The film stars Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, and Alan Arkin, with Terence Stamp and James Caan in supporting roles.

The film centers on an analyst named Maxwell Smart (Carell) who dreams of becoming a real field agent and a better spy.

[2][3] Maxwell Smart, an analyst for CONTROL, a top secret American intelligence agency, yearns to become a field agent, but is blocked by the Chief, who values his analytical skills.

Siegfried reveals to Shtarker that he plans to detonate a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles while the President of the United States is there.

Siegfried contacts the U.S. government and threatens to release nuclear weapon detonator codes to hostile countries unless given $200 billion.

Detained in a CONTROL holding cell, Max receives a coded warning from Dalip via American Top 40, alerting him to Siegfried's plan.

Analyzing Agent 23's nuclear football, Max realizes the final note of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" will trigger the bomb.

All music is composed by Trevor RabinIn addition to traditional television advertisement and movie trailers, Warner Bros. commissioned Pepsi to produce a flavor of Sierra Mist soft drink dubbed "Undercover Orange" to help promote the film.

The theatrical posters had a sticker that highlighted the return of Jorge "El Tata" Arvizu, a highly regarded Mexican actor who was returning to the character after a 13-year hiatus, having dubbed Don Adams in the 1960s TV series and again in the short-lived 1990s Get Smart TV series starring Andy Dick.

The site's critical consensus reads "Get Smart rides Steve Carell's considerable charm for a few laughs, but ultimately proves to be a rather ordinary action comedy".

[16] Negative responses came from Glenn Whipp of the Los Angeles Daily News calling it "staggeringly bad" and Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle stating that "It couldn't buy a laugh in a nitrous oxide factory with a fistful of clown noses.

"[17] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said "it neglects the laughs and amps up the action, resulting in a not very funny comedy joined at the hip to a not very exciting spy movie.

"[18] It also received negative reviews from Richard Schickel from Time[19] and David Ansen from Newsweek, with the latter stating, "it's not Maxwell who's clueless, but the filmmakers ... Director (Pete) Segal ... is a comedy specialist lacking any apparent sense of humor.

[21] In its opening weekend, the film grossed $38.6 million in 3,911 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office and averaging $9,891 per venue.

[22] The film was released in the United Kingdom on August 22, 2008, and opened on #3, behind Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Mamma Mia!.

[30] In 2010, Carell said: "I took a pass at Get Smart 2, write a completely new story and we'll see what happens with that somewhere down the line perhaps... Anne Hathaway is definitely in and Alan Arkin, so at some point... we don't have any projected date and the script still needs some tweaking and some rewriting.