Get Smart, 4/5

 I have only watched one episode of Get Smart in my life.  I enjoyed it, but it is hard to not enjoy Don Adams.  I went into this movie not expecting anything and it more than delivered.

Steve Carell plays Maxwell Smart, an analyst of the American spy network C.O.N.T.R.O.L.  He is looking to get a promotion as a field agent, and work with the likes of Agent 23 (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson).  He gets passed up for promotion because he is such a good analyst, they need to keep his skills there.  There is a problem with a mission and the Base of Operations of C.O.N.T.R.O.L. and the identities of the field agents are compromised, so Smart has to be promoted.  He and Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) must infiltrate Russia and find the nuclear devices that have been stolen by Sigfried, an agent of K.A.O.S.

This movie was very funny.  I really enjoyed it, and when Mel Brooks’ name came up at the end credits, it became obvious why it was so good.  Carell and Hathaway have a very good chemistry and even though it is a comedy and a spoof, there is a definite plot. This is a movie that harkens back to the days of Naked Gun and Police Squad, however it is not as off the wall.

Why, you ask, is it only four out of five if it was so good.  Well, there are times where I would like to see Steve Carell in a role and not see Michael Scott come through at some point.  And while Maxwell Smart was a separate character, there were times where it seemed that YELLING was translated into comedy.  It was a good movie and it had a good plot, however I don’t think that it was as good as the Naked Gun movies.  I would have liked to see more gadgets along the lines of the shoe phone, because my understanding is that the TV show did a lot of that, and there wasn’t much like that.  The movie lacked something, but I don’t know what.  Perhaps I would know if I were a bigger fan of the TV show.

On a side note:  There is a moment of two men kissing and I was incredibly surprised at the audience reaction.  The disgust was abhorrent, I couldn’t believe that in these days people will, in a movie theater, during a male to male kiss in a comedy, say “That’s gross.”

Overall: 4/5, I really liked it.  Definitely go out and watch this movie, particularly if you like Mel Brooks, Steve Carell, or spoof movies in general.