Trapped in Paradise (1994)

the audience applauded

Great Film overall

Awesome Movie

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I remember reading a review once, I believe by Roger Ebert, where he said he knew the picture he was watching was in trouble when the supporting actors thoroughly outshined any of the leads. Such is the case here. The few laughs (more like chuckles actually) I did emit were from lines delivered by Richard Jenkins, a fed chasing the three lead characters, and Florence Stanley, the trio's mother. To be fair, a bad script can make laughs tough to finagle, but it doesn't preclude them entirely. This is where the director is supposed to come in and help create some comedic chemistry. He obviously did not do this. I mean, come on, we have a movie starring H.I. Mcdunnough, Garth Algar, and the critic. Yet only their mother, an actress previously unknown to me, elicited any laughs. Particularly annoying was the voice Carvery chose to do. It wasn't AS obnoxious as Cage in Peggy Sue, but it was close. Honestly, doing his George Bush impression the entire movie would've been funnier and made just about as much sense.Soft, generalized spoilers - over the course of the night, all three have a life altering epiphany. If that sounds contrived, wait til you see the love story. Comedies don't need to be well written if they make us laugh. Laughing automatically suspends our disbelief. Unfortunately, I had plenty of time to ponder the writing and direction while I was busy not laughing.

Well, I thought that the reviewers trashed this movie more than it really deserves. It wasn't the best of movies, but I did find that parts of it were funny. This movie is about two brothers who trick the third to go to a small town and rob a bank that is really easy to rob. Unfortunately they cannot get out of the town and end up giving all of the money back because they see the hearts behind the people.As I said, the movie isn't that great, but I do think that some people really watch too many movies and be a bit too critical about them. If one just relaxes, one can see the stupidity of this film. The whole comic concept is not watching police cars get smashed up, but rather watching a criminal walk across the road with the bank manager's wife, and then bring the entire café back because they can't leave them sitting there. It is just the unbelievable niceness and trust of the town. Unfortunately, later in the film it does start to lag in regards to the laughs, but I still think Dana Carvey's character is pretty cool - and more realistic as a kleptomaniac - so much as there is no order in what he steals, he simply steals because he can. The one character that did irritate me was Lovitt's.

I'm sure "Trapped In Paradise" was MEANT to be a full fledged comedy, and WANTED to have a heart-warming message to it... perhaps even HOPED it would capture the holiday spirit-seeking audiences that paid hard money to see this. But, I'm afraid it failed on all three counts. Not that Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey aren't ordinarily funny, by all means, no. They are wonderful in their own rights.It's just that THIS storyline, script and direction lost its punch very early in the film, and the three main characters simply could not save it. Yes, I laughed out loud several times, and liked the madcap interaction between Cage, Lovitz and Carvey. But I think I could have written a BETTER ending, one befitting that of "The Blues Brothers", or something like it. Perhaps the next time these three guys get together in a comedy, they'll find a better writer and director. Otherwise, they will remain "trapped" in (fill in the blank).

This movie is quite funny, you don't have to be a fan of Dana carvey or anything too. It was a good story and has funny plots throughout the movie as well. The guy who reviewed this before is wrong and is a typical this movie sucks that movie sucks critic. Jon Lovitz, Nicholas Cage, and Dana Carvey, are all hilarious in this flick and also just did a great job acting. These were the good Ole days and not the new days where its just stupid fart humor, and no class with the comedy, just sick and gross things. This had cache and goes down as a very funny movie. Go rent or buy it , its cheap and worth the cash spent. Toodles