Dolphin Tale 2 (2014)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

best movie i've ever seen.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Blistering performances.

Great uplifting movie - I loved it! Living in a landlocked country, I always like watching films about marine life. Judging from the script, the target audience of the film seemed to be kids; and in many ways this is certainly a family movie, with the young teenagers Sawyer and Hazel being the heroes of the story. Nonetheless, this is a very insightful film about dolphins and marine life, with some great underwater scenes. I also enjoyed the scene with Bethany Hamilton swimming with the dolphin - very uplifting and heartwarming stuff.

Review: Although this movie is based on a true story, it' extremely corny and I personally found it slightly patronising. Don't get me wrong, I did feel for the dolphin who lost his friend because he had to be released back to the sea because of old age but I just couldn't take the storyline seriously. After getting threatened by there investors and the inspection team, the owners of the sea world struggle to keep it open and now that they only have one dolphin, the park is trouble. When another dolphin becomes available, they struggle to make the 2 dolphins become friends and they eventually work out that its due to the fact that the male dolphin doesn't have a tale and the female can't accept it. This is when Morgan Freeman gets involved and he builds another tale for the dolphin so the female can accept him and become friends. The film is SO Disney! All of the characters seem to be floating on air and there only care in the world are the animals in the park. Anyway, I wasn't a big fan of the first movie so I should have known what to expect from this one. The one thing that I was impressed with was the animals who told a brilliant story by themselves and it must have taken hours of training. The top actors like Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd and Kris Kristofferson only pop in and out of the film a few times so the kids were taking control with the help of Harry Connick Jr., who has been missing of the big screen for some time. I must admit, I did find the kids annoying but I don't think that it was made for a movie addict like me. Its more for a family on a nice day out at the cinema with popcorn and a large drink, than for a man like me who analyses every single word. At the end of the day, it's target audience should be satisfied but I struggled to stay awake. Great for the kids. Bad for the adults!  Round-Up:  The big stars of this movie has to be the animals, especially the grumpy looking tortoise and the stork who stuck his beak into everything. You can't help but fall in love with the dolphins and there intelligent minds and this movie really does show that they have got a bad attitude just like adults do. They also can feel loneliness and get upset when there best friend has been taken from them! Anyway, I had to keep in mind that this was a true story and the real footage at the end does show that the director stayed true to what really happened. The problem was that it just wasn't that entertaining. It was more of a look behind the scenes of a theme park, which must be difficult to maintain. I appreciate the different circumstances that the workers have to adapt to but when you tell the story with a Disney format, you can't really take it that seriously. It more or less, carries on from the first movie so if you was a fan of the first outing, then you should enjoy this movie.Budget: $36million Worldwide Gross: $52.5millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their light hearted fun movies about a dolphin who gets upset when his friend is sent back to sea because of his age. 4/10

"You can't just throw two dolphins in the water together."And that's basically the only conflict driving the plot for this sequel. I was a huge fan of Charles Martin Smith's first film starring Winter, the dolphin with the prosthetic tail, but there isn't anything appealing about this sequel which barely has a plot. I felt that there was never really much at stake here and many of the emotional moments felt forced, unlike in the first film where there was a lot at stake. There were a lot of fillings and subplots that never did anything to help build the pacing, and despite remaining family friendly, most children will probably be bored by this sequel. I never got engaged with it and perhaps much of that had to do with the weak script and the lack of conflict. The characters which I really liked the first time around didn't do anything for me in this sequel and I didn't feel that same connection they had with Winter this time around. Dolphin Tale 2 has all the right ingredients for a direct to DVD movie, but somehow it has been released in the big screen and received some positive reviews from the critics (only 4% lower than Interstellar according to Rottentomatoes). It astonishes me considering this film is formulaic and predictable with very little going for it. A week from now everyone will forget about it. The true star of the franchise is Winter, but in this sequel we really don't get to see the dolphin all that much. There really isn't much at stake either, and we know how everything is going to play out. The cast is back again, which means we get some cameos from Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, and Kris Kristofferson, but they aren't given any substantial role this time around. The film centers once again on the child actors, Nathan Gamble and Cozi Zuehlsdorff, who deliver solid performances but don't add much to the story. From the first scene you can tell that the producers were simply trying to cash in after the success of the first film because there is not much going for it story wise. The true story is inspirational and the original film has touched many people's lives, but there wasn't any need for a sequel.

Just saw this with my movie theatre-working friend. We both enjoyed this true-life sequel about Winter's acting strangely especially after the death of a fellow dolphin early in the film. Since Hazel and Sawyer are a little older and practically young adults, there's a hint of a budding romance between them though the main focus is on Winter and another possible new playmate named Hope. All the cast from the previous one is back and Morgan Freeman's character is allowed to say some witty lines that my friend found funny while I was a little amused at them. Actor Charles Martin Smith is the writer/director and he appears as the guy telling the Harry Connick Jr. character he has 30 days to fix whatever violations he cited. In summary, Dolphin Tale 2 was pretty enjoyable for a true-life sequel.