Robin Willaims: Sanctimonious ass wipe, spastic idiot, pretty good actor.

[Oliveloaf]

What's with this guy.

Usually I hate him.

I just watched Bicentennial Man, and am struck by how fucking sanctimonious and self-import that movie is. Almost unwatchable.
Williams' whole "robot who understands the human condition better than humans" is completely intolerable.

But I also recently saw World's Greatest Dad which is twisted to new levels of disturbing, and Williams is awesome in it.

Really, what's with this guy. I think that, if he doesn't direct or produce himself, the viewing public is way better off.

[Oliveloaf]

I think that it's possible to make a pretty good "douche, not douche" list for Williams.

Douche movies are those in which he plays someone who has more humanity than everyone else. Ugh.

Douche movies:

Bicentennial Man
Mrs. Doubtfire
Dead Poets Society
Jakob the Liar
Patch Adams (extra Douchy)
Jack

Not-douche movies:

Cadillac Man
World's Greatest Dad
One Hour Photo

[Oliveloaf]

We can make a third last for coked-out spaz movies.

Or anything Mork and Mindy, with combined douchiness with spastic madness.

[Elendil's Heir]

Bicentennial Man is indeed a sucky movie; the Asimov short story is far, far, far better.

I thought Robin Williams did just fine, however, in Good Morning, Vietnam, Aladdin, Robots, Dead Poets Society, Night at the Museum, The Birdcage, Flubber, Good Will Hunting, and Mrs. Doubtfire. A pretty good run of films, all in all, but YMMV of course.

[Oliveloaf]

I found Robots suffered from too much Williams. It was also just pretty bad, at least by this Pixar-lover's standards.

[Zuul]

I thought Robin Williams did just fine, however, in Good Morning, Vietnam, Aladdin, Robots, Dead Poets Society, Night at the Museum, The Birdcage, Flubber, Good Will Hunting, and Mrs. Doubtfire. A pretty good run of films, all in all, but YMMV of course.

I can't remember Flubber too well, but I agree with the rest of these. He had a brief moment of annoying Robin Williams-ness in Night at the Museum, but was otherwise a very good animated wax statue of Teddy Roosevelt.

[Myglaren]

Can't remember him in Night At The Museum but very much liked The Dead Poet's Society and Good Morning Vietnam
Haven't seen any of the others but wasn't he in Jumanji too?
That was a load of crap IMO.

I did see a few minutes of Mork & Mindy yaers back. Never enough to work out what was going on but enough to appreciate Mindy.

[artifex]

I liked him in The Fisher King.
I didn't mind him in Hook.

I thought Robin Williams did just fine, however, in Good Morning, Vietnam, Aladdin, Robots, Dead Poets Society, Night at the Museum, The Birdcage, Flubber, Good Will Hunting, and Mrs. Doubtfire.

Agreed except for Flubber which I never saw. I hated Night At the Museum but considered him one of the less-offensive and annoying parts of it.

[Oliveloaf]

[Oliveloaf]

Actually, now that I think about it, Mork and Mindy wrapped up each week with Robin Williams reporting in to his home planet, again, as some outsider who understood human nature better than humans. he'd always pick up on some deep, innate component of the human condition, and give his innocent dispassionate take on it.

Nanoo, nanoo, ugh.

[artifex]

Oh, that's right, he did! Like a hairy suspender-wearing Doogie Howser.

[The Original An Gadaí]

Patch Adams was on recently on the telly and we were surprised at how watchable it was. It suffered from the ridiculous "let's try make a 60 year old man look like a college freshman" syndrome that you see in a lot of films but it had some very interesting parts.

[parzival]

Has anyone here seen The Final Cut? It's one of those movies I thought most people were familiar with, even if they hadn't seen it, but lately I've discovered almost no one I know has heard of it.

One of his better performances, in my opinion. Not manic and funny. And he
s sort of righteous, but not overly sanctimonious. Not douchy.

(He was also better than a pile of garbage in the remake of Insomnia.)

Is Moscow on the Hudson douchy? I say no, but it almost seems like it comes close.

[CatInASuit]

Awakenings - where he has to play fairly serious throughout is a pretty good film as well.

[Hatshepsut]

You've asked one of the important questions of our time. I keep holding out hope for Robin Williams - he so obviously has great talent, a wonderful comic sensibility, and a brilliat soul ready to shine through in any substantive, meaningful role that he chooses to play. So ... why does he keep making such gawd-awful cringe-worthy practically unwatchable movies? It's a great mystery to me.

OVerall, I hated the movie "Good Will Hunting" but I practically worshiped the Robin Williams character in that film. Dammit, why can't he pick roles like that, in good movies, on a regular basis?

[CatInASuit]

It's a bit like Jim Carrey, fnu to begin with, became a parody of himself and when forced to actually act "The Truman Show" turns in a cracking performance.