Get Smart

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It’s funny, exciting, preposterous, great to look at, and made with the same level of technical expertise we’d expect from a new Bond movie itself. And all of that is very nice, but nicer still is the perfect pitch of the casting.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Andy Spletzer

Get Smart is action movie and spoof and, though it's often a little unbalanced, the ultimate result is a harmlessly entertaining picture.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The unexpected star is Hathaway, looking cool as a runway model in the role originated by Barbara Feldon, lithe as a (pink) panther, and displaying great comic timing.

Film Threat Mark Bell

The movie is fun, and hilarious, because of its child-like whimsy.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Get Smart turns out to be a much more entertaining movie than its tedious trailers suggest. It's not going to redefine comedy as we know it, but it's amusing and briskly paced, busy with an engaging mix of supporting actors.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Steve Carell's portrayal of Max is just about perfect for the material.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

This redux is a rare device: a TV remake for the big screen that works on its own terms.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

As for Hathaway, she's a revelation. Those eyes are still as big as Beamer hubcaps, but she's able to show more edge than her previous goody-goody roles have allowed.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Get Smart could have been smarter. But like the show that inspired it, it's still smarter than it looks.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Get Smart the sitcom was a one-joke affair and got tedious fast, whereas Carell’s starry-eyed dweeb has room for nuance, for growth, for inspiration.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The movie errs by turning Max into a figure of hangdog sympathy: "The 40 Year Old Virgin" with a shoe phone.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Mixes broad slapstick and off-hand one-liners in a sometimes surprisingly funny mixture.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's a light, silly instantly forgettable comedy peppered with action set-pieces and affectionate nods to its fondly remembered predecessor, including a gracious end-credits dedication to the late Don Adams and Edward Platt.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Max's even more fabled shoe phone also makes an appearance - and, fortunately for Get Smart, the self-deprecating Carell isn't shoe-phoning in his inspired performance.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Director Peter Segal ups the ante on the action, aiming for Bourne more than Bond, but the stunts grow frenzied and increasingly flat.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Bright enough, but stops short of being clever.

Empire Tony Horkins

Despite a plot that should be simpler, Get Smart is as big on action as it is on laughs and works because it?s less a tired spoof and more a quality comedic adventure movie in its own right.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

For the most part it's dull, bland and unsatisfying: a food-court version of home cooking.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

You never get the sense that the director, Peter Segal, knows where the funny is, whether in his star or in the story.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Get Smart 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. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Remaking Get Smart without Don Adams and Barbara Feldon is like remaking "My Little Chickadee" without Mae West and W.C. Fields--the best possible outcome is disappointment.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

It flounders whenever it tries to weave the real world into its fantasia, partly because it isn't really about anything other than making money, partly because the spy-versus-spy battle doesn't entertain the way it once did.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

All that's missing is the spirit and the anarchic humor of the sitcom created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. The result is an overdressed, carefully stitched scarecrow of a comedy.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The film reunites Carell with his "Little Miss Sunshine" co-star Arkin, who, as always, delivers the goods, as do most of the other supporting players. Too long by at least 15-20 minutes, Get Smart is nevertheless a giggly summer movie.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Missed it by that much. Actually, the new version of Get Smart misses by a fair-size margin.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

This is a slap-dash effort whose producers threw money and stunts onscreen instead of the satirical gags and one-liners that made the old spy spoof so memorable.

Variety John Anderson

Helmer Peter Segal's formulaic takeoff is neither fish nor fowl, not quite faithful to the show, but not quite bringing it into the 21st century either.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

There are many stretches when it's easy to forget that Get Smart is a spoof; it's more like a third-rate James Bond with pratfalls.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

At least we have Alan Arkin playing the head of CONTROL. His drone and deadpan are a perfect complement to Carell's. But please, pretty please, let's not go for a sequel on this one, OK?

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

While the whole cast -- including Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson -- is game, too much time was spent coordinating chase scenes and explosions, and too little fixing a slack script that relies on bathroom humor and snickering sex jokes.

Time Richard Schickel

That Max Smart is played by the admirable Steve Carell, who is desperately looking for deadpan jokes in all the wrong places, is beside the point.

Newsweek David Ansen

In this distressingly generic spy spoof, it's not Maxwell who's clueless, but the filmmakers.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Rather than the laugh a minute promised by old comedies, Get Smart generates approximately one laugh per hour, and I can't remember either one.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Remaking Get Smart for the big screen might have sounded like a bad idea, but the movie shows it to have been something else: a REALLY bad idea.