Oh thank heaven, Get Smart is funny. If you are a fan of the show, there are enough little winks, nudges, and appropriately contextualized catch phrases to please you — but the movie doesn’t rely on them to carry itself. If you’d never seen the show, nothing was needed to make this film adaptation accessible to any moviegoer. It’s a genuine easy-going, whiz-bang spy comedy with the trimmings.
Just like his filling of Paul Lynde’s shoes as Uncle Arthur in Bewitched, Steve Carell’s unique alchemy of straight-lacedness, shamelessness, roguishness, and naïvete serves him well here in Don Adams’ shoes. Carell’s Agent 86 is not as accidentally brilliant as the fortunate bumblings of Adams. However, the screenwriters gave him a couple of other random vulnerabilities to offset his skills. This Max really knows his stuff, even if he’s not sure he can really do the job (and sometimes he can’t anyway). Carell can make the most unlikable person adorable, but Maxwell Smart is pretty darn likable to start with.
Also well cast are Alan Arkin as the Chief, Dwayne Johnson as alpha agent 23, and a host of supporting techs and agents (David Koechner and Terry Crews against Masi Oka and Nate Torrence) who boost the comedy while advancing the plot. Anne Hathaway is gamine and fit enough to be Agent 99, but she is so straight that she lacks a certain je ne said quois to be a spy or a love interest. I’ve never been able to put my finger on it, but it’s there (or, rather it’s missing) nonetheless. She’s not a detraction, and she does have some killer moves, but 99’s bits had the least zing. Enter Terence Stamp, chewing his scenery as a great old school K.A.O.S. agent (with Borat’s Ken Davitian as his flunky), and we’re good to go.
To update the franchise a little, the writers made president James Caan a rather obvious movie parody of the Current Resident, which was really too easy and kind of dated already. However, Caan makes a groovy old-school president and has the charm to carry it off, so it’s hard to make a fuss about a small misfire like this.
Get Smart has great, full on spy action sequences that would be at home in any Bond or Bourne movie. I’m thinking in particular of a terrific sky dive and a great multi-vehicle chase. Big fun! If you like the action, there’s good action. Not wall to wall — this is a comedy after all — but good amounts.
At first the movie seemed unsure of itself. Carell’s responses felt castrated on the editing table into flat declarative mush rather than allowing him the heft and comedic power he normally enjoys in his other successful projects. Before long, thankfully, it all picks up and starts to move, and I forgot all about the few awkward moments at the beginning.
Get Smart celebrates the old-school Hollywood ways of doing spying, with crazy gadgets, Russian foes, and manly hunches. This isn’t 24, with cell phones replacing the shoe phones or constant tapping on computer terminals to hack into whatever. This is just a fun semi-retro journey through a C.O.N.T.R.O.L. mission with nice, high stakes and a gimmicky bad guy. I laughed a lot and was thrilled enough. It was innocent and simple, classic and fun. Go see it.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 6/20/08
Time in minutes 110
Director Peter Segal
Studio Warner Brothers