.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

Sandwiched between such blockbusters such as The Incredible Hulk and Wanted is the summer comedy Get Smart based on television series of the same name that starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, a secret agent of an organization named CONTROL that fought to keep the world safe from the evil forces of KAOS. The television series ran for a few years on a two different networks n the 1960's and won seven Emmy's while being nominated for an additional fourteen. And if there is anything we have learned over the past few years is that television series of any pop culture success will eventually be brought back to the masses on the big screen (see Dukes of Hazzard, Bewitched, Starsky & Hutch etc. etc. etc.).

Stepping into the phone shoes is Steve Carell who as Max brings his straight faced and serious while goofy comedic talents to the lead role. Max is an analyst with hopes of becoming an agent like his hero Agent 23 (Dwyane Johnson). But it takes an act of sabotage at CONTROL headquarters for Max to realize his dream and the shake-up results in Max being partnered with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway taking up the former Barbara Fendon role) to try and thwart KAOS's attempt to harvest nuclear weapons and hold CONTROL up for ransom.

Before the screening, I admitted to having watched with great regularity the original series in my younger years. I enjoyed the show, but I was in no way a fan or someone who could have remembered any episode details or comment on The Nude Bomb, the Get Smart theatrical disaster that hit screens back in 1980. So I can safely comment that I walked in not stubbornly expecting that this updated version stay true to any distant memories.

The first quarter of Get Smart was awkward. Steve Carell was the perfect choice for the role of Maxwell and he did his best with the material, but I found that the clay to which he was asked to make a statue was pasty and dry.

And that was the first of Get Smarts problems. I couldn't figure out if it wanted to be a comedy or a full on action film and it wasn't a Rush Hour that effectively combined the both.

If I looked at it as an action film, I cannot deny that the movie delivers. The budget was probably blown on all the hair raising stunts, and I appreciated the effort that was - at times - better than some scenes in Vin Diesel or Michael Bay films.

But when it came to the comedy, the movie left me wanting more. The funniest scenes are in the trailers and the only time I laughed was during an expletive three sentences uttered by The Chief (Alan Arkin) and involving a swordfish.

Think Get Smart as an Austin Powers on steroids. It had lowbrow and highbrow humor, but upped the ante with the bangs and explosions. I just didn't care for it.

Which is odd. The cast was incredible and everyone from The Rock, Arkin, Carell, Hathaway…they all were cast in roles that now in hindsight, I could not see anyone else playing.

But where are the laughs? I would settle on the odd chuckle. My packed theatre audience didn't laugh but three or five times and with all that talent being put on three story screens, I expected at least a tickle.

One of Maxwell Smart's famous lines was "missed it by that much". Well, the movie version missed it by more than that much and it can be thankful that the gawd-awful The Love Guru released the same day will keep audiences even further down the ten foot pole distance.