Get Smart isn't an awful film, but it does continue a recent, ongoing trend at the movies as of late; it's painfully average. Based on the famed Don Adams sitcom co-created by icon Mel Brooks, this Get Smart goes the contemporary route - updating all the gadgets and bringing them into the digital age. The humor is mostly of the sight gag and physical variety. Does it feel like the Get Smart of old? Not really. It has familiar moments, including the old show opening in which Maxwell Smart (played by funny-man Steve Carell) walks down that vast corridor with those large, electronic doors closing directly behind him, but beyond that, there isn't anything particularly nostalgic about it.

In this updating (or reboot – whatever you want to call it) of Get Smart, the clueless but surprisingly resilient agent Maxwell Smart teams with Agent 99 (played by Anne Hathaway). Their mission: Prevent a madman (Terrence Stamp) from blowing up the city.

Carell has some fun moments here, but this isn't so much a homage to Don Adams as it is an ode to the characters he plays on The Office and in Anchorman. Furthermore, he isn't nearly as consistently funny in Get Smart because the underwritten screenplay by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember doesn't offer the comic actor much to work with. Don Adams always played up the nit wit factor, but in this take, Carell isn't quite silly enough.

Get Smart was directed by Peter Segal, a film maker who knows physical comedy (see Tommy Boy) and is well versed in slapstick and parody (see Naked Gun 33 1/3). Sadly, this film is more miss than hit. Many of the gags, including a dance number with Carell and a plus size woman, play too long and don't offer up a sufficient payoff. The action sequences are competently handled (watch for a crazy sky diving sequence), but at times, they feel like they belong in a different movie.

Alan Arkin has some of the film's better lines as the beleaguered head of "CONTROL," but the rest of the cast members don't fare nearly as well. It's hard to tell if Anne Hathaway has comic chops because she doesn't really do anything funny here. The Rock . . . excuse me, Dwayne Johnson, falls into the same trap. He oozes charisma, but in Get Smart, that charisma is all but absent. Peter Segal misses a golden opportunity with Terrence Stamp. The veteran actor has maybe ten minutes of total screen time as the dastardly leader of "KAOS," and his character is more unpleasant than deliciously villainous.

Get Smart is an uneven fusion of action and comedy, and while it does have a few inspired moments, and a couple of noteworthy cameos, the film doesn't really come together as a whole. Those expecting a nostalgic rush will be disappointed and audiences expecting a laugh-per-minute comedy extravaganza will be equally let down.