My Review of "Get Smart (2008)"

Get Smart (2008) is movie based on a 1960's sitcom TV show. I was a fan of the TV sitcom because it used to play on reruns when I was younger. The funny double entendre dialogue, the idiotic but charming lead and the hilarious situations they get themselves into had me hooked. I love any movie that can make an idiot look like a genius to their enemies. This has a certain pink panther-eques style to it. It never gets to those levels but it is still very fun.

The movie starts out with the introduction of Maxwell Smart. He's a top analyst for a secret organization called Control. This group is tasked to save the world from terrorists such as the evil terrorist organization known as KAOS.

Max has been been trying to get promoted to an agent for a number of years and has failed every year. This is the year he finally made it but he's so good as an analyst that they decided not to promote him. That is until one fateful day when Control is infiltrated by the likes of KAOS.

The identity of all of the agents in Control have been compromised and they need someone to help take down KAOS. Luckily they don't know who Max is. He's partnered up with veteran agent 99 as she recently had plastic surgery on her face. Together they have to find out what happened with Control and stop KAOS from perpetrating their dastardly plan.

This is going to be a tough feat because Max is totally green to the field and 99 usually works alone. The two have a fun one upmanship throughout the movie. What usually happens is Max will get into some sort of hijinks because of his bad luck or klutziness and 99 will have to save him. This aspect feels very much like the pink panther and Kato.

Throughout the movie we have some pretty clever dialogue and situations. I found them quite funny. They do use quite a bit of physical comedy, most of it worked for me but there are a few duds along the way as well.

I like that they implemented each of their past histories along the ride. It helps build these characters up. For example Max has never made it as an agent because of the physical tests. He was an overweight person before so throughout the movie there are some jokes about him being overweight. They also show that he has compassion for others with weight problems. I liked that they added these little tidbits throughout the movie to give it a little more personality that we will remember.

In this same manner they also plant little joke seeds throughout the movie for bigger joke reveals later on. It's like they have little jabs to help out with the big haymaker punch at the end. They telegraph everything too so you remember certain things earlier on in the movie and have a little more fun as a result.

I loved all of the characters and thought they all did a great job in bringing life to the movie. Unfortunately there's a bit of a weird ending that kind of doesn't feel tonally the same as the rest of the movie. It's an okay ending but I found that it was a little off.

Overall, I had a great time with the majority of the runtime of this movie. I still remembered some of the jokes long past I first saw this movie. It just shows that this movie has some staying power. If you haven't seen it yet I say it's really worth a shot. I have to give this one a 7.5 out of 10. You'll have a grand old time with this one.