Stories for June 21, 2008   Get Smart  At first glance, the
casting of Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart seemed a smart choice.
I couldn't think of anyone else who could revive the cocky idiot
savant that Don Adams had created back in 1965. Adams' Maxwell
Smart was created to satirize the wildly popular spy films of
James Bond. Adams played the inept, bumbling and perpetually
confused yet unexpectedly successful Agent 86.  The Love Guru
The appealing thing about Mike Myers and the comedy he writes is
that it's basically good-natured -- dumb but good-natured. Think
about Wayne Campbell or Austin Powers. They are goofy likable
characters that never display any real mean-spiritedness. Even
if they do lash out at someone, it's usually more silly than
vicious. Myers' work falls into the pot comedy genre where even
bad guys don't come across as that bad, and there's a loopy
surreal quality to the comic world created.