Wednesday, July 10, 2024

DVD/Movie Review: Paradise

 


Paradise is a 1982 movie starring Phoebe Cates and Willie Ames. The film itself is bad. It is basically a rip-off of Blue Lagoon, which was probably much more popular than it (Blue Lagoon) should have been. This is actually Phoebe Cates' film debut. She is probably best known for her roles in the Gremlins movies and the 1980s coming-of-age movies, including the iconic scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Willie Ames was a child actor and later co-starred in Charles in Charge. They end up running through the desert (seemingly finding every oasis along the way), to get away from an Arab prince (of course named "The Jackyl") who wants Sarah (Cate's character) as a bride. So, yeah it is a bit racist.

The plot of the movie is basically an excuse to have Cates nude about every 15-20 minutes throughout. It was actually filmed before she did Fast Times, and honestly, I am not sure how the nudity got cleared given that Cates was 17 for at least part of the time the movie was being filmed. The movie pretty much bombed, and Cates never had anything to do with it after it was released. Needless to say, it was never something that would have been able to be shown on TV because it would be less than an hour long with the nudity edited out. The movie itself is horribly written, and, as a result, the acting is not all that great either. Cates and Ames have little to no chemistry with each other, so when it gets to the point where they supposedly fall in love, they have less passion than the two Chimps (yes, there are Chimps, too) that tag along with them throughout the movie. If you grew up in the 1980s and had a huge crush on Phoebe Cates because of Fast Times, Private School, and Gremlins, she is the only reason to see this movie. Otherwise, you are not missing anything if you skip it.

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