'Get Smart'

Rating:

BY RAFER GUZMÁN | rafer.guzman@newsday.com

June 20, 2008

When Hollywood tackles a beloved old TV series, what you often see onscreen are the acrobatics of eager-to-please filmmakers. They bend over backward to honor the source material, yet strain to attract modern viewers. In "Get Smart," based on the iconic spy-spoof series of the 1960s, director Peter Segal and writers Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember execute some graceful pirouettes, but they also stumble.

Steve Carell plays Maxwell Smart, a hardworking analyst for CONTROL, a CIA-ish agency. Max longs to carry a gun like the suave Agent 23 (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), but he's so good at sifting through mind-numbing foreign chitchat that The Chief (Alan Arkin) wants him at a desk. Eventually, of course, it falls to Max to infiltrate the evil organization CHAOS, led by Siegfried (Terence Stamp). Accompanying Max is beautiful-but-deadly Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway).

Carell slips easily into his usual role, the born loser steadfastly clinging to dignity, but this new Max is inconsistent. One minute he's spearing his own face with a Swiss Army knife, the next he's wielding a pistol with pinpoint accuracy. Likewise, Johnson veers unevenly from hunk to buffoon (although he and Carell create some surprisingly good comic chemistry). Only Hathaway, as a hypercompetitive superagent who still treasures her femininity, seems fully believable.

The genius of the series, created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, was that it mercilessly skewered both sides of the Cold War. KAOS was populated by Keystone KGB Kops while Max (the lovably square Don Adams) embodied the cocksure but bumbling American. The movie doesn't have the benefit of such context, though it does make a few sly topical references, most notably a distinctly Bushian president ( James Caan).

"Get Smart" does all it can to please; thanks mostly to Carell, it just barely succeeds.

Code for the old TV series

Fans of the old "Get Smart" series should stay alert for some overt and covert references in the new movie. Here are just a few:

"WOULD YOU BELIEVE ...?" Maxwell Smart often tried to bluff his way out of a jam by starting with an outrageous claim (say, a backup team of 50 snipers), but eventually he'd dwindle down to something less impressive ("Would you believe an angry Boy Scout?"). Carell puts his own stamp on Smart's most famous catchphrase.

CONE OF SILENCE This frustrating gadget, which kept conversations so secret that even the people involved couldn't hear them, gets a high-tech update - and still doesn't work.

SHOE PHONE It looked highly improbable in the 1960s, and guess what? In this age of tiny cell phones and other marvels, it looks even funnier.

THE CRAW The famous joke about an Asian villain's inability to pronounce his own nickname - "The Claw" - surely wouldn't fly today. But look sharp during the opening credits and you may catch it.

(2 1/2 STARS) (PG-13)

PLOT A bumbling secret agent gets a chance to prove his worth.

CAST Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin

LENGTH 1:51

PLAYING AT Area theaters.

BOTTOM LINE Neither as funny nor as relevant as the classic TV series, but Carell - and even Johnson - provide enough laughs to earn a pass.