by Karyn L. Beach

I’m always weary when old TV series make a run for the big screen, so I cringed a bit when I heard they were revisiting the spy-spoof Get Smart. But then I heard that Steve Carell (of The Office and The 40-Year Old Virgin) was stepping into the telephonic shoes of Don Adams (the original Maxwell Smart) and I got all excited. Carell truly was inspired casting. I just wished the rest of the film had shown a little more inspiration.

This new and updated Maxwell Smart is an analyst for CONTROL, a spy organization that the public believes was disbanded at the end of the Cold War. While he’s the agency’s more thorough analyst, he longs to be one of the more glamorous field agents. His idol is the very suave and heroic Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson). After finally passing the field agent exam, he’s denied his dream job anyway. The Chief (Alan Arkin) feels the smart thing to do is to keep Smart in his analyst position. But plans change when CONTROL is infiltrated by their old Cold War rival, KAOS, and the identities of all the current agents are compromised, Smart is called to action and christened ‘Agent 86.’ He’s paired with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) who is not impressed with her novice of a partner. And before you know it, the pair is off to Russia to find some nuclear weapons.

While the movie updates the series, they did retain some of the more memorable aspects of the show. The theme song is used and we do get to see Smart walking through all of those infamous doors. Fans also get to hear some of their favorite Maxwell Smart lines (“Missed it by that much.”).

Carell made a very good Smart, paying homage to the Don Adams portrayal without trying to mimic it. It’s a fine line but he manages to walk it. Hathaway makes a beautiful Agent 99 and has the thankless role of playing the straight ‘man’ to Carell’s Smart. Johnson as Agent 23 shows once again that he has a flair for comedy.

Through no fault of Carell, someone made the decision to make the new Maxwell Smart more capable and intelligent and I think that cost the film some of its laughs.

I guess I just wanted more. While there were some strong laugh-out-loud moments — an impromptu dance scene and another scene where Smart is eavesdropping in a bathroom, — I was disappointed that the focus of what was a classic comedy series wasn’t comedy but action.

Shoot-outs, a death-defying sky diving scene and a finale involving a car, an airplane, and a train wreck are just some of the action scenes. Unfortunately, it seems that more attention was paid to these than the comedy – and that should have been the focus.

Get Smart could have been a lot smarter.