The Absent Minded Professor

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Jay W "The Absent Minded Professor" is evidence that if a motion picture's biggest selling points are the visual effects, than it likely will not age well. This movie received 3 Oscar nominations, for visual effects, cinematography and art direction. Looking back on the effects today, simply put, they do not hold up. But we should not try to judge this film based on today's standards of special effects. Let us instead judge how it holds up in character and story. Fred MacMurray stars as the eponymous professor, and I hate his character here more than I do in "the Apartment" or "Double Indemnity" and he's a murderer in that second one. The man leaves the same poor woman at the altar 3 times and then tries to win back her affection by cheating in basketball, driving her new boyfriend off the road and jumping around the dance floor. Somehow these attempts work on her, and she falls in love with him all over again. He also seems to take offense to the idea of selling his invention for money. Instead I guess he just wants to use it to torment the local townsfolk. This man isn't absent minded, he's a psychopath. The story has some serious pacing problems. After the main conflict is resolved, the movie spends another 12 minutes of runtime just to have him show his car off to the president. On the short positives, there were some legitimate laughs to be had. Some intentional, and a lot just through making fun of the absurdity of how 1960's this story is. The actors are all doing a fine job with the material given, and the whole thing is clearly not meant to be taken that seriously. And for the time, I will emphasize: "for the time", these effects were impressive. We need to get a more competent professor to take a look at this movie and see if something can be salvaged from it. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 11/26/24 Full Review Jon G Timeless,.... excellent plot, innovative .. great casting Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/03/24 Full Review Mark m Extremely dated, and just not thar funny. Highly unlikely to keep the attention of, let alone entertain children, it's target audience. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 04/16/24 Full Review Kim T Fun, zany and never a dull moment. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/22/23 Full Review Russell H Ages well for a black and white comedy. Never realized this was where flubber originated. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/19/23 Full Review Jeffrey M The Absent minded Professor was an amazing movie. I watched it a long time ago and it was a really good movie. I never really watched the full thing but I remember I likes it. I remember it was a bit boring p, but that's okay. What a good movie. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/11/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Absent Minded Professor

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