Get Smart (2008)

"You heard me I have to 'squeeze the lemon'.", 23 September 2009

Overall, I found Get Smart a disappointing experience. I guess I should have known I'd have problems with the movie – I usually do with these old TV shows turned into movies. The problem generally is that the people responsible for the remakes have no clue about what made the original so good and enjoyable. And that's the case here. Maxwell Smart is the centerpiece of Get Smart. His bumbling antics are what made it funny. Anyone familiar with the television show will go into the movie with a preconceived notion of how Steve Carrell should play the character. But thanks to some poor writing and directing, Carrell's Maxwell Smart is all over the map. One minute he's a bumbling fool incapable of the most simple of tasks (like cutting the plastic strap binding his wrist when he has a knife) and the next he's suddenly a super-hero busting the chops of every bad guy in sight. It's not just inconsistent – it's downright annoying. Add to that the half-hearted way the writers threw in Don Adams' familiar catch phrases, the over-reliance on fat jokes, the lazy way action is used to replace real comedy, and a plot that is tired on one hand and nonsensical on the other and you end up with 110 minutes of wasted opportunity. That's not to say it's all bad. I did enjoy Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 and Alan Arkin as . . . well, as Alan Arkin. However, they aren't enough to save Get Smart. I should have gone with my instincts and avoided this one.

4/10