The legendary 1960s spy-parody sitcom gets retooled for the big screen in this yarn of dumb-but-lucky super secret agent 86, Maxwell Smart (Don Adams). This time, his Chief (Dana Elcar) assigns him to go after a KAOS mastermind who's invented an unusual sort of bomb. It will destroy most of the clothing on Earth, rendering the vast majority of humans vulnerable to his machinations. Fortunately for Maxwell, he has a large team of colleagues upon which he can rely, including a comely "disappearance" expert (Andrea Howard) and a "Q" like gadget creator (Norman Lloyd).
Adams is once again in very fine form, and naturally the script (by Leonard Stern, Bill Dana, and Arne Sultan) allows for opportunities for him to utter lots of his classic one-liners. "AND loving it." On the whole, the film is certainly amusing enough to make it quite pleasant, even if it was never truly hilarious. The cast is certainly engaging, with Vittorio Gassman a hoot as a maniacal thug named Nino. The viewer will definitely miss the presence of Barbara Feldon (the original Agent 99) and Edward Platt (the original Chief), though. There are precious few holdovers from the series in terms of cast. But it's fun to see some of these performers here: Sylvia "Emmanuelle" Kristel as Agent 34, Pamela Hensley as Agent 36, Richard Sanders as the German delegate, etc. Co-screenwriter Dana has the small role of fashion designer Jonathan Levinson Seigle.
At the very least, it is nice to see the premise and characters get a story with increased production values. Subtle it's not, though: Universal (in association with Time Life) produced this movie, and there's a major chase sequence that takes us through Universals' theme park.
In the end, one does have some respect for Max. He may not be the brightest bulb in the drawer, but he's not so dense that he can't put two and two together when it really counts.
Six out of 10.
Adams is once again in very fine form, and naturally the script (by Leonard Stern, Bill Dana, and Arne Sultan) allows for opportunities for him to utter lots of his classic one-liners. "AND loving it." On the whole, the film is certainly amusing enough to make it quite pleasant, even if it was never truly hilarious. The cast is certainly engaging, with Vittorio Gassman a hoot as a maniacal thug named Nino. The viewer will definitely miss the presence of Barbara Feldon (the original Agent 99) and Edward Platt (the original Chief), though. There are precious few holdovers from the series in terms of cast. But it's fun to see some of these performers here: Sylvia "Emmanuelle" Kristel as Agent 34, Pamela Hensley as Agent 36, Richard Sanders as the German delegate, etc. Co-screenwriter Dana has the small role of fashion designer Jonathan Levinson Seigle.
At the very least, it is nice to see the premise and characters get a story with increased production values. Subtle it's not, though: Universal (in association with Time Life) produced this movie, and there's a major chase sequence that takes us through Universals' theme park.
In the end, one does have some respect for Max. He may not be the brightest bulb in the drawer, but he's not so dense that he can't put two and two together when it really counts.
Six out of 10.