El hombre más fuerte del mundo

The third in Disney's Dexter Riley trilogy starring Kurt Russell. This time college student Dexter accidentally creates a formula that, when mixed with a vitamin cereal, gives him temporary super strength. Since the school is once again in financial trouble, Dexter and friends decide to use the formula to help out. How they do this is silly. It involves a weightlifting contest and a cereal company rivalry. Villainous A.J. Arno (Caesar Romero) from the previous films also returns, up to no good as usual. Russell's good and the series regulars like Romero and Joe Flynn are lots of fun. This would be Flynn's last movie. Nice support this time from Phil Silvers, Dick Van Patten, and the always cool Eve Arden. Pleasant, likable family comedy. It's corny but fun.

I was inspired to get this movie after seeing (and enjoying) Sky High with Kurt Russell and I happened to recall this movie. I originally saw "The Strongest Man in the World" as a child (I was 5 years old) and enjoyed it VERY much. As an adult, I find it's VERY silly, and campy and wonderful.

Very enjoyable is the opening animation, which depicts a little boy doing AMAZING & IMPOSSIBLE things: catching a king-kong style gorilla that fell from a building, carrying a cruise ship, & holding (with one hand mind you) a stage carrying 3 grown men pressing over their heads what looks to be about 1000 lbs. WOW! College science student, Dexter Riley (Russell) creates a vitamin formula that, by pure accident, becomes a temporary superhuman strength formula. News of the formula comes to the attention of two rival cereal companies who stage a weightlifting contest to see which cereal would render the eater the strongest. One cereal, supposedly having the strength formula in it. It DOESN'T. Now Dexter, must race against the clock to get the real formula in order to win the weightlifting match.

Again, funny, goofy, slow in certain areas, but it doesn't take away from the humor of the film.

Having seen all of the Dexter Riley films that Disney has put out, I can honestly say that "The Strongest Man in the World" is my favorite.

And why not? Not only does it have Russell in all his youthful exuberance and Flynn as the eternally befuddled Dean Higgins but it also features parts for Eve Arden, Phil Silvers and Cesar Romero as A. J. Arno, the Alonzo Hawk for the '70s.

When Russell and his fellow college cronies discover a potion and add it to their favorite breakfast cereal, it gives whoever consumes it super-human strength. Of course, every unscrupulous character within reach is after it and will go to any lengths necessary (even Chinese acupuncture hypnosis. You heard me.) to gain their ends.

Wild special effects highlight this film, and as always, Flynn takes his broad, funny role as Higgins and runs with it, showing off the benefits of super-human strength to an amazed Arden and her associates.

It may be set in the '70s but gags like this stand the test of time. And "The Strongest Man in the World" is still as funny now as it ever was.

What can I say; If it has Joe Flynn in it, I'll watch it.

Ten stars. And one more thing: if you're the dean of a college, never let Kurt Russell borrow your car.

Kurt Russell for the third and last time plays Dexter Riley in the Disney Studio's film The Strongest Man In The World. I presume that he finally graduated from Medfield College and Dean Joe Flynn's life got a whole lot less interesting.

Actually Russell was trying very hard to break free from the Disney image and I would say he's succeeded rather nicely. Although he did make a recent return to the studio for Sky High.

In this final film as Riley, Kurt Russell once again in the laboratory stumbles on a formula for superstrength. At first he and his fellow student scientists think it went into Michael McGreevey's breakfast cereal and that starts a whole industrial espionage war between the Krumbly and Krinkly cereal dynasties as personified by Eve Arden and Phil Silvers. Arden has a traitor in the ranks in the person of Dick Van Patten and he enlists Russell perennial foe Cesar Romero for some nefarious activities.

And once again the Magic Kingdom makes Medfield College completely oblivious to the outside world. Well at least student protest and the Vietnam War were over by this time so who would notice?

The Strongest Man In The World still contains the amusement value of its predecessors.

This definitely was the end of an era at the Disney studios. This was the last of the so-called "college comedies" that began with the classic "The Absent Minded Professor", continued with the two "Merlin Jones" films ("The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" and "The Monkey's Uncle") and ended with the three "Dexter Riley" films ("The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes", "Now You See Him, Now you Don't" and this film). These films all followed the same formula but still were funny in their own way. However, by the time this film was done the formula had worn thin and this pretty much was the end of the line for this series of films. Kurt Russell was his usual funny self as the perpetually in trouble Dexter getting himself and his buddy Schyler in perpetual trouble. Ceasar Romero was also great as the kids' perpetual foil Arno.

However, it is also a somewhat surreal film due to the fact that Joe Flynn died after this motion picture finished filming. He definitely was great in his role as Dean Higgins and it was definitely an extension of his "Captain Binghamton" character and this capped off his legendary career as on of the all-time great curmudgeons.