The film stars Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, and Alan Arkin, with Terence Stamp and James Caan in supporting roles. Bernie Kopell, who played Siegfried in the original series, also appeared in the film. The film centers on an analyst named Maxwell Smart (Carell) who dreams of becoming a real field agent and a better spy. The film was released in North America on June 20, 2008.
Get Smart received mixed reviews from critics but was a commercial success, earning $230 million on an $80 million budget.[2][3]
Plot
Maxwell Smart, an analyst for CONTROL, a top secret American intelligence agency, yearns to become a field agent, but is blocked by the Chief, who values his analytical skills. After their headquarters is bombed by the terrorist organization KAOS, who also obtain the identities of CONTROL's agents, Smart is promoted to Agent 86 and is paired with Agent 99, who is unknown to KAOS after undergoing plastic surgery and doubts his competence.
Max traces the suspects to Moscow, but while on a commercial flight going there, he is arrested by the Air Marshal after he mistakes his attempts to clean his shoe for a bomb attempt. Detained in the bathroom, he manages to break his ties with a specialized Swiss Army knife containing a mini-crossbow. However, one of the darts hits the "eject" button, sending Max plummeting to earth. Agent 99 jumps after him with a parachute and retrieves him, but is followed by a KAOS assassin, whom she distracts with a kiss, enabling her to activate the parachute while the assassin crashes into a barn.
Arriving at KAOS' chief bomb-maker Ladislas Krstic's mansion during a party, Max and 99 infiltrate his office and trace nuclear material to a KAOS nuclear weapons factory disguised as a bakery in Moscow. They are caught by Krstic and his men, but manage to eliminate them before escaping. At the bakery, Max meets with KAOS boss Siegfried and his second-in-command, Shtarker, both of whom expose him and 99. Smart manages to escape and destroys the factory, but he and Agent 99 are confronted by the assassin from the plane. Smart recognizes him as Dalip from his research and counsels him on his failing marriage, prompting Dalip to let them go. Agent 23 is sent to observe the factory cleanup, but fails to find evidence as KAOS had snuck the weapons out beforehand. As Smart was alone during his key discoveries, CONTROL believes he is a double agent. Agent 99, who has developed feelings for Smart, takes him into custody, just when he suspects that she is the double agent.
Siegfried reveals to Shtarker that he plans to detonate a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles while the President of the United States is there. Siegfried contacts the U.S. government and threatens to release nuclear weapon detonator codes to hostile countries unless given $200 billion. However, he is ignored by everyone except the Chief.
Detained in a CONTROL holding cell, Max receives a coded warning from Dalip via American Top 40, alerting him to Siegfried's plan. He escapes and arrives in Los Angeles to reunite with the Chief and Agents 99 and 23, convincing them he is not the double agent. As the President arrives at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Siegfried, Shtarker and Dalip plant the bomb there. Agent 23 is revealed to be the real double agent after Max's Geiger counter-equipped watch picks up traces of radiation on him. Agent 23 takes 99 hostage and flees. After a chase, Max rescues her, but in the struggle, the car is set on fire and forced onto railroad tracks. Max kisses Agent 23 to distract him. Both he and 99 are thrown off the vehicle before it collides with a freight train, killing Agent 23.
Analyzing Agent 23's nuclear football, Max realizes the final note of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" will trigger the bomb. Rushing to the concert hall, Smart tackles the conductor just before the final note, saving everyone. Siegfried, dismayed after realizing his plan has failed, insults Dalip’s wife and is thrown off by Dalip into a river, to Shtarker's delight.
Max is formally inducted as a spy and is honored at CONTROL headquarters, with Agent 99 giving him a puppy. Upon leaving, Max attempts to fix a jammed door but gets stuck between the sliding doors and shrieks in pain after being struck by a dart again.
In addition to traditional television advertisement and movie trailers, Warner Bros. commissioned Pepsi to produce a flavor of Sierra Mist soft drink dubbed "Undercover Orange" to help promote the film.[9] In Latin America, Get Smart was shown in a Spanish language dubbed version, produced in Mexico. The theatrical posters had a sticker that highlighted the return of Jorge "El Tata" Arvizu, a highly regarded Mexican actor who was returning to the character after a 13-year hiatus, having dubbed Don Adams in the 1960s TV series and again in the short-lived 1990s Get Smart TV series starring Andy Dick.[citation needed]
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, Get Smart has a 51% rating based on 223 reviews with an average rating of 5.60/10. The site's critical consensus reads "Get Smart rides Steve Carell's considerable charm for a few laughs, but ultimately proves to be a rather ordinary action comedy".[10]Metacritic gave the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[12]
The film received positive reviews from Roger Ebert[13] and Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly.[14]Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times also gave the film a thumbs up, saying that it was "one of the more pleasant surprises of the year".[15] Critic James Berardinelli also gave it a positive review.[16]
Negative responses came from Glenn Whipp of the Los Angeles Daily News calling it "staggeringly bad" and Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle stating that "It couldn't buy a laugh in a nitrous oxide factory with a fistful of clown noses."[17]Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said "it neglects the laughs and amps up the action, resulting in a not very funny comedy joined at the hip to a not very exciting spy movie."[18]
It also received negative reviews from Richard Schickel from Time[19] and David Ansen from Newsweek, with the latter stating, "it's not Maxwell who's clueless, but the filmmakers ... Director (Pete) Segal ... is a comedy specialist lacking any apparent sense of humor."[20]
Box office
Get Smart grossed $130.3 million domestically and $100.3 million internationally, bringing its worldwide total to $230.7 million.[21] In its opening weekend, the film grossed $38.6 million in 3,911 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office and averaging $9,891 per venue.[22] The film was released in the United Kingdom on August 22, 2008, and opened on #3, behind Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Mamma Mia!.[23]
Home media
Get Smart was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 4, 2008 by Warner Home Video. Two versions of the film were released: the theatrical version and an enhanced version that allows viewers to view alternate takes and deleted scenes placed within the context of the film.
The film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2009.[24] Approximately 2,088,163 DVD units were sold, translating to revenue of $34,652,714 (Blu-ray sales/rentals not included).[25]
Future
DVD spin-off
A spin-off film, Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control (featuring Oka, Torrence, Miller, Warburton, Crews and a cameo by Hathaway reprising their roles), was released on DVD on July 1, 2008,[26] eleven days after the feature film's theatrical release.[27] The film tells a standalone story that takes place concurrently with the events within the film (including a scene in which Agent 99 calls Lloyd and angrily berates him for the poor quality of her gadgets compared to Max's; that scene takes place immediately after Max accidentally renders himself unconscious with a blowgun during a stakeout in the main film).
Cancelled sequel
Despite the relative commercial success of the film, a sequel was never filmed, even though it was on the schedule for a few years without any known results. For this reason, the ending suggests a continuation with other characters.
On October 7, 2008, it was reported that Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures were producing a sequel. Carell, Hathaway, and Arkin were set to return, but the status of other cast members had yet to be announced.[28][29] In July 2010, Steve Carell stated that he had recently been given a potential script for the sequel to Get Smart, but had passed on it. He said that he was still very interested in eventually making a Get Smart sequel, but was willing to wait until a decent script was developed.[30]
In 2010, Carell said: "I took a pass at Get Smart 2, write a completely new story and we'll see what happens with that somewhere down the line perhaps... Anne Hathaway is definitely in and Alan Arkin, so at some point... we don't have any projected date and the script still needs some tweaking and some rewriting."[31]
During 2013, Carell stated that it was unlikely that there really would be a sequel. In December 2013, however, Peter Segal claimed a Get Smart 2 had been close to being made, with the "funny script" written by Carell himself.[32]
By 2019, Segal stated that too much time had passed for a Get Smart sequel to be viable.[33] Alan Arkin died in 2023, which would further negate any chance of a sequel.
