Get Smart

Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, David Koechner, James Caan, Bill Murray, Masi Oka, Ken Davitian
Directed by: Peter Segal
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Comedy, Thriller
2008

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) and Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) battle the forces of Kaos and try to save the world.

Review:

Tim: I was actually really looking forward to this movie. It came out at a time when a good action/comedy was exactly what moviegoers needed. I absolutely loved the cast, and was ready to be entertained. The movie did provide some laughs, some entertainment, but had too many flaws. In the end, I enjoyed myself, but wished the movie was better than it was.

Steve Carell does a good job in the role as Maxwell Smart. He is such an enjoyable actor, especially when he has the opportunity to get laughs out of the audience. I enjoy his energy and his charisma, and he is good here. Anne Hathaway was very well cast as Agent 99. She and Carell are quite good on screen together, and I very much liked their scenes. I also always, always love seeing The Rock (sigh, I suppose I need to get used to calling him Dwayne Johnson). Johnson is generally good in his supporting role, although I wish he had more to do. Alan Arkin is great in the film, and has the movie's funniest line (It is about the swordfish- absolutely hilarious). These four actors really help this movie to be enjoyable.

While much of the movie is enjoyable, I couldn't help but wish for more. The action was decent, the comedy was decent, but neither really impacted me. The movie needed to be far funnier, and the action could have been better, too. It is difficult in an action comedy to balance each against the other, and to do both well. This movie struggles a bit in that regard.

Get Smart is a movie that does so much well, but could have been better. This is a movie that with a few changes, could have been downright excellent. As it is, this is a flawed movie, but a flawed movie that you can forgive for not being better. It is still enjoyable, and nearly impossible to leave without feeling at least partially good about it. I wished I liked it more, but I can still definitely recommend it.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



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