This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Justified: City Primeval."
Raylan Givens wants to be a good dad. The neo-Western hero played by Timothy Olyphant spent much of the original run of "Justified" grappling with his own daddy issues, and while the revival series doesn't mention them outright, they still loom large over his relationship with his daughter Willa. In this week's episode, they came to a head when, after too-trusting Willa had a close call with murderer Clement Manzel (Boyd Holbrook), Raylan decided to put her on a plane home despite her protests. The hour ended on a bitter note as Raylan stepped away to take a phone call at the airport, only to see Willa walk off to board the plane without saying goodbye.
On a plot level, I'm glad to see Willa out of the picture, as her boredom and teen angst seemed like a...
Raylan Givens wants to be a good dad. The neo-Western hero played by Timothy Olyphant spent much of the original run of "Justified" grappling with his own daddy issues, and while the revival series doesn't mention them outright, they still loom large over his relationship with his daughter Willa. In this week's episode, they came to a head when, after too-trusting Willa had a close call with murderer Clement Manzel (Boyd Holbrook), Raylan decided to put her on a plane home despite her protests. The hour ended on a bitter note as Raylan stepped away to take a phone call at the airport, only to see Willa walk off to board the plane without saying goodbye.
On a plot level, I'm glad to see Willa out of the picture, as her boredom and teen angst seemed like a...
- 7/26/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
On TV this Tuesday: So much good new stuff tonight! New Girl, NCIS (original and Los Angeles-flavored), Private Practice and Tosh.0 all return for a new season; Mindy Kaling’s pet Mindy Project debuts on Fox (joined by friends Ben and Kate); CBS goes to Vegas, baby; and one all-star Dancing couple hits the road. Here are 10 programs to watch for tonight.
8 pm Dancing With the Stars: All-Stars (ABC) | This season’s first results show – during which we’ll wave good-bye to the first all-star couple — features a performance by pop chart darlings Justin Bieber and Pitbull.
More from TVLineDead...
8 pm Dancing With the Stars: All-Stars (ABC) | This season’s first results show – during which we’ll wave good-bye to the first all-star couple — features a performance by pop chart darlings Justin Bieber and Pitbull.
More from TVLineDead...
- 9/25/2012
- by Kimberly Roots
- TVLine.com
It's been three dozen years since Fred MacMurray first invented that notorious flying rubber in the guise of "The Absent-Minded Professor".
Now, Robin Williams does the honors in "Flubber", with a little refurbishing from John Hughes in the script department and from Industrial Light & Magic in the special-effects department.
Those fun Flubber sequences aside, this latest Disney dust-off has surprisingly little bounce. Both Hughes' uninspired update and Les Mayfield's direction lack zip, while even the usually irrepressible Williams appears relatively sedated.
Given its hefty marketing and merchandising push, the green stuff should nevertheless generate some green stuff at the boxoffice, but "Flubber" will likely fall short of hitting blockbuster heights.
The story remains basically the same. Professor Brainard (Williams) has been so distracted by his formulas and calculations that he's left his sweetheart Sara Marcia Gay Harden) alone at the altar for the third and final time.
But he's hoping the reason for his latest no-show -- the creation of the amazing material that will come to be known as Flubber -- will change Sara's mind, particularly when it could be the answer to Medfield College's serious financial problems; she just happens to be the institution's president.
As Brainard tries to win his way back into Sara's heart, he encounters competition in the form of her smarmy colleague, Wilson Croft (Christopher McDonald). Worse, when the spoiled son (Wil Wheaton) of the college's sinister financier (Raymond Barry) fails Brainard's course, his father sends hired goons Smith (Clancy Brown) and Wesson (Ted Levine) to snatch the Flubber from the professor's lab.
Given a great chance to reconceptualize material that, while regarded with warm nostalgia, certainly allowed ample room for improvement, Hughes frankly flubbed it.
Among the few changes from the original Bill Walsh script was replacing Brainard's trusty canine sidekick with a flying robot called WEEBO (voiced by Jodi Benson). The rest of the picture, when not cribbing from Hughes' own "Home Alone", manages to recall elements of "Pee-wee's Big Adventure", "Gremlins", "Back to the Future" and "The Mask" (during a Flubber mambo sequence), to name a few inspirations. Mayfield ("Miracle on 34th Street"), meanwhile, brings little imagination to such memorable "Absent-Minded Professor" bits as flying car trips and a Flubberized basketball game, both of which are disappointingly flat.
That leaves Williams to carry the picture, and even his energy seems muted. Perhaps he was too busy concentrating on his tricky sight lines (the computer-generated Flubber sequences were added later).
Fortunately, the gooey lime element delivers. The new, improved substance has a full-throttle personality all its own, and those rebounding, 3-D ILM sequences are a crowd-pleasing delight.
If only Mayfield, Hughes and Williams had chosen to follow Flubber's unstoppable lead.
FLUBBER
Buena Vista
Walt Disney Pictures presents
A Great Oaks production
Director: Les Mayfield
Producers: John Hughes, Ricardo Mestres
Screenwriters: John Hughes, Bill Walsh
Executive producer: David Nicksay
Director of photography: Dean Cundey
Production designer: Andrew McAlpine
Editors: Harvey Rosenstock, Michael Stevenson
Visual effects supervisors: Peter Crosman,
Tom Bertino, Douglas Hans Smith
Costume designer: April Ferry
Music: Danny Elfman
Casting: Nancy Foy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Professor Phillip Brainard: Robin Williams
Sara Jean Reynolds: Marcia Gay Harden
Wilson Croft: Christopher McDonald
Chester Hoenicker: Raymond Barry
Smith: Clancy Brown
Wesson: Ted Levine
Bennett Hoenicker: Wil Wheaton
Martha George: Edie McClurg
Running time -- 83 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
Now, Robin Williams does the honors in "Flubber", with a little refurbishing from John Hughes in the script department and from Industrial Light & Magic in the special-effects department.
Those fun Flubber sequences aside, this latest Disney dust-off has surprisingly little bounce. Both Hughes' uninspired update and Les Mayfield's direction lack zip, while even the usually irrepressible Williams appears relatively sedated.
Given its hefty marketing and merchandising push, the green stuff should nevertheless generate some green stuff at the boxoffice, but "Flubber" will likely fall short of hitting blockbuster heights.
The story remains basically the same. Professor Brainard (Williams) has been so distracted by his formulas and calculations that he's left his sweetheart Sara Marcia Gay Harden) alone at the altar for the third and final time.
But he's hoping the reason for his latest no-show -- the creation of the amazing material that will come to be known as Flubber -- will change Sara's mind, particularly when it could be the answer to Medfield College's serious financial problems; she just happens to be the institution's president.
As Brainard tries to win his way back into Sara's heart, he encounters competition in the form of her smarmy colleague, Wilson Croft (Christopher McDonald). Worse, when the spoiled son (Wil Wheaton) of the college's sinister financier (Raymond Barry) fails Brainard's course, his father sends hired goons Smith (Clancy Brown) and Wesson (Ted Levine) to snatch the Flubber from the professor's lab.
Given a great chance to reconceptualize material that, while regarded with warm nostalgia, certainly allowed ample room for improvement, Hughes frankly flubbed it.
Among the few changes from the original Bill Walsh script was replacing Brainard's trusty canine sidekick with a flying robot called WEEBO (voiced by Jodi Benson). The rest of the picture, when not cribbing from Hughes' own "Home Alone", manages to recall elements of "Pee-wee's Big Adventure", "Gremlins", "Back to the Future" and "The Mask" (during a Flubber mambo sequence), to name a few inspirations. Mayfield ("Miracle on 34th Street"), meanwhile, brings little imagination to such memorable "Absent-Minded Professor" bits as flying car trips and a Flubberized basketball game, both of which are disappointingly flat.
That leaves Williams to carry the picture, and even his energy seems muted. Perhaps he was too busy concentrating on his tricky sight lines (the computer-generated Flubber sequences were added later).
Fortunately, the gooey lime element delivers. The new, improved substance has a full-throttle personality all its own, and those rebounding, 3-D ILM sequences are a crowd-pleasing delight.
If only Mayfield, Hughes and Williams had chosen to follow Flubber's unstoppable lead.
FLUBBER
Buena Vista
Walt Disney Pictures presents
A Great Oaks production
Director: Les Mayfield
Producers: John Hughes, Ricardo Mestres
Screenwriters: John Hughes, Bill Walsh
Executive producer: David Nicksay
Director of photography: Dean Cundey
Production designer: Andrew McAlpine
Editors: Harvey Rosenstock, Michael Stevenson
Visual effects supervisors: Peter Crosman,
Tom Bertino, Douglas Hans Smith
Costume designer: April Ferry
Music: Danny Elfman
Casting: Nancy Foy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Professor Phillip Brainard: Robin Williams
Sara Jean Reynolds: Marcia Gay Harden
Wilson Croft: Christopher McDonald
Chester Hoenicker: Raymond Barry
Smith: Clancy Brown
Wesson: Ted Levine
Bennett Hoenicker: Wil Wheaton
Martha George: Edie McClurg
Running time -- 83 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
- 11/21/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.