"Actor: Benjamin Brock"

• Flubber | DVD | (05/02/2001) from £5.70   |  Saving you £12.29 (215.61%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Wacky Professor Philip Brainard (Robin Williams) has just invented a revolutionary new compound. Its green it flies and it looks like rubber. Its Flubber! And it has the ability to save his financially troubled college as well as his broken engagement to his girlfriend Sara. That is until the gooey substance is stolen right from under the nose of his beloved but jealous robot assistant Weebo! Now the professor's got to get the goo and the girl back where they belong. Mix one

• Jack Frost | DVD | (29/11/1999) from £2.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (367.89%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Whatever you do, don't confuse this Jack Frost with the 1997 comedic horror flick of the same name (its tagline: "He's chillin ... and killin'"). This family film stars Michael Keaton as Jack Frost, an aspiring musician, loving husband and occasionally absent father. Frost's life is unexpectedly cut short by a car accident and a year after his death he comes back as--you guessed it--a snowman, to help his family heal (Kelly Preston and Joseph Cross as wife and son Gabby and Charlie, respectively). The sudden death may affect sensitive younger viewers but by the time Frost returns the movie is more light-hearted and the film's message is a worthy one. There's an underlying theme that supports independence, and Gabby isn't saddled with a new dude by the film's end. There's also a good rapport developed between father and son, and especially mother and son. If an audience can take that huge leap of faith to accept the premise (as youthful audiences will no doubt be able to do), this is entertaining family fare. --N F Mendoza

• Flubber | DVD | (05/02/2001) from £17.46   |  Saving you £2.53 (14.49%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Disney couldn't resist the temptation to remake 1961's popular comedy The Absent Minded Professor, so they cast Robin Williams as Professor Philip Brainard (a role vaguely related to the character originated by Fred MacMurray), and the result is a comedy that, frankly, doesn't fully deserve its modest success. It's admittedly clever to a point, and certainly the digitally flubberised special effects provide the kind of movie magic that's entertaining for children and adults alike. The professor can't even remember his own wedding day (much to the chagrin of his fiancée, played by Marcia Gay Harden), and now his academic rival (Christopher McDonald) is trying to steal his latest and purely accidental invention-flying rubber, or ... flubber. The green goo magnifies energy and can be used as an amazing source of power, but in the hands of screenwriter John Hughes it becomes just another excuse to recycle a lot of Home Alone-style slapstick humour involving a pair of bumbling would-be flubber thieves. There's also a floating robot named Weebo and some catchy music by Danny Elfman to accompany dancing globs of flubber, but the story's too thin to add up to anything special. Lightweight fun, but, given the title, it lacks a certain bounce. Of course, that didn't stop Disney's marketing wizards from turning it into a home video hit. --Jeff Shannon