Entertainment Weekly, Dec 22, 1995 n306 p12(1)
'VH1 Duets' TV hosts Matthew Sweet and John Hiatt accidently dressed alike for first show
By Casey Davidson
Though they were chosen as partners for the new concert series VH1 Duets (think MTV Unplugged with a twist), Matthew Sweet and John Hiatt were sure they had nothing in common. The Nashville-based Hiatt's a little bit country, while power-pop Sweet is a little more rock & roll. Then they met. Arriving on stage to tape the show, which airs Dec. 20, the musicians found they had a sartorial link. "We both wore the same thing--a red shirt under black clothes," says Sweet. We [told] the audience that we didn't plan it that way. They better not edit it out of the show. Otherwise people will think that VH1 dressed us."
Entertainment Weekly, May 24, 1996 n328 p72(1)
By Ken Tucker
One reason the new feature film Flipper (Universal, PG) is better than the 1964-68 TV show Flipper: Fine young actor Elijah Wood (The War, North) plays the dolphin's friend Sandy Ricks instead of wooden young TV actor Luke Halpin.
One reason the Flipper flick is worse than the TV show: Bland, mannered Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan plays Sandy's uncle, Porter Ricks, instead of television's wonderfully grumpy Brian Keith.
So, with the score for casting tied at 1-1, let's go to the plot:
In the movie, Sandy is a sullen, sarcastic 14-year-old Chicagoan sent off to spend the summer on an unnamed tropical island with beach bum Uncle Porter. They're destined not to get along. How do we know? Sandy likes the Red Hot Chili Peppers; Porter is a Beach Boys fan. Pretty soon, a smirky, snickering dolphin starts hanging around the Ricks' end of the island. Recognizing a kindred interspecific smart aleck, Sandy befriends the bottle-nosed mammal, dubbing him Flipper. Sandy also befriends a lissome blond human, who is already dubbed Kim (newcomer Jessica Wesson).
Who's the bad guy here? A rotten local sailor who gets his kicks shooting at dolphins with a rifle; he's played by Jonathan Banks of TV's Wiseguy. Flipper, Sandy, and Kim discover that this sentient piece of seaweed is also dumping toxic waste into the local waters. It's up to our heroes to get the villain.
Now, remember the TV show? TV Sandy and his little brother, Bud, were always falling into the water, and Flipper would save them. Or some bad guy would be polluting the water, and Flipper would have to swim over and flip the guy into the water. So except for the lissome blond, no difference between the action in the TV show and in this movie, written and directed with utter humorlessness and sunburned lassitude by Alan Shapiro, whose place in cinema history is assured for introducing Alicia Silverstone to feature films with his The Crush.
So far, movie Flipper and TV Flipper are even. But here come the tiebreakers:
1. Toward the end, movie Flipper introduces a law-enforcement officer played by Isaac Hayes. Mr. Hot Buttered Soul in Flipper? Excellent!
2. Remember the TV show's wimpy, singsongy theme ("They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning...")? Well, the movie's one burst of energy comes in a devilish reworked version by poprocker Matthew Sweet.
Movie Flipper wins, by a fin.
USA Today, 10/17/96
Matthew Sweet's sunny-sounding Billboard top ten hit "Sick of Myself"
is a hot commodity on MTV and on pop, rock, and alternative radio. The two
albums before his 1991 breakthrough Girlfriend were hailed by critics
and began a Sweet cult. But '93 follow-up Altered Beast drew mixed
reviews and didn't take off on the charts or on the air. Sweet's latest
is reaching the alternative-happy mainstream with 100% Fun, an intersting
switch on Beast which was called dark and weird. Matthew Sweet comments,
"What I really care about is the heart in music. I almost think I've
gotten a bad rap that I'm just this craftsman who carefully pieces everything
together, but that makes me laugh because for me it's more offhand, banging
on a guitar and something comes out."
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