As you read these words you can feel your eye lids becoming heavy.
With each passing sentence it becomes more and more difficult to keep your eyes open.
You are feeling very sleepy now.
Very sleepy.
Sleepy.
Sleep.
Now you are under my spell and as you read these words (I know you're sleeping but just play along will you?) you will obey my instructions.
You will forget the following films;
"Hook"
"Fern Gully The Last Rain Forest"
"Being Human"
"Nine Months"
"Jumanji"
"The Bird Cage"
"Jack"
"Fathers Day"
"Flubber"
"What Dreams May Come"
"Patch Adams"
"Bi-Centennial Man"
"AI: Artificial Intelligence"
"Man of the Year"
"Night at the Museum"
"License to Wed"
Phew!
None of those films have ever been made.
You have no memory of them.
No memory.
When I command it you will awake from this slumber with the Robin Williams part of your memory extending only as far as "Dead Poets Society", "Insomnia", "One Hour Photo" and "Good Will Hunting"; you will not remember anything else...except "Mork and Mindy" because that was a lot of fun when you were a kid.
I will now type back from five and when I reach one you will be awake with a mind that only knows of Robin Williams as a stand up comedian turned actor who has made some excellent and very dark films.
Five...you have no memory even of "Mrs Doubtfire"
Four...there goes "Good Morning Vietnam"
Three...not even "Aladdin" remains
Two...you love Robin Williams
One...wake!
This film from Bobcat Goldthwait features yet another amazing performance from Robin Williams; an actor who has proven time and again that he has an ability to select only projects of the highest quality. Not for him the career lows that so many other actors appear incapable of avoiding. Williams has a "class" magnet that attracts him to projects that are golden. Just look at his filmography; "Insomnia", "Good Will Hunting", "One Hour Photo" and "Dead Poets Society"...not a wrong move throughout his career.
It's remarkable.
Here he plays the father of the worlds most vulgar, obnoxious and irritating adolescents ever to appear on screen; foul mouthed, aggressive, a bully and, quite literally, an enormous wanker. No matter what Williams says or does he is met with a tirade of abuse.
To compound the situation Williams is also a teacher at his sons school...he's not the cool, down with the kids teacher either; he's a total loser who runs a poetry class that doesn't even manage to attract enough emo kids for it to be a viable course in the next academic year. Can I apologise for the hideously out of touch use of "emo" as some sort of cultural/pop-cultural reference? I can't? Damn.
When his son manages to kill himself during a bout of auto erotic asphyxiation Williams sees it as a chance to re-write his own miserable history. He crafts a beautiful, poignant suicide note for his son that casts him as a misunderstood, intelligent, lonely and afraid young man instead of the shit he actually was. The result is...messy, ultimately very messy, and a level of awkwardness last felt in front of a movie unheard of since Goldthwaits "Sleeping Dogs".
"Worlds Greatest Dad" isn't a film that will worm its way onto a gift list for Fathers Day...if it did both you and your father would be in for a very uncomfortable afternoon in front of the TV...but is deliciously funny and features yet another great performance from Robin Williams; this man can do no wrong.
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