Flipper

Sandy (Elijah Woods) is really angry at being sent to stay with his uncle Porter (Paul Hogan) on Coral Key, part of Florida's Key Islands. He is to spend the entire summer there, while his divorcing Mother recovers and ties up loose ends. Ouch. Not only this, but fisherman Porter lives in a near-shack, dines quite a bit on spaghettios, and makes toast with a blow torch. Plus, Sandy will be missing a dreamed of concert with The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Almost at once, Sandy begins plotting an escape. But, soon, a dolphin he and his uncle saw on the open water follows the boy home. Naming him Flipper, Sandy teaches the dolphin tricks and tries to earn money by showing him off to others. However, problems arise. First, no one is allowed to "keep" a dolphin as a pet; its a violation. Second, an evil fellow fisherman detests dolphins, who get in the way of fishing, and also may be plotting other dastardly deeds in the area. Will Sandy be able to remain close with Flipper? And is the dolphin and other sea creatures in danger? This entertaining version of a classic tv show from the sixties has much to enjoy. Hogan is a hoot and he and Wood are perfect acrimonious foils. The scenery is quite lovely, making one want to jet off to the Keys, and Flipper the actor is a heart stealer. Although there are times when tears may start forming, all ends well. In short, your family will flip over Flipper!

I was rather appalled to see the low rating this movie received here, personally considering it fun family fare. It revolves around a young teenager, Sandy Ricks, who is sent by his mom to Coral Key to spend the summer with his Uncle Porter. While there he befriends a dolphin named Flipper. Lots of adventures ensue amid the predictable nephew / uncle bonding as well as a little romance for Sandy with a local girl.

I'm a great Crocodile Dundee fan myself so absolutely loved Paul Hogan in his role as crusty and comical Uncle Porter. For starters, he keeps an endless stock of Spaghetti-O's in his house to serve as his usual meal, heated with a blowtorch! Elija Wood, Frodo from The Lord of the Rings, appeared quite competent playing the young Sandy, a boy at first none too fond of his forced summer vacation locale.

Of course the dolphin is magnificent and there are some wonderful underwater scenes. Set in the Florida Keys, it was apparently filmed in the Bahamas. This adaptation of Flipper makes great family entertainment, a sweet, sentimental, and fun movie that is infinitely superior to many of the cinematic offerings for youngsters nowadays.

well! its just finished on channel 4 about an hour ago! it was cool, better than free willy i have to say! ermm what to say...kids wud deffo like this film, the only fault is that it didnt show the rhcp's concert!! was lookin forward to seeing that when it was mentioned however...:P:P dont rent it wait for it to come on the television - pretty good acting ttfn xx

Flipper is a nice heartwarming movie for whole family. It's obviously not a great movie, Free Willy looks much better almost in every component of film making. Possibly, at times it becomes a bit naive , and the writing and the script are not the best part of the movie, but it's a entertaining film with very good cinematography (including underwater shots) and some important moral messages. Elijah Wood proves himself one more time as an incredibly talented and underrated actor. He can make bad movie watchable, okay movie - good, good - great and great movie becomes all time classic. Paul Hogan performance also was very good and he is completely fit to his role. As I already say above, whole cinematography was very good. But underwater shots definitely is the best parts. So Flipper is a perfect way if you want to see nice, sweet and entertaining movie. If you like me become sick and tired of modern Hollywood trash, filled with sex, violence, vulgarity and profanity you most likely would like this movie.

My rating: 7,7 out of 10. Feel free for mailing me about any of my comments and posts here.

Sorry for my bad English.

Flipper is a good movie that you can just sit down and watch with the little ones without having to worry about shielding their eyes at any point during it. Sure it's a bit cheesey at times and the writing is not on scale with an actor of Elijah Wood's caliber, but it is an entertaining film to watch and it's nice to see him playing a somewhat normal teenager. His character Sandy does lean towards the overly obnoxious side of things in the beginning though. So much so that you know if you were in the uncle's place, you'd take him out for a midnight ocean ride and not return with him.