Get Smart
Get Smart is a somewhat incongruous screen adaptation for those who remember the wildly popular 60’s television spy spoof of the same name. Although set in the post cold war world of today, here Maxwell Smart has not yet achieved Agent status since he’s such a crack researcher for his agency CONTROL and thus too valuable to promote. However when KAOS manages to compromise every last global CONTROL agent Max is the only qualified person to send to spy on the enemy. This is also set prior to the ongoing TV romance with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) and when the two are pressed into service as a team the only thing that sizzles is 99’s rage. Steve Carell is at his subtly hilarious best as smart who he plays as more of a smooth geek than the clueless buffoon we remember Don Adams creating. Lots of iconic favourites resurface here like the Cone of Silence, the shoe phone is taken out of mothballs and although sparingly would you believe the “would you believe” gag? There are strong supporting roles by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Alan Arkin as Chief (nothing to be sorry about that) and Terence Stamp as the comically evil KAOS ringleader Siegfried. The animosity between 99 and 86 is good fodder for laughs with provisions made to mitigate the creepiness of the age difference between Carell and Hathaway when they do connect. Incongruity aside, out of 100 Get Smart may not rate a 99 but certainly an 86.