Steve Carrell’s new film, Get Smart, an updating of the classic sixties spy spoof, is the best film based a on an old TV show, and is a good enough film that it can stand on it’s own as a great action comedy. Instead of doing an over the top spy spoof like the Austin Powers films, Get Smart is a serious action film in which the hero is an inexperienced amateur thrust into the role of action hero. At the beginning of the film Maxwell Smart (Steve Carrell) is an analyst for the super secret organization Control, who dreams of becoming an active field agent like his friend and hero Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson). When he scores the highest grade by an applicant ever on the field agent exam, he is crushed to learn that because he is such a great analyst the Chief (Alan Arkin) can’t afford to promote him. Fate steps in when an attack on the headquarters compromises all of the active field agents’ identities, and Max is sent on a mission to recover stolen nuclear weapons with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), fresh from plastic surgery so that no one knows her either.
The film, like the original show is a smooth blend of slapstick, situation comedy, and well done action sequences. Carrell’s Smart isn’t an incompetent idiot but a man clearly out of his element but is adapting, such as a scene where he is about to be killed by Kaos agent Shtarker (Ken Davitian), Smart tries to disarm him by suddenly throwing a phone at him only to have it fall short of the mark due to the cord length, then while they are both looking at it lying on the floor, Smart slams the table forward, smacking Shtarker in the crotch and dropping him. Two laughs for one comedy bit.
The relationship between Smart and 99 is also hilarious, as she is exceedingly annoyed with being paired with this man. A funny running gag is that they are posing as man and wife while undercover and spend most of their time bickering as if they really were a couple. A nice turnaround is that in the beginning she is constantly saving him from his bumbling attempts at espionage only to have him save her during a climatic chase that involves a plane, an SUV and a train (this is an action sequence that plays like the best of Bond intermixed with one liners and physical comedy).
For fans of the old show there are quick references to past villains, a blink and you miss it picture of Michael Dunn as Mr. Big and a quick line of sight reference to The Craw (The Claw) in Max’ notes. Carrell pops out all of the old catch phrases, but thankfully doesn’t try to sound like Adams when he does it. A funny updating is when 99 explains the cyanide pill in his belt and Max asks how is he supposed to get the terrorists to take it. When she rolls her eyes, he just shakes his head and says she has no sense of humor. Best of all is the way they work in all of the old gadgets from the show. Due to a set of circumstances that make it look like he is a traitor, Smart has to break out of jail and rescue the President, needing clothes and equipment, he raids the Control Museum, which is also the location of their secret headquarters, and grabs Don Adams’ old suit, shoe phone, car, and even his snub nose .38.
But all of this wouldn’t work if you didn’t have a great villain to go up against and Terrence Stamp’s Sigfried is a cold cruel terrorist
and not the temper tantrum throwing villain of the old show. When introduced he says the famous catchphrase, Shtarker this is Kaos we don’t say….., but it comes out menacing instead of humorous. When an underling is curious about why they have to blow up a building after they empty it, he shoots the man dead, turns and asks if anyone else has any questions. He is not a man to mess with.
If the film makes any missteps it is in the buffoonish portrayal of the President by James Caan. With the election coming up, doing George W Bush jokes is just plain lame. Luckily he is not in the movie too much. Much funnier is the Dr. Strangelove inspired throw down in the War Room between the Chief and the Vice President, now that’s comedy.
