CollegeHumor Movie Review: Get Smart

Summer movie madness continues! In honor of ‘The Rock’ officially starting to refer to himself in movie credits as ‘Dwayne Johnson‘, we’re celebrating (and I use that term lightly) here, by reviewing the classic Mel Brooks TV series adaptation flick, Get Smart.

For those of you who don’t know, Get Smart was a comedy TV series back in the ’60s created by Buck Henry and comedy legend Mel Brooks, who could make you laugh yourself to death by brushing his teeth if he wanted to. The show satirized the secret agent genre, and focused on a lovable idiot, ‘Agent 86’ of CONTROL (a US spy agency) named Maxwell Smart, as he did battle with KAOS, the spy agency nemesis of CONTROL.

Usually, TV Show to movie adaptations suck something fierce COUGHCharlie’sAngels DukesofHazzard BewitchedCOUGH, but I’ve got to admit, Get Smart surprised me.

First things first.

Steve Carell stars as Maxwell Smart, a spy analyst who is finally promoted to Agent level status after CONTROL spy headquarters gets attacked, and the identities of all its agents are compromised. Dreaming to be like his hero, the God among men in the spy world, Agent 23 (Rock Rocky McTheRockerstein), Max heads out with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) towards Russia to find out who has been supplying nuclear weapons to KAOS. After an unsuccessful excursion, KAOS claims they will hit the United States with a nuclear terrorist attack if their demands are not met. I won’t get too far into it, because (surprisingly enough) there IS a decently cool twist in the movie, blending the comedy of Steve Carell with a good dose of real action.

Why was I surprised? Well my friends, I’ll tell you. The trailers had me believing I was just going to walk in and sit through a bunch of lame jokes that we’ve all seen before “ Oh yay, Steve Carell dancing with a really fat woman. Fat people are hard to lift, waka-waka! What’s surprising is that the comedy doesn’t actually force itself on you, and it’s done well. Maxwell Smart choses to dance with the big woman not like you do at the party for cheap laughs, but because in the movie they portrayed him as an Agent who worked hard and struggled with weight once himself.

Probably one of the most refreshing things about Get Smart is that even though Carell knows he’s the star, he doesn’t spend the entire movie rubbing your face in it or constantly demanding center stage by trying way too hard looks over shoulder at Zohan and The Love Guru, narrows eyes. Instead, all Carell does is simply focus on playing the character of unfortunate Maxwell Smart to the best of his ability; his interactions with Hathaway and Alan Arkin (as The Chief) are all so natural that the humor just comes seamlessly.

Again, there’s no denying that the biggest reason this movie is funny is due to Steve Carell. If you’re a big fan of The Office or The 40 Year Old Virgin, it’d be a safe bet that you’ll get some laughs out of this one. Him being cast as Maxwell Smart was a great move, and I applaud the film for maximizing the potential of his awkward yet awesome style of humor. Anne Hathaway does a great job of playing the competent as well as sexy Agent 99, The Rock vanHugeRockson as always gets the job done of playing the big, ‘you wish you could be me’ mans man as Agent 23, and there are plenty of other nice surprises that throw quick tribute to the show, like a quick cameo by Bill Murray as Agent 13, who is always being stationed in weird, unfortunate places.

Since I’ve been getting messages from people lately, I’ve decided I’m going to simplify everything and start doing this. I’ll let you know what movies are going to be reviewed, and if you have a specific question related to it (read: not specifically plot-related) that you want answered here in the review, send them along with any comments, statements, or secret declarations of love to CHMovieReview@gmail.com and I’ll choose some to go here.

Anne Hathaway is hot, please tell me we at least get to see some of her in this movie.
- Ben
Sorry bud, no dice. I know where you’re coming from though, even though she has really big, doe-eyes, she is pretty hot. These and These will have to hold you over. Now don’t say I never did anything for you.

It’s either this or The Love Guru, but I never saw the show, will it make a difference?
- B_Williams_51
You’ll be fine. The adaptation is loose enough that you’ll be able to pick up on it from minute 1 even if you never saw the original Mel Brooks series.

The Bottom Line: The marketing on this one has reached a new level of shame, but the movie’s actually surprisingly funny. Some critics are hating because at points the action takes over the comedy (which wasn’t the style of the show) but hey, I still laughed in the end. Mel Brooks was a consultant on the entire production, and if you’re at all a fan of Steve Carell, I can practically promise that you’ll like this a little at the very least. I mean you could always just go see The Happening instead…HAHAH kidding, only kidding.

Grade: B-

Coming Up: On the horizon we have the animated Wall-E next week, and Will Smith in Hancock right after. So in the event you have any questions about these movies, statements or ransom money, just send it all to CHMovieReview@gmail.com and I’ll do what I can.

…and before you ask, no, you won’t see Wall-E’s boobs.