INSPECTOR GADGET Reviewed by Jamie Peck
Rating: **1/2 (out of ****) Walt Disney / 1:20 / 1999 / PG (innuendo, comic violence) Cast: Matthew Broderick; Rupert Everett; Joely Fisher; Michelle Trachtenberg; Dabney Coleman; Andy Dick; Michael G. Hagerty; Cheri Oteri
Director: David Kellogg Screenplay: Kerry Ehrin; Zak Penn
Disney's track record with turning past film and television concepts into big-screen fare for the multiplex-happy family crowd hasn't been too successful - "Mr. Magoo," anyone? - so it comes as a slight surprise that their "Inspector Gadget" makes for a mildly amusing 80-minute diversion. Whether or not this astonishingly hasty running time was intentional or a result of post-test screening tampering, it certainly serves the material: Goofy "Gadget," an overblown adaptation of the mid-'80s cartoon, finishes before it has a chance to truly grate. This alone is more than can be said for "George of the Jungle."
Anybody who's seen and loved the original incarnation will carp (and probably has) that Matthew Broderick seems all wrong for the title role, a contraption-laden crime-fighter, but the story adjusts to fit the actor's coolly meek demeanor. In the show, Inspector Gadget was aloof - if extremely equipped, with utensils, gizmos and doohickeys hidden in every imaginable appendage - and constantly retrieved from the brink of disaster by his super-smart niece Penny and dog Brain. Here, the kid ("Harriet the Spy"'s plucky Michelle Trachtenberg) and the canine get relegated mostly to the background while a less-hapless but just as well-armed hero takes center stage.
Not much in "Gadget" stays the same, actually. Mega-villain Claw never allowed his face to be seen on TV, but is played in the movie by Rupert Everett in a rare display of over-the-top fussing and mugging. He wants to defeat his adversary with a synthetic creation called RoboGadget (also Broderick), an Inspector doppleganger with Chiclet teeth and a flair for destruction. Good idea: Giving the typically straight-laced Broderick a change-of-pace chance to run wild in this part. Bad idea: Allowing Broderick's genuine article to seem dull by comparison. Guess it's true that bad guys have more fun.
A set-up explaining the intrepid Inspector's origins - humble security guard suffers horrible accident - is executed quickly, all the better to usher in Stan Winston's nifty special effects and some humdinger action sequences. But what's up with the studio's inclusion of wisecracking inanimate objects that children may take to but adults will find irritating. In February's "My Favorite Martian," a suit named Zoot failed to steal the show. "Inspector" has the Gadget Mobile, a jive-talkin' roadster (comic D.L. Hughley does the voice) that comes complete with its own assortment of uneven self-referential jokes and a snack bar. Cue intrusive product-placements galore.
Easier to not mind than out-and-out like, "Inspector Gadget" finishes a spotty endeavor. At least the picture benefits from wall-to-wall wackiness - the vivid camera work makes bombastic Jerry Bruckheimer films look subtle by comparison - and a pair of female performances that further push its lively quotient: "Ellen"'s Joely Fisher as a scatterbrained (but brainy) scientist and "Saturday Night Live" scene-stealer Cheri Oteri as a noisy city official. David Kellogg directs the sound and fury with confident flair. His sole other credit: 1991's Vanilla Ice vehicle "Cool as Ice." "Gadget"'s far better, but really anything would be.
© 1999 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit The Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/ "It presents as comedy things that are not amusing. If you think this movie is funny, that tells me things about you I don't want to know." -Roger Ebert on "Very Bad Things"
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