User reviews

Everyone Loves Mel or Mel is a low budget 1998 film that is about a turtle. Sorry, tortise. The film is another unknown film that upon doing research, you will not find much information. But with that being said, the film itself stars the great Ernest Borgnine (Escape from New York and another low budget crap fest, 2000's Castle Rock) and notably Bug Hall (from Little Rascals). The film is directed by Joey Travolta (the brother of John Travolta)

The film follows two brothers, Roger and Travis. Roger is a troublemaker and they decide to send the boys to their grandpas. The area has a legend about a mythical creature and the rich guy of the town wants to hunt the creature. But perhaps the grandpa knows more about the creature more than anyone else.....

I had very low expectations for this film and I was somewhat surprised. The acting was not great but I have seen far far worse in other films. The characters seem to be very dated 90's sterotypes. For example, Roger. Just the way he acts is very cliche and sterotypical and his actions are very predictable. Travis is not very important but at times does make jokes that come of as annoying rather than funny. Grandpa is very likeable but is still victim to the old man, living off the land sterotype. He is really likeable only really due to the fact that Ernest Borgnine portrays him. The villain of the film is a very sterotypical villain with your typical motives. Now the main star is Mel, the giant tortise. When I look at the cover of this film (and let me clarify that this film is in a box set with seven other family films released by Echo Bridge) and like the other films in the box set, have misleading cover art and to be honest, this film is technically called Mel and not Everyone Loves Mel. But my point being was that I was gonna get a really crappy CGI sort of creature (or monster at that). To my surprise they use practical effects for Mel (and I am not sure if it is all puppetry or animatronics or what). With that being said, it is cheap and is not very pretty to look at. Now for a smooth transition here. In the film, it is mentioned once (and even then, it is something that I did not catch right away) that Mel supposedly has an ability. All that I am going to say is that the ending of this film made me decide to give this film the four star rating instead of the intended five star rating. It is quite stupid. Which leads me to another smooth transition. The tone. The tone of this film starts of rather dark and there are several points in the film where it will get really dark. Which is fine but it is inconsistent and there are huge tonal shifts throughout the film. For example, the film (as I have already said) begins on a dark note and ends on a really silly note too. I suppose the best way to describe this film is a poor mans version of Free Willy, if the whale is a turtle and this film lacks a lot of the charm from Free Willy.

I cannot say that I really hate this film at all. I believe that a four star rating for me signifies that I do not like a film, but I don't straight up hate the film. This was the case with this film. I found it rather easy to watch, I at times found the sterotypes and cliches to be rather fun to watch and the acting is not as bad as one may think. Which may sum up this film in general. It is bad, but not as bad as one may think.

Horrible acting (what was Julie Haggerty doing?) and bad special effects ruin a good lesson to be learned by kids. I know this is not for adults, but watch the Secret of Roan Inish, a kids movie that isn't stupid! It can be done.

Sorry, I don't like this film. They tried to mix something of E.T., Free Willy and other child-animal films, but this time it did not work at all... The acting is very bad. Only Ernest Borgnine is OK as grandpa. The big turtle "Mel" is very, very fake. The face of this animal is copy of E.T.'s head. Did you ever see a turtle fly? Well, this one can... Bad film. Don't buy it.

Oh this was just HORRIBLE! I am still puking! Can you imagine if the flying turtle dropped a speeding turtle turd on you while you were in your row boat? I think this was based on a true story. Apparently there was an over-sized turtle that lived in the Pacific Northwest that had a neck that put most porn stars to shame. He was accepted by the locals and soon became a charter and rented himself out as quick mode of transportation. I saw this flick on HBO one night and was completely blown away by the special effects and dialogue. When the credits rolled, I had a tear in my eye and was wishing that it wasn't over and that there might be a chance of a sequel.

This movie is overall very cute and very unique. Yes, i admit the special effects are not anything special...but that just adds to comedy. The acting is actually very good, especially Bug Hall, who is a really good actor. There are many hilarious lines in this film that just cracked me up. It is great movie to watch with your family, and it is very entertaining. I would certainly recommend this for families everywhere. This film even has jokes thrown in for the parents, and teaches a very good lesson, which is portrayed beautifully. This is a truly unique movie that keeps you at the edge of your seat all the way. A++

I just bought this movie. I found it very entertaining. The scenery was just incredible. The entire cast of Mel was excellently scripted and the story line was really unique. I enjoyed this movie tremendously. It was great to see Greg's two oldest children, Vanessa and Jason in the movie with their real life Dad. I will watch this movie over and over, it is truly timeless and recommend it highly to anyone who loves outdoor adventure movies, with no violence. A1+ movie. I give it the highest rating.

This film is a wonderful film and should be out at theaters,because some of the films put out in todays world are not made for children. This is also a great film for adult viewing. The story has a family closeness that is absent in a lot of family's.

How could this be bad? I mean, Joey Travolta, right? AND! Borg9! AND Julie Haggerty from that airplane film! It's like Gamera for weirdly dull Hallmark families in uh, Murica! Get a six pack... no get a case of really cheap beer and vape the hell out of your fruit flavored vape pen thingy and glue your eyes to this disaster! Really, it's beyond camp. We're in a new dimension now.

This movie changed my life. At first glance this seemed to be a movie about a silly turtle. I could not have been more wrong! This movie has heart, great effects, family and much more educational values. Some scenes in this movie were hilarious, especially the 1 2 buckle my shoe scene. The only thing i didn't like was the parents were horrible. They just decided to throw their kids on a plane alone for practically no reason. This movie reminds me of another great film, "Mac and Me", overall this movie is great and one of my favorites. All the 1 star reviews on here are watching this expecting it to the the greatest movie ever.

Would you believe? A kind of giant turtle that can fly ( and without wings!). Not only the story is full with clichés, the acting is awful (I saw it dubbed in french which is worse)but even my son (13) found the FX ridiculous. I can't believe this was done in '99. Looks worse that an old japanese monster movie to me...