Inspector Gadget

"'FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU! DESPERATE IS THE PERFECT WORD TO DESCRIBE THIS MOVIE!!' - Nostalgia Critic" Inspector Gadget is a 1999 American action-comedy film loosely based on the 1983 animated cartoon series of the same name. It starred Matthew Broderick as the title character, along with Rupert Everett as Dr. Claw, Michelle Trachtenberg as Penny, and Dabney Coleman as Chief Quimby. Three new characters were introduced, Dr. Brenda Bradford (played by Joely Fisher), Mayor Wilson (played by Cheri Oteri) and the Gadgetmobile (voiced by D. L. Hughley). The film tells the story of how Inspector Gadget and Dr. Claw came to be in the cartoon.

The film was produced by Caravan Pictures and DIC Entertainment (which was owned by The Walt Disney Company at the time of production) and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It was filmed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Los Angeles, California, with the ice castle-like main tower of Pittsburgh's PPG Place playing a central role. This was the last film produced by Caravan Pictures before it was absorbed into Spyglass Entertainment. This film was dedicated to the memory of production designer Michael White who died on January 19, 1999 in Los Angeles during production of the film at the age of 36. It was followed by the 2003 direct-to-video stand-alone sequel Inspector Gadget 2.

Plot
John Brown (Matthew Broderick) is a bumbling but well-intentioned security guard who is badly injured in an explosion planned by an evil mastermind. He is taken to a laboratory, where Brenda (Joely Fisher), a leading robotics surgeon, replaces his damaged limbs with state-of-the-art gadgets and tools. Named "Inspector Gadget" by the press, John -- along with his niece, Penny (Michelle Trachtenberg), and her trusty dog, Brain -- uses his new powers to discover who was behind the explosion.

Why The Movie is NOT a Gadget (Bad Qualities)

 * 1) Terrible and bland editing. For example, in one scene there's a crook trying to escape, only for him to run and get captured in less than a second.
 * 2) * Gadgetmobile has poor lip sync.
 * 3) Very poor grasp of the original source material. For instance:
 * 4) * The main antagonist, Dr. Claw, shows his face, but in the cartoons it was never revealed (which gave the original character this cool, mysterious nature to him). Plus, his frighteningly deep voice from the cartoons has been replaced with a snooty, British accent (although his actor, Rupert Everett, was British himself).
 * 5) * Also, Dr. Claw has a robot claw on his hand in this movie, after he gets it, he renames himself "Claw". Wait, shouldn't "Claw" already be his last name, because according to the cartoon, his real name is George Claw? Well, in this movie, his real name is Sanford Scolex, why not just rename himself Dr. Claw?
 * 6) * Both Gadget and Dr. Claw behave nothing like their cartoon counterparts.
 * 7) * The Gadgetmobile is changed from a silent car, which morphs into a sports fastback and van in the cartoon, into an annoying comic relief character in the movie.
 * 8) * Penny isn't blonde and barely helps Gadget.
 * 9) Corny and horrible acting, even from actors such as Matthew Broderick and Rupert Everett, who does a poor Dr. Claw impression. Joely Fisher was severely miscast as Brenda Bradford, but isn’t that a problem because Fisher was only doing comedy films at the time.
 * 10) *Matthew Broderick was unbelievably miscast as John Brown.
 * 11) Shameless product placements throughout the film (especially considering that director David Kellogg has an extensive background in commercials) which includes Yahoo!, Kodak, Tommy Hilfiger, Sony, Panasonic, RCA, JVC, Forbes, Gateway 2000, Nike, Energizer, Crayola, Pez, Magic 8-Ball, Coca-Cola, Surge, Sprite, McDonald's, Skittles, M&M's, LEGO, Toyota, and even mh:besttvshows:The Simpsons.
 * 12) There are cartoon sound effects used during every single second of the movie (despite the film being based on a cartoon).
 * 13) Sometimes, the film can get WAY too scary for children. For example: Gadget accidentally grabs a guru by the crotch so hard that the tightness of the squeezing makes his eyes pop-out to a really big size as he yells in a very shrill, extremely high-pitched Judge Doom-like shrieking voice.
 * 14) Unfunny jokes during the film, especially with Gadget saying "Go Go Gadget!" everytime while falling in the climax.
 * 15) Some scenes make no sense. For example, in one scene, Gadget says "Go Go Gadget Oil Slick!", but, for some reason, he shoots toothpaste instead. It could be that he got some glitches like in the sequel.
 * 16) *The way how Gadget captures Dr. Claw makes no sense, he disables his helicopter then Claw jumps out and opens a parachute, but then the Gadgetmobile captures Dr. Claw.
 * 17) Very poor directing from David Kellogg, the same director behind Cool as Ice.
 * 18) The movie not only being based on Inspector Gadget animated series, but it rips off better movies like mh:greatestmovies:Darkman (the plot for this movie was similar to that), mh:greatestmovies:RoboCop, mh:greatestmovies:Dick Tracy and mh:greatestmovies:The Mask as well.
 * 19) There are some unnecessary innuendos like where Gadget got aroused near Brenda and shot a missile from his hat. In a deleted scene, Gadget replies “That’s never happened to me before.”
 * 20) Forty minutes were cut from the film, which explains the bad editing.
 * 21) The movie ends on a sort of sequel bait ending with Claw yelling "I'll get you, Gadget!"

Good Qualities

 * 1) The songs are decent, including "I’ll Be Your Everything" and a superb rendition of the classic Inspector Gadget theme.
 * 2) Some of the special effects aren't really that bad, despite some ill-execution.
 * 3) Richard Kiel and Mr. T make cameo appearances during the minion-recovery group scene in the credits.
 * 4) Joely Fisher does do a good job voicing Brenda Bradford even though she’s an odd casting choice.
 * 5) The mid-credits scene features Don Adams (the voice of Gadget in the cartoon) as the voice of Brain.
 * 6) While Matthew Broderick may not be a good casting choice for Gadget, some of his screams do sound like Dons Adams which is neat.
 * 7) Despite being different from the original cartoon, the Gadgetmobile is still fun to watch, with D.L. Hughley being a scene-stealer.
 * 8) Inspector Gadget's outfit does look accurate to the one in the original cartoon.
 * 9) A fair amount of Inspector Gadget's gizmos are cool and kids may have fun watching the character use them.
 * 10) Depending on your view, the idea of making Inspector Gadget smart and competent enough to actually solve his cases isn't bad because there is a high chance that the premise and episodic nature of the original cartoon (where Gadget is a clumsy, airheaded, and oblivious inspector who is bad at his job and Penny and Brain are the ones who secretly solve it in every episode) may not translate well into a live-action adaptation.

Reception
The film received negative reviews from critics and fans of the 1983 animated series and has an approval rating of 21% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 3.97/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Despite an abundance of eyecandy, the film doesn't amount to much." Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times stated that it "wastes a lot of good talent". In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and mentioned that fans were angered when Dr. Claw reveals himself in the movie. Ian Freer of Empire Magazine gave the film a two out of five stars, saying, "Something more engaging would not have gone amiss."

Box Office
The film opened up at #2 on its opening weekend taking in $21,889,138 domestically. In foreign territories, the film grossed $37,000,000. Overall, the film grossed $134,403,112 worldwide against a $90 million budget making it a moderate success.

Trivia

 * The role of Gadget was originally written for Kevin Kline.
 * Steven Spielberg, who was considered for executive producer, wanted either Chevy Chase or Steve Martin to play Gadget.
 * Brendan Fraser was also considered for the role of Gadget, but turned it down to work on George of the Jungle.
 * Tim Curry was considered for the role of Claw.
 * Lindsay Lohan turned down the role of Penny due to working on the remake of The Parent Trap.
 * Cameron Diaz declined the role of Brenda in favor of Any Given Sunday.
 * This was the final film to be distributed by Caravan Pictures (mentioned earlier).
 * At one point, Tom Shadyac was going to direct the film, with the Farrelly Brothers as writers, and Jim Carrey as Gadget and Willem Dafoe as Claw.
 * Before Caravan Pictures went out of business, the company distributed other films like Tall Tale, Angels in the Outfield and Gone Fishin'.