GET SMART – the feature film version of the old TV spy comedy – hits screens today. The initial critical reaction is lukewarm. A survey of 72 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes yields a 53% rating (38 fresh reviews versus 24 rotten). Some typical responses
“Get Smart has it all – the Cone of Silence, the shoe phone, the familiar one-liners. But the re-imagined Maxwell Smart isn’t nearly as funny as the original.” – Washington Times
“Get Smartfeatures near-perfect casting with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, and it largely captures the spirit of the original show. But it’s just not funny.” – Christianity Today
Roger Ebert, on the other hand, is quite enthusiastic for the film:
…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.