Get Smart

Posted on: 26th August 2008  |

Director: Peter Segal
Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson
UK Release date: 22 August 2008
Certificate: 12A (110 mins)

If you have been pining for Austin Powers since Mike Myers hung up his crushed velvet suit, then Get Smart may be the James Bond-spoofing film for you. But then again, maybe it won’t.

Steve Carell, star of The 40 Year Old Virgin, plays Maxwell Smart, an analyst for top-secret intelligence agency Control. But while he is quite the whiz at his job, Smart dreams of the excitement and glamour of being a fully-fledged agent. When the Control head quarters are attacked by their archenemies, the terrorist group Kaos, Smart gets his promotion and becomes Agent 86. After being partnered with the mysterious Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), who has had her appearance completely made over by plastic surgery, their mission is to thwart Kaos’ evil leader Siegfried. In short, your average, rather weak, super spy versus terrible terrorist plot.

But unlike similar films such as Austin Powers and Charlie’s Angels, this film has no other hooks to justify such an uninteresting plot. For a film marketed as a comedy, it has few of the laugh out loud moments that made the former so popular, nor is it produced in the same super slick and sexy way that the latter was. It is trying to be a parody of James Bond, and while it will be sure to raise a few smiles and may even make you laugh once or twice, the script fails to deliver in between the funny bits. Plus the jokes are always the most obvious ones. Trying to swing through an open window with stealth and grace but instead crashing into a brick wall is hardly witty or clever comedy.

The film also seems slightly unsure of itself and how it wants to portray the personality of its lead. At the beginning of the film it is made clear, after his boss (Alan Arkin) calls him “the best analyst they have”, that Smart is indeed smart. However, there are more than a few moments when he appears anything but. Would an agent upon whom the fate of the world depended really continue to harpoon himself in the face with his multi-tasking penknife?

Saying this, there is no denying Carell’s comedic talent. A lesser actor would fail to make this script amusing at all, and there are several moments when the Evan Almighty star really will make you laugh. He plays the hapless and clumsy sleuth in such a likable manner that it goes someway to elevating the character above the sub-standard script.

However, no amount of Carell charm can create any on-screen chemistry between Smart and Agent 99. Hathaway’s character is the classic female sidekick, the only interesting thing about her being the question of exactly why she had so much plastic surgery. Audiences may also be left slightly uncomfortable by the end of the film. Despite the fact he has managed to save the world, would Agent 99 really find Smart attractive?

Get Smart is not an awful film or even a bad film. It is amusing and entertaining. But if it’s extreme excitement or side spitting laughs you are after, you may want to wait for something bigger and better. 



Charlotte Bateson-Hill



 Visit this film's official web site



 

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