When existing entertainment properties, especially television shows, are adapted for the big screen, results can vary.
While the lack of cinematic sequels to such attempts as Bewitched, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Starsky and Hutch should be all the proof you need that bad things happen to decent television shows, once in a while a movie comes along that makes it okay for other potential television-show remakes to come out and play again.
In this case, like in Iron Man, the biggest hit of the on-going summer so far, it shows how important casting can be to the successful execution of a film.
Let's start with Steve Carell, himself a star because of a remake (of the hit UK television show The Office). This is a man who took a potentially laughable career-choice as the lead and titular character in The 40 Year Old Virgin and turned it into a star-making journey into fame and fortune for himself.
This is a man who injects a great deal of earnestness into his roles, and so even when an audience is laughing at him they never really think of him as a moron as much as they think of him as the hapless everyman that bad things happened to.
As Agent 99, his partner, and the requisite 'babe quotient' in a spy movie [even when it's sort of a spoof] they chose Anna Hathaway, a young actress who has held her own against a big screen legend like Meryl Streep [The Devil Wears Prada] and also landed a few leading lady roles in her young career.
The woman brings sex appeal to the film without ever playing the damsel-in-distress card, which in and of itself is a big achievement. She kicks back in revealing skirts and manages to make it all look good.
The support cast comprises recent Oscar winner Alan Arkin [as The Chief], Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson [as Agent 23] and Terence Stamp [as the villainous Siegfried]. So all in all it's not very difficult to watch any of these people on screen.
And then there is the premise itself.
Carell plays Maxwell Smart, an analyst with a secret organisation called CONTROL who has applied to be a field agent eight times. When he is informed by The Chief that even though he aced his test, he will not be sent out into the field because his analytical excellence is irreplaceable, he sums up his disappointment succinctly by reiterating that he is being refused the new position because he does his old job so well.
Things turn around for Smart soon enough, when KAOS, the organisational arch-nemesis of Control learns the names and whereabouts of all of CONTROL'S existing agents.
Since Agent 99 recently had plastic surgery rendering her unrecognisable to KAOS, Smart [dubbed Agent 86] is paired with her and sent out into the world to find out why the evil organisation has been collection nuclear weapons.
As spy adventures go, this is not a movie you go to watch for the location-hopping [unlike the Bourne trilogy or the Bond films] or the gadgets. The only thing Smart carries with him is a very special Swiss Army knife which does him more harm than good nearly every time he tries to use it.
This is a movie you watch for the actors and their humorous interplay and if the jokes work for you, this is the type of movie you exit the multiplex murmuring 'great timepass' to whoever watched the film with you.
There are several amusing lines of dialogue and Carell manages to make dancing, running, getting accidentally pierced in various body parts [you need to see this to believe it] and avoiding high-intensity lasers look pretty funny.
Also featuring cameos by Ken Davitan [Borat's sidekick], Masi Oka [from the television show Heroes] and Dalip Singh aka The Great Khali, this movie has a pretty high giggle quotient. Now that should be a no-brainer prerequisite for all comedies but it is funny [pun definitely intended] how few storytellers manage to deliver on the laughs any more.
For that reason alone, Get Smart is worth checking out.
Rediff Rating: 
