"Get Smart" in theaters
Steve Carrell shines in otherwise mediocre comedy
Never let it be said that the right actor can't save a movie, particularly after watching Steve Carrel's performance in "Get Smart," a film that is never as funny as it should be but never ceases to be enjoyable. Mostly this is due to Carrell, who exudes such likability as Maxwell Smart, the bumbling secret agent, that you can't help at least go along for the ride.
The film is based on the 60's T.V. show of same name where Smart, as the ill-equipped by fiercely earnest Agent 86, tried to outwit Russian foes at the height of the Cold War. Here, the action picks up with Smart in his early days with CONTROL, a CIA-like organization supposedly deactivated at the end of the Cold War but still operational deep underneath Washington, D.C., accessible only through a serious of elaborate steel doors and a phone booth elevator. Smart is a pencil pusher who specializes in deciphering taped conversations for intelligence, which he finds in the smallest bits of information. Scenario 1: two terrorists have a conversation where muffins are mentioned. Smart's deduction: "Muffins are comfort food. Why would they eat comfort food unless they were nervous about something?"
Smart dreams of being a field agent, which he gets promoted to when the CONTROL headquarters is bombed by their Russian counterpart, CHAOS, and most of the CONTROL agents are eliminated. Smart is sent to Russia on a mission with the beautiful Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), who hates, then mildly dislikes, then kinda likes, then may have to betray Smart, a lovelorn loser who is in all ways incapable of not hitting on 99 at whatever moment.
Smart and 99 begin tracking a Bond villain-type (Terrence Stamp) who is set on holding the world hostage for $200 billion (where do these villains come up with these numbers? process of elimination? ) through the use his own personal arsenal of nuclear weapons. His plan to demonstrate his power? Blowing up a concert in Los Angeles where the President (James Caan, doing his best Dubya) will be in attendance. He plans to set off the bomb during Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." I appreciate the filmmakers use of "Ode to Joy" in both the trailer and the film itself, especially since it is used in the trailer format so much because it seems to work well against images of stuff getting blowed up real good.
Strangely enough, there is quite a bit of this type of activity in "Get Smart," which includes a sequence of Smart being consecutively dragged behind a by-plane, an SUV, and a speeding train before the big explosion. What is surpising is the way the director, Peter Segal (Anger Management, Tommy Boy) manages to deploy these stunts with summer action movie impact that could rival the "Bourne" films for sophistication. If only the film's comedy didn't have to suffer as a result.
The film is awash with missed opportunities. Where are Arkin's side-splitting one liners we can usually expect? Probably offered up to the God of Commercial Viability. And what is Dwayne Johnson doing in the role of Agent 23, Smart's super-agent idol? Why trying to break into mainstream comedy of course. Johnson proved he had comedy chops in "Southland Tales," but his attendance is not necessary here; put him on his yacht in the Carribean and have him phone it in, because it is about as good as having him on set this time around. I just kept imagining Will Arnett or Jack Black in the role.
There are some funny bits in the supporting cast though, with Masi Oka and Nate Torrence, playing two agency tech nerds still lamenting that the office cappucino machine is still for agent-use only, as standouts. These guys need their own sitcom, feeling like they have just stepped out of "The Office," Carrell's. More of these guys would have been gold. Instead, we get a brand of comedy that is mostly squeakly clean, family friendly, and, as a result, very hit or miss.
The film would sink if not for Carrell, who comes up with such dead-on chemistry in his scenes with Hathaway that it forces the audience to buy into the joke, even if the joke itself is not that funny. There are very few guys that can swallow a poison dart and live to fight another comedy day, but Carrel is that actor for our generation. For some reason, Carrel inflicting pain on himself has become acceptable, even palatable, for an audience. And with his Charlie Brown-ish whimsey, he has forced us to go along with movies that otherwise would have gone down in flames.
"Get Smart" is one of those movies, where I wasn't laughing as much, but was still smiling when the lights came up. Carrell had fooled me into taking the ride. I enjoyed it. Let yourself be fooled.
