There’s Steve Carell funny and then there’s Steve Carell dumb. Thankfully in his newest film, “Get Smart,” he shows us the funny side. Everything I ever thought made him funny combines in this film to mix smart humor with a little bit of drama, a solid plot and plenty of action/fighting scenes.

Starring as Max Smart (Agent 86), Carell portrays the funny side of being an agent for CONTROL. After passing his agent exam on I believe the eighth try, the somewhat awkwardly clumsy, but lovable Agent 86 is paired with the more qualified super agent, Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway.) I think the chemistry these two have is just right. 

This film is based off the 1960s television series of the same name. I’ve never seen the show, so I wouldn’t even be able to begin to compare the two.

This movie is hilarious as we see how the analysis and technology nerds interact with the agents at CONTROL. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, plays agent 23 in this film. He is the suave agent that Max dreams of being like. I’m going to take this sentence to comment on how much I love him. He is funny in this movie and I think plays the suave agent who doesn’t like to cut corners was a nice role for him. Then there are several other agents, one played by the hilarious David Koechner (who sporadically shows up in many of Carell’s films.)

Comedy ensues as Max accidentally injures himself time and time again. It becomes apparent that while Agent 99 is annoyed by her somewhat incompetent new partner, she is also attracted to him. Although to be completely honest I’m not so sure about the romantic chemistry between the two, however, I do think the two play off of each other perfectly from the comedy/laughter aspect.

The agents go up against KAOS, and as we watch them battle against a bomb hidden in a music hall, we see as one of the good guys reveals himself as a double agent. 
I enjoyed everything about this movie, from the nice one liners delivered by various characters and some of my favorite scenes including a dance scene (as seen in previews), the pocket knife that contains hidden weapons that Max only ends up hurting himself with and the interesting fight scenes.

Besides pure entertainment, the plus side to this movie is that while there is some strong language, it’s a film that is funny while mostly “keeping it clean.”

And again, while I never saw the television series, from things I have heard from other people, fans of the show wouldn’t be disappointed in the big screen adaptation. I wouldn’t mind seeing those same characters play that every week on the small screen either.

I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone!