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Movie Review: Get Smart
by Bill Wine
Maxwell Smart, newly promoted Agent 86, who works for CONTROL, a U.S. spy agency, battles to save the world from KAOS agents, the enemy, with the help of the more experienced and fetching Agent 99.
RATING: PG-13
GENRE: Comedy
RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2008
RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes
VIOLENCE FACTOR: There is action and violence throughout, but it's treated as broad comedy.
BAD WORDS: There is a bit of rude humor, but it hardly registers as such.
RACY? A few naughty words, but they don’t stand out.
OTHER THINGS TO KNOW:
GRANDS:
CRITIQUE:
Well, Steve Carell has finally gotten Smart. And without even leaving The Office. Carell stars as Maxwell Smart, the newly promoted CONTROL secret agent in Get Smart, the movie version of the spy-spoof series created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry and ran on television from 1965 to 70. Carell inherits the role from Don Adams, and Anne Hathaway takes on that of his partner, the competent Agent 99, originally played by Barbara Feldon.
The supporting comedy ensemble includes Alan Arkin as long-suffering Chief, and Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson as the newly created character, Agent 23. Look for cameos from Bill Murray, James Caan, and Patrick Warburton.
The question that always hovered over this property as a potential movie franchise was whether the broad satirical approach that won over Cold-War audiences would resonate for millennial viewers. And whether the silly catchphrases (from "Would you believe?," to "Sorry about that, Chief," to "And loving it") and gadgets (the shoe phone, the cone of silence) that fueled water-cooler banter 40 years ago would do so in a time of global paranoia.
It appears not. But the bigger problem is that Max has become a bright analyst who yearns to be a field agent. He no longer bungles, which means he's no longer funny.
It's Max who is supposed to be clueless, not the movie itself. The plot, such as it is, focuses on an attack on CONTROL's headquarters by KAOS and a compromise of the identities of all the CONTROL agents. Chief reluctantly promotes Max to field agent so he can stop KAOS's threat to launch nuclear bombs.
Director Peter Segal reluctantly, almost parenthetically, shoehorns in the trademarks that the series made memorable, but he has mistakenly turned the film into an action comedy. Explosions and car chases aren't inherently funny. And taking away Max's idiot-savant, bungling propensities just kills the comic goose. Memo to the producers: You made Smart smart? Dumb move.
GP Rating System:
Three Grands = Bravo, don't miss it.
Two Grands = Good enough, don't dismiss it.
One Grand = Okay, even if we dis it.
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