When I sit down to watch an episode of NBC's "The Office," I do so feeling very confident that I'll be treated to a strong comedic performance from Steve Carell. Through four seasons of watching the series, I'm pretty sure he's had me laughing out loud in each episode at his bumbling, awkward portrayal of a boss straddling the fine line between boss and buddy.
After watching Carell's last two movies, "Evan Almighty" and "Dan in Real Life," I'm significantly less confident these days when watching Carell up on the big screen — mostly because neither film was funny in the least. Both performances seemed quite bland to me, as if Carell was either losing his touch or just phoning it in for the paycheck.
Fortunately, Carell manages to save the world (or at least keep his still-good name) in "Get Smart," the cinematic version of the Mel Brooks-created 1960s spy sitcom known for introducing the world to shoe phones and the catch phrase, "Missed it by that much."
Carell plays Maxwell Smart, also known as Agent 86, a bumbling, dimwitted secret agent who on the show manages to thwart a number of bad guy plots due in no small part to the help of his partner, the more intelligent and attractive Agent 99 (played here by Anne Hathaway).
From my recollection of watching reruns of the show in the late 1980s, the film does a fairly accurate job of capturing the scenarios and humorous character flaws of the sitcom.
The film does take the opportunity to give "Get Smart" a 21st century flavor, mostly in the form of political commentary: "When we argue, the terrorists win!"; in talking about Hollywood stars, "What will we do without their razor-sharp political advice?"; and the U.S. president getting a memo about an impending attack while reading to a classroom of children (much like President Bush in the moments after the tragic events of 9/11).
As he does on "The Office," Carell plays the dorky guy who doesn't realize he's dorky, much like his predecessor, Don Adams, did on the sitcom. Hathaway sexes up the role of Agent 99 and is the real action star here, kicking plenty of bad guy butt in a number of scenes featuring a series of roundhouse kicks, jumps and backhands.
The rookie CONTROL agent Smart is paired up with Agent 99 by the Chief (Alan Arkin) to thwart the latest plot of the evil KAOS, headed up by Siegfried (Terence Stamp). CONTROL has reason to believe KAOS is storing nuclear weapons in Russia for an upcoming attack on American soil. Providing some expertise to the new crime-fighting duo is the legendary Agent 23 (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson).
Given the choice, I'd probably still prefer to watch the original show over the 2008 updated version, mostly because Adams' classic deadpan dummy shtick is tough to top — not that Carell doesn't give it a good go.
While a too-short scene in which Smart shimmies his way through a laser security system is almost worth the price of admission, the more roles I see Carell in, the more I realize he may never find as good of a vehicle for his comedic talent as a sitcom pitting him as the awkward leader of an office full of eccentric personalities. Still, there are enough funny one-liners here to keep 'Get Smart' entertaining and in the spirit of the TV series.
Somewhat surprisingly, the film does feature a number of solid action scenes, including Smart riding a suicide prevention line banner behind a blazing SUV — don't even try telling me you've seen that one before.
Maxwell Smart may not exactly live up to his name, but "Get Smart" finds a nice balance between laughs and action to make the film a rather intelligent move in Carell's film career.