Get Smart Review

by Steve Rhodes (steve DOT rhodes AT internetreviews DOT com)
June 19th, 2008

GET SMART
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): ***

Maybe it's because my expectations were suitably low. Or maybe it was because the comedic acting was spot on, but, for whatever reason, GET SMART proved to be a very pleasant surprise for myself and my wife. Consistently entertaining, the movie turned out to be much better than the excessively silly 1965 television series upon which it is based. From the great old theme music from the series to the many sight gags, the film is just a lot of fun. Thoroughly satisfying, the movie never flagged.

The setup has Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell from "The Office") wanting to be promoted from analyst to field agent. He, of course, works for CONTROL, which is fighting the evil KAOS. The movie explains that both of these Cold War organizations are still functioning today, even if the public doesn't know it. The plot of the story concerns KAOS's importing of Russian nukes onto U.S. soil in order to inflict maximum damage unless a two-hundred-billion dollar payoff is made.

The plot is unimportant, since the movie is a spy spoof. What it is about are the jokes.

In what proves to be an inspired pairing, Carell is teamed up with Anne Hathaway. As Agent 99, Hathaway is a force to be reckoned with. A savvy field operative with great fighting skills, she resents having to work with a junior agent like Smart. But Smart is, well, smart. He brags that he got like an A+ score on his agent exam, while Agent 99 made more like an A-. She completely rejects these letter grade analogies. In the field, she tells him, "There are no grades. There is only dead and not dead."
The film has a terrific supporting cast with none better than Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a., The Rock, as Agent 23. He's incredibly good-looking and knows it. He has a tendency to walk into walls and to do other unexpected stuff. He also executes by far the movie's funniest gag, and all it takes is a stapler and a single piece of paper.

Alan Arkin does his usual fine job, this time as the Chief. The other spy agencies think the Chief is over the hill, but he proves that he's still got a few tricks up his sleeve. He also adds to the movie's surprising sweetness.

Masi Oka, the nerd in "Heroes," plays a similar but more doofus character in GET SMART. He creates lots of outlandish gadgets for CONTROL's agents, but most of them never make it out of the prototype stage. Their ultimate failures turn out to be quite funny.

I liked most of the gags. An especially effective one is the voice mail for Homeland Security: "For threats against the U.S. mainland, press one. For threats against Hawaii, press two. For threats against Puerto Rico, press three. ..."

GET SMART produces some big laughs, but mainly it delivers lots of small ones. You'll undoubtedly leave the theater satisfied and smiling.

GET SMART runs 1:50. It is rated PG-13 for "some rude humor, action violence and language" and would be acceptable for all ages.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, June 20, 2008. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.

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