(Based on an unfinished cut)
Strangely I thought it felt a lot like a slightly more comedic Michael Bay movie (it even uses the music of Trevor Rabin, a Bay/Bruckheimer regular). Carell, as per the norm, is quite funny in the lead role, here as seemingly inept secret agent Maxwell Smart. Hathaway is absolutely beautiful...I'm just not sure she's much of an actress. The Rock actually steals almost all of his scenes with an effortless sense of 'cool' that works well for the material. There are some big problems though. The film is marred by stupid design decisions creating both RIDICULOUS (in a bad way) action scenes and an invincible villain. Call me crazy but I don't like it when people fall from a plane and live. The worst part of the film though are the tacky, classless Bush/Cheney jokes littered throughout. The audience seemed disgusted and entirely offput by one Katrina joke in particular that was simply in bad taste. An occasional political joke can work really well (like at the end of Anchorman) but berating the audience with them only serves as a reminder of the less than great situation America sits in today. I'm no Bush supporter but this is meant to be a fairly lighthearted summer action comedy; not a scathing political message movie. It's funny and has some pretty inspired moments, but some juvenile decisions and satire gone awry really hold it back from being a great action comedy.
Overall Score: 5/10
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