I just got back from the movie theater.

My choice of film today was "Get Smart."

 EW failed to supply any reviews in this week's issue, so I'm making one of my own.

If you don't feel like reading, this is what I want to get across in short:  Get smart and skip last weekend's box office leader. 

The cast is good enough for this kind of romp, but not even Alan Arkin can salvage any comedic value from his lines.  The script fails to produce laughs of any kind.  Put it to you this way: The theater had about ten people seated inside (remember, this was a matinee), and all were silent throughout the movie, save one man directly behind me who had the uncanny ability to laugh at such a farce of a screenplay. 

It was dumb and predictable, chock full of every spy movie cliche anyone of sane mind can conjure up in a two-minute timeframe.  For instance (spoiler alert!), when Anne Hathaway's character tells us all about her breakup incident with an unnamed agent, anyone can figure out that the agent she romanced was Dwayne Johnson's Agent 23.  Without that "twist," how would Johnson add any plot meat to the plot?  By being the villan, as I (and certainly others predictedl; the audience wasn't exactly gasping at this knowledge) also predicted, of course!  The producers probably thought it would be "doubly-shocking" if they had both twists!  What genius!  In fact, it made the movie all the more incompetent. 

Another off-putting feature was the cheapness of the special effects.  For a big-budget action-comedy such as this, the sets and visual effects looked especially fake and neglected budget-wise.  Not only that, but they tried to mimic the feel of the Bourne trilogy by adding out-of-focus, quick cut flashbacks, choreographed martial-arts combat, and Paul Greengrass' trademark handheld camera shake.  This was too noticeable and too ridiculous to be admirable, and it only took away from the movie. 

In a few words, Get Smart is a cliched, lame, unfunny farce of a motion picture. 

At least it's consistent.

Double Agent's Grade: C

Skip It.