Splash, Too

As bad sequels go, this one is right up there with Freddy Kruger's Cash-in Christmas Special part VI.

Now if you can't get one of the main characters to appear, then you think long and hard, and if you can cast someone else and get away with it - as in Silence of the Lambs/Hannibal - then you make the new film.

But when practically NONE of the original cast OR the production team OR writers want to do a sequel, it becomes a really bad idea. A really bad idea.

That said, it has some good ideas which would've worked well in the original Splash.

This Disney sequel to the 1984 hit 'Splash' is a lot better than a lot of people think. And while Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah chose not to reprise their roles as mermaid & man couple Alan and Madison, this does not take anything away from the film itself.

When we last left Allen and Madison, they had just left New York to live a life of secrecy on a deserted island. It's here, that Madison (Amy Yasbeck) shows Allen (Todd Waring) how she can view other people's lives, simply by running her index finger in a circle motion in water. This makes Allen sad, and they both return to New York to live.

Here, Madison (played by Yasbeck, from 'The Mask', 'Problem Child' and 'Problem Child 2') finds out that Alan's boss is using dolphins as guinea pigs in some company's testing experiment. She tries desperately to save Salty the Dolphin and enlists the help of Alan, and Fern, Alan's boss's wife.

This is a wonderful fantasy tail (hehe - that's me being clever!) about one of the eightie's favorite film couples. In my opinion, Amy did a way better job than Daryl Hannah ever did! Dody Goodman ('Grease', 'Grease 2', 'Splash') returns as the kooky recepetionist, while John Candy ('Uncle Buck', 'Home Alone', 'Cool Runnings') and Eugene Levy (American Pie) also neglected to return.

I always loved this movie as a kid, and while it was only a TV movie, that was not supposed to be as good as the original, I thought it was sooooooo much better! Amy's fantastic, the dolphin is cool and... and... it just rocks...okay?

'Splash' was my favorite movie as a small child. I even named my pet turtles Madison and Allen. So as you can imagine when 'Splash Too' premiered on TV you couldn't have found a more excited kid. Unfortunately I remember even then thinking there was something very wrong with this continuation. Skip ahead twenty years later; I find this unworthy sequel on youtube and decide to give it another chance.

My first and biggest gripe; where was the military? Remember the reason Madison and Allen left in the first place? Did the United States government and the rest of the world just forget that Allen Bauer broke the only living mermaid on record out of a government facility and then escaped into the ocean with her? They didn't even change their names! Eddie should have been in jail! Even if you ignore that inexcusable continuity error there are many, many other things wrong with this movie.

Amy Yasbeck and Todd Waring give decent Madison and Allen impersonations but they simply don't evoke the same chemistry or charm the original pair displayed. The dialogue is corny, and the characters are caricatures of their original counterparts. All that and slap a truly abysmal theme song on it and you've got yourself a real sinker.

The bottom line is that this is a perfect example of what happens when you try to continue a story that doesn't need to be continued. It should really be renamed 'Splash Too Much.'

Now I came across this movie during a period of channel surfing and I tell you I wish I had just surfed on. This is terrible. I have not seen the original for many years but remember it in a much fonder light than this drivel. What we have here is a pants film with a poor story, wooden acting and sloppy direction. How this ever got the green light is beyond me. You get character TV actors who are not worthy of gracing a movie filling roles filled by actors who on the whole went on to bigger and better things (sorry Daryl Hannah) and doing an extremely poor job of it. The script is worse than your average TV sit-com and the direction is just TV plodder like. The supporting characters have little to no value and are so flat I think I will coin the term one dimensional for them. Avoid at all times.

I adore the 1984 film Splash. It was irresistible, charming, funny and romantic. I admit I wasn't expecting Splash Too to top it in any way, but I was expecting it to be watchable in some way. Alas, it wasn't. Splash Too is the anti-thesis of Splash. It is forgettable, charmless, unfunny and mawkish.

I will give some credit, the locations are quite nice. Also Todd Waring and Amy Yasbeck give decent performances, however they don't have the beautiful chemistry that Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah had and they are further disadvantaged by the fact that the characters are caricatures of their former selves. The direction is also very plodding, the script is flat and unfunny, the story is predictable and lazy and ignores some of the events of that of Splash, the pace is sloppy and I agree the theme song is abysmal.

In conclusion, very disappointing, seeing how wonderful Splash was. 2/10 Bethany Cox