Synopsis:

A bumbling government officer at a secret agency known as CONTROL, Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) has but one goal in life...to become an agent.  As the best researcher in this secret government agency, Smart is the go-to-guy for information on chatter and a walking database of terrorist information.  This makes him too valuable an internal asset to risk in the field, so Smart's quest to obtain agent status seems bleak.  After security is compromised and CONTROL agents around the world begin to drop like flies, Smart gets his chance to step up as an agent.  Teamed with a more competent partner in Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), Smart will do whatever it takes to thwart the latest plot for world domination by KAOS.

The Freak's Rating: C- : Being a fan of Steve Carell since his days on The Daily Show, I'm always eager to see what project he does next.  As a fan of the original series, Get Smart, I was frightened to see any adaptation brought to film.  The magic of the show, laugh track and all, was one of my earliest childhood memories and I still giggle at the ridiculous plotline and unbelievably stupid Maxwell Smart of the series.

In the opening credits of the film, Smart makes his way through a museum.  He walks down stairs past an area of the museum showing the remnants of the CONTROL organization's past.  The Sunbeam Alpine driven by the series' hero, along with an antiquated phone and suit are on display.  A teacher/guide mentions to the children she is chaperoning that these things are from days past of an organization called CONTROL that has since closed its doors.  So I assume this is the same as the series, yet set in modern day, right?  After all, character names are the same so that would lead us to believe that method of storytelling is the case.  However, if this is accurate, then why are things Max used from the series on display?  A better route would have been to either go with the fact that Max is now in modern day and eliminate the showing of his remnants, that this Max is a son of the original or simply make a joke about the scene.  The filmmakers make no mention of either of the choices, so the display and therefore the scenes containing the display or any aspect of it don't make sense.  Don't even get me started on how a shoe phone from the fifties can somehow perform call forwarding without a pound or a star function.

Get Smart provides a two dimensional bad guy contrasted sharply by a lovable good guy.  Protagonist character development is done nicely and we do care about Max winning his battle against evil.  Antagonist development is virtually non-existent in the film.  We don't know why our bad guy is bad, just that he is.  Alan Arkin is thrown in as Max's boss, the chief, and the Oscar winner is very funny.  Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson portrays Agent 23, which provides an additional nice dosage of comedic additive.  Carell does as well as anyone could with the character of Maxwell Smart, projecting high likeability.  He has the same haircut, same mannerisms and delivers lines in a way Mel Brooks (the series creator) would be proud of.  Anne Hathaway is on her way to being an A-lister.  She has a nice turn as Agent 99, looking sexy for the first time on screen since the little known film, Havoc.  She still has a ways to go, but both her and Dwayne Johnson are future stars and do well here.

Screenwriting is awful in this film.  I liken screenwriting Get Smart to tracing a picture.  You have a great model, a proven one for laughter and all you need to do is mimic the style.  Even with the blueprint in front of them, the writers couldn't get it right.  There are a few laugh out loud moments, but they are owed to Carell's delivery over the writing.  A scene where the primary joke is about a fat person and a scene depicting sodomy from our hero to a bad guy are tasteless and completely unnecessary.  Added to the sodomy and fat jokes are a vomit gag and a clichéd scene where pain is constantly inflicted on our hero, supposedly making us laugh each time.  It isn't that these jokes aren't funny (though some are a stretch to be), it is that they are out of place.  The tone of the film's humor is set in the early sequences and these don't fit.  Toss in an awkward romance I still don't know what to think about between a 20 year old and a man in his forties and you've got quite the mess.

Creativity can go overboard and Get Smart just pushes it a little too far.  Comedies that work stick to their brand of humor, relying on raunch (Superbad), stupid humor (Dumb & Dumber) or site gags (Airplane).  The creators of Get Smart couldn't stick with the series' style and tried to mix and match laughs from different comedic styles, failing miserably at times.  Much like the writers of Carell's The Office, these guys can't figure out that we choose to see certain films/shows for one reason, to laugh.  I don't care if Agent 99 and Smart get together; I just want to laugh.  I don't need CGI and explosions; I just want to laugh.  Superbad was such a great comedy because the creators understood this principle of entertainment and focused on it.  So though I know everyone is waiting for me to say the line "missed it by that much", I will instead say "missed it by a mile".

Sebastian's Rating: B : as a fan of the old series and movie (and of course mel brooks) i thought this movie would be dissapointing, i went with a friend, cause he paid for me, and i actually thought it was pretty good. Steve didnt do to bad and some jokes were predictable but over all i still enjoyed it.

Leah's Rating: B+ : I enjoyed watching this movie the whole way through.  It had a lot of clever, humorous moments... I'd watch it again. 

Eric's Rating: B+ : It was much better than I thought it would be, it made me laugh.

Jen's Rating: C : I think I had high expectations for this so was disappointed.  There were some very funny parts but overall it wasn't a great movie.  I never watched Get Smart so that may be effecting my review also.

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