Maxwell Smart is on a mission to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS. When the headquarters of U.S. spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreamt of working in the field alongside stalwart superstar Agent 23. Smart is partnered instead with the lovely-but-lethal veteran Agent 99. Given little field experience and even less time, Smart-armed with nothing but a few spy-tech gadgets and his unbridled enthusiasm-must thwart the doomsday plans of KAOS head Siegfried.
As brilliant as Steve Carell was in the 40 year old virgin, he hasn’t really had too good of a run on the big screen. No one saw Dan in Real life, Little Miss Sunshine and even the director opted out of watching Evan Almighty. So he’s been due to say the least. I think however he might be back on track with Get Smart. It was a witty action packed comedy with sequel written all over it.
Steve Carell has that unique kind of awkward comedy that people love in all the characters he plays. When it works, it works well and It was incredibly funny this time around. One of the best things about the film was that in spite of how completely idiotic he was he’d manage to randomly pull of the most impossible, death defying feat only to return to a total buffoon moments later. It was expected but still quite funny in context.
Not only was Steve Carell funny but the supporting cast of characters were quite funny as well. Dwayne Johnson was excellent as the overly amped super agent who always gets the ladies. Not to be out done, Maxwell Smart’s close friends in the analyst department acting as two close sidekicks were incredibly funny. There just seemed to be a little bit of humor coming from all the characters in the film at the right time. You were always giggling a bit or flat out laughing.
Comedies as of late have all been running a bit long for me. This one was no different coming in at a lengthy 2 hours. So I could have done without the longer running time. But it was a very solid comedy and it’s ripe with sequel possibilities. And why not? It opened to a solid 40 million domestic.
