Take Two: Get Smart
June 21, 2008 at 12:00 p.m.
I half expected to see Michael Scott listed at the top as the credits began to roll in place of Steve Carell's name as the actor behind agent Maxwell Smart. His performance, if you're a fan of his character on NBC's The Office, is stellar in the role as the eager yet inexperienced agent charged with (you guessed it!) stopping a slew of Russian bad guys intent on blowing the world to pieces with stolen nuclear weapons.
The plot seems to develop for the sole purpose of giving Carell a medium in which to make fun of himself, which he is quite good at. With the help of a sexy sidekick, Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), and the smooth talking, epitome-of-cool Agent 23 (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), Smart pursues the neo-Soviet villains through Russia.
Hathaway gives a generic performance, and the movie barely gives The Rock enough time to wink at the camera, let alone unleash his own comedy. The weak, uninspired supporting cast abandons Carell in the task of making audiences laugh. Get Smart is funnier than Evan Almighty but is significantly more diluted than 40-Year Old-Virgin (which is understandable, considering Virgin's R-rating).
Although the film is little more than yet another entry in the spy movie parody genre, it is nonetheless entertaining. It's a silly, goofball movie that will appeal to teens and 'tweens alike—with plenty of laughs on reserve for the parents who paid for the movie tickets.
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