Headline this review: Failing to Get Smart or Missing It By A Lot More Than This Much.

To begin, a positive: Among the current comedy pool, no one but Steve Carell could rightfully be cast as Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, in "Get Smart." He is the perfect Don Adams redo. He somewhat resembles Adams, and can deliver comedy lines straight faced. Then again, Don Adams, who starred in the hilarious and warmly remembered TV comedy series bearing the same title, usually gave facial schtick (double take) reactions--not passively like Carell. So is it fair to compare Carell with Adams? Definitely. That is the whole point, is it not, of creating a movie based upon a classic TV show. Those who recall the original cannot help comparing. It is part of memory bank sport. Conversely, those who have never seen the 1960s TV show have no point of reference, except familiarity with Carell in his current hit TV series, "The Office."

Unfortunately, the brilliant idiocy of "The Office" is five times funnier than "Get Smart." That is to say, "Get Smart" falls short in the brilliant area. Laughs are mostly "Jackass" variety, which means violent, extreme stunts. The humor of pain, which has its roots most popularly with The Three Stooges (and dating many years before them), never looked so truly painful, and unfunny. For wincing example, in "Get Smart," having Smart (Carell) accidentally shoot a dart into his foot is hardly a belly laugh in itself. So, the writers evidently thought, why not inflict another and another...say, another six or seven darts, landing in tender areas all over his body? What a laugh riot! It wouldn't have been a stretch to remove his knee cap for a real slapper. The pitiful state of comedy these days, ladies and gentlemen.

What it boils down to is the producers of "Get Smart" should have gotten smart and hired the original writers/creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry to pen the script. As it is, Brooks and Henry are listed as creative consultants with Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember receiving just credit for the finished lameness. About what, in heaven's name, did Brooks and Henry consult? Director Peter Segal ("50 First Dates") obviously and mistakenly gave his revisionist screenwriters Astle and Ember free reign. The Maxwell Smart and his secret U.S. spy agency CONTROL of old merely share their names and surface similarities with this 2008 take. Hollywood again fixes something unbroken.

The superficial plot at least gives homage to the original series. As of old, secret agent Smart teams with his gorgeous co-spy, Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway in place of TV's Barbara Feldon) to battle their Russian-resembling spy nemesis KAOS. Oddly, the opening of the story shows guided tours of the CONTROL museum in which spy memorabilia is on display. This infers that perhaps Smart is long deceased, along with the entire agency. Yet Smart appears the same age, and immediately passes through the museum into a secret entrance TV viewers will remember. There are the large, sliding doors placed along the long corridor where Max walks to the familiar telephone booth, which lowers Max into CONTROL central. The museum is just a front, and CONTROL is still operational. Glib dialogue with Max's boss, Chief (Alan Arkin subbing for the late Ed Platt), maintains the nostalgic tone.

Then changes, for the worse, commence. Macho Dwayne Johnson appears as fellow Agent 23, Smart's idol (?). Smart has apparently never been given an actual spy case, and is aching to show his stuff along 23's side. This makes "Get Smart" a prequel to the TV series, in a way.

Johnson is fine in the action scenes, but so-so as a funny man. Maxwell and company proceed to defeat KAOS master operative Siegfried (Terrance Stamp, once again effectively chewing bad guy scenery) and sidekick Shtarker (Ken Davitian). In the process, Max relies on his gimmick-loaded shoe (like on TV) and various James Bond-like devices and weapons. Of course, the Bond movies spawned "Get Smart" and a slew of TV and movie wannabes and parodies during the 1960s.

Look for funny cameos like Bernie Koppel, who was Siegfried on TV; and Patrick Warburton playing Hymie, another agent of old. (On TV, Hymie was played by Richard Gautier.) There is a nearly unrecognizable James Caan as the President, and a funny bit with BIll Murray as a forsaken agent hiding in a tree trunk. Fans will relate to the roundtable meeting covered by secretive shields.

But don't expect too many other familiarities. "Get Smart" becomes a mishmash, soon looking more like a Roger Moore Bond parody. We get giant KAOS bad guy Dalip (wrestler Dalip Singh), resembling the razor-toothed Jaws from 1979's "Moonraker," who even duplicates the parachute scene from same. In fact, there are numerous airplane stunt sequences foreign to the TV show. Factor in several explosions and gunfights. Such unfunny scenes fatally bleed the character-driven humor of the original series. Pleasing action hungry, younger viewers with outrageous stunts is the real purpose.

However, there are still crumbs of nostalgia thrown to audience elders. Maxwell works in famous catch phrases, "Missed it by THAT much" and "Would you believe?" here and there. Arkin plays Chief much as Platt did, which is comforting. Hathaway's 99, as expected, is more than just support for 86; she usually pulls him out of danger.

Sad to say, 86+99 do not add up enough to raise this makeover from below average.