Get Smart (Warner Brothers)
Would You Believe Almost Good
Don Adams had a unique delivery of lines when he played Agent Maxwell Smart in the TV series Get Smart. Plus Barbara Feldon was the coolest of cool as Agent 99. To have tried to emulate these two in the new movie version of the TV series would have been fatal. Luckily, and smartly, Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway do not. They create their own characters. The downside is that the movie is not nearly as funny or as cool as the TV series.
Maxwell Smart (Carell) works for Control, a secret government agency, as an analyst. What he wants to be is an agent. He wants to be like Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson) who is the epitome of a great agent. But his Chief (Alan Arkin) tells him he is too valuable as an analyst so he cant promote him to be an agent. Max accepts this but then things change and Max does get his chance. He is partnered with Agent 99 to fight the deadly force called KAOS.
The plot of this movie is just an enlargement of an episode of the TV series. It isnt even modernized that much. There are explosions and chases that could have been part of the TV series. Still they make the movie exciting in places and the kids in the audience will love that aspect.
As for the comedy, well that is not what Carell and Hathaway do best. In films Carell has established a persona as a likeable guy, an everyman of sorts. He delivers his comedic lines in a low key manner and puts the audience at ease just by being so calm. Hathaway is the same way. She exudes confidence and assurance. Together these two create a likeable crime fighting team that you want the best for in all areas.
The movie is rated PG-13 for mild profanity and comic violence.
There are some pleasant surprises in the film. Bill Murray has a droll cameo as an agent in a tree. Patrick Warburton strolls in as the robotic Hymie. Masi Oka of Heroes fame is a meek scientist at Control. And Terrence Stamp is a totally evil man working for KAOS.
Get Smart is just never smart enough. It is good, entertaining, amusing, etc. but it never gives you that extra added splash of something out of the ordinary. In these days of high ticket costs, and absurd concession prices; audiences demand more than just ordinary. That is something Get Smart just cant deliver.
I scored Get Smart a sorry about that 5 out of 10.
