robin williams is a comedic genus . that is , he is one when he's in a film that allows him space to move . " flubber " straps him in a straitjacket , covers him with duct tape , stuffs him in a coat closet and piles furniture against the door to make sure that he doesn't get out . in a re-make of its own 1961 " absent minded professor " , disney offers us proof that more is definitely less . recycling old films ( " that darned cat " , " 101 dalmatians " ) dressed up as new is the newest money machine from the home of the mouse that roared . professor phillip brainard ( williams ) is a terminally forgetful scientist teaching at a small college . his fiancee , sara jean reynolds ( marcia gay harden ) , president of the college is none too happy with him because he's left her waiting at the altar due to his lack of short-term -- and long-term -- memory . she's giving him one more chance . he blows that chance when he invents " flubber " ( flying rubber ) and is so excited by his discovery that sara jean is once again awaiting him in her white dress . his tardiness is helped along by his jealous flying robotic assistant who wants him all to herself . it's not all bad news . flubber is a green jello that can magnify and reflect energy that is applied to it . brainard realizes the commercial potential within the goo can save the school from bankruptcy and being taken over by the town's evil industrialist charles hoenicker ( raymond barry ) . while he's busy with his new breakthrough , the slighted sweetheart is being wooed by his sleazy rival wilson croft ( christopher mcdonald ) . there's a flying car , flubber-enhanced basketball game and an assortment of broken lab equipment : none of which are the least bit interesting or funny . at one point , my son looked around the audience and asked " why are these people laughing ? " although williams turns in one of his least inspired roles , he is easily the most lively of the actors . everyone else comes across as half-asleep . the re-make is successful in that respect . it feels like a bad disney movie from the sixties . i remember the original as being charming , but my guess is that the memory from almost four decades ago has been artificially enhanced by the years . there have been some updates . fred macmurray's flying model t has been replaced by a t-bird . his faithful dog charlie is now " weebo " , the hovering robot . the biggest change is that , with sophisticated computer animation , we now can have films show off special effects without being at all entertaining . flubber is anthropomorphized into a being supposedly with personality . the gloop has little arms and legs and splits into tiny little gloopettes for a big dance number . this has nothing to do with the story . the only possible reason is to create merchandising opportunities so that kids can badger their parents into taking them to mcdonalds for the toys . not that contributing little to the plot is a big problem . there are very few aspects of the film that move the story and those that do don't make sense . the discovery of flubber is going to save the college because brainard can sell his flying car to ford . anyone with half a brain would be able to see that his intelligent flying automaton is worth billions . it's unbelievable that his lover ( well , probably not a lover -- after all this is disney ) starts dating croft after the aborted wedding . there's not one appealing component of this man . after the professor discovers that smearing a golf ball with the gunk causes it to bounce uncontrollably around his lab wreaking havoc , i cringed as he picked up a bowling ball . this guy is beyond forgetful , venturing into the certifiable . co-writer john hughes used to direct light-weight but thoughtful teen films . the care behind " pretty in pink " and " the breakfast club " all went out the window after his " home alone " franchise heated up the box offices . looking much like " home alone 3 1/2 " , " flubber " even features a couple of vapid goons who get banged around and a cute little boy who screams a lot . in some ways , it's difficult to judge this film . i have a suspicion that i'm not it's target audience . after all , i measure my age in two digits . ( michael redman has written this column for over 22 years and can't believe that there are only some unspecific number of shopping days before all those holidays that fall on december 25 . email gift ideas to <a href= " mailto : redman@bvoice . com " >redman@bvoice . com</a> ) [this appeared in the 12/10/97 " bloomington voice " , bloomington , indiana . michael redman can be reached at <a href= " mailto : redman@bvoice . com " >redman@bvoice . com</a> ] -- <a href= " mailto : mailto : redman@bvoice . com " >mailto : redman@bvoice . com</a> this week's film review at <a href= " http : //www . bvoice . com/ " >http : //www . bvoice . com/</a> film reviews archive at <a href= " http : //us . imdb . com/m/reviews_by ? michael%20redman " >http : //us . imdb . com/m/reviews_by ? michael%20redman</a> 
