Get Smart

I think I remember this movie being a bigger deal than it actually was. Back in 2008, I guess I thought that this movie was hilarious and would only get better with time. That was well before I became so cynical and probably over-analyze every work of art I come across when it comes to movies. That being said, this movie is actually pretty cringy and did not have the legs I thought it would have.

No, I haven't seen a single episode of the old TV show Get Smart and I have no idea if the movie is at all true to the source material or even provides a good homage to the TV. Again, this was 2008 right at the beginning of studios believing that if something exists, it obviously needs to be remade for the current day. And I think this show might have been more popular than I'm probably giving it credit for but I can't say I remember a whole lot of people who were overly pumped back in 2008 for this movie to be remaking their favorite TV show.

Get Smart follows the story of Max Smart (played by Steve Carell). He's an analyst for a secret spy organization called Control. Controls mission is to combat the evil forces of a terrorist organization called Chaos. Max is the typical loser that Steve Carell was playing back in the early 2000s where he's socially awkward and clumsy. Also he used to be fat... that's a point they really want to drive home throughout the entire movie. Instead of having Steve Carell in a fat suit throughout the entire movie which would have been really funny, they show him a couple times and then keep reminding us that he was fat.

 Remember, this was the 2000's and studios really wanted Steve Carell to be the next Will Ferrell with comedy up until 2010(ish) where he started doing more serious work and got really good at it.

But Max has the drive to become an agent and even though he may not be as smooth as his idol Agent 23 (played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), he's still very intelligent and is very capable. Of course he struggles to make that goal and is teased by other agents (played by David Koechner and Terry Crews).

Well one day, Control is attacked and the identities of the other agents are exposed so it becomes impossible to send the typical agents out. So the Chief of Control (played by Alan Arkin) sends Max out with one of the top agents, Agent 99 (played by Anne Hathaway) to stop Chaos from carrying out a terrorist plot.

The entire movie is a buddy cop movie between socially awkward Steve Carell and overly sexualized and smooth Anne Hathaway that awkwardly buds into a romance, accompanied by spy action and comedic tones.

The truth is, this movie is pretty rough and has not aged well. The weird thing is that this movie has been done a billion times over before and has been done since a lot better in fact.

The Melissa McCarthy movie Spy does this plot A LOT better so if you're not really looking for a long explanation and analysis of this movie, the TL;DR of this all is that you should choose Spy over this movie because Spy did it better. I wrote my review of Spy back in 2016 and it has been a while since I've seen that movie so maybe that review doesn't totally match up with what I'm saying about it now but in 2018, I can say that Spy is a better movie than Get Smart.

But why doesn't Get Smart work?

I think the biggest thing is that while this Steve Carell character, that we've seen multiple times before and since, was maybe funny back in 2008 but isn't today. This is the same awkward Evan Baxter character from Bruce Almighty that works well as a side kick or supporting character but not as the main one. The point is that he's awkward but ultimately a kind hearted person.

The unfortunate result is that this is a watered down version of Michael Scott from The Office (remember, this was prime in the 2000s) but unless you have that foundation that the Office built, that character can be seen as a moron and often times an asshole.

The other important misstep from the get go is the awkward chemistry between Anne Hathaway and Steve Carell. I remember being weirded out 10 years ago about 45 year old Carell having a romantic relationship with 25 year old Anne Hathaway and 10 years ago that relationship is still really weird. And that's not to say Carell can't have a romantic interest. In a movie like Crazy, Stupid, Love or The 40 Year Old Virgin, the relationships Carell builds are A) not with women 20 years his junior, and B) are built on mutual trust and interests. Hathaway spends half the movie just being annoyed with Max. And I would understand if they had built up the mutual trust and had these two just be co workers, but they really shift the character of Agent 99 rather than creating a relationship based off their separate identities like movie relationships should be. They find a weird commonality on how he used to be fat and she had a different, still beautiful face.

And again, boy do they sexualize Anne Hathaway in this movie.

The weird thing is that there are a lot of aspects of this movie that could have made it funnier. It's got Alan Arkin, it's got The Rock, it's got Terry Crews, it's got that fat dude from Borat. I should be able to talk more about what those guys bring to the story but the truth is, its not a whole lot.

They REALLY double down on that weird relationship between Carell and Hathaway and I know that's all I've been talking about the entire movie but that's really all they focus on.

For example, since the agents are at risk of being exposed, they have to stay at the office and do analyst work. There's a lot they could have done there. They could have used Terry Crews, David Koechner, and The Rock more for comedic works that I know they can do. Instead they have a weird dance scene that stops the movie in its tracks so Steve Carell can dance with a fat chick...

One of the comments I made in the Spy review is that that movie was basically rated R Get Smart. This movie kind of wants to play it both ways where its campy and silly enough that people could show their kids this movie and they would enjoy themselves, but its also trying to capitalize on the audience that enjoyed movies like Anchorman. They even have some of the same cast in Carell and David Koechner to get that same feel. The result is a really odd comedy that doesn't really work and doesn't have the energy you get from Anchorman or the movies this one is trying to recreate.

It really is a testament on how big names, especially in comedy, don't always make a movie good. Very rarely do you get an actor who, no matter the quality of the script can always give a good performance or make someone laugh. This isn't necessarily a dig on Steve Carell as I still think he's a funny guy, it just shows how he, like a lot of actors, need a good script in order to fully unlock their potential and Get Smart did not do that.

And I think the fact that Spy worked and this movie didn't is evidence that just because you adapt something, doesn't mean its going to be good or meaningful. Spy wasn't based on any preexisting property, it was just Melissa McCarthy doing something in order to make us laugh. And while Spy is no master piece, Get Smart really isn't that good because it depended too much on remaking something while not putting enough effort into making a good movie.

This movie is on Netflix so at least you're not paying anything extra if you want to see it, but there are better movies out there. You can skip this one.

But what do you think? What do you think of Get Smart? How does it hold up? Hasn't the actors involved really grown since this movie? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts and requests for other movies I should review on Twitter @MovieSymposium. You can also follow me and get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks, I'll see you next time!