Hollywood Watch

Remember Fred McMurray as the Absent Minded Professor, driving his Model-T Ford in the sky to catch spies? It was this 1961 comedy that first used the lighter-than-air substance, flubber, to make the car fly. Flubber is the re-make of that film but the modern special effects do not enhance the story.

In fact, they only add to the heavy doses of slapstick. A plus point of course is Weebo the robot who is Professor Phillip Brainard’s (Robin Williams) companion. He is a non-Frankensteinian monster, very human and almost possesses a soul. Now, the Professor is so absent-minded that he even addresses the wrong class. As for his wedding, his sweetheart Sara Jeean Reynolds (Marcia Gay Harden) has to return twice, wedding gown in hand, because he’s forgotten about it. Sara is the principal of the Medfield college which is facing a financial crisis, and only the Professor’s invention can get it out of the crisis. Wilson Croft (Christopher McDonald) is another teacher who wants to give Sara the glad eye andalmost succeeds when the professor makes a hat-trick of forgetfulness.

The basketball game in which the college triumphs thanks to flubber has its moments but it is Williams and the robot that keep the film together.