Title: Get Smart; Cast: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp; Director: Peter Segal; Producers: Michael Ewing, Alex Gartner, Andrew Lazar, Charles Roven; Screenwriters: Tom A. Astle, Matt Ember; Music: Trevor Rabin; Editor: Roger Mussenden; Genre: Action/ Comedy; Cinematography: Dean Semler; Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures; Location: Canada; Running Time: 110 min.;
Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 3
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and above
Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is the top analyst in CONTROL, a secret intelligence agency presided over by The Chief (Alan Arkin) and set up to annihilate an unscrupulous rival agency, KAOS. CONTROL loses many of its agents when KAOS attacks the former’s headquarters. Just then, Max is promoted from analyst to field operative, and is hence to be known as “Agent 86”. He gets a spy buddy in the person of Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway); the two are assigned to hunt down KAOS’ operative Sigfried (Terrence Stamp). Giving them home base assistance is Agent 23 (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) as they venture out as an odd pair flushing out KAOS’ nuclear weapons from their lair. The Agent 86-Agent 99 partnership is spiced up when the bright but bumbling 86 gets the hots for the bright and composed 99, and she eventually responds—but warns him not to trust anyone including herself for she could be a double agent.
Get Smart is the big-screen version of the late-60s TV series designed to spoof James Bond. While younger viewers may not be familiar with the tv version, and it may be too old to be remembered by older moviegoers, Get Smart nonetheless offers a funny and delightfully silly take-off of its boob-tube predecessor. In fact, as a movie, it can stand on its own, even though today’s moviegoers couldn’t care less where it’s coming from. Carell’s comedic timing is perfect as a spoofy and extremely lucky agent, with looks to match; he’s actually an urbane and much better-looking Ben Stiller. Hathaway’s character, on the other hand, is tailor-made for her—the tough nut beneath the fragile-looking, appealing female—we can’t imagine Angelina Jolie as Agent 99 and getting away with it. The plot is quite simple to follow, thus the action and the funnies, if sometimes a bit physical, are not shoved under a tiresome, convoluted web of a story.
What harm can be done by a spy movie that seeks to make you laugh more than it wants to make you think? Likewise, is there much good it can do even though it pits the bad guys against the good guys? Get Smart is entertainment, an enjoyable comedy with action and dialogue that might even elicit a belly laugh or two from the audience. The emphasis is on comedy, so that even the romantic element (between Agents 86 and 99) is played down and hardly felt, in fact. If the whole family can watch only one movie this week, let it be … maybe Kung Fu Panda; otherwise, Get Smart is okay for viewers aged 14 and above.
