The Alex & The Eleanor + 1

I wasn’t expecting much from Get Smart, a big screen adaptation of the hit TV series from the 60’s about the super secret American spy agency CONTROL and their never ending battle with arch enemy KAOS. I never really watched the show, and given the usual quality of movie adaptations of TV shows…well let’s just say I was watching this on an airplane for a reason. To my pleasant surprise, I’d done the film a disservice.

I hate ruining plots in a review (unless necessary of course), but to give a brief point of reference, take any James Bond movie and turn it into a comedy and you get the gist. I suppose this would be more of a Casino Royale; as it’s the genesis of Maxwell Smart as an agent, although I will reveal here that there are no bad Texas holdem tournament scenes here (I loved Casino Royale - top 3-4 bond movies ever - but the poker game was awful) - or really much of anything else similar to Casino Royale, but you get my point. You don’t need a plot summary.

Get Smart stars Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart and Ann Hathaway as Agent 99. Hathaway is competent in her role, but nothing special. Carell on the other hand, continues to show why he’s one of the greatest comedians in film today. Just like in The 40 Year Old Virgin (a GREAT comedy), Carell has a gift for humanizing an absurd character and making you care about him - without lessening the humor.

Alan Arkin is hilarious in his supporting role as The Chief. Terrance Stamp is also amusing as the villain Siegfried. and Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is alternatively funny and flat as Agent 23, the superstar agent.  The only real casting flaws (and scripting/directing) were the idiot agents, played by David Koechner and Terry Crews, and their tech nerd foils, Masi Oka and Nate Torrence. The comic byplay between these two teams is really beneath anything else in the film, but thankfully there isn’t a lot of time devoted to them.

Having read some of the other comments/reviews out there, I may have been well served by not being a fan of the TV series, as this is definitely an action/comedy, with a lot more weight to the action than the original series. Which is maybe why the movie succeeds, as director Peter Segal creates his own film, with plenty of nods to the old show, but which isn’t a retread of old material. Segal does a great job directing this film, as the visual style is colorful and slick, the camera moves big, sweeping and energetic…exactly like a somewhat cheesy modern action film, which when blended with the excellent comic timing allows you to revel in the fun of the film.

Fun is definitely the best word to describe Get Smart. The action is just exciting enough to engage you, but doesn’t steal attention from what’s really important - the comic performances with the help some good writing by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember. An action/comedy is something that is incredibly hard to get right, as it balances on a razor’s edge; and while Get Smart is by no means a great film, it does succeed (for the most part) in not falling off that edge. That alone makes it a movie worth seeing - add in Steve Carell and you’ve got a movie definitely worth seeing.

B+