Herald rating: *
Running time: 107 mins
In stores: Today
Review: Ewan McDonald
Civil War President Ulysses S. Grant assigns special agents Will Smith and Kevin Kline to find why top scientists are disappearing. They stumble over a plot to assassinate Grant by a megalomaniac - Dr Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh) - who
wants to give half the country back to Britain and Spain and keep the rest himself. Salma Hayek, who claims her father is one of the kidnapped geniuses, teams up with our heroes.
Kline's character is a master of disguise who can invent almost anything on the spot. He rigs a railcar so that it can shoot people into the air, have them fall through openings that appear in the roof and land in a chair. Branagh's character has no body from the waist down so operates from a wheelchair and later with mechanical legs. He makes giant steam-powered iron tarantulas. Smith's character does what Smith's characters do: stands centre-screen and wisecracks. This vehicle for Smith, Kline and Branagh (sounds like a bad 70s' pop band) is all concept, no content and even less comedy.
