Remade but still gooey So, cranberry now sauce that and you've swallowed slurped down some some pumpkin pie, it's time for some more slimy stuff - of the cinematic kind. This weekend's two big movie releases are non-partners in slime: 20th Century Fox's Alien Resurrection, featuring gobs of green goo, and Disney's Flubber, featuring green gobs of goo. It's a slippery slope from goo to good, though, as both movies indicate. *ALIEN RESURRECTION By now, Sigourney Weaver has played four Ellen Ripleys in the Alien series: voice of reason (Alien), reluctant warrior (Aliens), morose survivor (Alien') and, in Alien Resurrection, jerk-baiting smart-mouth. Ripley's presence might come as a surprise to those who remember Alien', in which she died a sacrificial death with an alien incubating inside her. But there is no death in sequels, and the salty screenplay by Joss Whedon (Toy Story) brings Ripley back to life as a clone of her former self - a clone with an attitude. It's a wonderful change of pace for Weaver, who gives the movie much of its spunk. The same can't be said of Winona Ryder, whose part as a space smuggler on a private mission could have been played just as easily by any other young, short, doe-eyed actress. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the mind WEEKEND MOVIES Walt Disney Robin Williams' mitt full of Flubber should yield a fistful of dollars. two superbly imaginative French Delicatessen and The City of Lost appears hamstrung here. Jeunet's sensibilities, dark humor and of compassion sometimes shine but he's struggling with a formula running out of gas. Those aliens just as scary as they were in the first two Jeunet even makes us feel sorry for one during its demise. Alien Resurrection will satisfy fans of the series, but it won't knock them out the way Alien and especially Aliens did. Neophytes are advised to check those two out on video; veterans are advised to seek out Jeunet's other two movies. The hunt will be worth it. Alien Resurrection directed by JeanPierre Jeunet, featuring Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Dan Hedaya, Brad Dourif. Rated R (strong language, graphic violence, slime) *** on a scale of 5 FLUBBER Flubber is yet another live-action Disney flub - a soulless remake of 1961's The Absent Minded Professor that replaces the original's audiencepleasing sweetness with an audiences-are-suckers cynicism. Robin Williams is the new absentminded professor, Phillip Brainard. But despite Williams' attempts to inject some heart into his nice-guy character, most of the time he's being upstaged by Flubber, the irrepress- Pictures ible green stuff that defies laws of gravity and motion. Not that he has much reason to be heartfelt: His love interest, Sara, is so underwritten that Marcia Gay Harden might as well not have bothered showing up for the role. She's Disney's idea of a "modern woman": She's the college president, promoted from the original, but she doesn't do anything, and she hinges her happiness on being married. The movie largely follows the plot of the original: An evil alumnus threatens to close down Brainard's cash-strapped college, but the professor believes he can save it with his bouncy discovery. Never mind that he already has several nifty inventions at his service - couldn't he patent them and make a bundle? At first, Flubber is kind of fun. But the joke gets old fast, and the movie's showcase piece, a Flubber mambo, is a useless production number that exists as little more than a music video to show off some effects. The result is almost as depressing as last year's 101 Dalmatians, where the heroes were more vacant and the merchandising more evident. But Flubber shares the same self-assured cynicism: The originals assumed that we wanted to be entertained; the remakes assume that we'll fall for anything. - Robert Philpot Flubber directed by Les Mayfield, featuring Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald. Rated PG (slapstick violence and bathroom humor - you were expecting something else from a live-action Disney comedy?) ** on a scale of 5 l behind films, Children, surrealistic sense through, that's aren't movies; 20th Century Fox Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) gets flaming mad in Alien Resurrection, while Winona Ryder is secretly relieved that the gun isn't pointed at her.