Get Smart

Peter Segal’s film comes from the series Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created in 1965, which ran until 1970, and it drops that series’ central joke on purpose. In an on set interview Steve Carell says he did not want to do an impression of Don Adams or channel him, but to do the character justice; his Max gets the job done counter intuitively. Segal builds the same frame, calling the target a comedic Bourne Identity: ground everybody in a believable plot, make the villains bad rather than silly. The structure backs that up. Max opens as an analyst the Chief keeps out of the field precisely because he values the analysis; the promotion comes only after headquarters is bombed. Agent 23, played by Dwayne Johnson, turns out mid film to be the mole, so the billed action partner changes function. Bernie Kopell, Siegfried in the original series, appears as a passing motorist. The production cost 80 million dollars, opened at number one and passed 230 million worldwide. A good fit if you can take a Max who is usually right rather than Don Adams’s clumsy one. Not for you if you plan to lean on Dwayne Johnson as the action partner.