Max la Menace

The new "Get Smart" does a masterful job of capturing the style, tone and humor of the '60s series, while transporting it into a modern sensibility. I had hopes for this film after seeing the two leads doing a 30-second skit on the Academy Awards show and thought they were dead on. So I invested $11.50 and was proved right.

First, this is no cheap knockoff. The production team captured Buck Henry's creation very credibly both in tone and substance. It reminded me very much of the late '80s homage to "Dragnet," which was executed with love and great attention to detail (right down to the product placement of Camel cigarettes and a photo of Jack Webb on the Dan Akroyd's desk). It's no small feat updating something as much a part of its era into a modern sensibility. There were even echoes of the early James Bond films (especially in The Rock's ladykiller character flirting with CONTROL's "Miss Moneypenny" and in some of the musical cues). On the other hand, the production values were all first-rate and contemporary, including a CGI effect of an aerial fly-around and push-in to a 747 that was reminiscent of the key shot in the pilot of Star Trek.

Steve Carrell makes a very reasonable Agent 86; where Don Adams played the character as a bumbling naif, Carrell makes him into a goodhearted wannabe who, despite having the kind of personality that renders him invisible in society, still has intelligence and an earnestness that can make him into hero material when he works at it. He reminded me of Jim Varney's portrayal of Jed Clampett: pure of heart and belief in his fellow man, yet with a bit of chops in dealing with the dark side of society. He fumbles around a lot getting his sea legs after years of being an ineffectual fatso (viz. impetuously slamming a fire extinguisher into the noggin of his boss at one point) but in a pinch, he's quickwitted and moves with decision. (He also quite reasonably feels more secure in briefs than boxer shorts; I don't know what Adam's take on this issue was).

On the other hand, Anne Hathaway nails Agent 99 with a performance absolutely capturing Barbara Feldon's creation, right down to the tone of voice, the raised eyebrows, and at least three different dead-on intonations of "Oh, Max!" Nevertheless, Hathaway moves the character beyond the pre-feminist liberation era and invests 99 with a believable 21st century sexuality and sense of empowerment. She's clearly in charge during the first half of the movie, only slowly yielding to an appreciation of Carrell's growing sense of command (and her own feelings toward him) as we move into Act 3.

Alan Arkin brings an odd turn to the Chief, playing him with a much-less-exasperated fatalism than did Edward Platt. In an interview, Arkin says he saw the character as a very good principal of a very bad middleschool. He comes across as a somewhat old codger closing in on retirement who's comfortably in charge and doesn't try to micromanage, and he has an important role in the climax piloting a Cessna over Disney Hall downtown, but I missed one of the catchlines they didn't include in this revision: namely, the Chief getting one of his headaches. (The other catchline they left out was 86's frequent "That's the second biggest (fill in the blank) I've ever seen.")

Everything else was there, though: We see the Cone of Silence (technologically updated), a very clever CGI revision of the entrance passage to CONTROL HQ, cameos by both Hymie the Robot and Fang, and there's even a passing utilization in this cellphone-obsessed society to the shoe-phone (appropriated from the Smithsonian institution display of the old "defunct" CONTROL). On the other hand, the agency is now under the Homeland Security Department and answers to the Vice President (when they can find him) and uses lots of high-tech, satellite surveillance and GPS gear. Chaos is in cahoots with terrorist organizations around the world and we know they're bad because they drive around in SUVs (the most satisfying and "green" event is seeing one of Satan's Sedans being demolished by a freight train).

Oh, and BTW, it's also a love story.

I just saw an advance screening of Get Smart and it was great! It was simply the best adaptation of a classic TV series for the big screen. I don't know how to explain it but it successfully carried the tone that the original series had. It was silly but not too silly and, at the same time, a little serious but not too serious. Familiar characters, props, music, jokes and lines all brought back fond memories of a delightful TV series. And there were plenty of new elements in this film that made it interesting and entertaining to watch. Steve Carrell was terrific as Agent 86 and seemed to capture the essence of Maxwell Smart. Not only did his portrayal of him resembled that of Don Adams' from the sound of Smart's voice to the delivery of Smart's lines, Carrell managed to inject a bit of his own personality to create a new Smart that didn't stray too far away from the old. Anne Hathaway was perfect as Agent 99. She did bear some resemblance to Barbara Feldon and actually delivered her lines in a similar manner as her at times. But more importantly, she had great chemistry with Carrell. A key ingredient to Get Smart's success was Maxwell Smart and Agent 99's chemistry and I'm glad the writers of this film didn't forget that. Feldon and Adams had terrific chemistry and so too did Hathaway and Carrell. Unlike previous film adaptations of old television series that only superficially resembled their TV series counterpart, this film can truly be considered a big screen version of the Get Smart TV series. Where Lost In Space, Mission Impossible, Charlie's Angels, Starsky and Hutch and (have I missed anything?) have failed, this film succeeded in maintaining the tone and style of the original series upon which it's based. Moreover, the filmmakers managed to bring Get Smart up to date without forgetting its roots. New ideas created for this film seemed to be natural extensions of those used for the original series. Jokes, props, music, characters and plot, old and new, all seemed to be born from the Get Smart world. I wish I could get into more details but I don't want to give anything away. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and highly recommend this to anyone, especially fans of the original TV series.

I'm going to preface this review by stating that I haven't seen the original TV series upon which this film was based on. Therefore I'm unable to draw comparisons and will just stick to reviewing this film.

One thing I did think was really good about this film was some of the casting choices; Carrell is particularly good here and is very convincing in his respective role as the bumbling & inept rookie agent. He brings a sort of naïve charm to many of his performances and I can't think of a role I've seen him in where I didn't enjoy his performance. Likewise, I think that Hathaway is a perfect compliment to Carrell and their chemistry in this was great - Hathaway pulls off the sexy, sassy & ultra confident field agent with ease. Alan Arkin is a great actor and is always watchable. Likewise, I thought Terrence Stamp was a very effective villain and was quite menacing. Even Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson (who is not the best of actors) managed to also be quite good here.

I wasn't convinced by all of the characters however; I found Koechner & Crews characters to be more annoying than funny. The same could be said of the two nerds who were also annoying rather than funny (although not as much as Koechner & Crews). Bill Murray also has a cameo in this which seemed a bit pointless to me.

The one problem with this film was its rather muddled plot- I found it to be very unfocused and it seemed to jump around from place to place and the narrative seemed to jump back and forward which made the story hard to follow at times. Although this was a problem for me, thankfully it wasn't a huge problem as I still found that I enjoyed the film as a whole even if the plot was a little scattershot at times. The main reasons that this film works is due to the excellent chemistry between Hathaway and Carrell and their great interplay makes it possible to ignore some of the issues with the plotting.

Get Smart is funny, but it's not a film that's consistently funny but rather a film that is occasionally funny - although I must admit that some of the jokes were really funny so perhaps it's just a case of quality over quantity. Whilst I haven't seen the original TV Series the closest thing that this film reminds me of is Johnny English - therefore if you enjoyed Johnny English then you should enjoy this too. Nothing spectacular, but it's definitely worth a look.

I enjoyed every minute of Get Smart. It's an agreeable and fun mixture of the action, spy, and comedy genres. Imagine a combination of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Pineapple Express, with some Steve Carell-style comedy mixed in. It's not similar in story to either of those movies, but it does manage to blend action and comedy together in a comparable way.

The casting is perfect, and really what makes Get Smart so likable. There is a pretty amazing group of actors gathered here, especially considering the fact that these kinds of films do not often attract A-list talent. Everyone seemed like they were having fun and enjoying their roles, and it shows in their acting.

Get Smart has a basic spy-type plot that certainly won't be winning any awards for originality. At the same time, I never though the fairly typical story was detracting from the movie. You're probably not watching this for a deep and thought-provoking experience, anyway.  

And who would have guessed that Anne Hathaway would be so good in an action role? I'd love to see her do more of this kind of thing in the future, she has a bit of a talent for it.

This film is about an incompetent agent who is assigned to a mission to save the world from terrorists with nuclear weapons.

I was hoping "Get Smart" to be a comedy with intelligent humour, but I was so disappointed. The plot is hopelessly contrived and full of clichés. The film is full of silly jokes that are irritating instead of funny. Those so called funny scenes are repetitive and tiring. The tooth microphone joke is not funny, but they did it three or four times. The get hit by a car scene is annoying as it tries to be funny by stating the obvious. Hence, the scene become not funny.

"Get Smart" is boring, with irritating and silly humour that fails to be funny. I am thoroughly disappointed by it.