Trapped in Paradise

Hi Aki,

Tonight we watched a pan and scanned version of Trapped in Paradise, a pretty stupid comedy. I’m sure it got greenlit after Dumb and Dumber was such a hit, and the other Jim Carrey movies. Unfortunately the writer/director here doesn’t have the genius of the farelly brothers, and the stars – Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz, and Dana Carvey – can’t match Carrey here.

There were a few laughs and good tech job generally, but I’m sure they spent way too much money here too, with that cast.

This was pretty universally panned and it’s not great but it’s not terrible. Fox lost a lot of money on it too. I wonder if the director ever got another shot. [Update: writer-director George Gallo did get other directing gigs, but not for another 7 years. Luckily he was an established writer, so he stayed in he game writing until he managed another shot in the directing chair.]

One of the main problems is overacting. it’s as if they know the material isn’t funny and have to boost it. But then, Dumb and Dumber was a real exagerrated cartoon, and that’s what they were aiming at.

(written around 29 February 2009)