Flubber (DVD)

Now I have a lot of time for Robin Williams; I find him so expressive that he's able to portray the full gamult of emotion purely on his face and body. However, it's always a risk when the hairy one takes on children's films, and thus we have Flubber. This 1997 kid's film is all about a whacky professor who accidentally invents Flubber, an ultra bouncy substance. It's green, it looks like snot, and it bounces a lot. It also gets him into lots of trouble, but ultimately will save him from robbers and splitting up with his girl. This is just a silly comedy, and one that needs a family viewing to enjoy it. The plot is unrealistic, light and comic, but ...  Read the complete review

This is a very silly movie. It is not the best movie I have ever seen, but it did keep me entertained. It is probably one of those movies that you just have to see because it looks so strange, but a movie that I will most likely not be watching again. Robin Williams plays his normal hilarious character role well, he is playing Professor Philip Brainard, who is employed at a failing University that is about to go into bankruptcy. In order to save his own financial situation as well as the University that employs him he comes up with a new formula for some very weird stuff he eventually calls Flubber. This crazy concoction is very bouncy and gooey and ...  Read the complete review

You'd think that a company the size as someone like Disney might be able to employ people that had th eability to come up with the occassional original idea rather than just pick over the bones of old ones. They seem to consantly churn out movies which are either sequels, remakes or at best retellings of old stories in cinematic form with the occasional gem creeping in there ever so often. Flubber, is simply a modern update to the 1961 movie The Absent Minded Professor and seems designed solely to be a success at the box-office and little else. At best its lazy, at worse this kind of self-cannibalism is nothing short of yet another cynical attempt to weadle a little ...  Read the complete review

Flubber can be imaginative with its usage of the special effects, but the movie can also seem dull and uninvolving (perhaps it's because most of the settings in Flubber look murky). The pacing is leisurely and script tends resort to some tiresome slapstick throughout. Every once in a while, some interest and/or some energy can be generated but the special effects in certain areas serve more as an exhibition that really doesn't bare a connection with the story and feels like padding in the process. For example, there's a dance sequence involving the Flubber. Scenes on certain occasions feel stretched out and the movie at one point, throws in an absolutely ...  Read the complete review