But with a recent run of cinematic flops from the newest comedy rat pack, Steve Carell's latest outing could well be the end of the road for the former flavour of the month.

Get Smart follows the fumbling Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell), an intelligence analyst for the top secret Government agency CONTROL who dreams of becoming a field agent like his friend and idol, the smooth and cool Agent 23 (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson).

When an evil crime syndicate known as KAOS emerges and attacks the CONTROL headquarters, Smart's dreams are made a reality as he is forced into a partnership with the expert Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) in order to stop KAOS and save the world.

Based on a 70s America television series created by Mel Brooks, Get Smart is a bland and unimaginative reworking of a more than familiar concept.

Director Peter Segal has a history of comedy flops hanging around his neck, having created the aptly named Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult before proving there were, unfortunately, plenty more to come with Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Anger Management and 50 First Dates –– all of which died spectacularly at the box office.

Seemingly undeterred, however, Segal fails to capitalise on Carell's obvious comedic ability, which shone through in the American version of TV series The Office and early films such as Anchorman –– although his performance arguably owes more to the Will Ferrell and Adam McKay writing dream team than his own ability.

With a plot so mind numbing and predictable, Get Smart's biggest achievement is in managing to make viewers look at cinema upholstery with a new found appreciation and excitement in a desperate attempt to take at least something away from this regrettable 110-minute experience.

The main problem with Get Smart is its lack of imagination, and while films like the Austin Powers trilogy manage to prove that there is still some life in the spy spoof by introducing new concepts to the genre, Get Smart brings little to the table.

The gags are too few and far between and at best raise little more than a smile. The attempts at slapstick humour work best, but while Carell can competently pull off the bumbling fool role it becomes tiresome and repetitive very early on.

Performances throughout the film are good, with Alan Arkin doing a good job as head of CONTROL and equally Terence Stamp as his counterpart at KAOS but neither are given enough time on screen to really make the characters their own.

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson surprises most as the cocky and suave, if a little moronic, Agent 23, and works well within the rest of the cast.

In all, Get Smart fails to make the most of a chance to breath new life into a very familiar genre and can't compete with rivals such as Naked Gun, The Pink Panther and Austin Powers –– which all showed that spoof comedy can still be entertaining.

A blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo from Bill Murray may be the only redeeming feature in this mundane and unexciting outing ––clearly the smartest decision here is to go and see something else.

1/5