Dolphin Tale (2011) - A potentially great story wobbles in poor production

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Some celebrities, a couple of kids and a dolphin float around in the water on the poster for Charles Martin Smith's Dolphin Tale

Dolphin Tale is the 9th film from Californian director Charles Martin Smith (Air Bud (1997)). It is a family film based on a true story.

In Florida, a boy without a father finds a dolphin on a beach, entangled in a crab case, and helps to rescue it to a marine facility, where the creature and its rehabilitation becomes his main priority.

There's a very fine story at play in Dolphin Tale. A humanistic story of not giving up hope, of living with a disability and of the bond between an animal and a person.
Unfortunately, the writing of Dolphin Tale is all but imaginative, and although the film tackles serious issues, it still feels like it is wrapped in Styrofoam. - I get that the makers have decided that this should be child-friendly and uplifting, but it has gotten the best of them here, because Dolphin Tale, though based on a true story, doesn't feel very real. It feels like a polished Disney Channel-version of reality, where people always have nice hair and walk around in up key lighting and smile with their teeth at all times. (Disney didn't make Dolphin Tale though.) It is written by Karen Janszen (A Walk to Remember (2002)) and Noam Dromi (Road to Hollow (2013), TV-series). Smith's direction of Dolphin Tale is unsure and uninspired.
The boy (Nathan Gamble (The Mist (2007))) mostly acts well, but the girl opposite him (debuting Cozi Zuehlsdorff (Sofia the First (2013-15))) acts poorly and is annoyingly written. Some of this is, of course, Smith as the director's fault.
The adult members of the cast, Harry Connick Jr. (Hope Floats (1998)), Ashley Judd (Tooth Fairy (2010)), Kris Kristofferson (The Motel Life (2012)), Morgan Freeman (Lucky Number Slevin (2006)), Austin Stowell (Whiplash (2014)) and Frances Sternhagen (Misery (1990)), all pass the buck, but neither of them are memorable or get any real space to shine here.
The film's use of 3D is a cheap selling ploy more than anything else, and in light of the film's other deficiencies, bad taste.
SPOILER Dolphin Tale ends with a segment of clips from the real-life dolphin's story, which are moving, but they shouldn't erase the fact that the film before it was far from all it could have been.
The dolphin Winter is the real star of Dolphin Tale, and anyone who loves dolphins should at least take pleasure in the scenes with Winter and her remarkable story.

Related posts:
 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 37 mil. $
Box office: 95.4 mil. $
= Even Steven
[Dolphin Tale opened #3 in the US, behind the re-release of The Lion King (1994) and Moneyball. In its second week, it climbed to #1 on an extremely fatigued movie weekend with just 13.9 mil. $. It ended up making 72.2 mil. $ in North America (76 % of the total gross). The film was generally well-reviewed in America, and Dolphin Tale 2 (2014) is also already a fact.]

What do you think of Dolphin Tale?
What other movies about dolphins have you seen?

The Cove (2009) - Psihoyos' dolphin doc is a stouthearted, important piece of magnificent filmmaking

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The scary poster for Louie Psihoyos' The Cove

QUICK REVIEW:

In The Cove, we are taken on a suspenseful mission to Taiji, a Japanese fishing town which is the center of the world's worst, systematic, annual dolphin-slaugther. Due to effective cover-up by the authorities, the film's team has to construct an Ocean's Eleven-like plan to document the mass killing. The scandal further develops, as the dolphin meat, which has alarmingly high mercury levels, is planned to be used as food for school children.

The Cove is beautiful, shocking, eminent and exciting. It leaves the possibility for going from it with some hope, - which seems necessary after witnessing the deeply upsetting atrocities of the Japanese 'fishermen'.
The Oscar-winning documentary is directed by Louie Psihoyos, who's next, second feature will come out later this year and almost certainly become a big event. It is titled Racing Extinction and is about saving endangered species.
The Cove is written by Mark Monroe (Chasing Ice (2012)) and edited by Geoffrey Richman (Sicko (2007)).
It is uncommonly fantastic; brilliantly orchestrated - an almost unbearable tear-jerker and heroic work. It was, - unsurprisingly, - wildly controversial, especially in Japan. You can read about its controversy here.
- Watch this movie! 

Related posts:


2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch the great trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 1.1 mil. $
= Unknown
[Although almost certainly financially a flop. The Cove is financed by wonderful Participant Media. It won a long string of awards and honors besides its Best Documentary Oscar. 0.8 mil. $ or 76 % of its total gross came from the US.]

What do you think of The Cove?

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) - Shadyac's 6th gear Jim Carrey smacker

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+ Best Movie of the Year

+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best Animal Movie of the Year + Breakthrough of the Year: Jim Carrey + Best Comedy of the Year + Best Debut of the Year + Most Deserved Hit of the Year + Best Florida Movie of the Year + Best Huge Hit Movie of the Year + Best Poster of the Year + Most Underrated Movie of the Year

Star Jim Carrey brazenly flashing his card, in ridonkulous garbs, on the iconic poster for Tom Shadyac's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

When US football team the Miami Dolphins' mascot, a real dolphin, gets kidnapped shortly before the team's Super Bowl finale, pet detective Ace Ventura is put on the case, and he works it with zeal and his special brand of not exactly self-effacing charm.

Jim Carrey (Kids (2014, short)) shines as a jet-fueled star in his first lead role as the comic genius that he is. There simply isn't a single bad or semi-bad scene in Virginian master co-writer/director Tom Shadyac's (Liar Liar (1997)) overwrought, tight goofball-comedy Ace Ventura, which is his debut. The film radiates playful, light-hearted inventiveness in its use of music, costumes, hair design and storyline, which is funny on its own and hysterically funny with Carrey's performance plastered all over it. Shadyac wrote the script with Carrey and Jack Bernstein (Monk (2006-09)).
He has once shared that he found during a dinner with Anthony Hopkins that he had played Hannibal Lector much like Carrey had played Ventura: By moving like an animal. (In Hopkins' case, it had been like a reptile.) And if you've seen Ace Ventura, you'll probably be able to guess that in Carrey's case, he moved like a bird. (Thank God fellow Canadian Rick Moranis turned down the part as Ventura, so that Carrey got the offer; Moranis would surely never have gotten these moves out.)
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is a comedy classic, and together with The Cable Guy (1996), it is arguably Carrey's funniest movie.

Related posts:

 

The inevitable sequel: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) or, Nuts in Africa

Tom Shadyac: 2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Evan Almighty (2007) - Shadyac's monumentally miscalculated sequel/professional gravestone (hope not) 

Bruce Almighty (2003) - Carrey makes laughter in well-made what-if-you-were-God-comedy

1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 107.2 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 7.14 times its cost)
[Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was released 4 February (USA) and runs 86 minutes. Moranis was offered the part but turned it down; Whoopi Goldberg, Judd Nelson and Alan Rickman were then considered, before the producers noticed Carrey and cast him. Shooting took place in Florida, including Miami, from May - July 1993. The film opened #1 to a 12.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 5 weeks in the top 5, of which another 2 were as #1, (#1-#2-#2-#1-#3), and grossed 72.2 mil. $ (67.4 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film a 1/4 star review, translating to 6 notches lower than this one. Carrey in 1994 went from being virtually unknown to becoming the world's #2 box office star, behind Tom Hanks, as his 3 1994 movies Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber grossed 550 mil. $. Steve Oederkerk made the direct sequel, the very successful but mediocre Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995). A 1995-00 animated TV-series and a 2009 direct-to-video spin-off sequel have been made, both without involvement from any of the principals. Shadyac returned with The Nutty Professor (1996). Carrey returned in The Mask (1994). Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is rotten at 47 % with a 4.55/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective?

The Big Blue/Le Grand Bleu (1988) - Besson's ambitious, overlong diving drama

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An almost hypnotically pretty, original French poster for  Luc Besson's The Big Blue

The Big Blue is a nature-themed romantic drama that was great French director Luc Besson's (Léon: The Professional/Léon (1994)) third feature film, and, despite many people's high praises for it, I find it quite awful. Perhaps they feel so because of the oceanic serenity that it cultivates or the obviously lovely dolphins that are central in the semi-authentic story, but although I am fascinated with ocean life and adore dolphins, it just isn't my cup of tea.

The story concerns two very different boys in Sicily, who become friends due to their common passion for diving. As adults, they compete in the Diving World Championship as well as for a girl.

It starts out really well with B/W-scenes from the boys' childhood. After that, we are asked to stomach an excessive amount of very smug and self-satisfied Jean Reno (The Pink Panther (2006)), and literally hours of extremely good-looking Jean-Marc Barr (Baby Blues (2008)), an at the time 28 year-old man who must have been able to sleep with just about anyone he wanted, playing a man here who doesn't know A THING about women, and seemingly hasn't ever been with one. His acting goes beyond the annoying, as he seems to flirt bizarrely with Reno in countless scenes, and doesn't so much act as differentiate the cuteness with his Bambi-eyes for most of the film, (which gets old with me after about 10 minutes, wherein I fully admit that he's adorable), - whenever he isn't crying, which he also does on more than one occasion in The Big Blue. On top of this, his character, who needs to carry the movie, is morally reprehensible; addicted to extreme diving, the man truly has a very unhealthy preference for fish over people: SPOILER To underline this, at the movie's end he chooses to dive with dolphins in the dead of night instead of taking care of his pregnant, desperate girlfriend...!
The diving scenes seem endless, and they don't come close to balancing with the cliché sex scenes that seem to have found their way into the story for commercial purposes, or in order to justify even more dolphin appearances perhaps.
The awfully overlong film is the result of a script by Besson, Robert Garland (Tootsie (1982)), Marilyn Goldin (Sweet Revenge (1976)), Jacques Mayol - who is the real life basis for the lead Mayol character, - and Marc Perrier (Subway (1985)). It feels a bit as if the 5 writers came up with a huge list of scenes and simply decided never to get rid of a single one.
Rosanna Arquette (Growing Up (2008)) and Barr have the film's main romance, and they are both extremely photogenic here. Arquette in general lights up the picture tremendously, SPOILER although her character's moving from the US to Europe based on an unconsummated fling is another hard-to-believe element in The Big Blue.
 The best thing about the film is probably its photography (by Carlo Varini (The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004))) and the often very beautiful locations. There is also a well-done floating-in-bed-effect towards the end (see a still of it below), and it seems clear that real personal feeling and heart is pumping behind the film. It causes a few laughs, which also helps it from being a complete fluke. 
Finally, though, there's the film's music... Two scores exist for the movie; the original's Éric Serra (The Lady (2011)) European version score and Bill Conti's (Rocky Balboa (2006)) US version. I saw and heard the European version with Serra's score, and I thought it absolutely the worst-sounding 1980s keyboard-dominated, languid aberration that I have ever heard accompany a movie. I find the film an overly self-indulgent, mishandled, tedious, super-sentimental splash.
The Big Blue is included in the French 'Cinéma du look' movement of its time: A more visually striking, referential French wave, which was less reliant on narrative and substance than look and style, which certainly seems true for The Big Blue. The wave was made up of the early films of Besson, Leos Carax (Boy Meets Girl (1984)) and Jean-Jacques Beineix (Diva (1981)).

Related posts:

Luc Besson: Taken 2 (2012) - Neeson's in trouble in Istanbul in dull sequel (co-writer)
Bandidas (2006) - Cruz, Hayek take the West in Besson's loose grip
District 13/Banlieue 13/B-13 (2004) - Parkour action in Paris

How long can you stare at this photo of Jean-Marc Barr's face? 1 minute? 2 minutes? If you answer 168 minutes, then you might enjoy The Big Blue

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 80 mil. FRF, equaling approximately 14.2 mil. $
Box office: 3.5 mil. $ - North America only
= Uncertainty - but likely a box office success
[The Big Blue premiered 11 May (France) and runs 168 minutes (there also exists in 132 and 118 minute versions.) Filming took place in Peru, Greece, Tennessee, the Virgin Islands and New York, Italy and France, including Paris from June 1987 - ?. The story differs widely from the real lives of Mayol and Enzo Maiorca, who are the inspirations for it. Maiorca considered the film a poor caricature and did not see it publicly in his native Italy until 2001, when Mayol had died from suicide after a bout of depression. The film was a huge hit in France, where 9.1 mil. paid admission and it played for a year; if the ticket prize was 3 $, this would amount to 27.3 mil. $. It was also successful in other European markets, where it has also been re-released several times, but unfortunately the grosses are not made public. It opened #12 to a 1.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where its release was considered unsuccessful. The film was nominated for 8 César Awards (France's Oscar) and won 2. Without a world gross, I can't ascertain the film's theatrical hit/flop status. Besson returned with Nikita/La Femme Nikita (1990). Barr returned in Le Brasier (1991); Reno in La Femme Nikita, and Arquette in a TV movie, a video short and an anthology before she returned to the big screen in Black Rain (1989). The Big Blue is fresh at 62 % with a 5.51/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Big Blue?