Missed it by That Much:

TV Show Remake Should Have Stuck to its Classic Roots
by Morgan P Salvo

Get Smart attempts a big screen adaptation of a small screen show, trying hard to stay somewhat reverent to the original. The innovative TV show was the brainchild of Buck Henry and Mel Brooks, (credited as consultants) but this remake somehow lost their slapstick wit and brainy innuendoes. In fact the entire movie smacks of lackluster performances and tedious plot-fillers. What was once wacky spy stuff alongside the goofiness of Mad magazine, is now an almost risk-free and gutless version.
The opening music is incredibly dull, wandering in schmaltz-land until it gets to the credits with the familiar multiple doors closing shut and the TV theme song. The whole ambiance feels like it’s in slow motion. The simplistic plot is that KAOS (the evil organization) wants to wreak havoc on the planet by bombing select cities starting with Los Angeles. CONTROL (the good guys) has to stop them.
Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart, aka Agent 86, takes on the Don Adams role in a weirdly subtle performance. Carell is a really good choice, but whereas Don Adams had this kind of pestering suave bravado, Carrel comes off as more of a wimp with surprises. The original 86, due to his boasting and know-it-all attitude, brought everything on himself---he got what he deserved. In 2008 we get a pathetic 86 begging you to feel sorry for him—it’s just not right. On the other hand, Anne Hathaway is extremely sexy, replacing Barbara Feldon as Agent 99.And that’s no small feat; who didn’t have a
crush on Feldon’s 99? Raise your hands. Max’s rapport with 99, however, is only sometimes bearable. Most of the movie dwells on their relationship, and their pseudo jealousy tantrums aren’t convincing. There’s also an un-beguiling intro of Max, growing from nerdy analyst to a secret agent in the field. More fun that should’ve worked was Alan Arkin as the Chief; unlike the stoic yet frazzled TV leader, Arkin’s Chief has a furious temper, short-fusing his way into punching anyone anytime. Then there’s Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson as Agent 23 doing his “watch-me-I’m-acting-shtick”. Please banish him back to wrestling. KAOS’s villain Siegfried in the TV version was a bumbling loudmouth belligerent nut-case. Terrence Stamp takes on this role with his yet again rendering of “I-am-the-best-creepy-villain-on-the-planet.” I have to admit Ol’ Terrence always brings anything he’s in up a notch by his mere presence. They also couldn’t have picked a better guy (Patrick Warburton) to play HYMIE the robot but he isn’t introduced until the very end, setting up the inevitable sequel. We get cameos from Bill Murray, James Caan, Kevin Nealon, and Larry Miller. We also get fat-suit jokes, real life fat people jokes, scientist-geek jokes, the president reading to children in a classroom joke (this spoof can retire anytime) and a vice president pace-maker joke. There were things I was waiting for---the cone of silence for one. Introduced as an updated modified gizmo it still plays on the joke that once inside the contraption to converse secretly, no one can hear each other. The original low-tech version was much funnier. The resurrection of the shoe-phone is completely pointless.

But the lines taken from the old show: “sorry about that chief”, “would you believe”, and “missed it by that much” suffer the most. Originally the sayings rang true out of repetition and even got irritatingly, annoyingly funny. Here they come out of the blue and seemingly have no real meaning. Interjected only for those who get it, they lose their punch.
It seems that this movie can’t make up its mind whether to be a summer action flick or to stay true to the original show. Get Smart somehow seems lost in its own fray and thereby leaves itself stuck in the rut of being never funny enough or sufficiently action packed. I’m leaning toward the idea that high tech movie logic should have left this one alone, remaking it in a cruder crummier no-tech way allowing the characters’ incompetence to shine through. Then maybe it would’ve at least been amusing.



Get Smart
Starring Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin, Terrence Stamp
Directed by Peter Segal
 1 1/2 stars (because it could’ve been worse)