I’m going to try to avoid using the phrase “Missed it by that much” in this review. It will be hard, but I’m going to try.
The interesting overall observation I have about this latest rendition of Get Smart is that it’s not so much based upon the old TV series as much at is inspired by it.
This isn’t Mel Brooks’ humor. This isn’t Don Adams’ sense of humor. This isn’t even Barbara Feldon’s sense of humor.
This is Steve Carell’s sense of humor. This is the story of Maxwell Smart with the Carell spin. He’s still a bumbling secret agent, but he’s just not quite the same.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When on his A-game, Carell can be quite funny and he is the undisputed king of awkward humor, both physical and psychological.
Luckily for Carell, Get Smart is all about the awkward humor.
Though not as true to the old series as some may like, Get Smart is a mostly funny, exciting, and solid comedy that does it’s job more than adequately.
Most of this comes from a tremendous cast who all had their comic timing down to a science. Support from Alan Arkin, Dwayne Johnson and Anne Hathaway are all top-notch and really help Carell pull this movie together.
Without their influence, and that of some minor roles from David Koechner and Masi Oka, I think this movie would have gone horribly wrong much like the ill-fated Evan Almighty.
But it manages to teeter on the edge of sanity and keep you entangled in its web of absurdity. You believe that Max is both a dolt and a master spy mainly because the characters surrounding him believe it.
I read an article recently that mentioned that Anne Hathaway’s biggest problem was attracting a male demographic, but she goes a long way in this movie towards being moderately sexy and not quite so freakish. She delivers almost as much humor as Carell does.
And Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock always does well. He’s one of those actors that I always like no matter how bad the movie. I never fault him for it. He’s just too likeable to do so. His character this time around is particularly funny, though.
Another high point of the movie is the action. It could have been a standard comedy with some silly action, but it becomes a little bit more of a ‘real’ movie with some high caliber fight and chase scenes. Even still, it is a bit surreal to see The Rock and Steve Carell in fight scenes together. It just doesn’t seem natural.
It’s not perfect, but comedies these days rarely are. This a comedy of a by-gone era paying tribute to a comedy of an even byer-gone era. It’s almost a fantastic comedy; it only missed it by that much.
Verdict: B- Tilt: B+