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RATING:  
With a conveyor belt of beloved nostalgic TV series being butchered for the big screen in recent years (The Dukes of Hazzard, anyone?), there really wasn’t an urge to pick up a shoe and phone someone to say that the remake of the ’60s spy spoof Get Smart had arrived in cinemas.
However, after a knee-slappingly good time in the dark with Maxwell Smart, I stand corrected.
Yes, director Peter Segal’s (Anger Management) formulaic slap-dash effort to bring to life the inimitable Mel Brooks and Buck Henry TV series (Brooks and Henry also serve as the film’s consultants) lets itself down by sometimes unthinkingly throwing a few misplaced stunts, several flat jokes and gratuitous big Hollywood money in the comic mix.
But there are enough delightful moments of pure comedy and winning one-liners to make this caper one fun, breezy ride.
The new take on the old classic tells the story of Maxwell Smart (Steve Carrell), a bumbling analyst for the secret government organisation Control, who has just been made a full agent.
The blundering hero is eventually paired with the beautiful and more competent Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), as they traipse about Moscow in a James Bond-like second half, saving the world against the evil organisation Kaos, headed by the underused Terence Stamp, in an extremely dated Cold War fight.
With nostalgic nods and winks towards the original, such as Smart’s musical march down the many security doors and disappearance down a telephone booth, the film bubbles happily along.
It is supported by respectable performances from Oscar winner Alan Arkin, straight-faced Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Hero’s Masi Oka.
However, it is Carrell’s own patented brand of bumbling pride and masked insecurity that unexpectedly honours Don Adam’s original Maxwell Smart.
Trying to embrace the legendary spirit of the classic while creating something fresh for an audience too young to remember televisions with knobs instead of remote controls is a suicide mission.
But Get Smart gets the job done, paying homage to the touchstones of a bygone era with earnest intentions and irreverent political satire. - TODAY/sh
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