But more on that later. Get Smart is based on a 1960s spy comedy about a secret agency known as CONTROL with the lead character Maxwell Smart. Now don't get me wrong, there have been some gems, but usually movies with plots based on sitcoms turn out incredibly bad and/or mediocre (Starsky and Hutch, anyone?). This movie's plot written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember was actually not too bad, but that's about it. In fact, it was the epitomy of predictable summer comedy spy movies; so predictable, that I determined and successfully predicted the outcome of the film, the evil plot's execution and who was the double agent very early on.
Other than that, the comedy gave me a few guffaws, but several of the jokes were hit and miss (believe me, the awkward silences were there, the ones where the actors on screen hold for laughs), and the jokes that were a hit probably only were because of the brilliant comedic actor Steve Carrell who was performing them.
The non-headliner cast actually held their own in my opinion. We see Nate Torrence and Masi Oka (of Heroes fame) as gadget scientists Bruce and Lloyd, and they actually steal some scenes at times. We also had Ken Davitian, who Borat fans now know as Azamat Bagatov, play Shtarker with amusing tiny nuances. And for all those WWE fans, Dalip Singh is in this movie as a giant thug under Siegfried's arsenal, which was a type cast but still very entertaining. For those of you WWE fans who don't know who Dalip Singh is, you may recognize him as The Great Khali. Yeah. Pretty intimidating. But then when have Terence Stamp as the mastermind of the evil plan Siegfried, who is not very intimidating at all, and not even the stereotypical evil genius, which was somewhat disappointing.
Hey, it's a freaking WWE arsenal here as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays Agent 23. What can I say about Mr. Johnson except that I enjoyed his brutality and cockiness, but then again it's just another persona that's exactly like Chris Vaughn or the Scorpion King, and it involves little to no acting. I can smell what The Rock is cooking and it tastes incredibly bland.
Then we have the great Oscar winning Alan Arkin as The Chief. Although he has his moments (look out for a swordfish), I have to say his performance was expectingly lacklustre. He really took a backseat in this one, which was disappointing, but then again, there really was not enough substance for him to turn into a memorable role.
Reading this review, you're probably thinking that this will be the first poorly reviewed movie of this blog. Luckily that is not the case thanks to the two brilliant lead actors of this film.
Anne Hathaway is well known for her amazing performance in movies like The Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada, and once again she delivers in what any other actress would make mediocre. I thought that Agent 99 would simply be the traditional femme fatale of the movie, and everyone knows that Anne Hathaway could do that; I mean come on, she's absolutely gorgeous! But as the movie progresses, the audience sees that she is a tragic character with a lot of bad experiences. Anne Hathaway conveys every emotion to a T and does an amazing job with the character. She gives off a character that is very hard to convey, the hard-shelled but vulnerable femme fatale, and unlike most actors, fails to disappoint.
People today probably have laughed at least once at Steve Carrell, I mean, come on, the man is hilarious and talented. The role of Maxwell Smart was made for him; the slapstick yet suave secret agent is right under Carrell's alley. He's the reason why all of the jokes in this movie are funny. Practically every line that escapes his mouth makes me guffaw. And yet, the character, like Agent 99, has its conflicts and characteristics other than funny: he needs to be debonair, but conflicted with the hopes for something more. Steve Carrell does not get out of character once and performs to the best of his abilities.
Another thing that I feel needs to be noted is the chemistry between Carrell and Hathaway. The sexual tension between the two in the entire movie is just perfect and you really feel that they are connected with each other, unlike so many fake relationships one sees in comedies.
Overall, the movie's faults are rescued by these two incredible actors that not only make the movie entertaining in the hilarious way, but also by drawing the audience consistently into a plot that is not very consistent at all. It almost got a bad rating by me, but like Maxwell Smart's swing from a flaming rooftop, it "Missed it by that much!"
/5(By the way, in case you missed what the terrible title of this article meant: I wouldn't call it smart or 99%. I know. Shut up.)
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