Review of Get Smart (2008) by P M — 25 Mar 2011

My wife and I rented "The Town" for us and the kids wanted to see "Get Smart". The critics slammed that latter so I had no real interest in seeing it...even though I'm old enough to fondly remember the original TV series. I helped the boys set up the movie on our home theatre system before heading upstairs to enjoy our movie on the smaller TV. But when Get Smart started, I paused to watch the beginning and lo and behold, it didn't look too stupid. The next thing I know, I'm almost half way through it before I return to my now-annoyed spouse. I watched the rest of Get Smart a couple of days later.

It was pretty good. The humour is broad, sometimes even slapstick-ish, and there a handful of laugh-out-loud moments. The story is a modern version of the original but they play homage to the TV series throughout. Essentially, the original "Control" organization was disbanded and a museum houses all of those secret agent gadgets from that TV series. Of course, a much more modern version continues to secretly exist to battle its arch nemesis KAOS. The film follows a standard Bond-like plot with a Get Smart comedic spin.

The movie is slickly made and the cast does a decent job playing up things for laughs. But it's definitely not perfect. Fans of the original will appreciate the references to the series, though some of my favourites were played down. The movie seems to be aiming for a broad audience. However, the humour and violence is not really appropriate for young kids. Of course my 8 and 11-yr old boys were thrilled by that, while I just cringed, parent-wise, when I first saw some of stuff. I also think the characters could have been developed more and Maxwell Smart was a bit too competent for my liking.

Still, I found it to be a pleasant diversion. Definitely worth renting for some mindless fun.