Review of Get Smart (2008) by Karenw. — 13 Sep 2008

When I was young, I was a fan of the series, and this made me howl with laughter as an adult. It had enough references to the TV show that those of us in the know got the jokes, but it didn't overdo it so it became too hip for its own good for those unfamiliar with the show's buzzwords.

There was some extremely hip humor--- an aging-gracefully Alan Arkin as the Chief correcting the President's mispronunciation of the word "nuclear" (thank God somebody finally did this) or Smart hanging precariously from an airplane banner advertising a suicide hot line.

There's some triumph of the nerds to the plot as well --- benched field agents can't cope with computer windows, and Smart, depicted as a one-time analyst, talks his way out of a dangerous situation by recognizing the villain from a recorded conversation and telling him how to fix his relationship problems.

Stever Carell deadpans perfectly, and Anne Hathaway has the understated, slightly goofy allure of the original Agent 99. I hesitated to see this because I thought, "Oh, no, another knock-off of an old TV show," but my son insisted, and it turned out to be something that had the entire family in stitches without being offensive on any level.

Considering that The Dark Knight, which glorified violence, had the same rating, one has to be wondering what the MPAA is thinking.