This movie version of GET SMART has at least one good gag. At one point, Steve Carell as superspy Maxwell Smart tries to steal a succession of cars; the joke being that the cars -- a Sunbeam Tiger, an Opel GT and a VW Karmann Gia -- happen to be duplicates of the three that Don Adams, the real Maxwell Smart, drove during the course of the original TV series back in the 1960s. Most viewers won't get the joke -- or appreciate the irony that the best things in the film have simply been stolen from the TV series.
The problem with making new movies from old TV shows is that they exist because of the nostalgia for the old show but must be made to satisfy younger filmgoers who likely feel no great nostalgia for the originals. That's why most of them fail so badly; they usually ignore or trash the essential elements of the beloved originals, aliening one segment of the audience; while desperately trying to capture the fickle attention (and greater box office clout) of a different generation who likely won't quite get the jokes.
"Get Smart," the television show, may not be entirely a relic of the past -- it has after all been in syndicated reruns for some forty years, but that doesn't mean that it is all that fresh in the public's mind. As one of the smart-dumb sitcoms of 1960s American TV, it holds a warm spot in the heart of many a post-baby boomer, who remembers it's cheeky silliness as something fresh and original. But, while subsequent generations might have a passing acquaintance with the material, they likely have their own favored pop culture icons, which, no doubt, greatly overshadow "Get Smart" reruns.
As such, there wasn't any great demand to revive "Get Smart," yet again -- no more so than there was a demand for big screen versions of "Bewitched," "Lost in Space," "The Avengers," "Car 54," "The Honeymooners," "The Wild Wild West," or any of the others on the seemingly endless list of disastrous remakes. Yet, this is the fourth attempt to resurrect the series, following a previous theatrical movie in 1980, a made-for-TV movie in 1989 and a subsequent short-lived revival series in 1995. They all failed to one degree or another, but at least they had one thing in their favor; the participation of some of the people who made the original work so well. This 2008 version lacks not just the late, great Don Adams and his lovingly bemused costar, Barbara Feldon, but even any attempt to recapture their marvelous comic chemistry. Carell opts not to imitate the distinctive style of Adams, and as such there is nothing at all particularly interesting about his interpretation of Smart. He delivers Max's trademark one-liners ("Would you believe...?" "Missed me by that much!," etc.) without a hint of Adams' cocky self-assurance, repeatedly missing the opportunity to get a sure-fired laugh, or at least a meager grin of recognition. Perhaps to avoid making Agent 99 simply Max's straight woman, the role has been beefed up so the character is now sort of Max's mentor, an awkward nod to feminism that denies Anne Hathaway a chance to recreate the coy, sardonic charm that Feldon brought to the part. As for Alan Arkin as "The Chief" and Terrence Stamp as archvillain Siegfried, neither actor seems to be aware that they are indeed in a comedy; especially Stamp whose whole performance makes less of an impression than the welcome five-second cameo made by Bernie Koppell, TV's Siegfried.
Like the embarrassing PINK PANTHER reboot starring Steve Martin, the film thinks it is necessary to do the unnecessary, reintroduce everything. We already know that Maxwell Smart is an idiot, but not a complete idiot, and that Agent 99 is both his somewhat smarter partner and love interest. So why does this film waste so much time with formula plotting about Maxwell earning his credentials and going on his first assignment, followed by all the romantic comedy shtick showing us Max and 99 meeting, becoming rivals and then falling in love? We know all that -- and even if we don't, it is preordained anyway. And once the story does finally get going, it is a tiresomely contrived been-there-seen-that story about a plot to set off a nuclear bomb and kill the president. But rather than using these formula clichés as the starting point for satire -- like the TV series would have -- the clichés are the story.
On it's own, GET SMART is not too awfully bad; that is to say that if you could forget about the TV show, the movie is as perfectly professional and perfectly forgettable as any unsold TV pilot. But, coming on the heels of the AIRPLANE! movies, the NAKED GUN movies, the HOT SHOTS! movies, the Austin Powers movies and the sundry other parodies and spoofs that owe a great debt to the MAD Magazine mentality of the original "Get Smart," the movie is depressingly tame. Rather than gleefully being absurd and surreal in its approach, GET SMART is closer in tone to the James Bond movies than to the TV series that was designed to mock the James Bond movies. It is a cliché-riddled movie, based on a TV series that existed to mock cliché-riddled movies. It doesn't just fail to be as funny as the series, it actually seems to be trying to not be too funny. And that may just be the most absurd and surreal thing about the whole film.
The problem with making new movies from old TV shows is that they exist because of the nostalgia for the old show but must be made to satisfy younger filmgoers who likely feel no great nostalgia for the originals. That's why most of them fail so badly; they usually ignore or trash the essential elements of the beloved originals, aliening one segment of the audience; while desperately trying to capture the fickle attention (and greater box office clout) of a different generation who likely won't quite get the jokes.
"Get Smart," the television show, may not be entirely a relic of the past -- it has after all been in syndicated reruns for some forty years, but that doesn't mean that it is all that fresh in the public's mind. As one of the smart-dumb sitcoms of 1960s American TV, it holds a warm spot in the heart of many a post-baby boomer, who remembers it's cheeky silliness as something fresh and original. But, while subsequent generations might have a passing acquaintance with the material, they likely have their own favored pop culture icons, which, no doubt, greatly overshadow "Get Smart" reruns.
As such, there wasn't any great demand to revive "Get Smart," yet again -- no more so than there was a demand for big screen versions of "Bewitched," "Lost in Space," "The Avengers," "Car 54," "The Honeymooners," "The Wild Wild West," or any of the others on the seemingly endless list of disastrous remakes. Yet, this is the fourth attempt to resurrect the series, following a previous theatrical movie in 1980, a made-for-TV movie in 1989 and a subsequent short-lived revival series in 1995. They all failed to one degree or another, but at least they had one thing in their favor; the participation of some of the people who made the original work so well. This 2008 version lacks not just the late, great Don Adams and his lovingly bemused costar, Barbara Feldon, but even any attempt to recapture their marvelous comic chemistry. Carell opts not to imitate the distinctive style of Adams, and as such there is nothing at all particularly interesting about his interpretation of Smart. He delivers Max's trademark one-liners ("Would you believe...?" "Missed me by that much!," etc.) without a hint of Adams' cocky self-assurance, repeatedly missing the opportunity to get a sure-fired laugh, or at least a meager grin of recognition. Perhaps to avoid making Agent 99 simply Max's straight woman, the role has been beefed up so the character is now sort of Max's mentor, an awkward nod to feminism that denies Anne Hathaway a chance to recreate the coy, sardonic charm that Feldon brought to the part. As for Alan Arkin as "The Chief" and Terrence Stamp as archvillain Siegfried, neither actor seems to be aware that they are indeed in a comedy; especially Stamp whose whole performance makes less of an impression than the welcome five-second cameo made by Bernie Koppell, TV's Siegfried.
Like the embarrassing PINK PANTHER reboot starring Steve Martin, the film thinks it is necessary to do the unnecessary, reintroduce everything. We already know that Maxwell Smart is an idiot, but not a complete idiot, and that Agent 99 is both his somewhat smarter partner and love interest. So why does this film waste so much time with formula plotting about Maxwell earning his credentials and going on his first assignment, followed by all the romantic comedy shtick showing us Max and 99 meeting, becoming rivals and then falling in love? We know all that -- and even if we don't, it is preordained anyway. And once the story does finally get going, it is a tiresomely contrived been-there-seen-that story about a plot to set off a nuclear bomb and kill the president. But rather than using these formula clichés as the starting point for satire -- like the TV series would have -- the clichés are the story.
On it's own, GET SMART is not too awfully bad; that is to say that if you could forget about the TV show, the movie is as perfectly professional and perfectly forgettable as any unsold TV pilot. But, coming on the heels of the AIRPLANE! movies, the NAKED GUN movies, the HOT SHOTS! movies, the Austin Powers movies and the sundry other parodies and spoofs that owe a great debt to the MAD Magazine mentality of the original "Get Smart," the movie is depressingly tame. Rather than gleefully being absurd and surreal in its approach, GET SMART is closer in tone to the James Bond movies than to the TV series that was designed to mock the James Bond movies. It is a cliché-riddled movie, based on a TV series that existed to mock cliché-riddled movies. It doesn't just fail to be as funny as the series, it actually seems to be trying to not be too funny. And that may just be the most absurd and surreal thing about the whole film.