Long gone are the days of the heyday of NBC’s spy sitcom “Get Smart” and gone are the belly laughs the gig managed to generate at the time. But now, more than 40 years later, circumstances have changed: the Cold War is deeply left in the past, there is no way the gender-roles have remained the same (should the female lead remain as adoring as her homologue was in the original series, feminist NGOs would attack – and something tells me that not only them). Therefore the translation of the spy gig from the small screen to the silver one needed some re-branding.

However, the 2008 rendition of the ‘60s TV spy series falls flat. Though it is garnished with a lot of action moments (it is an action comedy, after all), the funny moments haven’t got smart(er), on the contrary. If you’ve seen “I Spy” and left the theatre with a straight face, spare your breath for this one. If you’re new in the spy realm, you might find the movie entertaining.

“The Office’s” star Steve Carell embodies the protagonist, Maxwell Smart, an analyst for the US intelligence agency CONTROL. Like his homologue played by Don Adams, Smart craves more or less secretly to leave his indoor work and go outside, shoot the enemies and save the world. But the chances for his wish to come true are scarce, as he is very efficient at his analyzing job. His idol is macho Agent 23, played by Dwayne Johnson.

The espionage agency’s nemesis, KAOS, succeeded with an evil plan and uncovered CONTROL’s secret mission and missionaries. Given that KAOS got its dirty hands on some nuclear weaponry, CONTROL has to go out there and save the world, therefore Smart is given the guns, an undercover name, and a colleague, beautiful Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). They are helped by Agent 23, whose spy skills are too good to be left out of the operation, but who has been too ‘uncovered’ to continue working undercover.

Well, go Agents! But how about us? Smart has been made smarter, Barbara Feldon a.k.a Agent 99 is still more skillful than Smart but not so fond of him – so no bickering, no heat between them, and no laughs from us. We are sincerely glad for the IQ boost of the characters, but we surely would have appreciated more an augmentation in the IQ of the funny moments of the movie. The President (James Caan) snoozing at a concert is not our idea of amusement; moreover, we’ve seen it before.

Director Peter Segal and the screenwriting team Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember did quite a good job, but the ‘60s one made by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry was two-fold better. We can’t say that the original series was a masterpiece (though given the fact that it inspired this year’s rendition, it was a success), but at least it was a laugh-drawer. The cinematographic spy domain is enriched with an action comedy, but has lost some of its overall charm with this spoof which bears more resemblance to many contemporary movies rather than to the initial inspiration.

Movie Type:Comedy, Thriller and Adaptation
MPAA Rating:PG-13 for some rude humor, action violence and language.
Running Time:
Directed By: Peter Segal
Cast:Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terrence Stamp
Released: June 20th, 2008 (wide)