Flubber

• USA • 1997 • 93m •

• Directed by: Les Mayfield. • Starring: Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald, Ted Levine, Clancy Brown, Raymond J. Barry, Wil Wheaton, Edie McClurg, Jodi Benson, Leslie Stefanson, Malcolm Brownson, Benjamin Brock, Dakin Matthews. • Music by: Danny Elfman.

Phillip Brainard, who is a professor at a college and a small-time worker in his own basement, is trying to create a great invention. Unfortunately he always failed to invent something, but he is so obsessed about it that he even puts off his own wedding to his fiancée, Sara. One day, he finally invents something that works; this substance can cause even the heaviest things to bounce in the air, 'flying rubber', but Brainard called it ''Flubber''. However, he sees Sara going out with another professor from another college and several criminals trying to rob him. So, Brainard has to find out a way to defeat the criminals and to get back his Fiancee. Hopefully, Flubber can help him.

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Trailer #1

2:18

TV Spot #02

0:39

Review:

You can be disappointed even when you are not expecting much. There was no fault in wishing to share "The AbsentMinded Professor" with a later generation, but it had to be remade. With Robin Williams replacing Fred MacMurray, the professor could be more boisterous and physical. With 1997 replacing 1961, the special effects could be much more sophisticated. So it's win-win, right? No, but a few things did go right. Two things, actually. Robin Williams had one good scene. In the opening, Dr. Brainard is introduced as a man who is so out of touch with his surroundings that he could step into the wrong lecture hall and deliver an elementary physics lecture to an art class. Other than that, the role and the actor were forgettable. Also, the Danny Elfman soundtrack was very lively, particularly the Flubber Rumba.

This time around, the flubber has anthropomorphic properties. That change was simply an excuse to have the computer-animated dance scene, which was fun in a Scrubbing Bubbles kind of way. Other than that (and color), the special effects fell considerably short of the 1961 version. When people fly, they look like they are hanging on wires. When they fall, they look like they are hanging on wires. When they bounce -- well, you get the pattern.

These days, movie makers are free to do quite a few things that were not allowed in 1961. Unfortunately, many of them feel a need to remind us by including a gratuitously vulgar scene in everything they release. This time we get a man blowing flubber out his rectum. It was as if to say, "Take that! We've already got your money!".

Review by eu-51 from the Internet Movie Database.

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