Get Smart
Stars: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway
Director: Peter Segal
*** 1/2 (out of five)
To imagine how badly the movie version of Get Smart might have turned out, one need only reflect with a wince on some recent spy movie parodies (Johnny English) or the lower points of Steve Carell�s career (Evan Almighty). Peter Segal�s film manages to avoid either film�s dismally unfunny effect, mostly by hewing closely to the spirit of the original TV series starring Don Adams, and by a happy accident of casting.
Carell takes over the role made famous by Adams � Maxwell Smart, the bumbling but cocksure secret agent who succeeds in spite of his best efforts. Anne Hathaway does a fine job with Agent 99, played by Barbara Feldon in the TV series, ably matching Feldon�s innate sexiness; the only real flaw in Hathaway�s portrayal is her inability to evoke the fetchingly neurotic quality Feldon brought to the role.
It�s in the supporting cast, however, that the film creates a sympathetic setting for Carell to make his Smart his own creature and not either a mimicry or a parody of Adams. The gallery of faces ranges from reliable actors such as Dwayne Johnson, James Caan and Terence Stamp to actors familiar from nearly every Judd Apatow, Adam Sandler or Christopher Lloyd comedy � Terry Crews, David Koechner, Nate Torrance and Ken Davitian among them. Bill Murray turns in a cameo as the luckless Agent 13, while weightlifter Dalip Singh does a startling impersonation of two-time Bond heavy Richard �Jaws� Kiel.
The movie teases out all the well-loved props and devices of the show with a coyness that�s only occasionally maddening, while Carell noticeably undersells Adams� trademark lines such as �Missed it by that much.� A sequel � broadly hinted at by Patrick Warburton�s cameo near the end as Hymie the robot agent � will have to discover its own comic momentum if it wants to avoid turning a promising start into a pale tribute.
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