A film released this year chronicled the misadventures of a bumbling spy and was based on a beloved '60s icon. No, I'm not talking about "Get Smart," I'm talking about "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies," a hilarious French spoof that lampooned agent OSS 117, France's answer to James Bond, and is one of the funniest films of the year. Alas, outside of April's RiverRun Film Festival in Winston-Salem, "OSS 117" has not played on any North Carolina screens. "Get Smart," on the other hand, is on nearly every North Carolina screen, and pretty much everything that "OSS 117" got right, "Get Smart" manages to get wrong.
Based on the classic 1960s television show of the same name, "Get Smart" brings the series into the 21st century, introducing us to Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell), a razor-sharp intelligence analyst for a super-secret government spy organization known as Control. When their arch-enemies, the Russian organization KAOS, attacks Control headquarters and begins making nuclear weapons in preparation to attack Los Angeles while the president is making an official visit, Smart is promoted to become Agent 86 and is partnered up with the beautiful Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) to travel to Russia and stop KAOS before it is too late.
Director Peter Segal, who has made a career out of making second-rate studio comedies like this one, seems to sap all the natural humor out of Carell and turns what should have been an incisive send-up of the spy genre like the Mel Brooks TV series with which it shares a name into a loud, bombastically obnoxious action comedy that takes itself way too seriously. The script is flat and dull, causing most of the jokes to land with a painful thud.
It stumbles even more when it tries to foray into political humor, where the jokes fall embarrassingly flat. I almost felt bad for the actors who had to chew on the tired dialogue, filled with one-liners that second rate stand-up comics would have found outdated five years ago.
There are a few funny moments, mostly courtesy of Carell's natural charm and some surprising cameos that inject some much-needed life into an otherwise generic film.
"Get Smart" really has nothing new to offer. We've seen it all before, and often better. Anyone seeking a smart, truly funny spy spoof would be better served by seeking out "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" and leaving "Get Smart" alone.