Get Smart (2008)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Peter Segal

Writers (WGA):

Tom J. Astle (written by) &
Matt Ember (written by) ...

Release Date:

20 June 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy

Tagline:

Saving The World. And Loving It.

Plot:

Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 for CONTROL, battles the forces of KAOS with the more-competent Agent 99 at his side.

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Sexy Agent | Airplane | Fly | Ineptitude

Awards:

1 win & 5 nominations

Cast

Steve Carell	...	Maxwell Smart / Agent 86
Anne Hathaway	...	Agent 99
Dwayne Johnson	...	Agent 23
Alan Arkin	...	The Chief
Terence Stamp	...	Siegfried
Terry Crews	...	Agent 91
David Koechner	...	Larabee
James Caan	...	The President
Bill Murray	...	Agent 13
Patrick Warburton	...	Hymie
Masi Oka	...	Bruce
Nate Torrence	...	Lloyd
Ken Davitian	...	Shtarker
David S. Lee	...	Ladislas Krstic
Dalip Singh	...	Dalip

Also Known As:

El superagente 86 (Argentina) (Bolivia) (Chile) (Colombia) (Mexico) (Panama) (Peru) (Puerto Rico) (Uruguay) (Venezuela) [es]
Max la menace (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Agente 86 (Brazil) [pt]
Agente Smart - Casino totale (Italy) [it]
Akilli ol (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Dostante agenta Smarta (Czech Republic) [cs]
Dostante agenta Smarta (Slovakia) [sk]
El agente 86 - De pelicula (Spain) [es]
Get Smart (Greece) [el]
Get Smart (Germany) [de]
Get Smart - Wir lieben es, die Welt zu retten! (Germany) [de]
Maxwell Smart - Agent 86 (Estonia) [et]
Salainen agentti 86 (Finland) [fi]
Super agente 86 (Argentina) [es]
Zsenikém - Az ügynök haláli (Hungary) [hu]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some rude humor, action violence and language.

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Finland:K-13 | Australia:PG | Ireland:12A | UK:12A | Singapore:PG | Greece:K | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Canada:G (Québec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | Brazil:12 | Argentina:Atp | Malaysia:U | Norway:11 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #44068) | Taiwan:PG-12 | Peru:PT | Germany:12 | Germany:12 (f) | Netherlands:6 | Portugal:M/12 | New Zealand:PG | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | South Africa:13L | Iceland:7 (DVD rating) | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Gorky Street, Moscow, Russia

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The first item in the display of old CONTROL equipment is Max's Shoe Phone.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Max smashes Shtarker's face against the retinal scanner, you can see soft material compress as he hits it. Some simple retinal scanners (in real life) are ringed with softer material to protect the skin and the machine itself, which does compress. It is likely that this particular scanner was one of these, therefore the compression is not a mistake.

Quotes:

Maxwell Smart: [99 is trying to get knife out of his pocket by grabbing it with her bare feet] That's not my knife!

Movie Connections:

References "Get Smart: Closely Watched Planes (#4.3)" (1968)

Soundtrack:

Ain't No Other Man

Exhilarating action, good comedy

The first 10 minutes or so of "Get Smart" are kind of disappointing, and I thought "here we go, another trailer that makes the film look better than it is". But it improves greatly after that point, mainly after the first encounter of Max with Agent 99. Anne Hathaway is in some ways the life of this movie: she is incredibly sexy, with a magnificent back and legs to die for (or by), and completely believable in all her action scenes. Steve Carell has good comic timing; he may at times remind you of Leslie Nielsen in "The Naked Gun" and "Spy Hard" mode, but beyond that he manages to make Max a genuinely likable and human character, not just a cartoon. The relationship Max and 99 have formed at the end of the movie seems to be based more on friendship than anything else. The rest of the cast is generally well-chosen (although I didn't get the point of Bill Murray's 1-minute cameo); there is a big plot twist that allows one cast member to play against type, and even Dalip Singh (aka The Great Khali in WWE) comes off well, playing a huge indestructible henchman in the tradition of Jaws of "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker".

There are some good laughs in "Get Smart", but what pleasantly surprised me is how well-done the action is. From an exhilarating freefall sequence that was probably designed as a homage to the opening of "Moonraker" to Carell's and Hathaway's quick, efficient fight scenes (choreoghraphed by a veteran at this sort of thing, James Lew), and from the explosions at the "bakery" factory to the incredibly kinetic final chase sequence involving various means of transportation, the action in this movie probably surpasses the recent James Bond pictures, helped by the fact that a lot of it seems to have been done by the actors themselves, willing to take some risks. So people who are more into action than into comedy should still get some satisfaction out of this.

Nothing brilliant, but a dependable crowd-pleaser nonetheless. I'd give it *** out of 4 stars.