Inspector Gadget (1999)

User Rating:

3.9/10   

Director:

David Kellogg

Writers (WGA):

Andy Heyward (characters) and
Jean Chalopin (characters) ...

Release Date:

23 July 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Action | Adventure | Comedy

Tagline:

The ultimate crime fighting machine.

Plot:

A security guard's dreams come true when he is selected to be transformed into a cybernetic police officer.

Plot Keywords:

Gadget | Inspector | Security Guard | Remake | Disembodied Head

Awards:

1 win & 7 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Tue. Nov. 17

8:00 PM

WGNAMER

Cast

Matthew Broderick	...	Inspector Gadget / Robo Gadget / John Brown
Rupert Everett	...	Sanford Scolex
Joely Fisher	...	Brenda / Robobrenda
Michelle Trachtenberg	...	Penny
Andy Dick	...	Kramer
Cheri Oteri	...	Mayor Wilson
Mike Hagerty	...	Sikes (as Michael G. Hagerty)
Dabney Coleman	...	Chief Quimby
D.L. Hughley	...	Gadgetmobile (voice)
Rene Auberjonois	...	Artemus Bradford (as René Auberjonois)
Frances Bay	...	Thelma
Mr. T	...	Himself
Richard Kiel	...	Famous Big Guy with Silver Teeth
Richard Lee-Sung	...	Famous Villain with Deadly Hat
Bobby Bell	...	Famous Identifier of Sea Planes (as Robert N. Bell)

Also Known As:

The Real Inspector Gadget (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for whacky violence/action, language and innuendo.

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Norwegian | French | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | Malaysia:U | USA:PG (certificate #36799) | South Korea:All | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Chile:TE | Finland:K-8 | France:U | Germany:6 (w) | New Zealand:PG | Norway:7 | Peru:PT | Singapore:PG | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | UK:U | Brazil:Livre

Filming Locations:

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Pictures

Trivia:

Even though there were more than 60 gizmos and gadgets grafted to John Brown's body and appeared, the Inspector Gadget in the cartoon series said to have an estimate of 14,000 gadgets.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Gadget is hanging off the building at the end of the movie, a crewman's shadow can be seen for a short time during the overhead view.

Quotes:

Gadgetmobile: Let's team up: I'll go after them; and you say 10-4!
Inspector Gadget: 10-4?
Gadgetmobile: Right. See ya!
[speeds off after some escaped convicts, leaving Gadget just standing there]

Movie Connections:

Features "The Simpsons" (1989)

Soundtrack:

Wild Wild Life

good special effects, weak story

Children and adults alike are decidedly ill served by "Inspector Gadget," a frenetic but genuinely mirthless live action take on the popular Saturday morning cartoon series that mires poor Matthew Broderick in the role of a nerdish do-gooder who gets the chance to live out his heroic fantasies when he is converted into a one-man, self-contained crime fighting cybernetic arsenal.

Thanks to current state-of-the-art special effects, the filmmakers manage to effectively translate the cartoonish aspects of the original to the live action format. Despite a few glaringly bad shots utilizing rear screen projection, the visuals that help to realize the infinite gadgets at the inspector's disposal are genuinely jaw-dropping.

What the movie makers couldn't (or, at least, wouldn't) come up with is a decent script - without which all the greatest special effects in the world cannot a quality film make. Gadget is surrounded by a gallery of dull, poorly written caricatures ranging from a giddy, self-absorbed mayor, to a gruff, shortsighted chief of police, and an effete mad scientist bent on creating an army of indestructible gadget warriors, with which, of course, he (ho hum) plans to rule the world. Even the newly "hipified" gadget mobile comes across as a charmless, grating irritant as he provides a constant stream of witless one-liners as running commentary to the action.

Of the actors, Broderick and Rupert Everett cannot be faulted since both provide a degree of enthusiasm wholly unwarranted by the inferior screenplay with which they are saddled. For a perfect marriage of sophisticated writing and unsurpassable special effects, check out "Toy Story 2." And see what "Inspector Gadget" might indeed have been.