Film adaptation of the TV series of the same name. Starring Steve Carell as Max, Anne Hathaway as 99, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a fellow spy, and Alan Arkin as the Chief.In this version, Max is a CONTROL data collector who wants to be a field agent but failed due to being overweight; when he finally succeeds (after slimming down) he still doesn't get a promotion because he's too valuable in his position. But due to a mole in the organization, the secret identities of most of its agents are compromised. This forces the Chief to promote Max as Agent 86 and send with him Agent 99, whose recent plastic surgery rendered her unrecognizable, in a mission to Ukraine to find some stolen radioactive materials that have fallen into the hands of their archenemies, KAOS. Hilarity (and UST) ensues.Critical reaction was mixed, but consumers generally found it to be respectful and entertaining. Mel Brooks even praised Steve Carell's acting.Alongside the film a direct-to-DVD Spin-Off titled Get Smart's Bruce And Lloyd: Out of CONTROL, which follows the escapades of Those Two Guys during the events of the film.
Action Girl: Agent 99. Coming fresh off a plastic surgery, she still kicks a lot of ass, including walloping three mooks by herself while Max struggles with one.
Subverted with the car, at least, since that runs out of gas after about a few hundred metres and he's forced to try and hitch a ride.
The Brute: Dalip, Siegfried's imposing right-hand man. Who turns out to be his brother-in-law and a Punch Clock Villain who only wants the money to look after his wife.
Cool Old Guy: The Chief. Pilots a plane to trail an escaping car and punches an FBI agent who insulted his organization in the face, not to mention his flying tackle to the vice president. Even the president is impressed.
Maxwell Smart: If you want it; you'll have to take it.
23: That's what I just said.
Maxwell Smart: I know. I'm just trying to annoy you.
Dye or Die: 99 recently has had a plastic surgery, thus when a mole in CONTROL compromises most of its agents' identities, hers remained intact and thus is still qualified for active service.
Max: Whoa, that's a bad guy, that's a really bad guy! Did you see his face? His head looks like one of the Easter Island heads!
Empty Quiver: KAOS gets a nuke and threatens to nuke Los Angeles at the end of "Ode to Joy" in a concert in Disney Hall, which the President is attending.
Fanservice: A literal second of Anne Hathaway in her underwear.
Plus a couple panty shots during the scene with the room with lasers. Also there are a couple shots of Hathaway's bare feet which could be fan service for some people...
Fun with Acronyms: Hymie was originally named after his creator's father (a cover story he adopted later); in this movie it stands for "HYbrid Mechanical Intelligence Entity"
Genius Ditz: Max is CONTROL's top analyst — too bad he wants to be a field agent...
Genre Savvy: Max himself. When asked where the nuclear warhead might be stashed, he hesitantly replies "in... the piano?" Which of course is where it is.
Doubles as reference to the original show, where the bad guy of the week hid a bomb in a piano that would kill the pianist during the concert.
The Great Politics Mess-Up: The movie acknowledges this, but still has CONTROL vs KAOS. However, KAOS hasn't been very active recently, and the government is considering shutting down CONTROL due to a lack of Soviets to spy on.
Good Bad Translation: The Latino American edition replaced most of Max's jokes with ones that made cultural references which this audience would get.
Idiot Ball: Max isn't going to be accused of being a genius anytime soon, but the airplane scene was such a lack of common sense that it deserves mention. After being arrested by a federal marshal for making the whole plane think he was a terrorist by trying to scrape gum off his shoe, he is handcuffed with a set of plastic band cuffs. When Max tries to cut them off in the plane's bathroom, he uses a modified Swiss Army Pocket Knife (which has a flamethrower, a harpoon, and a mini dart gun) to try and get out of them. Instead of using any of the knifes or saws or can opener, or even the needle nose pliers to try and break the clip off the cuffs, he uses the harpoon. It doesn't work. And when it finally does, the bolt from the harpoon hits an eject button, dropping him out of the plane at 35,000 feet. The fact that doing this almost kills him almost makes this Too Dumb to Live.
That last part isn't entirely his fault: why would a commercial airliner bathroom have an eject button?
The eject button was there for the agents to use to jump from the plane. 86 just triggered it early.
Improbable Aiming Skills: Every shot Max takes is a kill shot when it involves an actual firearm as opposed to a tranquilizer crossbow. Foreshadowed earlier with a scene involving paintballs, where Max is able to shoot Larabee right in his jewels.
Jerk Jock: Larabee and 91 take on the role of bullying 'jock' agents to the 'nerdy' analyst/tech support characters. They both receive comeuppances throughout the movie.
Kiss of Distraction: Agent 99 kisses Dalip to distract him when they and Max are all plummeting through the air. Max wold later use the same trick on Agent 23.
Modern Major General: Max, as he's the best analyst CONTROL has but wants to be a field agent. When he gets promoted due to majority of the agents' identities under compromise due to a mole, he's completely out of his depth, other than when he uses his analyst's skills and intel to mess with KAOS agents. In a contrast from the TV series, however, Max is able to buckle down and be a decent field agent.
To his credit, Max's naive personality also makes him a decent human being, who shows compassion and kindness towards anyone from fat ladies ridiculed by anorexic harpies, to the massive KAOS agent who just needs the money to look after his wife.
The Mole: The presence of one in CONTROL compromises the identities of all its agents save Agent 99. Later Max is accused of being the one, but after convincing the Chief and Agent 99 that he's not the one, he proceeds to unwittingly uncover Agent 23 as the real mole.
Musical Trigger: The final notes of the Ode to Joy are the signal for the electronic detonator.
Mythology Gag: The movie gives brief glimpses at the old style cone-of-silence as well as an updated version, Max's car from the original series and of course, the Shoe Phone. The opening montage also shows some of Max's notes, which include mention of The Craw The Claw. His refrigerator has a wanted ad for Mr. Big magneted to it.
The Running Gag of the Cone of Silence was that it never worked. The first thing it does in the movie? Work.
However, it only works for the individual people inside their own cones, and nearly suffocates Larabee.
You might have thought this was leading to a moment showing that 99 used to be as fat and unattractive as Max — nope! Before, she was a gorgeous blonde, afterwards she's a gorgeous brunette.
One of the villains only continues to work for the bad guy because he's his brother in law.
Spy Drama: The film plays it somewhat straighter than the series did. Also an example of how serious spy dramas have changed. The original TV series parodied Tuxedo and Martini spy dramas like Goldfinger or The Man From UNCLE, whereas the movie follows the slightly more down-to-earthness of something like the 2006 Casino Royale.
Spy School: The training program that Maxwell Smart goes through.
Siegfried: How do I know you're not CONTROL? Max: If I were CONTROL, you'd already be dead. Siegfried: If you were CONTROL, you'd already be dead. Max: Well, neither of us is dead, so I'm obviously not from CONTROL. (beat) Shtarker: That actually makes sense.
It's also saved by Siegfried not actually being fooled.
As well as the fact that it's a direct quote from the TV series.
Actually, the logic itself is perfectly valid here, it's just that the initial conditions are wrong. (Get ready for a brief logic lesson.) Reducing the statement "Max is from Control" to p, reducing "Siegfried is dead" to q, and reducing "Max is dead" to r leads to this: If p, then q. If p, then r. Not q and not r; therefore, not p. The only reason Max and Siegfried are alive is that both of the initial statements are false.
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