Review: Get Smart

Steve Carell (amiable as ever) stars as Maxwell Smart, AKA Agent 86, employee of spy agency CONTROL, who is more oblivious than outright stupid, and in fact, is a damn good hand at deciphering spy chatter. It’s a shame none of his colleagues ever care to read his reports. He’s way too eager, wanting so badly to be a field agent, like the heroic and charismatic Agent 23 (played by an amazingly cheerful Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), or the highly accomplished Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). When nasty KAOS (the uber-crime syndicate yang to CONTROL’s yin) operative Sigfried (Terence Stamp) attacks CONTROL, taking out many of its agents, Agent 86 is called up for active duty and assigned a partner in Agent 99, who is less than enthused, as they try and track down Sigfried and hopefully prevent him from exploding a nuclear device. Alan Arkin is the Chief, James Caan plays a Dubya-esque US President, The Great Khali turns up as a thug, whilst Bill Murray plays a bizarre undercover agent for CONTROL.

This watchable 2008 Peter Segal (“50 First Dates”, “The Naked Gun 33 ^1/3: The Final Insult”) cinematic update of the 60s TV series has a lot to like, but it puts less emphasis on the laughs than it does the action and isn’t quite as much fun as you’d like. It could’ve been so much worse, though and there’s much more of the spirit of the original than in many big screen remakes of old TV shows I could name (“Bewitched”, “The Mod Squad”, and the abysmal “Miami Vice” spring to mind).

The casting of comedian/actor Carell is spot-on, even though he doesn’t really ape original Agent 86 (the late Don Adams, who spoofed his character on the terrific kids cartoon “Inspector Gadget”) like you might expect. He’s so talented that he can essentially play the same part in much the same way, but without stepping over into simple impersonation. It’s quite a fascinating act to watch. Meanwhile, Hathaway (in a role offered to Jennifer Love Hewitt and Rachel McAdams, both would’ve been fine choices too) has seldom been sexier on screen (“The Dark Knight Rises” may be the other main contender), and there’s some fun moments for Arkin (as good a replacement for the late Edward Platt as any), former wrestler ‘The Rock’ and even WWE’s much maligned (by wrestling fans) The Great Khali, doing a fine semi-tribute to Richard ‘Jaws’ Kiel. Hilarious cameo by Bill Murray, in the film’s funniest scene by far, brief as it is.

The bad guys are a major letdown (Caan’s awful as the US President, too), though and the whole thing goes on way too long, with a dud climax. It’s almost a good movie, and much better than I was expecting from the lame previews, it ultimately misses (wait for it!) by that much. Perhaps this is due to the “Austin Powers” films and “True Lies” already covering much the same Bond spoof territory, or maybe it’s just that the TV series was better. Slightly bloated screenplay by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember (who later teamed up for the “Lilo & Stitch” rip-off “Home”), from the series created by the legendary Mel Brooks and less legendary Buck Henry.

Rating: C+