WOULD you believe the new version of the ’60s spy spoof “Get Smart,” starring Steve Carell, isn’t awful – like almost all TV-to-movie transfers – but instead, that it’s actually pretty funny (if overlong and overproduced)?
“Get Smart” avoids the fate of such duds as “I Spy,” “The Mod Squad,” “The Avengers” and
“Starsky & Hutch” through its genius casting of Carell. He pays homage to the deadpan delivery and catchphrases of the late Don Adams (“Sorry about that, Chief”) but puts a distinctively different spin on the concept of Maxwell Smart as a nitwit blowhard secret agent didn’t transfer well to the big screen when Adams tried it with the aptly named “The Nude Bomb” in 1980.
Carell’s talents are much better served by the new Max, a quietly brainy analyst who gets a chance to realize his long-held dream of working in the field. He becomes Agent 86 after disaster strikes CONTROL, the CIA-like agency where he works.
Agent 99, played on the series by the immortal Barbara Feldon as a far more competent agent who not so secretly adored Max, has also been rethought for the post-Cold War era. In the quite capable comic hands of Anne Hathaway, she’s an experienced agent who’s annoyed at being teamed with a newbie whose physical skills leave a lot to be desired.
But the formulaic plot – they’re assigned to prevent KAOS from nuking Los Angeles – of course throws them together, and sometimes on top of each other, at every turn. In fact, the plot is not dissimilar from that of “I Spy,” but the difference is that director Peter Segal actually wrings some laughs out of the situations.
The big comic set piece is totally tangential but pure genius. It’s a dance competition in Russia that pits Agent 99 and a KAOS functionary (Davis S. Lee) against (the formerly fat) Max and a hefty woman (Lindsay Hollister) he pulls out of the crowd.
Other comedic moments – including poor Max’s flailing attempts at using a customized knife (he keeps harpooning himself) and trying to somersault through a room booby-trapped with lasers – make up for overblown stunt sequences.
Carell and Hathaway receive splendid support from old pro Alan Arkin as CONTROL’s exasperated Chief, and Dwayne Johnson is slyly funny as the swaggering Agent 23, whom Max has long idolized. To further appeal to youngsters unfamiliar with the series, there are Masi Oka and Nate Torrence as CONTROL’s resident tech geeks.
For us aging boomers, there’s Terence Stamp as the head of KAOS (spouting insults to his aide, played by Ken Davitian of “Borat”), a hilarious cameo by Bill Murray – and James Caan as the oblivious president of the United States, reading “Good Night, Moon” to first-graders a la Dubya on 9/11.
There’s also a more elaborate version of the series’ famous sight gag opening – the endless series of steel doors leading to a telephone booth with an elevator.
Max’s even more fabled shoe phone also makes an appearance – and, fortunately for “Get Smart,” the self-deprecating Carell isn’t shoe-phoning in his inspired performance.