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Get Smart Not So Clever

Film struggles to balance action and comedy

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 20, 2008 12:15 PM CDT

(Newser) – The film version of the 1960s TV spy parody Get Smart can’t decide if it's an action flick or a comedy, and it shows. It’s “an action comedy that represents the worst of both worlds,” Mick LaSalle writes in the San Francisco Chronicle—“as funny as a gently smiling mime” while “bloated, confused and convoluted” in the manner of bad action movies.

Manohla Dargis admits in the New York Times that the “movie is far from terrible: it’s amusing in spots”—and star Steve Carell’s “deadpan and implied decency” give the movie a much-needed boost. Still, watching the cast “run amok just gave me the creeps,” Dargis notes. Overall, writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times, “Get Smart yearns to be something it's not.”

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In this image released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Anne Hathaway, left, and Steve Carell are shown in a scene from, "Get Smart." (AP Photo)

In this image released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Steve Carell is shown in a scene from, "Get Smart." (AP Photo)

Anne Hathaway, left, and Steve Carell speak to each other at the after party for the premiere of "Get Smart" in Los Angeles on Monday, June 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

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Get Smart Not So Clever