Dumb comedy has some Smarts
”
Get Smart
”
starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway
Beyond the FBI and the CIA, there is another agency that keeps
America safe from terrorists and bad guys. Hidden beneath the
bowels of Washington, D.C., are the secret offices of Control, a
group of agents, analysts and inventors who work to take down the
bad guys of KAOS.
Dumb comedy has some Smarts
“Get Smart” starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway
Beyond the FBI and the CIA, there is another agency that keeps America safe from terrorists and bad guys. Hidden beneath the bowels of Washington, D.C., are the secret offices of Control, a group of agents, analysts and inventors who work to take down the bad guys of KAOS.
If this all sounds familiar to you, that’s because it probably is. Control is the secret spy agency at the center of the movie “Get Smart,” which is based on a 1960s television series about Maxwell Smart, otherwise known as Agent 86. There was also a short-lived series in the early days of Fox which reunited the characters in a 20 years later kind of twist, but it never went anywhere. I never watched either TV series, but my parents couldn’t wait to watch the movie version.
In the movie, Steve Carell plays Smart. He is an analyst who listens to “chatter” around the world to find out about the next big world domination plot coming out of KAOS headquarters. His big thing is that even bad guys are human. Carell is the perfect average joe to play Maxwell Smart, who is extremely intelligent, but just not all that coordinated when it comes to fighting the bad guys. Though he passes his field exam to become an agent, the Chief (Alan Arkin) says he is just too good at his analyst job to let him move up.
That changes, however, when the secret Control headquarters are attacked and the identities of all the field agents are compromised. One by one, secret agents around the world are being picked off. The only option is for the Chief to send Smart to get the bad guys, along with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), who won’t be recognized because she recently underwent extensive plastic surgery.
The few agents who survive take over Smart’s job analyzing chatter while he and Agent 99 head overseas to Russia. This is where Carell’s best acting feature comes out. He is great at physical humor and seeing him shoot himself with a tiny cross bow over and over again was enough to get me laughing. And that was just one of the early gags in the movie.
Other highlights for me included Alan Arkin as the Chief. Though he may look old, he still knows how to kick ass and he does just that in “Get Smart.” The Chief is not the type of boss who hands out assignments and doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. When things get tough, he’s out there in the field fighting with his agents.
And though his screen time is short, Dwayne Johnson does a good turn as Agent 23. The former professional wrestler slimmed down for the role, but still looks to be twice the size of most of his colleagues in the film. He is the agent that all the guys with desk jobs envy because he is tough, handsome and never loses a fight.
When they first combine forces it is clear why Agent 99 is short tempered with Smart. He just bumbles around and gets the two of them in lots of trouble. The two are funny together, but there is a little chemistry missing between them. It could because of the age difference between the actors in real life, a difference that is randomly explained away, once again by Agent 99’s recent plastic surgery. She just looks a lot younger than she really is.
Overall, the movie is funny and full of secret agents, double agents and explosions. And you don’t need to be a spy to know there is probably a sequel in the future.
