Get Smart

One of the problems with doing a movie based on source material that is video rather than literary, is that the original material is better defined in the video regard - obviously. People's expectations are a little more set in stone and when attempting to bring the material into a new decade, particularly one that's over forty years apart (well from the original anyway), you have the joint task of pleasing hard core fans and appealing to a new audience. And, more importantly than that, trying to make it relevent to the present day. By that very definition it's almost impossible to make a completely faithful film adaptation of Get Smart.

When watching this movie I got the exact same vibes I was getting from The Pink Panther remake, but perhaps because I wasn't a hardcore Get Smart fan (as opposed to being quite a fan of The Pink Panther) I wasn't as bothered about it. Similarities between the two show the characters as more competent than their original counterparts, ultimately saving the day not because they stumbled on the solution, but because they actually were capable enough to work it out; the movies act as origin stories for the characters - neither of which had an origin in their original run; and both see the lead characters disgraced in the eyes of their bosses before getting help from a person in the organisation to save the day. But I realise now that Get Smart, like The Pink Panther, actually does have its heart in the right place.

Max Smart is more a Steve Carell character than a Don Adams character in this movie, though the traditional Adams traits still remain - Smart is still pompous, useless with gadgets and incapable of believing he is wrong; and the old jokes such as "missed it by that much" and "would you believe..." are both present. Rather nicely Smart ends up in the car that the Adams Smart used to drive in the television series, in a neat setup for a clever joke. Steve Carell, aside from having a passing resemblance to Don Adams, brings Smart to life very well, not mimicing Adams, but certainly maintaining the spirit of the original.

In much the same way, Anne Hathaway (easily the most gorgeous woman in Hollywood) does the same for 99 - although in the scene where 99 wears a short, silver dress with a bob wig, her resemblance to Barbara Feldon is uncanny. However, the origin of her character is vastly different to the original - now a brilliant field agent who can't keep her hands off her fellow agents it would seem.

Other characters are still portrayed excellently - Siegfried, Larabee, Shtarker, and of course the Chief, brought superbly back to life by the usually underrated Alan Arkin. Additionally, other Get Smart characters also have cameo appearances - Fang the dog, Agent 13 and Hymie (cast brilliantly as Patrick Warburton) - which help to remind us of the original television series.

But, of course, updating to present day means we have a rather large host of new characters including Agent 23 (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - though he doesn't call himself The Rock anymore it seems), Max's good friend and 99's former boyfriend; and Bruce and Lloyd, two scientists in CONTROL who help Smart out where possible and also develop Hymie.

One of the things that stood out for me personally was the amount of references to the James Bond movies, somewhat appropriate given that the original television series was a spoof of the aforementioned movies.

Get Smart is the kind of movie that will make you laugh a lot, but if you are one of those people who know exactly what the original series was like and you expect a remake of that you will be disappointed - but truth to tell, if you did get what you wanted, without that heavy dose of nostalgia, you'll would be just as disappointed.

"B"