WORST ROBIN WILLIAMS MOVIE

Jakob the Liar vs Jack vs Bicentenial Man showdown

I've just realised that the most recent Robin Williams film I've seen is the Fisher King, so wtf do I know?

if you watched those films then you deserved to (xp)

jesus

Hint: it's also the worst Haley Joel Osmont movie, worst Jude Law movie, worst Spielberg movie, worst Kubrick related movie (o wait no that's Eyes Wide Shut).

Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001) (voice) .... Dr. Know
Bicentennial Man (1999) .... Andrew
Jakob the Liar (1999) .... Jakob
Patch Adams (1998) .... Hunter 'Patch' Adams

Wow. Seriously, wow. What a run. I'm pretty sure this is unmatched in Hollywood.

What kind of loser couldn't smell his bad ones and sat through them?

(tho Death to Smoochy is a fave)

I challenge ledge to a duel.

His appearance in Friends should be on this list, I think that's what pushed me over the edge.

AI has some truly great moments like all Spielberg. Williams is only in it for 5 mins tho so not worth including.

I voted "Bicentennial Man", having read a synopsis of it, which made me feel a bit queasy. Then I realised I haven't actually seen it. Of the ones I've seen, "Dead Poet's Society" is still pretty horrible and one of the worst films I've seen ever. Twats.

I might vote Jack, altho it does have Diane Lane.

Good Morning, Vietnam and The Fisher King were bad enough for me. I skipped all the Fathers Day/What Dreams May Come-type shit.

I will probably be the only person to vote for August Rush, since it was very recent and not very widely seen. But I had to review it, and god, it was awful.

What Dreams May Come could be quite trippy on mute.

When I was a kid Hook was my little brother's favourite movie and we had to watch it over and over and over and over and over and over again.

I worked on a couple of these films and just from the scripts knew they would be the most unholy tripe. 'Patch Adams' was particularly gruesome, though, especially after meeting the real Patch Adams on set.

I know a rapper whose favorite movie is Hook, and his crew is called the Bangarang Gang. (xpost)

YSI?

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) (as Ray D. Tutto)

Good pun.

same as everyone else, i wouldn't go near most of these and so happily relinquish my right to vote.

I worked on a couple of these films and just from the scripts knew they would be the most unholy tripe. 'Patch Adams' was particularly gruesome, though, especially after meeting the real Patch Adams on set.

-- Michael White, Friday, 4 January 2008 16:06 (5 minutes ago) Link

hahahaha i knew a med student who met Patch Adams and said he was a total asshole

Wow, I saw at least 7 of these movies in the theater (and was only paid to see 2 of them). Toys was a real formative "wow wtf" moviegoing experience.

These five all merit big time consideration.

Patch Adams (1998)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Jack (1996)
FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) (voice)
Awakenings (1990)

He was in a lot of '80s movies I've never even heard of.

What the hey, I vote Awakenings.

some of these films arent' that bad, you people be overreacting.

Blubber is pretty stinky though,

I remember Good Morning Vietnam being a half decent film.

http://cinema-online.org/pictures/Stills/Upcoming/August%20Rush/02.jpg

the color his hair is dyed in that movie is this really bizarre shade of reddish brown that i think is supposed to look like the character's natural hair color but really doesn't

Seize the Day is a solid best dramatic performance.

Happy Feet

I gotta go with Patch Adams for its failure to be acceptable on any level. But I have to say that One Hour Photo is far more shit than some people let on, and fuck everybody involved in remaking Insomnia too.

so i'm guessing no one saw 'license to wed'? that got pretty horrendous reviews all around

i actually liked 'the night listener'

liked 'One Hour Photo' but i guess it's bit boring

I don't remember specifically why I thought it was some corny-ass bullshit, but I'm pretty sure it's some corny-ass bullshit.

it ends badly

One Hour Photo was at least enjoyable. Patch Adams is evil treacle infected sentimental enema bulb crap

I have big problems with thrillers that rely on central characters behaving completely stupidly in order to develop the plot. Except for Fargo obv.

"develop" the plot yuck yuck yuck

But yeah clearly One Hour Photo is several hundred percent better than Patch Adams.

xpost lol unintentional puns

If you hear the news much, humans have been known to behave completely stupidly.

I can't remember which author said that just because something was possible in real life didn't mean it was a good plot device, but they were on the money.

yeah wtf. can't see how One Hour Photo is 'corny' given the subject. i cut it a lot of slack because it looks so good tho.

xpost

Also seriously Morbs that's like defending some "I'm gonna leave you in an easily escapable situation and assume you're dead" shit.

I've seen six of these in the cinema too! Admittedly, only Deconstructing Harry post-'91*. I used to think he was a funny fella, back in the 1980s. And what was really missing from Xmas telly this year was another airing of Jumanji.

(* - oh, saw Insomnia on a plane too)

So, I'll think I'll have to vote on gut-reaction-to-movie-poster alone, because none of the films I paid money to see were bad (or most of the ones I've seen on the telly, like Garp or Hudson were ok). Jack, then.

i nearly voted Jumanji based on the poster rule. his stupid face.

There's a lot of shit films up there where it isn't completely fair to blame Williams for the shitness. I'm pretty sure Flubber or Robots would've been equally lousy without him.

the funniest part of One Hour Photo was the scene where he's watching the Simpsons and he's NOT LAUGHING SO IT MUST MEAN HE'S DEAD INSIDE OMG

lolz

the poll isn't called "movie most ruined by a robin williams performance"

Fwiw, despite his choice in scripts, Robin was a great guy to work with and quite funny in person.

Good Morning, Vietnam and Dead Poet's Society, easily. Those are meaningful films that were big hits and made people cry.

I remember Jeff Bridges (as usual) in TFK, not Williams.

iirc, Williams pretty much saved Homicide from cancellation by agreeing to be in that episode.

the last time I tried to watch the Fisher King I fucking hated it, which is weird because I really used to love that movie

i think a 1991 Hook/The Fisher King would be a fun cinema double feature to screen, especially for a teenager starting to get into cinema.

I'm trying to think of an example of a bad Robin Williams performance. He's in some terrible movies, which can make his deal hard to take, but most of those movies would have been terrible even without him, maybe even worse. "The Fisher King" is not terrible, though I agree the last time I saw it wasn't nearly as good as the time I saw it many years previous. But there are some great visuals, and iirc Bridges, Williams and Mercedes Ruehl are all great in it.

i remember him being in just about everything as a kid during 91-96. jump to around the time Jack had been released and going to the adjacent video rental spot attached to our grocery store and seeing The Birdcage available to rent and my very Catholic parents suddenly denying us the chance to watch that RW vhs release.

Terrible Williams performances:

Toys
Nine Months
Patch Adams
Jakob the Liar
Bicentennial Man
Death to Smoochy
What Dreams May Come

I can't stand him in Good Morning, Vietnam and Mrs. Doubtfire, but he's doing what the script and director demanded.

Was Garp his first serious role?

I guess it was only his third film period, after Popeye and some unknown-to-me comedy anthology.

I don't love his performance in Good Will Hunting, from Dead Poets on he really leaned into a touchy-feelyness that tends to hit me as mawkish/maudlin.

Yeah

You want mawk? Watch Jakob the Liar: it makes Life is Beautiful look like Gertrud.

Death To Smoochy rules.

https://i.ibb.co/Q3Gr4v43/MV5-BMTkw-NDcy-OTc5-OV5-BMl5-Ban-Bn-Xk-Ft-ZTYw-Mjc3-Njg2-V1.jpg

"Wait, whut?"

Is that The Bicentennial Man?

Couldn't quite recall that they actually made a movie of that.

And Sam Neil was the robot.

lol

Toys
Nine Months
Patch Adams
Jakob the Liar
Bicentennial Man
Death to Smoochy
What Dreams May Come

I don't disagree, but all of these movies would have likely been been terrible with anyone. Does RW make them worse? Are his acting or antics worse in them than usual? I'll have to think about it a bit, but I like the angle of RW being bad or hard to take in *good* movies, though again the/his mawkishness is pretty much baked into Good Morning, Vietnam or Good Will Hunting or Dead Poet's Society (to pick three movies I don't or didn't mind but haven't seen in ages).

The way his need to ingratiate curdles into bathos is uniquely his. Not even Talking Chaplin was this bad.

August Rush will forever be known in my house as "the one where he looks like Bono" and it really is very terrible.

I should've mentioned Aladdin when I listed his good work.

I didn't know RW starred in Saul Bellow adaptation.

A movie that existed only as a VHS cover at my Blockbuster.

his movies were really popular in my childhood milieu of suburban white mormons. which is weird cuz he was also in a lot of "dirty" movies. one hour photo and insomnia probably aren't very good movies but i liked them at the time (i was around 20). "look i can do serious face too!" i remember basically rooting for him.

I don't disagree, but all of these movies would have likely been been terrible with anyone

idk it seems plausible this glut of gloop was created with him in mind? or maybe tom hanks if williams wasn't available. he was a huge draw.

a truman show - what dreams may come double showing would be some weird time travel shit for me.

I just watched Insomnia and it rocked. It's gorgeous to look at, from the opening credits on. There are several very good scenes and, by the standards of crime potboilers of the period, something close to the philosophical/moral anguish you'd expect in a 70s version of same. Williams's bland, gentle "he was always the quiet type" energy is a good foil for Pacino - I can imagine a lot of other actors in that part who would have completely tanked the movie.

IMO his best film roles are Aladdin (the full RW, but tolerable) and Birdcage (a fun movie where I buy his restraint in a way that I don't so much in his other "quiet" roles (Dead Again, Insomnia, One Hour Photo etc), because it doesn't stop him being funny.

I mean, largely I don't like him as an adult -- despite loving him when I was a teenager -- but he's rarely Jonah Hill levels of unwatchable.

Williams, Gene Hackman, and Dianne Wiest are all-time in The Birdcage.

a truman show - what dreams may come double showing would be some weird time travel shit for me.

I just had a vision of what The Truman Show might have been like with RW playing the lead role, and wish I hadn't

And if I don't see you--good afternoon, good evening and good mooooooooorrrrnnnning Vietnam

I just had a vision of what The Truman Show might have been like with RW playing the lead role

Probably a lot more hairy.

But yeah, good question: are a lot of these movies mawkish because he's in them, or is he in them because they are mawkish and he jibed with the material?

Was he the first of the wildmen comedians, from Steve Martin to Jim Carrey, to go serious?

Richard Pryor was way ahead. But I guess the basic "I've always dreamed of acting" template was set by musical stars like Sinatra.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/The_Day_the_Clown_Cried.png?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=parser&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled

Beat me to it.

His whole vibe really brings me down. He’s always playing these broken men so convincingly. There’s barely any humor for me.

But there’s probably no other living or dead actor I’d rather have a cup of coffee with or whatever.

Was he the first of the wildmen comedians, from Steve Martin to Jim Carrey, to go serious?

Bill Murray tried a Someset Maugham adaptation but he looked like he was about ready to crack up the whole time... The Razor's Edge in 1984

I didn't know RW starred in Saul Bellow adaptation.

Maybe my favorite RW performance. I even asked Tracey about it when I had the chance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqxfH3OeQIw

my partner had a crush on RW when he was a teenager and i can see why - "mork" through popeye with all that hair and physical vigor. i'm a generation later than him though and RW in the 90s was the definition of unfuckable. i don't remember any trace of homoerotic frisson at all in "good will hunting" such was the level of desperate cherubic wet-eyed heaviness of it.

Are you forgetting Stellan Skarsgård's sidelong glances at Matt Damon, caught by Skarsgård's boyfriend?

pics plz

haha j/k i doubt i'll ever watch that movie again.

TIL alex is much hotter than dad

lol that Leno clip was like listening to two parrots yell at each other for 10 minutes.

Lol!

TIL alex is much hotter than dad

― shaking babies (map), Tuesday, August 4, 2026

def

desperate cherubic wet-eyed heaviness

lol nice

I caught the second Night at the Museum - beloved of my grandma - on TV on Saturday and to no surprise it hasn't travelled from late childhood or whenever it came out. Robin's barely in it but there's a somewhat freaky bit where he plays a bronze bust of Roosevelt that briefly reminded me of the annoying sulky Kryten in Red Dwarf VII, not where I thought my mind would go.