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Film

Get Smart

August 22, 2008 08:49

By

Gerald Aaron

1 min read

The reworking of Mel Brooks's iconic 1960s spy spoof movie is every bit as funny and clever as the original


https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/alias/contentid/173pqfkf0mwrqpr9ync/star_four.GIF?f=3x2&w=732&q=0.6 (12A)


https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/alias/contentid/173pr4j6zk8vh0953o2/get_smart.jpg%3Ff%3Ddefault%26%24p%24f%3D443becd?f=3x2&w=732&q=0.6The spirit of comic genius Mel Brooks, who co-created the iconic 1960s spy spoof Get Smart, happily hangs over this very funny big-screen reworking that entertainingly updates the original.

Notes director Peter Segal: "We didn't want to recreate it but to contemporise it." He certainly succeeds, aided and abetted by Steve Carrell's sharp performance as espionage-analyst-turned-secret-agent Maxwell Smart, smart contributions from Anne Hathaway as his reluctant partner Agent 99 and scene-stealer Alan Arkin as Chief of the super-secret US spy agency Control.

Get Smart doesn't pretend to be anything more than sheer comic entertainment and as such it succeeds splendidly.