Get Smart (2008)

Re-creating the popular 1960s sitcom Get Smart
on the big screen is no easy task. Just ask Don Adams, the original
Agent 86 from the series. He tried to re-create Maxwell Smart on the
big screen in the 1980s, with The Nude Bomb, a movie that lived up to its title.

At
least in 1980, most people had been around for the original show, or
at least seen re-runs during a decidedly successful decade of television
syndication. Today, most of the the youthful movie audiences that can
make-or-break a movie in its opening weekend, have never even heard of Get Smart, let alone seen an episode.

But
if you are going to take on such a task, I can’t think of anyone better
to play the notoriously inept spy character Agent 86, than Steve
Carell, the award-winning actor who portrays an overtly inept boss on
one of today’s most popular sitcoms, The Office. No one expects
Steve Carell to step into Don Adams’s shoes and reproduce the same
version of Maxwell Smart; but if anyone in Hollywood today can bring a
fresh take on Agent 86, while retaining his charming deadpan
ineptitude, it’s Carell.

The creators of the big screen Get Smart have
chosen to re-introduce Mawell Smart to a new generation of movie-goers
by starting at the beginning, when Maxwell Smart is promoted from
analyst to agent by his boss, the Control Agency Chief (Alan Arkin).
Smart gets his chance to work in the field, like stalwart Agent 23
(Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), when the Control headquarters are
attacked. He is partnered with the more competent Agent 99 (Ann
Hathaway), and must battle the forces of their evil crime nemesis, known as KAOS.

Arkin,
Hathaway, and Johnson are all strong choices in their roles, furthering
the goal of retaining the series’ integrity. But the question still
remains: how can there be a fresh take for today’s audience.

One of the original series’ key elements of humor was to spoof the 1960s spy thrillers, like James Bond and The Man From Uncle. Most
of the gadgets in the original series, like the shoe phone or radio
pen, were outlandish and not thought to be serious possibilities as
tools for a secret agent. Today, many of these gadgets exist, hence are far less outlandish to audiences. So, the movies producers chose to
find gadgets that actually exist today and rely more on Maxwell Smart’s
ineptitude at using high technology to create the laughs. They did, however, keep the shoe phone and cone of silence for die-hards’
amusement.

Agent
86’s relationship with Agent 99 is another new angle. In the original,
Agent 99 always stood behind her man. The new version has Agent 99
taking Smart under her wing and showing him the ropes, playing a more
dominant role in the relationship, something Carell often gets
laughs for on The Office.

With the end of the Cold War, Get Smart
has shifted its satirical focus from spying on the enemy to internal
miscommunication — which played itself out recently in great detail in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy.

The sum total of toe-ing the line and updating this classic sitcom is that the producers of Get Smart have made a spy movie that is funny, rather than spoofing a spoof. So, it seems that all the cards are in place for Get Smart
to succeed in re-inventing its beloved 1960s predecessor. What remains
to be seen is if the updates will resonate with today’s youthful
audiences and succeed at the box office.