Get Smart

Much to my surprise, this one isn’t half bad. Steve Carell makes for a fine Maxwell Smart, newly christened agent for spy agency CONTROL, a role once held down by the late Don Adams. Anne Hathaway is equally fine as Agent 99, who is sent out on a mission to take down the evil KAOS, now led by Terrence Stamp as Siegfried. (Bernie Kopell, the original Siegfried, makes a quick cameo.) The film is nothing more than a thin plot to hang some jokes off of, and some of those jokes are actually quite funny. There are some nice tributes to the original TV show and some interesting technological updates. I went in thinking I was going to see something terrible, and I got a semi-decent summer popcorn movie instead. Makes me want to go out and get the shows on DVD. Also makes me want to get a shoe phone. Remember how amazing the whole shoe phone thing was? Cellular technology antiquated that gag overnight.