Get Smart

Get Smart is neither a total trainwreck, nor a remotely impressive film--the same might be said about certain titles among director Peter Segal's past work (The Longest Yard, Anger Management). But one thing is for certain: the film is a far cry from the inspired madness of the TV show's original creator, Mel Brooks, even with Steve Carell's best efforts, which themselves are occasionally underwhelming.

From the perspective of the screenplay, it is not funny enough to survive as a Steve Carell performance comedy. From the perspective of the direction, the film is not exciting enough to identify as an action film. Instead, the movie aims for elements of both comedy and action, ending short of both goals. The occasional moment of comedic originality--the scored slow motion of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's entrance; the casting of Bill Murray's cameo, a scene with faulty forcefields of silence--are indicative of some latent inspiration in the film's directing and acting talent. But more frequently than those moments, the film offers narrative loose ends and props planted in an unsophisticated and uncomfortable fashion. Maximillian Smart may be designed as the opposite of Cary Grant, but the debonair qualities lacking in Agent 86 need not be matched by the awkwardness of the plot.

The movie may operate from a reasonable premise--a CIA-type analyst who desperately strives for promotion to agent status--but ultimately it does not compel viewers to believe in its execution. Only so often can Steve Carrell suffer life-threatening (realistically, fatal) blows to the head and sustain credibility that he prevails as though unscathed. Because the film does not make viewers believe, they have no reason to invest in the film's stakes--neither its weakly constructed and highly misogynistic, love story, nor its cliched and insubstantial plot.

                                                      Genevieve Angelson