Get Smart
Two and a half stars
Rated: PG-13 for some rude humor, action violence and language.
1 hour 50 minutes.
Director Peter Segal got smart about the casting. Watching the always-likable Steve Carell share the screen with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Alan Arkin in “Get Smart” is the best thing about Hollywood’s most recent reach into the recycle bin. They partner sweet-natured sensibilities with perfect comic timing in this fairly entertaining remake of the classic television spy spoof.
It’s a good thing the Cone of Silence high-tech spy gadget never works to keep conversations private–not in the 1965-1970 television series created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, nor in this comedy. Deadpan exchanges of dialogue provide most of the humor. Although the screenwriting team of Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember (“Failure to Launch”) created a new backstory for CONTROL field agent Maxwell Smart (Carell), the banter is much more amusing than the sight gags or standard-issue action plot.
Smart is one of the top analysts at CONTROL, the ultra-secret U.S. spy agency whose headquarters are housed beneath a museum and accessed through the iconic long corridor of clanging, automatic steel doors and phone-booth elevator featured in the television series. Max dreams of being promoted to the exciting life of a field agent–like the much-admired Agent 23 (Johnson). His dreams become a reality when KAOS, the crime syndicate led by the cold-blooded Siegfried (Terence Stamp), attacks the central office.
Unlike Inspector Clouseau or Mr. Bean, Maxwell Smart is no bumbler. The newly numbered Agent 86 is simply an intelligent man with a steep learning curve. The Chief (Arkin) partners him with the accomplished Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), who reluctantly heads on a mission to Moscow with him in hopes of foiling the KAOS operatives (including Kenneth Davitian) and their weapons of mass destruction.
Topical concerns crop up but without much satirical sting. “Get Smart” swipes at poor U.S. intelligence gathering, noting that human beings–not satellites–are the key for acquiring valid information. The President (James Caan) is a thinly veiled caricature of George W. Bush, who reads “Goodnight Moon” to school children during times of crisis. And the mispronunciation of “nuclear” gets tossed in for fun.
You’ll have a better time if you don’t expect this re-imagined work to resemble the original. The phone shoe does fit Carell, and he wears it well.
