Get Smart . Smart is an eager to please; talented analyst for Control, but what he really wants to be is an agent, just like Agent 23, Control’s heroic super spy. When the evil crime syndicate KAOS starts to assassinate all of Control’s agents, the Chief has no choice but to promote Smart and team him up with the lovely but deadly, Agent 99.
To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t watched much of Get Smart growing up – sure I’d seen plenty of the Time-Life adverts trying to sell me the complete series on twenty nine million discs – so my knowledge was limited. Then there was Steve Carell, an actor who I don’t really hold in any regard – I’ve not liked any of his movies – in the lead role.
Of course the trailer made the movie look promising, but I still had my reservations going into the movie.
I needn’t have had any reservations however, as Get Smart proved to be a whole lot funnier than it’s trailer. The combination of witty dialogue and slapstick comedy along with some predictable action scenes made for a light and fluffy, laugh-out-loud movie that put a beaming smile on everyone in the cinema.
There were no stand out performances, or Oscar worthy moments in Get Smart , it was dripping with cheese but it has a firm hold on the funniest movie of the year crown.
Pure comedic genius.
Trivia:
The guy driving the Opel that Maxwell Smart stops to get a ride from, but who is then rear-ended, is Bernie Kopell, who played Siegfried on the original series (“Get Smart” (1965)).
Don Adams, the original Maxwell Smart, was born Donald Yarmy. The airline that took Max and 99 to Russia was called Yarmy International as a tribute to him.
There are references to the three cars that were shown in the original television series. The most obvious is the Sunbeam Tiger shown in the display. Also shown were a Volkswagen Karman Ghia and an Opel GT. All of these cars were in the opening credits for the original series in various years.
The “before” picture Agent 99 holds up is of Barbara Feldon – the actress who originally played Agent 99.
Reviewed by: Jonathan Read. Rating: PG – Contains Violence. Duration: 111 mins. Genre: Action, Adaptation, Comedy. Actors: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, The Rock. Distributor: Roadshow. Release Date: Now Showing.
Get Smart looks okay over all, but Steve Carell seems to be veering more and more toward not so funny slapstick humor
I think that the slapstick component is part of what made the TV series so popular. Looking at his next scheduled movie, I would say that Carell is headed back towards 40 Year Old Virgin territory.