Get Smart

*** Stars

I saw a screening of Get Smart with my father, a huge fan of the original show. Having only seeing a few episodes, I wanted to see this with him so I could get an accurate judgment of the film. He loved it, so I assume it is a classy ode to the classic series.

Get Smart is perfectly cast. Steve Carrell plays the infamously goofy Maxwell Smart, Anne Hathaway is the beautiful Agent 99, Dwayne Johnson (not The Rock anymore, he doesn't like to be called that) plays the muscular Agent 23, and Alan Arkin scores with The Chief. You would think the Carrell and Hathaway love story would be weird (given the age difference between the two actors), but it plays nicely. They meet when Max gets his first assignment to track down a nuclear thrat in Russia. With the help of Agent 99, the two find very interesting ways to complete their missions. Max knows his details and reports so intensely that he literally connects the dots by figuring out what kind of food a terrorist eats and/or coffee it drinks. He is so good in fact, that he bores the hell out of the rest of the agency.

The film is surprisingly well made with its stunt work. Not once are we questioning logic or fake visual effects. And if we do, it's the films goofball ability to let us realize that if we are trying to take this film seriously, then you bought the wrong ticket the minute you stepped into the theater. The film makes it by THAT much.