World's Greatest Dad (2009)

You won't be disappointed!

Really Surprised!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

From the point of a cinema - something like a good film. But from the point of a viewer(me) - It was difficult to see to the end. Because of the disgusting son. Because of the awkward behavior of some of the characters. Because of the fact that Robin Williams acting in such movie.

A great story that left a little lacking in the execution. This movie could have been brilliant. It could have been an instant classic and a voice for our era.To begin I thought the film had some serious problems in structure. It took too long to get to the crucial moment in the story (the death). The ending made me think that they just had no idea of how to bring the story to conclusion.I thought they made way too much effort to make the son out to be a low-level sociopath when he could have just been a very average kid who watches too much porn and has no other interests outside of virtual reality. I know lots of kids who don't seem to have a bit of passion for anything other than their cell phones and video games. This describes a lot of kids these days and a lot of parents would recognize their own offspring in this group. For that matter many adults fit this modus operandi. So in review, back off on making the kid a new version of Charles Manson and get to his death a lot sooner.The next problem was the writing. If you want the kid to be a posthumous hero then you have to write a great suicide note. The one in the film was mediocre, at best. This was where the story really should have begun, at about 20 minutes (in the film he finds the body at 36 minutes and then there was an entire MTV music video of grief…totally corny and over-done). I also didn't think that t was necessary to foreshadow the auto-erotica asphyxiation and it sort of took away from the actual death.Now should have come the really interesting part in the film. The kid's diary could have been a treatise against all of the ills that plague this generation of kids with too much screen time and not much in the way of reality. They have it too comfortable, their parents indulge them too much, their identities are drowned out by celebrity worship, etc.

Borrowing liberally from "Heathers", this cynical dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait ends with the great, great line: "I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone." Unfortunately you are going to have to work hard to get there. The movie treads the path worn by "Heathers" of various special interest groups at a high school using the supposed suicide of a student to their own ends ultimately fictionalizing and defying him in the process. One of the parties, his father played by the late (due to suicide) Robin Williams, capitalizes on the tragedy to get everything his wants. Mostly, the script lacks funny and has few of the whipsmart lines that made "Heathers" a classic. However, if approached as a dark drama, the movie does raise some very discuss- able philosophical questions. Chief among these concerns whether the titular father's action although wildly dishonest and driven by greed do make the best of a bad situation and ultimately rehabilitate the legacy of the scumbag son. Can you do the wrong thing for the wrong reasons and wind up with a right that justifies the inherently evil actions? Is it better to be popular as a fraud or alone but true to yourself? We're told the father's deception helped vast swaths of the school and the surrounding community - does this justify his actions. In short, not much funny but a fair amount of thinky.

'The World's Greatest Dad.' Hardly the world's greatest title to a film and, in my opinion, misleading.The front cover shows cuddly, lovable Robin Williams and in most of the film's descriptions, we're told it's a 'comedy.' Fair enough, we think and go on to expect some happy-go-lucky, silly, daft, frivolous, slapstick affair, possibly on a par with something like American Pie, or Mrs Doubtfire.Wrong.The World's Greatest Dad is more at home among Robin William's other film One Hour Photo. Yes, there are moments of humour, but they are surrounded by a great deal of tragedy. In the film, Robin Williams' son accidentally kills himself (I won't say how - you'll have to find out) in an embarrassing way. To cover this up, Williams makes it look like a suicide.By doing this both he (and his son's) status changes. This film is about the human reaction to death. Suddenly, his son was no longer an outsider and freak - now he's a saint. Now Robin Williams is no longer a meek, underdog, but a hero, struggling to cope with life.I won't give away too much of how the story unfolds. However, I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a decent 'black comedy drama.' I've seen it criticised by people who say 'Where's the humour?' Sure enough, there are few traditional jokes. It's more a cringe worthy exercise as Robin William's character digs a deeper metaphorical hole for himself and finds it increasingly harder to get back out.Also, I've seen this film accused of having 'no likable characters.' Again, possibly true, but, I think that's half the point.Don't expect belly laughs, just a film that somehow manages to raise a slight smile through the face of tragedy. But, when you consider the main crux of this film is a teenage boy's death, it does what it's supposed to.