"Check it out, doesn't that look like Bond's sense of humour on the floor?"

Get Smart is the answer to those who find Bond too chic for his own good.

Where Bond offers the ultimate fantasies of insane technology, action at its slickest and classiest, Get Smart has its own bag of tricks but with a Mr. Bean clumsy sort of twist. Of course Steve Carell is no Rowan Atkinson, and hardly does any sort of mime in the movie, but watching Carell’s facial expressions as he handles from being a desk-job analyst to a comical yet endearing rookie agent is a hilarious treat indeed. In contrast to Jim Carrey, Carell knows when to keep a straight face and deadpan his lines, and when to go the extreme. And why am I talking about Carell here? Because believe it or not, this guy made this movie worth watching.

He plays Maxwell Smart, an intelligent and hardworking desk-bound CONTROL employee, whose greatest dream is to go frontline on a mission. He worships Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson) much like a fanboy would over a superhero, and one day gets his dream to come true when he is partnered with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). Get Smart is pretty much a cheerleading parade for the underdog(s), and gives more attention to the backline workers than those out in the field. Think “if James Bond had a couple of geek friends who supplied him with all his gadgets”, and Get Smart will come close to being your answer. The movie has more than a few gags going, including a parody of a laser dance, and one of the most palm/face car chases in a movie. Get Smart is everything you won’t see Bond doing, yet everything you can imagine him to do in the outtakes. It tickles, and more than that, you never, ever see the joke coming. This is the sort of movie that’ll come across silly at first sight, then torture you into thinking it’s one of the best action spoofs around.

(First published at InCinemas)