I'm referring to the new movie, of course, starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin, and Dwayne Johnson, based on the classic TV show from the 60's. If you liked the original series with Don Adams and Barbara Feldon, you'll enjoy this movie. If you never saw the TV show, you'll still enjoy it.
It works as a romantic comedy, an action-adventure film, a spy movie, and a spy movie parody, with both great physical comedy and some pretty clever wit as well. The chemistry between Maxwell Smart (Carell) and Agent 99 (Hathaway) is a joy to watch develop - and so are the scenes between Smart and the Chief (Arkin)
BUT.... if you're going by the reviews, most of the ones I've seen miss something else that's going on. The movie manages to make some pointed comments about the real world we live in, in a subtle fashion that makes it more than just a fun time. It might also make you think about the so-called Global War On Terror and how we've been acting as a nation. It's quietly but effectively subversive, a dangerous thing for entertainment these days.
I promise no spoilers here (well not too many), and hope people who've seen the movie will refrain from giving any away in the comments.
The original show had plenty of satirical moments and send ups, and so does the movie, but the movie has added depth to the characters that the TV show lacked. As the story begins, Smart is not an agent; he's an analyst who desperately wants to become an agent, a person who has come a long way in pursuit of his dream, but is paradoxically being held back because he's so good at what he does. 99 turns out to have issues of her own, and the Chief has an interesting back story that adds a lot to the tale.
The Chief (Arkin) really appreciates Smart, because he's a throwback to the old school, someone who knows how important the human element is in intelligence work - it's not all high tech eavesdropping and computers. A briefing early on explicitly brings this out, when Smart tells everyone that they may be facing people who are bad guys because they do bad things, but they must never forget that their enemies are still human beings or they will not be able to defeat them. This theme comes up again and again through the movie; in fact there's several plot turns that depend on it.
The Chief makes it clear that he shares Smart's attitude when he counsels one of his other agents, who out of frustration (and anger that a co-worker broke the rules of office etiquette), resorts to a bit of stapler abuse. The Chief pulls him aside and (as best as I can paraphrase) tells him "That's CIA. We don't do that."
In fact the Chief gets a fair amount of story in his own right, as we get to see him jousting with the people he reports to, including the Vice President and the President. The actors who play those roles deliberately lack a physical resemblance to the current crew - but the people who wrote the script for this movie have obviously been paying attention to a lot of things that have slipped right past the traditional media (and movie reviewers).
A devastating terrorist attack gives Smart his chance to finally become a field agent, and while he may be overwhelmed at times, he still manages to muddle through - sometimes brilliantly. Despite the fact that he and 99 are facing people who don't hesitate to kill, who are up to something nefarious with nuclear devices, the two of them employ lethal force when necessary without losing their moral center. They have every reason to be totally paranoid and distrustful of everyone (and the start of their mission on an airliner shows how paranoia has become endemic in the world today), but they still manage to keep it from crippling them as human beings.
There are scenes in the movie that I found a little hard to watch, because they deliberately (I'm assuming) evoke scenes from recent real world history that are not funny at all. They'll probably go right past many in the audience, but I suspect people who hang out at Daily Kos will catch them. They're still funny, but it's the kind of funny where you find yourself laughing because it would be too painful to do anything else.
And that I think is something that makes Get Smart more than just a really enjoyable comedy. It's also a gentle reminder that we have choices to make about the way we face the world and the values we embrace. It's only a fantasy when all is said and done - but never underestimate the power of fantasy for both good and evil. The last 7 years have shown what can happen when the wrong fantasies take hold.
If you haven't yet, go see the movie before it's swept away by the latest wave of new releases swamping the theaters. There are far worse ways to spend a couple of hours.