Saving the world... and loving it.
In the all-new action comedy Get Smart, Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is on a mission to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS. When the headquarters of US spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief (Alan Arkin) has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreamt of working in the field alongside stalwart superstar Agent 23 (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). Smart is partnered instead with the only other agent whose identity has not been compromised: the lovely-but-lethal veteran Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). As Smart and 99 get closer to unravelling KAOS' master plan - and each other - they discover that key KAOS operative Siegfried (Terence Stamp) and his sidekick Shtarker (Kenneth Davitian) are scheming to cash in with their network of terror. Given little field experience and even less time, Smart - armed with nothing but a few spy-tech gadgets and his unbridled enthusiasm - must defeat KAOS if he is to save the day.
Special Agent Matti
Hey, Get Smart is actually funny. I had a love/hate relationship with the TV show starring Don Adams and Barbara Feldon. I loved it because it was on when I got home from school (I was addicted to TV even then) and I hated it because Maxwell Smart is only slightly less annoying than Gilligan ('s Island) and Dusty ('s trail); even worse than Max's whiny, nasal voice was his bumbling incompetence. It's a classic because the Baby Boomers look back fondly on the era, not because it's classically brilliant. Then along came the inevitable big-screen remake and somehow it manages to be better than the TV show. You'd think that it couldn't be worse but there was so little material to work with that it's like making a silk purse out of a sow's eyelash (Get Smart is not Mel Brooks' finest moment).
Cue Steve Carell as the only slightly bumbling spy - he's more unlucky than unco-ordinated - and you have a funny spy-spoof that cherry-picks the best parts of the original and marries them with the better parts of a post-9/11 action/spy flick. The character fits Steve so perfectly that you'd imagine it to be a star-vehicle. He has a slightly cute, slightly tragic, slightly insane look that lets him replace Jim Carrey. Anne Hathaway is good, too but she's too nice to really fill Agent 99's boots: Barbara Feldon always looked like she'd just stopped off to save the world while on her way to a swinger's party.
There are a lot of homage to the TV show (enough that you'd be annoyed if you don't remember them) but you can probably enjoy Get Smart even if you've never seen Get Smart.
The spoof, spy, TV movie Get Smart is directed by Peter Segal and stars Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin.
PG (Comedic violence and coarse language)
110 minutes (1:50 hours)
Film: 26 June 2008
