Get Smart

Get Smart benefits greatly from the fact that most of the audience watching it will at best only have a passing recollection of the tv show and that from Nick at Nite reruns. I myself can only remember a handful of details about the television show from the 60s. Still the goal was clearly not to do a spy spoof but rather an action film with jokes. The spy spoof in our day has already gotten a surprisingly good send up from Mike Meyers and his Austin Powers character.

The film introduces us to Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) who is goofy and awkward but surprisingly intelligent and despite gaffs also surprisingly adept at fighting and espionage. When US intelligence operation Control is infiltrated and many of its agents are wiped out, Max is promoted and teamed up with the beautiful Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). The film trods on through its plot as the two discover and attempt to foil the convoluted plans of KAOS, the enemy counterpart to Control.

The film is largely carried by Carell's general likability. Alan Arkin and Dwayne Johnson have decent turns as supporting roles. Sadly the abilities of Terrence Stamp are woefully underused. The film isn't terribly but at the same time isn't funny either. There were mostly a few smiles from me and once or twice a burst of laughter. But for the most part I was just kind of thinking it could have been better.

The only genuinely funny moment for me was one near the end of the movie with a cameo by Patrick Warburton and really he was just playing a role he's done a thousand times before. In the end it just wasn't cutting enough in its spoofing which is what the original material was about and although you get a dependable performance from Carell, I wish everyone else was trying just a bit harder.