Flipper
Flipper
PG | 17 May 1996 (USA)
Flipper Trailers

Sandy Ricks is sent by his mom to Coral Key, a rustic island in the Florida keys, to spend the summer with his uncle Porter Ricks. Sandy dislikes everything about his new environment until a new friend comes into his life, a dolphin named Flipper, that brings uncle and nephew together and leads Sandy on the summer adventure of a lifetime.

Reviews
Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined
Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!
Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Jackson Booth-Millard Free Willy was obviously a big hit for the family, and I had the definite opinion that this film would be exactly the same kind of concept, but with a dolphin instead of a killer whale, but I was prepared to try it. Basically young Sandy Ricks (Elijah Wood) has been sent by his mother to a rustic island in the Florida keys, Coral Key, to spend the summer with his uncle Porter Ricks (Paul Hogan) on his his fishing trawler. Sandy is unhappy in his new environment, bored with nothing exciting to do and having to do chores for Porter, but then sitting on the dock of the bay he meets a new friend, a dolphin he later names Flipper. As they continue meeting he manages to teach his new friend a few tricks, and this also helps him to find another friend in local girl Kim (Jessica Wesson) who gives him the idea to get people to pay to watch the dolphin do his tricks. Sandy and Porter do slowly bond over their time together having fun with Flipper, who they realise was separated from his family by fishing rival Dirk Moran (Jonathan Banks), and there is a big danger coming when the bad guy is planning to dump poisonous substances in the water. In the end the villains are defeated, Flipper swims away with his remaining family, Sandy's mother and sister come to take him home, Sandy says his goodbyes to friends Cathy (Chelsea Field), Marvin (Jason Fuchs) and Kim, and he asks Porter if he can come back next summer to which he happily agrees. Also starring Bill Kelley as Tommy and Isaac Hayes as Sheriff Buck Cowan. The dolphin is cute and lovable doing tricks and jumps, Wood is alright as the teenager who has some fun, and Hogan is okay most of the time with his cheeky remarks and accent, but as a film this was a bit boring and predictable, kids will obviously like the sweet natured feel and heartwarming soundtrack, but for me not much interested me, a rather disappointing family adventure. Adequate!
rhoward-14 This Film Was Nicely Done. The Scenery was beautiful, the Dolphin was lovable and lively. Elijah Woods and Paul Hogan turn in fine performances as their characters' relationship grows (Particularly Hilarious was the fact that Paul Hogan's character keeps on hand a Large Supply of Spaghetti-O's, which he eats for most meals, after heating the contents with a blowtorch). The musical score was also bright and cheery. My biggest complaint is that the movie is unfortunately offset, somewhat substantially, by the nastiness of the story's bad guy, played by Jonathan Banks (same actor who played the villain in Beverly Hills Cop), who shocks the viewer within the opening half hour by sadistically shooting another dolphin. I found Banks' Dirk Moran to be a bit heavy-handed for a movie advertised to be as family-oriented as this one. His villain was more reminiscent to me of one of the villains in the "Bad Boys" Movies, which is the type of film where you are more likely expect to see a crueler bad guy. Thus, while I like the film, I encourage parents to watch it themselves, before renting it with their children.
marysia Dolphin - cuteElijah Wood - very very cute, especially when wet and partially nekkidPaul Hogan - strangely attractive, must have been the leather bondage cuff he wore through the whole moviePlot - very sillyCute blonde - romance sub-plot highly unconvincing, clearly no girl can come between a boy and his dolphin and Elijah doesn't even make a vague attempt at kissing her, instead choosing to spend all his time fondling FlipperEnding - strangely similar to Casablanca, as Elijah says farewell to the finned love of his life...Lij: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing. You're going out into that sea with your family where you belong.Flipper: eee eee eeeLij: Now you've got to listen to me! Do you have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten we'd both wind up in SeaWorld. Isn't that true, Paul Hogan?Paul: I'm afraid the kid is rightFlipper: eee eee eeeLij: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with your family. You're part of their life - the thing that keeps them going. If that pod leaves here and you're not with them, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. And for the rest of your life.Flipper: eee eee eeeLij: We'll always have that time under the pier. We didn't have - we lost it until you found the poison barrels. We got it back last night.Flipper: eee eee eeeLij: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. And where I'm going you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Flipper, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of one little boy and his dolphin don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Some day you'll understand that. Here's looking at you, kid.I'm so moved I may weep.In summary, approximately 5000 times better than Queen of the Damned, not quite as good as Lord of the Rings.
BadWebDiver This film suffers from being caught between two thematic ideas; on the one hand it wants to be a light comic character romp, and on the other hand it tries for a contemporary teen romance come light adventure story. And on top of that, it tries to cash in on the reputation of the various TV series' versions of 'Flipper'. And the big problem is with this movie is that nothing really works; it all seems to cancel each other out.(Spoiler Warning)Paul Hogan is still quite adept at light knockabout comedy - such as the much-promoted toasting bread with a blowtorch bit - but this is mainly smothered by Elijah Wood's mod grunge moody contemporary teenager thang - which doesn't play to comedy very well.There's a romantic angle thrown in with one of the local girls; but this is smothered by the attempt at character comedy with the showmanship entrepreneur angle, and the light adventure with the marauding shark bit.Overall the film is too dull and downbeat to be really fun, and yet too light-hearted to really work as a serious contemporary story.One bit I really liked however, was in the climactic scene when Elijah moved his eyes rapidly back and forth to show the character contemplating an emotional crunch-point. Elijah is naturally very expressive with his eyes, and he starts to show it off to good use in this movie. (PS: He's also got way hot legs as well - but that's totally beside the point!)