Flubber ** (1997, Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald, Clancy Brown, Ted Levine, Wil Wheaton, Edie McClurg) – Classic Movie Review 1552

Director Les Mayfield’s harmless and innocuous 1997 family comedy Flubber is fun for kids, though adults may find it tedious at times and that a little bit of it goes a long way.

Just when he’s supposed to be getting married to his sweetheart Sara (Marcia Gay Harden), absent-minded, nutty professor Philip Brainard (Robin Williams) invents a green, gooey, super-bouncy rubber-like substance that he calls ‘flubber’, which can make things fly through the air. He’s been trying to create a new source of energy that will save Medfield College where Sara is president, and he has already missed his wedding twice!

The warm-hearted, game-for-it-all funnyman Williams puts some comic pep into Disney’s good-natured, if slackly written slapstick comedy, a remake of the studio’s 1961 classic The Absent Minded Professor. Producer/co-writer John Hughes bases his screenplay (written with Bill Walsh) on the short story A Situation of Gravity by Samuel W Taylor.

Christopher McDonald, Clancy Brown, Ted Levine, Wil Wheaton, Edie McClurg, Raymond J Barry and Jodi Benson co-star.

Tragically dear Robin Williams was found dead in his home in Tiburon, California, on Monday August 11 2014, aged 63. The cause of death is believed to be suicide via asphyxiation. He had been battling depression and recently entered 12-step rehab for drug abuse. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1997 for Good Will Hunting, and won two Emmys, four Golden Globes, five Grammys and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Mrs Doubtfire (1993) was perhaps his most enduring character. He was gearing up to reprise his role in a sequel. However, his DJ Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning, Vietnam and therapist Sean in Good Will Hunting are perhaps equally memorable.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1552

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