|
 Movie
B- |
Video A- | Audio B
| Extras B+
French Stewart, Elaine Hendrix, Caitlin Wachs
director Alex Zamm | Buena Vista Home Entertainment
2002 | Action - Comedy | G | 88 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-9
anamorphic
widescreen
1.66:1 aspect ratio
| THX-certified
Dolby Digital 5.1
Summary: French Stewart replaces
comedic master Matthew Broderick in the title role for Inspector Gadget
2. That should be enough of a tell-tale sign for this reviewer
to avoid this sequel. But no, in the hopes of proving myself wrong
and that Disney can produce a first-rate entertaining film, as a follow-up
to the Inspector Gadget blockbuster film, I went against my better
judgment and decided to review this DVD. Well, I was right.
Disney failed, in my opinion, to deliver a satisfying sequel. For
one, this sequel fails to pick up where the first film left off. The
plot is too cheesy. Sure, young children may enjoy the better part
of it nonetheless. But what happened to entertaining "children
of all ages"? This is after all, suppose to be a family film
right? So it should keep the parents (and other adults) entertained
as well, right? On this point, it lost on two counts. Both my
wife and I fell asleep during the movie. That rarely happens,
especially for Disney films. I awoke halfway through the ending,
only to realize that... (well, I'm trying to not give away the ending)
Disney plans another installment of this Inspector Gadget franchise.
Count me out, please.
Too bad the Inspector Gadget 2 DVD is
another one of many recent Buena Vista Home Entertainment DVD releases
that is fraught with disc mastering imperfections. The disc hiccups
(picture and audio would momentarily freeze) in numerous places throughout
the movie... too many that I lost count. I leave you with this final
comment:
"Go, go DVD player.
Reject this DVD and spare the mainstream public
of this second-tier film and poorly mastered disc."
Special Features: In all fairness, the bonus
materials aren't bad though. Too bad, I think most folks still buy
the DVD for the main feature film. Bonus materials include: "Illustrated
Gadget" activity, "Gadget Training Simulator" game,
"The Gadgets Behind Gadgets' Gadgets" behind-the-scenes
featurette, outtakes, 12 deleted scenes, storyboard-to-film comparison,
audio commentary with director Alex Zamm; audio commentary with French
Stewart, Elaine Hendrix and Alex Zamm; music video "Up, Up, Up"
by Rose Falcon
DVD released on 3/11/2003 | Reviewed 3/30/2003
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Additional Notes: Unless we specify otherwise, the
video and audio quality are very good when their grades are "A-"
or better. Only the highest number of channels of surround sound
format is listed (e.g., Dolby Digital 5.1). If there are both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, then both are listed. All
DVD-Video discs are backwards compatible with stereo-only playback
systems.
Let us know what you think about this DVD review, write to us at
Staff@TimeForDVD.com.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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