scenes with Max and 99 are particularly effective comedically, thanks to Carell’s solid lead performance and Hathaway’s able straight-woman routine. Unlike the T.V. show, the film “Get Smart” puts Max and 99 at odds for much of the movie’s runtime. That might make the purists whine, but the filmmakers’ decision to do this not only gives the two characters something to build toward, but it makes for a fair amount of comedic fodder as well. Refreshingly, a lot of the humor is verbal, and the physical comedy is surprisingly clean for a mainstream, modern comedy. Nice to see a comedy that doesn’t have to rely on dirty jokes and farting to coax laughs.

But “Get Smart” overstays its welcome by at least 15-20 minutes, largely due to the action-packed third act, which almost feels like it was taken from another movie. Granted, the action is all right to watch, but a lot of the humor goes out the window at this point as a consequence.

Despite the monkeying around with Max and 99’s relationship, fans of the show will be happy to see the shoe phone and the cone of silence, as well as supporting characters such as Hymie and Agent 13 (no fair telling you who plays them).

Dwayne Johnson with Carell in "Get Smart."

But while Carell and Hathaway do a great job, sometimes their supporting cast doesn’t hold up their end. Arkin is just all right as the Chief, although he isn’t given much to do. Dwayne Johnson is similarly wasted as CONTROL superstar Agent 23. (His funniest scene can be seen before the movie starts; it’s the “turn off your cell phone” ad.) Stamp, one of my acting heroes, gets a few funny lines but is otherwise so-so, and Caan is completely unfunny as a goofy, vaguely Southern commander-in-chief.

Ultimately, “Get Smart” is good for some laughs, albeit laughs that accompanied by checking the time now and again.

On the Net:

• Get Smart movie (Official Warner Bros. site)
• Local showtimes for "Get Smart"