I grew up watching the cartoon, so when I saw that the adventures of the lovable cyber-sleuth had been made into a movie, I was excited to see it. The jury’s still out on what I thought of it – perhaps writing this review will help crystallize my opinion.
Matthew Broderick stars as John Brown, a security guard who longs to be a real policeman. He is the guardian of Penny, a pre-teen girl with a puppy named Brain, and he lives a simple, uncomplicated life, watching over the laboratory owned by Dr. Brenda Bradford (Joely Fisher) and her father, who are working on a cyborg experiment. Nothing exciting ever happens to John.
Until one night, that is, when an evil villain named Sanford Scolex (Rupert Everett) and his minions break into the lab, kill Dr. Bradford’s father, and steal a robotic foot that holds all the secrets of Dr. Bradford’s research. Now that he has the food, Scolex can make his own robots, but his will be used for evil.
John rushes to the scene of the crime and enters in a chase with Scolex’s limo, but Scolex blows him up. Near death, John is taken to the hospital, where his chances of survival aren’t good. Seeing the opportunity of a lifetime, Brenda implants her inventions in him, turning him into a living gadget. He now has helicopters, air bags, screwdrivers and more all built in to his body, and he uses those gadgets to bring Scolex down.
There were a lot of clever one-liners in the film but there were also a couple of rude moments. It was too violent to be a kid’s show but too silly to be a serious movie. The ending sequence, where the real Inspector Gadget is fighting with Scolex’s evil Gadget look-alike, is just too hokey for words.
My overall opinion: If you want a silly movie and aren’t too concerned about violence, go ahead and give it a try. But if you’re looking for something worthwhile, leave this one on the shelf. This film is rated PG.
Side note: You’ll recognize the actress who plays Penny as Michelle Trachtenburg, who later starred in the Disney
movie “The Ice Princess.”
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