Club Paradise is what happens when you gather some of the funniest people of the era, drop them in a tropical setting, and somehow create a movie that barely makes a ripple. Directed by Harold Ramis, starring Robin Williams, Peter O’Toole, and a murderers’ row of SCTV alums, it should be a comedy classic. Instead, it’s one of those movies that exists in the collective unconscious of people who watched too much HBO in the late ‘80s but has otherwise been completely swept out to sea.
Williams plays a firefighter who takes his insurance payout and buys a run-down Caribbean resort, attracting a cast of misfits, tourists, and government stooges. It’s a breezy, hangout kind of film, but with a script that feels more like a vacation itinerary. You want it to be funnier, sharper, something – because everyone involved is capable of so much more. But like a cheap all-inclusive, it just kind of coasts on vibes.
For a movie with Ramis, Williams, and O’Toole in the mix, you’d think it would at least have a bigger cult following, but Club Paradise barely clings to the edges of pop culture memory. It’s not bad enough to be infamous, not good enough to be beloved, and not memorable enough for nostalgia-bait Facebook content farms – just another lost relic in the cinematic flotsam of 1986. -Pop