AKA: "The Real Inspector Gadget" (working title)

Released: 1998

Length: Approx. 78 minutes

Rated: PG

Main Cast: Matthew Broderick, Rupert Everett, Joely Fisher, Michelle Trachtenberg, Andy Dick, D. L. Hughley, Mr. T, Bobby Bell.

Whoa! What a movie! It took me no time at all to come up with a single word that would adequately describe this film: crapola! I’m sorry, but this movie is a travesty. It makes the original cartoon look like a work of Shakespeare!!!

This live action version of a decent cartoon has Gadget (Matthew Broderick) portrayed by a bumbling buffoon, whose name is John Brown. This buffoon was a lousy security guard working for a high tech lab. Unfortunately, he was terrible at his job and let the villain, Dr. Claw (Rupert Everett), break into the lab and kill the lead scientist as well as steal most of the top secret projects. He tries to stop the villain by chasing him in a junky little car. The guy is thwarted and blown up and the villain loses his hand, thus becoming Dr. Claw.

The scientist’s daughter, Brenda Bradford (Joely Fisher), continues his work and changes the comatose security guard into Inspector Gadget. (He always wanted to be a policeman.) There are many dumb scenes as the Inspector gets used to his new body. In one, we watch an ascetic-type person tell him to "clear his mind of all things and only to think of grabbing the balls." The balls being some metal balls at the ascetic’s feet, but being the "family-friendly" company that Disney is, they took the opportunity to have Gadget grab the guy’s "other balls". Ha ha. What a funny joke to watch the guy scream in agony and get wheeled off in a stretcher with a squeaky voice.

Most of the other innuendo is subtle, but it’s there. Gadget acts strange every time he gets around the scientist’s daughter because he thinks she’s beautiful. As for Dr. Claw, he’s played by a homosexual. If one didn’t know that, then some scenes would seem just fine. But as it is, you get to watch him leave his arm on another male’s shoulder for an extended period and when they try out a new invention, he says something like, "All right, turn me on."

The special effects are pretty good. And there are a few funny parts, but for the most part, the acting is terrible. It’s b-grade material here, folks. Inspector Gadget’s niece, Penny (Michelle Trachtenberg), is the only "smart" person in the movie, which is normal for Disney. Adults are almost always depicted as being dumber than dogs.

Anyway, the evil Dr. Claw gets the lady scientist to work for him. (She doesn’t know he’s evil!) And thus, he steals more ideas from her because when he first stole, he missed the chip that makes Gadget work. So Claw develops a robotic clone of Gadget that he sends on a rampage.

To make this shorter, Gadget kicks his alter-ego’s tail and saves his lady by the end with the help of his talking car and his niece, Penny. (Penny sweet talks one of Dr. Claw’s henchmen into giving up his boss.) STUPID!!! And, of course, everyone lives happily ever after.

Then there’s some annoying 1-2 minutes clips of weird stuff with the credits. It shows a robotic Brenda dancing about (this robot was in the movie earlier too…another dumb scene that I chose to ignore in this review), Gadget’s evil twin wandering around without its head and Penny talking to Brain, the dog with a wrist-watch walkie-talkie. The dog replies (the only time in the movie that he talks) with Don Adams

lending his voice over talent. (And yes, Adams is the guy from the TV show, "Get Smart.")

I’ll never understand why Broderick went from Godzilla to Gadget. In both movies he was pretty doofy, but this one is light-years beyond in the stupidity department!

I give it:

STORY: 

VIOLENCE: 

SEXUAL CONTENT: N/A

SFX:

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