If the shoe phone fits, wear it.
By this logic, the casting of Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart -- the inept hero made famous by Don Adams in the 1960s TV espionage spoof -- seemed an inspired, if too-obvious choice.
Inspired, because the small-screen Smart wasn't so much a well-intended bumbler as a terse, deadpan Bond-as-Clouseau who operated without a trace of self-awareness.
It's the same brand of obliviousness that distinguishes Carell's signature role -- paper-pushing mis-manager Michael Scott of NBC's The Office; both characters are not only inept, but hopelessly immune to the consequences and clarity of their incompetence.
As for Carell being too obvious a choice, his presence could easily have meant the film would be little more than a thematic retread. At best it would pluck Smart out of mothballs and update the punch-lines; and at worst it would groove to 40-year-old gags.
The welcome surprise of 2008's Get Smart, then, is that it has its own voice.
This may rankle fans of the show -- really, how much blue hair do you see at the multiplex these days? -- but I found this straight-arrow action comedy never less than appealing and often witty.
Shaping such elastic material is no small feat -- and who would have thought the director of Tommy Boy and The Longest Yard was capable of such tonal dexterity?
But credit where credit is due: Peter Segal smoothly transitions between slapstick, banter and stunt-work.
Of course this would all be moot if not for Carell who, unflappable as ever, gives us a markedly warmer and brighter Smart. As retooled here, his hero is an analyst at CONTROL who aches to become a bona fide secret agent like his idol Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson).
But he's simply too skilled at his job to be sent into the field, decides the Chief (Alan Arkin). That all changes when -- shades of Three Days of the Condor -- agency security is compromised by the nefarious organization KAOS, led by Siegfried (Terence Stamp).
With no other choice, CONTROL sends Max into action, partnered with gorgeous but flinty Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway).
Throughout, there are repeated nods to the source material: from the theme to the opening sequence (including phone booth) to the gadgetry. Even the cone of silence is put to use.
Still, this Smart is probably best appreciated on its own terms.
One complaint? The movie never matches the contemporary flippancy of the series, which keenly mined the Cold War for so much of its humour.
What with the state of faulty CIA intelligence, you would think that current events could have offered an abundance of satirical fodder.
Instead, the filmmakers settled on making their Get Smart a broad, generic, better-than-expected summer entertainment.
Are we loving it? Let's not overstate things. But you could do a lot worse.
(This film is rated PG)
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