The Get Smart movie adaptation hype machine has been in full effect for nearly a year now, attempting to get fans of Steve Carell(The Office, Little Miss Sunshine) pumped up and expecting this to be one of his funniest comedies ever.
No, that would actually have been The 40 Year-Old Virgin.
Truthfully though, Get Smart is an enjoyable, harmless movie. It doesn't contain the huge amount of laughs it should (the majority of the best parts have been shown ad nauseum in the trailers), and it's nowhere near as clever as the 60's tv show that spawned it, but it does hold one's attention and moves along at a clean, brisk pace.
The story opens with Maxwell Smart(Carell), an analyst for the secret U.S. government spy organization Control, getting ready for work while he pays close attention to inspirational post it notes stuck all over his apartment. Today is the day Max finds out how he did on his counteragent test, and whether he'll finally achieve his dream of moving from behind a stifling desk and into the field itself. The agency's central headquarters is located underground, beneath the "Control Museum", where a tour guide informs her group that the agency was disbanded at the end of the Cold War. It is here that we begin the first of many appropriate and well-placed tributes to the original series, as we catch glimpses of the famous shoe phone, among other items. We also have a recreation of the opening credits wherein Max would pass through numerous doors while the theme music plays, until he steps into an old-style phone booth which is actually an elevator.
We soon come to find out that while the Chief(Alan Arkin) respects Max's work, almost none of the field agents do, with the exception of the popular and amiable Agent 23(Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). The agents find Max's intricate atten-tion to detail and his drawn-out meetings where he parcels out info to be tedious. However, the Chief informs Max that he's the absolute best analyst he has...so good in fact, that while Max scored exceptionally well on his agent test, the Chief doesn't promote him because he needs him behind the desk.
Although crestfallen, Max soon gets his chance to show what he's got in an unexpected manner, after a devastating attack on Control's central H.Q. leaves the place in ruins (although a later scene in the story strangely has all the agents back at their stations in a completely intact control room, with no mention of them ever moving to a different loca-tion. Continuity director asleep at the wheel, perhaps?) and a confirmed leak reveals that all the organization's agents have been compromised. The only agents who can possibly strike back at the enemy responsible--the criminal organization KAOS, dedicated to world domination--are sexy Agent 99(Anne Hathaway), who's just undergone plastic surgery, and therefore her identity isn't compromised, and newly promoted field agent 86...Max.
Yes, the film is nowhere nearly as clever as its tv counter-part. However under the wise direction of Peter Segal(My Fellow Americans, Anger Management), the cast holds the film together and manages to avoid a lot of landmines that could have otherwise doomed this flick. Steve Carell makes the smart move(no pun intended) of not doing a Don Adams impersonation, and instead goes for his own take on the character: that of a smart guy(again, n.p.i.) who is perhaps a little too overeager to prove himself to his peers and his boss, and therefore fumbles at inopportune moments. By going this route, Carell manages to make Max a sympathetic character, and someone nearly everyone can relate to. I know I bashed his comedic skills plenty hard in my review of Dan in Real Life
--and to be honest, I'm still not certain he's all that--but he is fit to take on this role, no question about it. Anne Hathaway(The Princess Diaries, Brokeback Mountain) is a solid choice for the role of 99, accepting the reins from the still-lovely Barbara Feldon with assured grace to turn 99 into a 100% butt-kicking, completely confident and competent modern warrior. Alan Arkin(Glengarry Glen Ross, Grosse Pointe Blank) is the legitimate successor to Ed Platt as the Chief, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson(The Game Plan, Doom) obviously has a joyous time in his role as the suave Agent 23, while still managing to make fun of his tough guy image.
Surprisingly, the only person in the entire film who seems miscast is the often-brilliant Terence Stamp(Superman II, the upcoming Valkyrie) as KAOS mastermind Siegfried. In the original 60's series, Siegfried wasn't quite the bumbler Max was, but he was still pretty clueless a lot of the time. Stamp seems to think he's either in a more darkly serious film, or that he's performing Hamlet at the New York Met. There's even a brief cameo by the original Siegfried himself, Bernie Kopell(The Love Boat, Fantasy Island), who seems to be having the time of his life in just the few moments he's on screen. Either Segal seriously pissed Stamp off, or he just didn't enjoy his time on the set. Crack a smile, dude.
Speaking of Segal--as well as his writers, Tom J. Astle (Coach, The Invisible Man) and Matt Ember(Titus, Becker)--the three men are obviously big fans of James Bond, as the venerable secret agent is mentioned by Max once, and almost an entire scene where Max and 99 have an aerial battle with a Jaws-like character(world class wrestler Dalip "The Great Khali" Singh) while in freefall is almost entirely taken from the opening sequence of 1979's Moonraker. Even the scene where 99 shows off her...flexibility...while evading lasers is lifted from 1999's Entrapment. And would you believe, there are fitting utterances of classic lines from the 60's show sprinkled throughout. With so much obvious love on display for the film's tv history, it's a wonder that Segal could have made so many dunderheaded statements about the source material of his upcoming Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam.
Love for the source material aside though, the new Get Smart is still lacking in certain areas. The identity of the double agent that nearly dooms Control is easy enough to spot. There is a barely funny cameo by Bill Murray(Ed Wood, Lost in Translation), who looks as if he's there because he owed someone a favor, and James Caan(Las Vegas, Elf) of all people, dusts off some stale George Bush jokes playing a fairly clueless President(Cha-ching! There's your paycheck, James...don't spend it all in one place). Some of the jokes fall a little flat, especially when they're telegraphed from a mile away. And if this weekend's box office helps a sequel to get greenlit, I honestly hope that Terence Stamp takes some happy pills before stepping into the role of Siegfried once again. As he plays it now, the character is a serious downer.
With these flaws placed on the back burner however, it is possible to enjoy Get Smart. It's not the best comedy to come down the pike in a while, but it is a decent jumping off point for a potential series. If Segal and his writers can do a better job of cracking wise in a sequel, I'll be happy to see it.
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Though not as witty as its tv counterpart, Get Smart proves engaging...
Secret Agent Man: While not everything a fan might hope for, Get Smart pays loving tribute to its tv roots.
I, Spy: Hathaway(left) and Carell do a fine job of stepping into the shoes of their roles' originators.
Hail to the chief: Classic thesp Alan Arkin truly is the only man capable of inheriting the role from Ed Platt.
Our Man Smart: The film contains several clever nods to the original series' unusual gags.
Would ya believe...?The original 99(Barbara Feldon) and Max-well Smart(Don Adams).They'd probably get a pleased chuckle out of the film.
