Paradise (2013) Reviews

• Paradise it is not!

  iraz2013-09-19

  After an interesting start, Paradise plunges to the depths of pure boredom and a waste of time. When the lead character meets Russell Brand after about 15 minutes, the movie's whole direction changes and becomes close to unwatchable. Not that it's Russell Brand's fault, the film becomes stagnant and never regains any momentum. Interest wanes and the story lacks any coherent reason to continue watching. The film is not well constructed and I found myself asking why it was ever given a green light. The writing lacks any bite save for the opening and it is a waste of time. It almost plays like a Lifetime movie and I avoid those films like the plague. I saw this film on my cable provider's Video On Demand, it has not been released in theaters yet. I think this is done to generate revenue when they have a questionable title that they feel will not do well when it is released. When they do this, little is known about a film so caution should be used. I should have taken my own advice!!

• This should have been a lifetime movie, not something you pay to watch

  caroltaylorrecruits2013-10-27

  This could have a great movie based on the cast alone - Holly Hunter, Nick Offerman, Octavia Spencer & Russell Brand. It could have capitalized on Juliana Hough's singing talent in one or two scenes. The opening scene of a girl with a serious crisis of faith, gave a hint of a comedy to come. No such luck. When sheltered country girl Juliana Hough decides to leave her small religious community after surviving a horrible accident and go to Sin City to experience life's naughty pleasures, there's a premise (Don't let those previous fool you!) that this could be funny. It's NOT. The first sign of this is when she makes offensive comments about Muslims...and shortly later, about Jews. Not funny, just racist. During her travels, she meets a charming bartender played by Russell Brand & a disillusioned lounge singer played Octavia Spencer, and I hope things will pick up. In fact, I hoped I'd hear Octavia & Julia sing together by the end of the movie. Nope. Russell Brand's witty commentary is not enough to save this dreary movie. Octavia is relegated to dispensing dime store wisdom. There isn't much of a plot. It's not funny. It's not moving. In fact, it's rather contrived. At one point, I thought I was watching one of those Christian movies, and I'm still not sure I wasn't. But one thing is for sure: I was terribly disappointed in such a waste of a great cast and a potential for a great movie plot.

• Inconsistent and amateurish; missed opportunities all over

  john329352015-09-23

  The initial premise is a good one - how a tragedy can make someone lose his/her faith and the principles on which he/she has based living. And then (about 10 minutes into the movie) it goes off the tracks and devolves into a bad after school special - a really, really bad one. Lamb (a very bad character name) is supposed to have been protected from the evils of pop culture but when she travels through Vegas she seems to know quite a few pop culture references. The bad girl activities which she undertakes are lame and tame. The "jokes" are even worse…"I'll have the Peach Shnap" as she misreads the bottle behind the bar. Ha Ha. The backstory for 2 people who befriend her are glossed over - thereby wasting the talents of Octavia Spencer (and maybe Russell Brand if I am being generous in the definition of "talent"). Oh yeah, Lamb's parents (the extremely talented Holly Hunter and Nick Offerman) barely register any screen time or decent dialog and are additional examples of wasted opportunities. Sure, Lamb grows some through her experiences but it all comes too easily and too readily to her. And the audience can see the resolution way before it happens. Such a disappointment from a talented writer and director, and a gifted cast so badly misused.

• Even if you're stuck inside recovering from burns, watch something else

  in19842014-01-05

  3.9 of 10. No excuses for Diablo Cody with this film. She wrote and directed. Despite doing both, she once again shows she has only a grasp of satire the way a virgin has a grasp of sex. It's an improvement upon the Juno mess, but not much. Cody seems to have a strength in ideas and setting up gags, but really needs help from a more expert story teller/director so her stories are something more than artificially prolonged Saturday Night Live gags. As others have pointed out, it starts strong, much like Juno, then Diablo's lack of depth, knowledge, and creativity becomes exposed and turns the film into melodramatic tedium that only someone stuck in a hospital burn unit could enjoy.

• "Fish-Out-Of -Water" Theme Just Doesn't Ring True

  larrys32013-11-23

  Julianne Hough (Safe Haven,Rock of Ages) stars here as Lamb, who has survived a small plane crash, which killed her fiancé, but left her disfigured with burns all over her body. She along with her mother (Holly Hunter) and father (Nick Offerman) belong to an ultra orthodox Christian sect, where things like dating, dancing, smoking, drinking, or even cutting one's hair are prohibited. After Lamb wins a multi-million dollar settlement from her accident, she decides to renounce God in front of her church members, in the small town of Blakesley, Montana. She has decided to travel to Las Vegas with the intent of trying all the things she's been denied all these years. In Vegas, she meets William, a bartender in the rather rundown Hi-Lo Room. William is ably portrayed by Russell Brand, who adds quite a bit of comic relief to the film. Also, she meets Loray, a not so great singer played by the wonderful actress Octavia Spencer, who's also a friend of William's. Together they take a liking to Lamb and act as her "guardian angels", so she doesn't go too far over-the-top in her experimentations. It all seems like a decent premise with a strong cast. However, the film to me seems to bog down in clichéd melodrama and just never rings true. It also, for whatever reason, seems to be going down a checklist of ethnicities to make sure there's a remark made about each one of them. Additionally, the movie misses few opportunities to show us Lamb's disfigured skin. Finally, one scene in which Lamb gives a large amount of money to a prostitute in a club restroom seemed, to me, totally ridiculous. Overall, I thought the film had its' moments but they were outweighed by non-believable and clichéd plot elements. A disappointment from the writer and director Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult), in my opinion.