Flash of Genius |  | Director: Marc Abraham
Actors: Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney, Alan Alda, Bill Smitrovich
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
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Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 6876
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 119 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.4
MPN: 61104076
UPC: 025195032575
EAN: 0025195032575
ASIN: B001LM64S8
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: February 17, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
In the early-1990s, Greg Kinnear was just another amiable talk show host. After As Good As It Gets, however, Kinnear confirmed he could act. If Flash of Genius isn't as harrowing as the Bob Crane biopic Auto-Focus, Kinnear digs just as deep to play a man possessed, in this case taking on Bob Kearns, a Detroit physics professor who invented the intermittent windshield wiper. Supported by his wife (Lauren Graham) and best friend (Dermot Mulroney, making the most of an underwritten part), Kearns aims to align himself with a Motor City auto maker to manufacture his device. Ford expresses interest, so Kearns secures a warehouse, but it all falls apart when they abruptly pull the plug. Then he finds out that they've added automatic wipers to their latest line. Though he patented his invention, the company denies they're using his blueprint, so Kearns takes them to court, a process that drags on for three decades. Meanwhile, his support system starts to collapse as Kearns loses interest in everything except the credit he feels he deserves. If the film succumbs to some of the pitfalls of the genre, i.e. the win-lose-win structure, producer-turned-director Marc Abraham never paint Kearns as too much of a hero. Through the inventor's brilliance, the world's streets are safer, but his tenacity also drove away some of those he held most dear. Hence, Flash of Genius serves as an inspirational story, a cautionary tale, and the perfect opportunity for Kinnear to make a potentially off-putting character sympathetic. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Stills from Flash of Genius (Click for larger image)
Product Description
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 17-FEB-2009
Media Type: DVD
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 35
 20th Century David vs. Goliath January 26, 2010
catsandbooks (NM)
Greg Kinnear plays Bob Kearns, a physics professor and part-time inventor. All the major car companies, including Ford and GM, have been trying for years to come up with an intermittent windshield wiper that actually works, but Kearns beats them to it. When he meets with a Ford representative, he comes away thinking they have an arrangement: he will manufacture the wipers and Ford will purchase them. But Ford backs out of the deal and shortly after that introduces their own intermittent windshield wiper on their new cars. Although Kearns holds five patents to the wiper, it takes hims several years to get his case into court, during which time his wife leaves him and he becomes estranged from some of his children. The film follows the trial and Kearns's dogged determination to be the acknowledged inventor of the intermittent wiper. He turns down a 30 million dollar offer from Ford when they refuse to admit he is the inventor and that they stole the technique from him.
Kinnear excellently portrays Kearns as a man of principle who is willing to give up most of his life to pursuing righting a wrong and does not back down from a huge corporation who will go to, at times unethical, extremes to protect themselves. The movie is intriguing and holds the viewer's interest throughout, as the viewer roots for the good guy to win over the bad guy.
Flash Of Genius is Pure Genius December 1, 2009
R. Rizzi (Atlanta, USA)
Flash Of Genius is a great movie. Perhaps overlooked in the theatres. Now you can get to see it in the comfort of home.
A serious movie that portrays how our business culture acts in situations when an unsuspecting and honest inventor and teacher creates something that has the potential to change automotive history and driving in a safer way for every automobile owner.
The intermittent windshield wiper may seem insignificant to each of us however it was created by a thoughtful inventor who when they presented the idea to corporate automotive giants they are surprised to learn that they have stolen his idea without his permission and then push him aside in the process.
A long and ardous battle ensues as Dr. Robert Kearns figures out how to defend himself from the unrelenting money, power and corporate lawyers whom he must overcome.
A great movie that portrays hope and perserverance as attributes for the little guy who can and does win in the face of unsurmountable odds!
A great movie!!
The Windshield Wipper Irony November 28, 2009
Mark Main (Minneapolis, MN United States)
I loved this movie, Greg Kinnear did a fabulous job. You really agonized over this invention being stolen. But there is some real irony with this real life story that starts with Florence Lawrence who was the world's first movie star and she was also the very first actor to ever receive a movie credit--the movie was "The Broken Oath" release November 15, 1910.
Here is a very interesting and ironic excerpt from [...] "According to Kelly R. Brown's 1999 biography, Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl, she was an avid automobile driver at a time when very few people actually owned cars. In 1914 she invented the first turn signal, which she called an 'auto signaling arm.' The arm attached to the back fender and when a driver pressed a button, it electrically raised or lowered, with a sign attached indicating the direction of the intended turn. Her brake signal worked on the same principle that an arm with a sign reading `stop' rose up whenever the driver pressed the brake pedal. This was the essential concept behind today's brake lights.
But unlucky Lawrence didn't properly patent her inventions and soon other, more refined versions were invented and brought to market. With her mother, however, she did patent a system of electrical windshield wipers in 1917, but it made no money. By the time the first electrical turn signals became standard equipment on the 1939 Buick, her contributions were long forgotten and she was dead."
I find it amazingly ironic that the windshield wiper plagued not only Robert Kearns, the intermittent wiper inventor, but the original wiper inventor as well, Florence Lawrence.
Knock 'em out Kearns November 19, 2009
Francis James (East Coast)
This was one of the better movies i watched this year. I really enjoyed Kearns one man fight to show that a corporate giant stole his idea. It wasn't about the money, just wanted ford to own up to stealing his invention. Not sure if the real life story was played out this way but this is a keeper.
Being genius is costly November 18, 2009
Reader (Boca Raton, FL)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Flash of Genius" movie was made after article about inventor Bob Kearns published in the New Yorker magazine. Last time I read compelling personal story, it was about the "Orchid Thief". This time around the story was just as good. Greg Kinnear's performance in the film is amazing.
It is when someone sees movies like this one, about the middle-class man with one great idea who gets cheated by the major corporation that we all get thinking that perhaps big corporations deserve to suffer after decades of abusing their power against a regular man. It is a story of a man who would not settle for anything less than acknowledgement of his due credit ofr the intermittent windshield wiper idea he came up with. His hard won battle came at the steep price.
This is a story about a man who had principle, drive and compulsive desire for recognition of the best invention of his life. Film drags at times, but actors provide story that is both inspirational and cautionary.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 35
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