Club Paradise

This film is another of Harold Ramis' films that I wanted to watch in addition to the Bill Murray films. Murray is not in this one, but his brother Brian Doyle-Murray co-wrote it with Ramis and appears in the film.  Apparently, Bill was actually offered the lead role and turned it down.  This film was hard to find and seems to be mostly forgotten, and after viewing it I can understand why.

The cast is spectacular and filled to the brim with comedic actors of the time.  Simon Jones, best known for playing Arthur Dent in the radio and BBC mini-series of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy even has a small role in it.  Besides Doyle-Murray, you've got Robin Williams, Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Steven Kampmann, the list goes on and on.  So you would expect this to be an entertaining film.

Unfortunately, it's not.  The plot follows Williams as he escapes the hectic and dangerous life of being a firefighter to move to a remote island in the Caribbean.  He purchases a hotel to help his friends and a lot of the assorted cast are people who booked a stay there.  The main problem is that the plot largely meanders around all this and packs in too many story lines, none of which are particularly interesting or funny.  Williams is far too subdued in his role, and all the other assorted bits like the two nerds trying to score some weed to get ladies or the married couple complaining about every little thing that's wrong just fall flat.

I'm going to have to agree with Bill on this one, the film just isn't worth your time.  I can't even point to a scene or two that might be worth checking out.  My excitement at seeing Simon Jones at the beginning was the only enjoyment I got out of it, and mostly because I took that to mean Ramis was probably a fan of H2G2.  This is a film  that can remain mostly forgotten.