Made it by that much.
Director: Peter Segal
Notable Cast: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp
So rarely these days is a movie exactly what it says it will be. In fact, modestly ambitious ventures such as Get Smart are released so infrequently that it is easy to offer them too much praise. Get Smart is perfectly average, but what makes that an accomplishment is the fact that director Peter Segal and his cast and crew are completely satisfied with that. Their enthusiasm to make “just another movie” is infectious, allowing audience to sit back and enjoy themselves.
That is not to say that Get Smart doesn’t have its flaws, but how bad can a movie whose number one initiative is to show everybody how smoking fine Anne Hathaway is truly be? Oh yeah, and she has pretty good comedic chops too. Throw in an expectedly solid comedic performance from Steve Carrell, as well as great bit parts from the increasingly reliable Alan Arkin and Dwayne Johnson, and what you have is a sleeper summer hit. Again, what makes it all work is Get Smart‘s pure enjoyment in entertaining its audience.
A theme that becomes evident the second Maxwell Smart (Carrell) pops on ABBA’s “Take a Chance on Me” on the way to work. Agent Smart is an overachieving techie working for the US intelligence firm, Control, who dreams of becoming a field agent. When Control’s headquarters are infiltrated by Russian espionage agency, CHAOS, the anonymity of Control’s agents is compromised and Smart is given the opportunity to go out into the field.
Smart is paired with the newly made over Agent 99 (Hathaway) and sent to Russia to find the location of some stolen weapons as well as find out if CHAOS has a double agent inside Control. The mission conveniently offers ample opportunity for Carrell to take many pratfalls and Hathaway to slink around looking sexy in various outfits. Predictable as the proceedings may be, it is pleasurable to watch a movie that hits all the right notes without treating its audience like imbeciles who shell out money for just anything.
Get Smart knows its limitations and never pretends that it is giving its audience anything more. Along with the comedy and sex appeal, there is also enough of the prerequisite spy movie action to appease those seeking it. In fact, there might be too much for Get Smart to be the family movie it wants to be. After one villain survives a fall from an airplane, why do the filmmakers feel the need to kill off one single character in the film? Let alone the numerous deaths that are eventually tallied.
Yet that is a minor grievance for a movie that offers little to complain about. In much the same way that Get Smart should not be overrated it should not be overanalyzed, either. The film is exactly what it sets out to be, and in that way it is wonderful in its normalcy. We hardly ever get what we pay for with movies anymore and often times we wish for more than we pay for, but sometimes its rewarding to take pleasure in getting exactly what a preview tells us to expect. One might say they got Smart.
