Christopher McDonald, Clancy Brown, Marcia Gay Harden

Remake of "The Absent-Minded Professor' finds Robin Williams concocting a physics-defying substance that may save his failing college. Uneven but good natured.

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43% liked it

563,085 ratings

Critics

14% liked it

28 critics

PG, 1 hr. 33 min.

Directed by: Les Mayfield

Release Date: November 26, 1997

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DVD Release Date: June 16, 1998

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Stats: 18,688 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (18,688)


  • August 22, 2009
    Can I get some flubber somewhere?
  • August 8, 2009
    An absent minded professor discovers a new type of rubber that can be harnessed as an energy source. However his discovery causes him to miss his wedding and lose his girlfriend. While trying to demonstrate his discovery to Sara Jean to win her back, he gets the attention of mobs...( read more)ter Hoenicker who wants the discovery for himself.

    The story here is unimportant - it's all a bit daft and if you look too closely at it, it all falls apart. For example - the professor has created a flying robot that has full intelligence and character but yet he hasn't made any money for himself or his college!, is the flubber alive or not? etc. But really it's all about the set pieces and the jokes. As such it falls down a little - it's good for kids but there's nothing in the crude slapstick for adults. Jokes include the usual "people getting hit in the head" style humour.

    Williams character is not funny at all - a bit of a weakness in a comedy lead. In fact his forgetfulness is just stupid at times and doesn't have any charm to cover it. The funniest bits actually revolve around McDonald's Wilson - he doesn't get good lines but he has lots of incidental laughs. Ted Levine and Clancy Brown have both done better than this and are limited to comedy thugs - although both were probably glad to be in a big movie. Other well known faces include Raymond J. Barry and Wil Wheaton, although these are also underused. It's not really a movie about performances but I think it's still important.

    The best characters are Weebo and the flubber. Weebo is quite funny and actually has a deep character - she's the secretary in love with her boss type - she also creates a strangely moving scene. The flubber is good - best in one big musical number halfway through and I wonder if they could have had more imaginative scenes with it as a character rather than just a bouncy ball.

    Overall it's a kids film - don't expect anything more than that.
  • July 12, 2008
    simple movie, its a nice kid-o movie
  • June 29, 2008
    An absent minded professor makes a rubbery material that can fly and bounce.
  • May 24, 2008
    The film is a modern day remake of the Disney classic "The Absent-Minded Professor". Phillip Brainard (Robin Williams) is an endearing, slightly befuddled professor at a small town college. The college is about to be closed due to lack of funding when Brainard finally finds the s...( read more)olution to the college's pecuniary needs. He's been working on this invention for a long time, knowing that he could market it and make enough money to save the school from closure. Having experimented with polymers for some time, Brainard creates a revolutionary, theoretical energy source and locks it in a tight cylinder as part of his experiment. Not knowing exactly what he was inventing, he carefully opens the cylinder to find a mass of elastic green goo inside. It seems to have mind and life of its own. He calls it "Flubber", and begins experimentation with its characteristics. With the help of his flying household robot Weebo, he soon discovers out that Flubber enables anything to bounce super high and move quickly. However, completely absorbed in the creation of Flubber, he has forgotten one very important thing: his own wedding. He has left his fiancée Dr. Sara Jean Reynolds (Marcia Gay Harden) president of the Medfield College he?s working at - waiting in front of the altar three times, and the woman to take this kind of rejection has yet to be born. Brainard tries everything to win Sara back, hoping Flubber will solve the problem for him. In fact, the elastic high-energy blob makes things even worse. Flubber is a whimsical comedy, full of fun, slapstick, and giggles. Robin Williams is perfect in the role of the ever-busy Professor living in his own little world, never even registering what's going on around him. He is serious and funny at the same time, and the way he interacts with the non-existent Flubber shows his experience in this field. Besides maintaining a general lack of ambition, there's not much to hate about Flubber. But then again, there's not much to like about it either.
  • November 19, 2009
    Hated this movie as a kid.
  • November 19, 2009
    VERY ENTERTAINING FAMILY MOVIE
  • October 29, 2009
    Oh I loved the classic with Dean Jones....
  • October 27, 2009
    Comwecial or stupi! :|
  • October 27, 2009
    good to watch, Funny movie with exellent actor.

Critic Reviews


Comments


  • pinkbubbeliegirl
    June 20, 2007
    great family movie! but i couldnt whatch it over and over again. but ya pretty good!
  • dandylions874
    June 24, 2006
    ohh I remember seeing this ages ago!!! when i was little
    this really made me laugh an it was funny. but now maybe if i watched it again i'd cringe lol.
  • bonepile5
    May 28, 2006
    this was the movie that got me in to wathing tv this is my #1 funny movie

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Flubber Trivia


  • What is the name of Robin Williams robot assistant in 'Flubber?'  Answer »
  • Who plays Professor Phillip Brainard in the Disney movie Flubber?  Answer »
  • who stars in flubber,Mrs.doubtfire and jumanji?  Answer »
  • In the film "Flubber" Whos plays the professor?  Answer »

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