Mathew Broderick is likeable enough as the gizmo and gadget-toting cartoon hero in-the-flesh, but the plot, to which the FX wizardry is strung to, is in serious need of a tune up. Broderick’s John Brown is an earnest cop wannabee who can only cut it as a security guard. After a tough, late-night tangle with Rupert Everett’s suave baddie, Brown under goes a Robocop reconstruction and presto he’s Inspector Gadget replete with copter hat, flaming finger and a bouncing swivel head. Everett builds his own evil Gadget and Broderick (a la Mike Myers) is pressed into pulling double duty. The plot gets a bit of a shot when as the good Gadget falls for his creator, the effervescent Joely Fisher, but mostly the nuts cross thread the bolts. You know there’s a mechanical disorder when a rap-talking car steals the show.
