Get Smart

Release Date - June 2008
Rating - 3 Stars

A remake of the Mel Brooks 1960's TV show starring Don Adams is surprisingly funny yet not quite refreshing. Steve Carrell (The Office) plays Maxwell Smart an hopeful office agent who gains status as a field agent when the organization becomes compromised. There is not much to write about the plot. It is your typical save-the-day story with lots of action, but it also ends with a little bit of surprise. Carell has a different take on the Smart charactor then Adams did. He seems to play Smart more like Micheal from the office, nevertheless Carrell does it well and makes it much more enjoyable and funnier than Adams (that is if you are an office fan and enjoy and understand the comedy style of Carell). You can always tell he puts a lot of thought, work, and heart into his characters, and Maxwell Smart is no exeception. Anne Hathaway (Ella Enchanted, Becoming Jane) also did a surprisingly fantastic job and was quite the scene stealer at times. When she tried to breakaway from the Princess roles by doing Broke Back Mountain I was very disappointed but she very well may have redeemed herself with this role because she has so much more personality than the boring Barbara Feldon from the Get Smart TV series.

I found myself constantly rooting for Smart as he learned to be a field agent which helped keep me riveted to the screen, along with the fact I was laughing every few minutes. There were times when I was the only one laughing and I wondered if it wasn't funny or if the people in the audience just didn't the jokes. Get Smart is rated PG-13 for action style violence and some, what we call, adult language (even though I think kids use it more now, but that's a whole different blog). There are only two sexual jokes, the worst of them is when Smart is trying to pick up a enormous unconsciences man who. From the camera angle it gives the appearance of Smart getting fresh with the man. The other is a dialog between a women at the bakery who mistakes Smart for trying to hit on her but it is done very tastefully and is not crude. I would recommend this movie to people 11 and older. So if your choice comes down to seeing this or the Love Guru -- even though I have not seen that and will not -- choose Get Smart it is well worth the full ticket price.