Free Willy 3: The Rescue (1997): Dir: Sam Pillsbury / Cast: Jason James Richter, August Schellenberg, Annie Corley, Patrick Kilpatrick, Vincent Berry: Pointless sequel where a whale is rescued for its third bloody time. This time Jason James Richter and August Schellenberg must rescue Willy from poachers who probably wish to eat the whale so to save viewers from a possible Free Willy 4. Director Sam Pillsbury does his best but even the photography looks bland. The screenplay is about as exciting as picking food from your teeth. Hearing a third grade kid read a book report on the whale would be more interesting than anything that happens in this sleep fest. Richter should be given some sort of an award for all the whales he has seen under the influence of bad sequels. Schellenberg also returns because he obviously pitied Richter and decided to share the blame. Also with Annie Corley and Patrick Kilpatrick who must deal with having this junk on their resumes. The animal rights message doesn't really matter here. This is just feeding off another franchise that never really had a fresh angle to begin with. We all understand the need to preserve wildlife but this feels more like an opportunity to milk a dying franchise to death. Even the whale looks like it ought to be moving on to better things, like the stage version of Orca. Perhaps the filmmakers should free Willy and come up with a new idea. Score: 1 / 10
Review of Free Willy 3: The Rescue
Free Willy 3: The Rescue
(1997)
Free Willy and Hire a Good Screenwriter.
25 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers