I barely remember the original 1960s Get Smart TV series from when it was repeated on Channel 4 when I was a kid. And in a few years I'll probably barely remember this big screen remake. But it was fun while I was in the cinema!
Steve Carrell's breakthrough performance was as unlucky Andy, the title character from 40 Year Old Virgin.
In that movie he proved adept at taking a potentially pathetic loser and making him a warm, believable character who you wanted to succeed.
He pulls off the same trick in Get Smart with bumbling Maxwell Smart, an analyst for American spy group Control who longs for the excitement of working as a James Bond-style field agent.
It would have been so easy to turn him into a Cloussea-a-like dimwit or even worse an American Johnny English. But instead Smart is clever, resourceful and committed. He's just spectacularly unlucky.
That made this film much more enjoyable to me as I didn't think it was treading over old ground (yes, despite being a remake).
The cast is surprisingly good for this type of comedy caper with Hollywood veteran Alan Arkin and Dwayne Johnson (he used to be wrestler The Rock) providing hilarious support as Smart's long-suffering boss and
annoyingly perfect best friend
Terence Stamp turns up as bad guy Siegfried (sleepwalking a bit through a role he's played a dozen times before) with Borat's sidekick Ken Davitian helping out on henchman duties.
When Smart is forced to go into Russia to stop a nuclear attack he is accompanied by Anne Hathaway as doubting agent 99 though the love interest angle here is a bit creepy as he must be nearly twice her age.
A quick explanation that she really is older but she's had plastic surgery just seems like a hasty way of dodging the Sean Connery/Catherine Zeta-Jones vomit-inducing love-fest from Entrapment.
Did I say the film was funny? It is. Carrell's deadpan delivery hits the right spot frequently and Arkin is hilarious as a septuagenarian spy given to rugby tackling politicians and punching out smug CIA agents.
The action sequences are less successful and at two hours it's too long for such a slight entertainment but enjoyable for all that.
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