July 22–29, 1999

movie shorts

Inspector Gadget

(recommended)

Matthew Broderick gets his revenge on Godzilla. Or rather, he gets to act like Godzilla, rampaging city streets and frightening Japanese tourists, who flee in subtitled panic. As Inspector Gadget — the super-well-equipped, super-polite crime fighter based on Disney's popular cartoon — Broderick is mostly adorable, dedicated to helping people and generally bemused at his own wacky, near-uncontrollable gadgetry (toothpaste slicks spouting from his fingers, giant springs from his feet, helicopter blades from his hat, and flame-throwers from his arms). But when his nefarious nemesis, the self-named Claw ("One word, like Madonna!") makes an evil second Gadget to wreak havoc with good first Gadget's rep, Broderick has some serious fun, clacking his big false teeth, blowing up cars, and terrorizing the local human population. As the scientist who makes him (or rather, remakes him, following a car wreck) and the object of his affections, Joely Fisher seems game enough, though she's also more entertaining in her Claw-concocted evil-twin version, a flipped out aerobics whiz. In the end though, it's Rupert Everett, as Claw, who is most delightful and delicious.

—Cindy Fuchs