FLUBBER
RATING: ** (out of ****)
Walt Disney / 1:32 / 1997 / PG (mild innuendo, slapstick violence) Cast: Robin Williams; Marcia Gay Harden; Christopher McDonald; Jodie Benson (voice); Raymond J. Barry; Clancy Brown; Ted Levine; Wil Wheaton; Edie McClurg Director: Les Mayfield Screenplay: John Hughes; Bill Walsh
"Flubber" is the latest in a recent scattershot trend of Disney self-remakes, but despite Robin Williams in the lead role and all the gooey special effects money can buy, it's something a flub itself. Pretty much any family-oriented holiday release starring Williams is guaranteed to have lengthy staying power (think "Jumanji" and "Mrs. Doubtfire"), but this surprisingly low-energy update of Fred MacMurray's 1961 "The Absent-Minded Professor" never realizes its gooey potential. Flubber lacks the deliciously campy energy that Glenn Close brought last year's "101 Dalmatians," but perhaps we can all give thanks it's not as dreadful as spring's "That Darn Cat."
Williams plays college professor Phillip Brainard, a foggy-minded genius who has twice forgotten wedding dates with his sweetheart Sara Jean (Marcia Gay Harden) because of his preoccupation with a possible scientific breakthrough. Another nuptial ceremony is going down the toilet as the movie opens, a disaster aided this time by Brainard's flying, talking, enamored laptop WEEBO. Reminiscent of those mini-UFOs from Steven Spielberg's "* batteries not included," WEEBO would like Phillip all to herself and resorts to devious trickery to keep his relationship with Sara Jean on the edge of disaster -- kind of a kinky love triangle.
Phillip's eventual invention of flying rubber is immediately dubbed Flubber, a lime Jell-O ball of goo with a mind of its own and a penchant for all sorts of bouncy mischief -- mischief that gets it noticed by the hired thugs (Ted Levine and Clancy Brown) of the college's scheming bankroller Chester Hoenicker (Raymond J. Barry, doing his best Christopher Walken impersonation). Hoenicker is already after Phillip for flunking his son, and by stealing Flubber he can even capitalize off of his revenge. But Flubber isn't the most agreeable substance, as he will soon find out.
A lot of "Flubber"'s troubles can be attributed to too little manic humor and too much physical shtick. Perhaps co-screenwriter/producer John Hughes deserves a large part of the finger-shaking, because "Flubber" contains large doses of the same lame conked-on-the-noggin slapstick that wasn't all that funny in "Home Alone," let alone its employment in most of his films since. Kids will be delighted by all of the comedic bodily harm to be sure, but they may roll their eyes when Phillip hops in his Flubber-powered '63 Thunderbird and soars serenely through the skies. It might have been charming in "The Absent-Minded Professor," but now it's rather dull seeing as how cars fly in every third Hollywood flick.
Williams can be an effective semi-straight man when he's given someone to bounce jokes off him (see his turn as Nathan Lane's subdued better half in "The Birdcage"), but here he has nobody. It's rare that he's allowed to cut loose; funny scenes like a Flubber test session on a basketball court demonstrate how little life there is in the rest of the film. Harden is extremely pleasant, but the snoozy Sara Jean is no match for WEEBO; Christopher McDonald, as a potential beau for her, is reduced to shooting the green stuff out of his rear in a bout of freaky Flubber flatulence. It is nice, however, to see co-stars Edie McClurg and Wil Wheaton acting again after their expired stints on "The Hogan Family" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation," respectively.
"Flubber" has its moments, but they are few and far between. With both Williams' antics and the number of magical moments severely lacking, the relatively brief running time of 92 minutes creaks by fairly slow. But at least the movie has an interesting, uh, character in WEEBO (the professor's sidekick was a dog in the original). Brought to life by the sweet voice of "The Little Mermaid"'s Jodie Benson, this robotic personal assistant acts effectively as both a day planner and a secret admirer, and is given a lot more personality than any of the human cast. I want a WEEBO of my own for Christmas. As far as everything else is concerned, somebody hand me the Goo-Be-Gone.
© 1997 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit the Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/
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