Get Smart

Directed by Peter Segal, starring Alan Arkin, Anne Hathaway and David Koechner

Mel Brooks' ancient 1960s TV show Get Smart was a spy spoof, starring a dopey special agent whose shoe was a walkie-talkie - notable for being not particularly funny.

For some reason, Hollywood's greying babyboomers have chosen to revive this old clunker, in the form of an action comedy update which is spectacular if nothing else. Steve Carell (pictured) is the klutzy accident-prone agent, and Anne Hathaway (pictured) is his gorgeous sidekick, a performer with whom Carell has zero comedy chemistry and zero romantic chemistry. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is another agent and Alan Arkin gets one or two bona fide laughs as their grizzled, long-suffering chief.

Weirdly, this is a spy comedy which seems entirely unaware of the new genre of Jack Bauer or Jason Bourne, and instead looks more like a Roger Moore-era 007 knockoff, with sky-diving scenes and a great big villain who looks like Jaws. It isn't actively objectionable, and is clearly concerned at all times to deliver entertainment value, but there are very, very few real comedy sparks and it once again shows that Carell can look eerily blank and lifeless without the right script.