Get Smart

Saturday 23rd August 2008, 2:30PM BST.

Based on a madcap ’60s television series created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, Get Smart is a comic caper about an accident-prone yet sensitive secret agent who might just be mankind’s last, great hope.

James Bond and Jason Bourne need not fear: if Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) does save the world, it is the result of pluck and good fortune rather than a perfectly conceived and executed plan.

Carell embraces the film’s brand of unabashed silliness without restraint.

Whether he’s body popping and pirouetting between the laser beams of a security system or attempting to unlock handcuffs using an ingenious mini-harpoon (the darts from which end up lodged in every part of his anatomy), the leading man is a lovable fool.

At times, however, he’s perhaps a little too intelligent and capable, straining credibility when Maxwell abandons all common sense to achieve his goals.

Carell catalyses a pleasing screen chemistry with the willowy Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada), who has nothing to do apart from try to keep a straight face as her co-star goofs into and out of trouble.

Terence Stamp pays his mortgage for a couple of months as the lifeless, pantomime arch-villain, whose ridiculously theatrical scheme to cause an explosion using Beethoven’s ‘Ode To Joy’ as a trigger is invariably doomed to failure.

Maxwell Smart is a surveillance expert for secret US agency CONTROL, monitoring and deciphering conversations between counterparts from the Russian agency KAOS.

He is keen to prove his worth in the field but the Chief (Alan Arkin) values Maxwell’s talents too much to let him stray from headquarters.

‘You’re not promoting me because I’m too good at my job?’ asks Maxwell incredulously.

When the secret identities of CONTROL’s operatives around the world are compromised, the Chief has little choice but to promote Maxwell and to dispatch the newly re-christened Agent 86 to Russia under the guidance of feisty mentor Agent 99 (Hathaway) to track down criminal mastermind Siegfried (Stamp).

With geeks Bruce (Masi Oka) and Lloyd (Nate Torrence) providing technical backup and buff Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson) providing additional muscle, Agents 86 and 99 uncover a dastardly plot to kill the American president (James Caan) during a televised concert.

Get Smart incorporates many familiar characters and gizmos from the TV series including Max’s shoe ‘phone and the so-called Cone Of Silence, which allows CONTROL operatives to talk to one another without being overheard.

Of course here, the Cone malfunctions with predictably embarrassing consequences.

Director Peter Segal focuses too intently on the big action scenes rather than the slapstick, burdening the film with a split personality, which screenwriters Tom J Astle and Matt Ember are unable to resolve.

Supporting performances are largely forgettable and Bill Murray shines in a brief cameo as stir crazy Agent 13, who is stuck inside a tree.

Barking mad – pity the rest of Segal’s film doesn’t follow suit.