by Jimmy Patrick

Created on: April 01, 2009

There are a handful of really good laughs in "Get Smart," but the rest of the movie is hit and miss. Steve Carell has his own unique brand of humor and he brings it out in full force. At times, however, the plot seems to lose its steam, making the bad jokes stick out like sore thumbs.

Maxwell Smart (Carell) has ambitions of working his way up the ranks of Control, the secret government agency he works for. He wants to become a real secret agent and get out of the humdrum life he leads, chained to a desk.

When Max learns from the Chief (Alan Arkin) that he has passed the agent test with flying colors, he is immediately excited. Then the Chief breaks the news to him that Max is so good at the desk job he currently has that there is no way they can promote him to agent status. Max is too valuable right where he is.

Then, when there is a break-in to Control headquarters by their arch enemies, KAOS, the Chief has no choice but to send a new, unknown agent on the dangerous mission to thwart KAOS's evil plans. Guess who gets to be the lucky new agent.

Max is teamed up with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) and sent to Russia to track down Nuclear weapons that are being prepared by Siegfried (Terence Stamp) for world domination.

As they fight the forces of evil together, Max and Agent 99 develop feelings for one another. There is a little comic romance as they romp through Russia leaving a path of destruction wherever possible.

True to the hit television series the movie is based on, Max often bumbles and stumbles his way into heroic acts, at times needing Agent 99 to save him form peril. Max is not completely incompetent, however, as he does show some pretty slick spy moves of his own from time to time.

Just when Max looks to have accomplished the mission and stopped the evil Siegfried, he gets accused of being a double agent. On top of that, Siegfried's plans for destruction are still in full effect.

Max has to somehow redeem his good name, win back the girl and defeat the villain, all before the city of Los Angeles gets blown to bits by a nuclear bomb. You'll have to watch the movie to see if he pulls it off.

If you are looking for some good laughs, you will find some within this movie, but they are few and far between. The film pays tribute to the old television series, but is really only loosely based on the program. Carell does not do an imitation of the Maxwell Smart of television fame.

You could definitely rent movies a lot less funny than this one, but you could certainly rent movies that are lot funnier.

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