Film:  Get Smart
Studio:    Warner Brothers
Director:  Peter Segal
Principal Actors:  Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin, Dwayne Johnson
Release:  June 20, 2008
Film length: 110  minutes
Rating:  PG-13 for rude humor, action violence and language    

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner (Kansas City Correspondent - USA) 

I like to reveal all my biases upfront.  I was a childhood fan of the 1960s Mel Brooks television series Get Smart starring Don Adams as CONTROL Agent 86 and Barbara Feldon as his partner, Agent 99.  I have recently enjoyed the series again, buying it on dvd for my son's birthday last year.  When I watched the series as a child, my older brother was simultaneously introducing the family to James Bond (Sean Connery's Thunderball is the first live-action movie I remember seeing in a theater).  James Bond was hot in the 1960s, and our house was filled with toy simulations of the gadgets that aided the spy in his work.  So, even as a six-year-old, I "got" Get Smart, for a spoof is only successful when based on an understanding of what is being spoofed.

I had initial misgivings about the film version of Get Smart.  First, spy movies do not dominate the culture as they did in the '60s.  Can a spoof like Get Smart be appreciated in this era?  Second, can anyone really stand up to the classic characters as portrayed by Adams and Feldon? 

As to my first concern, director Peter Segal took a different approach.  This film is less a spoof of the spy genre than it is a spy movie with added comedy.  This is probably a better tactic to present the film in these times, but it has the downside of taking the film too seriously and losing the humor that made the series so great. 

Sadly, my second concern proves valid.  Steve Carrell is an attractive, talented actor with great comic abilities, but he cannot fill Don Adams' phone shoes.  Anne Hathaway is lovely and talented as well, but not even in a 1960s-style wig does she bring the cool classiness of Barbara Feldon to the role of 99.

The plot is rather simple.  In the present time, relics of CONTROL are housed in a museum, the agency supposedly relegated to the past.  (The museum proudly displays Agent 86's red convertible and one of his suits).  But CONTROL is alive and well, and despite the end of the Cold War, still at work against KAOS, this time finding a uranium-smuggling operation with plans to blow up the U.S. President.  Maxwell Smart, a CONTROL analyst famous for his lengthy reports and detailed surveillance of "chatter," realizes his dream of becoming an agent.  He is partnered with the lovely 99, a more competent and experienced agent.  Despite his bumbling, Agent 86 manages to save the day. 

A weakness in the plot is Smart's "terrorists are people, too" thesis.  This interjection is more tribute to the rantings of Rosie O'Donnell than to the great comic masterpiece of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry.  It makes things a bit too touchy-feely for a film based on a series that was always supposed to be fun.

For my tastes, the script relies too much on "bathroom" humor, taking cheap laughs where it can find them.  Carrell's Maxwell Smart is too humble a bumbler, revealing too much emotion.  As played by Don Adams, Smart could go through a series of mishaps and never lose his cool.  A staccato, matter-of-fact "Sorry about that, Chief," took care of it all without a break in composure.  Adams' Smart was a suave bumbler, and that is a quality lacking in Carrell's performance. 

I could supply a large group of men of my generation who will admit to a childhood crush on Agent 99.  Barbara Feldon made cool and competent sexy.  She was lovely to look at, but also always in charge, a very feminist role before feminism had become a buzz word.  Hathaway's 99 goes too much for the obvious in attempts to be sexy.  There is a scene where the agents crash a formal party hosted by a KAOS operative.  Hathaway's 99 is in an evening gown slit to the hip, and she gains entrance to the party by flashing her legs "up to there."  Feldon could have gained entrance with just a come-hither glance.

The action keeps the film moving, and there is enough comedy to produce several chuckles throughout the story.  Get Smart fans will enjoy the nostalgia of hearing Smart's tag lines:  "Sorry about that, Chief," "Would you believe . . .?" and "It missed me by that much."  Bill Murray gives a wonderful cameo as an agent hiding in a tree, and James Caan has a great turn as the U.S. President.  Alan Arkin's Chief is old-school, channeling the personality made endearing by Edward Platt.   

My daughter, who has not yet watched the original series, proclaimed the movie "fun."  For a summer action film, that is probably enough.  But for this old-school fan, a film claiming the title Get Smart should have been smarter.