DVD Review: Club Paradise

Pack your bags for Club Paradise, the Caribbean resort where the good times and laughter come at you in waves. Academy Award winner* Robin Williams steers their crazed course of this tropical romp as an ex-Chicago fireman who uses a sizable disability settlement to transform a remote island watering hole into a lucrative tourist waterland. Peter O’Toole, Twiggy, Rick Moranis, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy and other comic cohorts cheerfully cavort (and Jimmy Cliff musically riffs) under the breezy direction of Harold Ramis (National Lampoon’s Vacation, Caddyshack) for a lark that The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael judged “as pleasant as can be.”

Review:
Club Paradise is a kind of hit-and-miss comedy starring great comedic talents such as Robin Williams, Rick Moranis and Eugene Levy. Viewers who are used to seeing Williams as the show-stealing star wherever he makes an appearance will notice, however, that he takes the back seat in this film leaving the comedic hijinks to the supporting cast. SCTV greats Rick Moranis and Eugene Levy present pure comic gold in their performances as Barry and Larry, the perpetually aroused bachelors who are constantly on the prowl for women who would otherwise not think to offer them the time of day. In the film Williams portrays a recently retired firefighter who uses his insurance claim to permanently settle on the island of St. Nicholas after being injured while saving an angry German Shepard from an apartment fire. Using his settlement money Williams purchases in hopes of saving the island getaway from developers who wish to line the beaches with sleazy, high-rise condominiums and hotels. After placing somewhat misleading ads for his newly dubbed “Club Paradise” Williams’s first group of guests arrive, many of whom are none too pleased with his clever embellishments of his facilities. Williams finds himself struggling between keeping guests pacified and content, and appealing to a travel journalist who could expose and bring a swift end to the tenure of Club Paradise on the island of St. Nicholas which would surely open the door for developers to wipe this quaint little island getaway off the map for good. Of course, as often-time happens, a civil conflict erupts on the island, and corruption between the government and the evil developers is exposed and Club Paradise lives to see another day.

Review by Emma Loggins

Grade: B+
Official site: http://www.warnerbrothers.com
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