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| Directed by David Kellogg; Starring Matthew Broderick, Rupert Everett, Joely Fisher, Andy Dick, Michael G. Hagerty, Michelle Trachtenberg, Dabney Coleman, and Cheri Oteri |
I was one of many in my generation that watched and enjoyed Inspector Gadget. The hilarity of hearing Don Adams voice alone made it worth watching on a daily basis. I’d actually say that when I was eight or so, I had probably seen every episode of the show. But that was the eighties and now I’m much more cynical (let’s face it, I loved Happiness and Election) with much less openness to something as carefree as a modern day Inspector Gadget. It’s still enjoyable to see episodes now and then because they retain the same never-ending satisfaction of being a memory of cartoon watching, much like Scooby Doo. The thing is that it works because it is in a seal that beckons 1980s, much more enticing than seeing the same stuff brought out in the 1990s. Would The Breakfast Club work near as well today? How about Pretty in Pink (oh yeah, She’s All That, bad example)? That is just as much reasoning in my dislike for the new Inspector Gadget as the fact that it has a terrible script.
Inspector Gadget still serves as the story of a gadget filled crime avenger, but this film takes on new things and ideas to make it seem more accessible to the new audiences. Evidently 1999’s children can take the idea of a scene in a hospital surgery room where hose and springs are placed in the body of a comatose man. Sure it is all in fun, but isn’t that a little morbid? The new Inspector Gadget (Broderick) is given a back story as a security guard that is blown up while chasing the killer of a scientist on his patrol. The thing that I believe most disturbed me and many others is that the face of arch nemesis Dr. Claw (Everett) is very visible to the viewing audience. Even Chief Quimby (Coleman) does not blow up after trying to get away from a self destructing message!
After crushing his hand leaving him with a claw and attempting to fall in love with a very important pawn in his scientific excursion, Claw (dropping the Dr.) sets out to tarnish the name and character of Inspector Gadget by making an evil look alike. Meanwhile accomplices Sikes (Hagerty) and scientist (Dick; character has no real name) attempt to make a life-like and workable prosthetic leg that works via brain signals. This leg is important to Brenda (Fisher), who made Inspector Gadget after the leg was stolen from her scientist father.
At times painful to watch, Inspector Gadget is rarely, if ever, funny despite the oft tries by Broderick (and I thought that Election was his freedom from a long string of bad films) and Everett (and I thought he was back to a good string of films after An Ideal Husband). Initially this film was destined for a D/* rating, but a little notch up came thanks to a very enjoyable end credits sequence. Actually they were not really that funny with the exceptions of a support group for evil henchmen (Richard Kiel is just terrific) and a vocal cameo of a certain actor I hold in high esteem.
