Based on a madcap '60s television series created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, Get Smart is a comic caper about an accident-prone yet sensitive secret agent who might just be mankind's last, great hope.
James Bond and Jason Bourne need not fear: if Maxwell Smart (Carell) does save the world, it is the result of pluck and good fortune rather than a perfectly conceived and executed plan. Carell embraces the film's brand of unabashed silliness without restraint. Whether he's body popping and pirouetting between the laser beams of a security system or attempting to unlock handcuffs using an ingenious mini-harpoon, the leading man is a lovable fool.
At times, however, he's perhaps too intelligent and capable, straining credibility when Maxwell abandons all common sense to achieve his goals. Carell catalyses a pleasing screen chemistry with the willowy Anne Hathaway, playing Agent 99, who has nothing to do apart from keep a straight face as her co-star goofs into and out of trouble.
Terence Stamp pays his mortgage for a couple of months as the lifeless, pantomime arch-villain, whose ridiculously theatrical scheme to cause an explosion using Beethoven's Ode To Joy as a trigger is invariably doomed to failure.
Director Peter Segal focuses too intently on big action scenes rather than the slapstick, giving the film a split personality, which screenwriters Tom J Astle and Matt Ember are unable to resolve. The supporting performances are also largely forgettable except for Bill Murray's cameo as crazy Agent 13, who is stuck inside a tree.
Barking mad - pity the rest of Segal's film doesn't follow suit.
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