Boring

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

In my opinion, this is one of the most discreet and little-known films of Robin Williams' career, despite having had a lot of publicity and media coverage when it debuted. It tells the story of a distracted scientist who creates a gelatin-like green substance that has a life of its own and can solve the world's energy problems. In the midst of all this, his robotic helper falls in love with him and ruins his marriage. The story of the movie starts from an original idea, but it has many flaws and gigantic plot holes. Robin Williams looks good in the main character, although he does not look very motivated. The actor's tone is much warmer and lazier than usual. Flubber, as a character, was absurdly underutilized in the film, even considering the brilliant musical scene made with this character. The nature of the substance "Flubber" is never clarified, nor is it really alive. Weebo, the assistant of the scientist played by Williams, ends up becoming the most complete character of the film, with a strong dramatic and psychological depth and well-made humor moments. The villains are good as comic elements but they also were not very developed as characters. All this harms the film a lot and causes adults to reject it altogether whereas the children, for whom the film is clearly directed, merely laugh at their jokes. We can conclude that this film is a succession of very positive and promising elements that failed because they were not exploited in the best way. Maybe that's why the movie was never a success. It simply did not stay in the memory of that generation and eventually slipped into oblivion over the years.

Due to having two sons I watch a lot of kids movies, and appreciate them for what they are, some I enjoy ("Underdog") and some I loathe ("Son Of The Mask") but I always bare in mind it's aimed at kids!!Plot In A Paragraph: An absent minded professor Philip Brainard (Robin Williams) tries to save his college from being closed down by developing a new energy source. This fails on almost every level, it's special effects looked awfully dated, it's script was awful, and it's plot was pretty much throws every cliché in the book at you.I could understand the late Robin Williams taking this at a low point in his career, but he was still a really popular actor when he made this tripe. It's a shame to see Clancy Brown (Kurgan from "Highlander") here too. Will Wheaton is OK and nobody plays a giant douche like Christopher McDonnald. My favourite character in the entire movie was Weebo (voiced by Jodi Benson), Philip's hovering robot assistant. Final assessment Williams tries hard, but these are not 100 of his better minutes.

Disney got Robin William's who became popular in the 1990s with family entertainment films to remake the The Absent Minded Professor. Popular with kids at the time mainly because it was co- written by John Hughes who put some of his Home alone slapstick formula with two comedy henchman played by Ted Levine and Clancy Brown.William's discovers discovers some kind of flying rubber which may save his college which is in a financial crisis. So excited he is with his invention that he forgets his wedding day for the third time. Why his bride to be could not make sure that in case he forgets, he is accompanied by two people to drag him to the church on time is anyone's guess.His girlfriend who also happens to be the College Dean gets the attention of a love rival and a mobster wants the formula for flubber and sends his henchman to retrieve it.Williams is assisted by an Artificial Intelligent flying robot called Weebo which strangely is not marketed by Williams to save the college.The film is knockabout slapstick squarely aimed at kids and they will appreciate it the most. Adults will find the film too silly, flawed and simplistic.

This movie had a lot of potential. While technically impressive and very enjoyable with some genuinely funny moments, for some reason it falls short. Of course there are redeeming qualities, such as the fun music score by Danny Elfman, one of my all time favourite film composers and an amusing turn from Robin Williams. Also the special effects are greatly improved from the effects in the Absent Minded Professor, and Flubber who is so cute steals the show. The performances from Clancy Brown, Ted Levine and Marcia Gay Horden are entertaining, and Jodi Benson (who voiced Ariel in the Little Mermaid)is a delight as the voice of Weebo, whose death is absolutely heart-rending. However the story is very predictable, and offers few surprises, and the physical comedy was better than the patchy script which in places felt uninspired. That saying some of the physical comedy has strong hints of deja vu, and is rather hit and miss. Of course kids will lap it up, but adults probably won't like it as much. The second half of the movie is more meandering in quality compared to the first half, very little of interest happens and some of the situations come across as ridiculous. All in all, somewhat forgettable, but for a kids movie it is pretty entertaining. 6/10 Bethany Cox