Review - Get Smart

Studio/Production Company: Warner Bros.
Director: Peter Segal
Release Date: June 20, 2008
Genre: Comedy
Strong Points: Constant flow of jokes ranging from good to hilarious; some excellent spoofs on modern spy movies.
Weak Points: A couple jokes are a little too familiar and unoriginal; stereotypical romance plot that wasn't really necessary.
Technical Score: B+
Artistic Score: A-
Final Score (not an average): B+
Moral Warnings: Some mild language including a one finger salute, humorous violence, sexual content riddled throughout including some homosexual references and a male-male kiss.


In 1965, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created a comedic television show called Get Smart to spoof films of the spy genre such as James Bond. It ran for four years, ending in 1969 with a fair amount of success. Bearing the same name nearly 40 years later, Get Smart is an adaptation of the show, and one that doesn't demand having seen the television show to enjoy it fully.

Steve Carrel plays Maxwell Smart, who is part of a government organization known as CONTROL. He's an analyst for them, and he's very, very good at it, being incredibly thorough to the point where no one wants to read his reports anymore due to death from boredom. Even so, his incredible knowledge about CONTROL's enemies soon lands him a position as an agent, and right away he is assigned to work alongside the greatest agent of them all - Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). Together, and with a little help from their friends, they work together to try and foil the plans of KAOS, a terrorist group selling nuclear missiles to people that aren't the biggest fans of America.

While it has its fair share of drama and plenty of action (most of it is sprinkled with plenty of humor), both of which are done well enough in their own rights, Get Smart is ultimately a comedy. The jokes fly, and they fly in hoards, almost as though the writers were trying to jam as much as they could into the two hour film. It's one of those joke-a-minute films. Fortunately, all of the jokes range from good to great, and there are a couple that are simply fantastic. There was rarely a moment where a joke was delivered that I felt was supposed to be funny yet to make me laugh. Instead, I was laughing out loud from beginning to the end credits.

In those incredibly rare instances of failed laughter, the problem is familiarity. In some cases, it's quite alright to perform jokes and physical gags that have been done before in previous films. In fact, sometimes it's downright impossible not to. Most of those jokes can still be humorous, even though the audience has seen them before. But there are a few that are simply on a "Do not repeat" list, and once or twice Get Smart borrows from this list, to which I shake my finger of accusation and say, "Naughty; naughty."

Even so, as the laugh counter continues to pile up with each passing minute, those select instances are quickly and rather easily forgotten.

And... boy, do the laughs pile up. The physical gags are simply superb, focusing on something that Steve Carrel is traditionally quite talented with. That being slapstick. While not overdone (thankfully), there are a few scenes where Steve Carrel nearly beats the crap out of himself from his own stupidity. Some are on the familiar side, yet others are genius. Seeing Mr. Carrel shoot at himself with a pocket-knife-crossbow to break his bonds is something that I will no doubt be able to watch on numerous occasions and still enjoy.

Another thing is the overall cleverness of the spy spoofing (often mixed together with the slapstick). Some scenes are direct spoofs from specific films, while others are just general ones that make fun of the whole spy concept as a whole. And the gadgets... well, anyone that's ever seen an older James Bond movie will no doubt get a kick out of some of them.

As for the acting, the chemistry between the actors is fantastic. All of the actors, actually. Steve Carrel and Anne Hathaway are great together, but all of the minor characters also bring their best and interact with one another perfectly. The film certainly doesn't focus on Carrel for all of its laughs, as is the case with some of the previous films he has been a part of (Evan Almighty and Dan in Real Life come to mind).

One of the impressive things about the film is its ability to keep the plot moving while still providing the comedy at a constant level. The scenes flow naturally from one to the next, all building on each other without there ever being a scene just for comedy's sake. The plot itself is, of course, not the most original one you'll come across in your movie-watching adventures, but it stands up on its own two feet.

While it may seem like it given the amount of laughs I've described, Get Smart isn't pure comedy. There's drama. There's violence. More violence than drama, given the genre that Get Smart spoofs. Most of the drama comes from the relationship between Maxwell and Agent 99, both of them, through their various adventures on their mission, begin to feel something for one another. I actually found this slightly disappointing. Not unexpected in the least. What's a summer comedy film without a romance subplot, right? And it wasn't just because there was a romance subplot, but because of the way in which the subplot was developed and concluded. The obvious question of age between Maxwell and Agent 99 is handled somewhat humorously, but it doesn't exactly make for the best excuse.

And while the drama isn't exactly up to par in some cases, the action is (and even goes beyond it). Most of the action is what can be expected - brief gun fights, a few explosions, some hand to hand combat, and none of these elements are exactly what one would call "revolutionary." All fairly standard, but all well done, especially when the humor is thrown into the mix.

But there are some scenes that I just cannot describe in any way other than "impressive." One scene involves Maxwell and Agent 99 jumping from an airplane only to be greeted by a terrorist while free falling and having to dispatch him. It reminded me of Shoot 'Em Up, which came out last year and worked with the exact same concept. Except that Get Smart's scene was so much better. It was exciting and so much more visually pleasing than one would expect from a comedy. There are other instances that I won't give away, but let me say that the action is top notch and was a very pleasant surprise given the genre of film.

Morally, Get Smart is hot and cold. The violence is toned down, and I saw no blood or gore whatsoever, even when people were getting shot. Language in the film is slightly less than I had expected. The sexual content and innuendo, however, was more along the lines of PG-13 comedy. It doesn't necessarily push the PG-13 rating, but it fits quite comfortably inside it. Thankfully, there is no scene of sexuality. Agent 99 wears a dress that reveals quite a bit of leg at one part in the film. In that same part of the film she is forced to move gracefully to avoid laser beams, and this is done in somewhat of a sexual fashion. There is also a male-male kiss, though both men are straight. That's about as far as the visuals go, though. The innuendo is present throughout the film, though it never gets to the 'over-the-top' level, and Get Smart doesn't rely on it for the majority of its jokes.

Anyone who's a fan of Steve Carrel or just spy films in general will get many good laughs out of Get Smart. Easily one of the funniest films of the summer.

-Zak Mellgren (zak@revolve21.com)