By Alyce Wilson
(Standard-Journal,
May 7, 1998)

Couch Potato Review

You know you're in for some disappointment when your favorite character in a movie is a robot sidekick. And your second favorite character is a lump of green goo. And the movie isn't even about them.

That's the problem with Flubber, Disney's remake of the classic Fred MacMurray film, The Absent-Minded Professor. The film stars Robin Williams, whose character, Professor Brainerd, leaves the audience as baffled as he is.

Can someone explain, for example, how somebody who had a wedding rehearsal dinner last night can fail to remember his wedding that evening? To me, this is more than absent-minded. This is downright dumb.

"But it's only a movie," you may argue. Granted. Except that he later passes off his absent-mindedness with the excuse, "It's not because I'm inconsiderate ... It's because I'm in love with Sara" — his unfortunate fiancée, played by Marcia Gay Harden. If that's the case, I would understand forgetting to wear his tux, or even forgetting to hire a minister, but forgetting the wedding altogether? It doesn't add up.

No matter, you may think early on. This is just the exposition; this is how they set up the movie for later action. We can forgive this one error.

Except that it continues. And it's not funny.

I love Robin Williams — I jumped off the couch when he won his first Oscar — but his performance in this movie is so flat he becomes the anti-Robin. Apparently, somebody gave Williams the impression that he should play Professor Brainerd as a walking vegetable, who somehow (and this part is a real mystery) pulled enough brain cells together to earn a couple college degrees.

But Williams can't take all the blame. Harden is just as lifeless as the fiancée, a woman who has been stood up at the altar twice before by the professor, and yet is surprised when it happens again. Perhaps if her part had provided more kick, Williams could have built something out of his role.

The only bright spots in the film are a flying robot, Weebo, voiced by Jodi Benson, and the "flubber" itself, courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic. That dancing flubber sequence you've seen in all the previews? Even that can't save the movie by the time it mambos around.

But Weebo, with her witty remarks, sprinkled with appropriate clips from movies and (no surprise) Walt Disney cartoons on her viewscreen, steals the scene whenever she appears.

Christopher McDonald is despicable as the professor's competition for Sara's affections, but only slightly more so than the plot. A subplot involving a greedy millionaire who tries to buy his son a good grade exists only for the purpose of subjecting two burly henchmen to continual massive head injuries.

Kids, don't try this at home. A speeding bowling ball will result in fractures or death. If not the first time, then definitely the second. Or the third. Or the fourth ...

This cartoonish violence can be blamed on producer John Hughes, whose Home Alone movies are remarkable if only because they haven't inspired any lawsuits from kids imitating them. Nearly every supposedly "funny" stunt in the film is not only potentially fatal but also fatally uninspired.

This movie scores one potato (out of five), because of Weebo. Try renting the original, instead.

Copyright 1998 by Alyce Wilson

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