Critic's Grade: C

Frank's film tip: Would you believe Steve Carell in the nostalgic Don Adams Emmy-winning role as America's beloved bumbling spy out to thwart evil at every turn in the uneven but wacky-inspired GET SMART? Or how about a curious boy scout with defective tazer gun wanting to do a good deed?

As the original and lovable “moron of mayhem” Maxwell Smart always used to hilariously utter on his mid-60’s television series, “Missed it by THAT much!” Sadly, this humorous quip can be applied to the revved-up big screen adaptation of Get Smart made famous by the late Emmy-winning actor-comedian Don Adams. Still, there is some goofy-minded and viable lunacy in director Peter Segal’s movie-minded installment to recall the indescribable charm of the classic cut-up espionage satire.

While the Get Smart TV show (1965-1970) was a brilliant brainchild of comedic creators Buck Henry and Mel Brooks it registered so marvelously in its pop cultural piffle given the paranoid times of the turbulent Vietnam era and post-Cold War tensions. The zany spy spoof was indeed therapeutic for the real life unrest of political assassinations, wartime conflict and the disillusionment of the counterculture flower-power crowd. Indeed, there was something disarming and genius about a kooky comedy series that had a high-pitched and hapless Agent 86 mindlessly talking into a phone shoe while stumbling through dangerously cheeky assignments to make the world safe from our stark realities.

In bringing back another old-time comedy series from the past, filmmakers are automatically asking for trouble because there will be open comparisons whether one chooses to believe this tidbit or not. There have been mildly successful TV adaptations milked from the boob tube to find new appreciation on the wide screen (i.e. “Charlie’s Angels”, “Star Trek”, “The Addams Family”, “The Brady Bunch”, “Mission: Impossible”, etc.) However, the unkind alternative to this experimentation has resulted in forgettable cinematic sludge such as “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “Car 54, Where Are You?”, “The Mod Squad”, “The Honeymooners” and “The Wild, Wild West” as valid examples. The trend of searching for a creative edginess in returning vintage television series to contemporary discoveries on celluloid isn’t going to vanish anytime soon. For most, this is a mixed blessing worth contemplating.

Segal’s Get Smart is stilted and an overblown gimmick in many ways as the movie tries to sustain its sketchy identity through a series of recycled catchphrases, exaggerated action-packed sequences, deliberate dim-witted dialogue, stylish contraptions and gadgets and the formulaic “good guy-bad guy” mantra. As the obnoxious and reactionary governmental goof-off, Steve Carell is joyously effective as our beloved unconventional savior against sabotage. In fact, the physical resemblance and doltish antics is quite eerie given the off-kilter sophistication that both Carell and Adams employed so skillfully in their comedic personas. The casting of Carell and his brand of hearty chuckles (as seen weekly on NBC-TV’s shrewd Emmy-winning sitcom “The Office”) are resourcefully infectious without doubt. Consequently, Carell’s wacky presence uplifts the modern-day gizmo-crazed Get Smart to a passable parade of pure inspired silliness that pays adequate homage to the iconic TV series that left such a bombastic blueprint over four decades ago.

Carell’s Maxwell Smart (a.k.a. Agent 86) is an impressive intelligence analyst for the secret agency CONTROL. Max has higher ambitions in store for contributing to his agency besides deciphering surveillance tapes and detecting international foreplay—he wants to get his feet wet by becoming a full-fledged field agent and getting into the thick of the action. Max’s superior The Chief (played by Oscar-winner Alan Arkin from “Little Miss Sunshine”) insists on putting this notion to rest because he cannot afford to lose Smart’s invaluable experience as a highly capable analyst for the sake of CONTROL’s operational welfare.

When there is foul play involved as the walls of CONTROL have been compromised courtesy of a suspicious break-in The Chief has no choice but to make Max a field agent. Max is teamed up with the delicious-looking but dutiful and diligent female Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway, “The Devil Wears Prada”, “Brokeback Mountain”). Of course CONTROL’s sinister nemesis KAOS is behind the precarious ploy to expose Maxwell Smart’s fellow operatives and make them vulnerable through this very ill-advised exposure. The evil face that heads up the calculating KAOS is the diabolical Seigfried (Terence Stamp) that naturally basks in his attack on CONTROL personnel. NOTE: Get Smart diehard fans may recall this trivial tidbit that The Love Boat’s Bernie Kopell (a.k.a. Dr. Adam Bricker) portrayed the unctuous Seigfried from the television series with seedy yet silly-minded aplomb.

Although Get Smart is all over the map thematically with revolving subplots, it does have the energetic push to get away with the erratic casing of a big-budget actioner. Inexplicably, there’s an undeniable uneven tone and pacing that feels frantically forced at frequent times. Segal, a moviemaker that it responsible for the numerous and numbing Adam Sandler comedies, packs on the outrageousness of excess stunts and chatter designed to hype the raucous highlights of this fashionable farce. In comparison, the TV series was obviously low-key and its major legitimate laughs originated from the genuine cheesy delivery and unassuming guffaws from the befuddled characterizations.

Screenwriters Tom Astle and Matt Ember work furiously to present the ambience of Get Smart’s noteworthy allure. Fans of the television series will get a kick out of the reminiscent resources such as the various spy gadgetry, The Cone of Silence, shoe phones, the signature agency safety door closings as Max enters the headquarters, pumped-up sight gags and the aforementioned catchphrases and puns. Regrettably, Astle and Ember never really capture the essence of Get Smart’s sardonic wit as it’s buried in the generic over-indulgence of the polished giddiness being featured. In hindsight, Get Smart has its riotous moments to behold although this showcase often comes off as a bloated sitcom. Plus, in a millennium age where filming technology is advanced and registered in the conscious mind of a progressive world, the tactical toys as displayed in the big screen version of Get Smart seems inconsequential and indifferent. On the contrary, the props used on the TV series was rather groundbreaking for that particular time that added to the mystique of Adams’s/Brooks’s/Henry’s surreal Smart-laden universe.

Carell is fine as Agent 86 and ensures his own spin on the baffled gun-toting goof by making his Maxwell Smart somewhat able and secure in his harried skin while never violating the distinctive memory of Adams’s memorable pompous portrayal. Carell does incorporate glimmers of his Michael Scott Office-related self-importance schtick that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes the boisterous set pieces and strained irreverence overshadows Carell’s subtle insanity.

The supporting cast doesn’t fare well as much but do what they can to spice up the proceedings. Hathaway’s Agent 99 is gloriously independent and feisty but feels uniquely transparent in her animated bickering with Carell’s Maxwell Smart. Clearly, Hathaway won’t make Smart enthusiasts forget the warmth and wily approach of seductive but savvy Barbara Feldon’s Agent 99. The chemistry never really clicks between Carell and Hathaway as smoothly or convincingly as it should given the percolating union. As the demented Seigfried, Stamp merely goes through the menacing motions and is reduced to a cartoonish cad but does get an intermittent rise comically. The existence of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Agent 23, an efficiently muscular alpha male rival to Smart, is warranted soundly with his usual offbeat slice of self-deprecation. Arkin embodies the Chief aptly in deadpan fashion but there should have been more of the actor’s trademark kvetching. Throwaway parts are given to James Caan as the jeopardized but laid back president whom KAOS wants to target with despair. Both Terry Crews (from TV’s “Everybody Hates Chris”, “White Chicks”) and David Koechner (“The Comebacks”) are annoyingly on board as taunting agents there to give a once paunchy and insecure Maxwell Smart “the business”. Bill Murray covets a cameo as a hidden agent (probably ode to character actor David Ketchum’s Agent 13) that gets the short end of the stick professionally in complete oblivion. “Heroes” TV star Masi Oka is a breath of fresh air as the expressionistic CONTROL computer nerd that lends his brainy assistance.

Aside from the aimless overweight jokes, playful exclamations, mixed and random exuberant action, and turbo-technical tendencies that overwhelm, Get Smart has its popcorn pass as one of the more sufficient—if not scattershot and flawed—TV reincarnations to hit the box office with an affable spark of innocuous debauchery.

Frank rates this film: ** 1/2 stars (out of 4 stars)

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