Get Smart

Review by Loc

TV show adaptations are a dicey proposition. First, you have to wait a suitable amount of time for the once-stale property to get nostalgic-fresh again. Second, you have to decide whether you pay homage to the source material, whether you camp it up to play off the absurdity of it, or a little of both. Then, you have to update things just enough to please the young-ins, but not too much to piss off the oldies. Take Mission Impossible for example. Tom Cruise spiced it up into a full-on spy-thriller, threw in a passing nod to the original, and built a new franchise. Dukes of Hazzard, not so much. Take flavors-of-month Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson, offer little story and lots of eye candy, and you get a flop. What about the newest entrant into the TV-to-movie arena? Quick hit: Get Smart has an average entertainment quotient, or medium EQ.

The original television show was a comedy created by legendary Mel Brooks. I’m happy to say that I’m still too young to remember the TV show, but it was mainly a comedic take on the spy genre. You had a somewhat-bumbling Maxwell Smart using goofy gadgets like the shoe-phone or the cone-of-silence to thwart the nefarious plans of the evil KAOS organization. Smart was part of the CONTROL agency and worked with the fetching Agent 99 on many missions.

So how does the Get Smart flick take on the source material? Mostly with a nod to the original premise. Steve Carell takes the mantle of Max Smart, an analyst with aspirations of becoming an actual field agent. He displays a mix of idiocy and intelligence, making him a mix of Carell’s Office character and humble nerd. Carell has ventured into the realm of movie megastar and this role fits the blueprint of his other forays on the big screen. Nothing stunning, but serviceable.

For the rest of the cast, Agent 99 is played by Anne Hathaway, bad-ass Agent 23 is brought to life by Dwayne Johnson, known as the Rock to many wrestling fans, and Alan Arkin plays the Chief. Again, everyone of these roles is decent and offer some level of entertainment.

As for the plot, well, this movie isn’t exactly built around a plot. You have the necessary plot device to stick Max Smart in the field and team with an apprehensive Agent 99. You have a plot point to off the President in the form of a nuclear threat from KAOS. And you have mild hilarity ensue.

The slapstick isn’t as pervasive as you might expect. Sure, Smart gets into some dicey situations, but its mostly run-of-the-mill stuff. Surprisingly, lots of people are killed in the name of homeland security. While nothing is graphic, it’s kinda weird to see people getting shot or caught in explosions when this is basically sold as a family comedy. No random escapes or well-placed non-lethal gunshots here.

Overall, there’s not a lot to say about this flick. It is what it is and you know that going into the film. It’s not bad and it doesn’t make you want to knock yourself out with a shoe-phone, but it doesn’t excite and entertain beyond itself. There are references to the old TV show, from classic one-liners to a museum of “old” spy devices. Some random cameos also pop up, neither funny nor lame. Out of 99 agents, Get Smart fits 55 into a cone-of-silence. I went to a $6 showing, which is about how much value you can get out of this flick. It misses by that much, but not necessarily in a very bad way.