Remember when John Hughes made small, original, oh say, GOOD movies? Well, from the house of ideas comes this wacky remake of “The Absent-Minded Professor”.
This remake is in the “Lost World” tradition of filmmaking as in, “DAMN THE PLOT! GET TO THE SPECIAL EFFECTS, MAN!” Medfield College professor Phillip Brainerd (Robin Williams) develops unstable yadda-yadda-yadda energy substance called “flubber”. Yadda-yadda-yadda happens and all heck breaks loose. Got it?
The movie also features Christopher McDonald doing his usual anti-Jeff Daniels schtick, STNG’s really pissed off Wil Wheaton (settle down, ensign Crusher!) and a pair of “Home Alone” style goons named Smith and Wesson played by Clancy Brown (“Highlander” ‘s Kurgan) and Ted Levine (the killer from “Silence of the Lambs”). This would have been the equivalent of putting Sterling Hayden and Lee Marvin in the original. At one point, they look at each other as if to say, “Now I know how Joe Pesci feels”. Will somebody cast these guys in a movie where they can kill some more people?
Oh yeah, there are some cute robots, too. Drop the kiddies off to this one on Thanksgiving while you catch “Alien: Resurrection”.
