Review of Club Paradise (1986) by Eric H — 28 Apr 2014

Directed by Harold Ramis, who had broke into directing from writing with the double whammy of Caddyshack (1980) and National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), after writing and producing Ghostbusters (1984), he was offered this silly comedy which reunited Ramis with a lot of people he worked with on the Canadian sketch comedy Second City Television.

Some jokes work, some just don't, but it's a massive ensemble here. Chicago fireman Jack Moniker (Robin Williams) gets injured on the job and uses his disability money to retire to the Carribean island of Saint Nicholas.

There, along with struggling local reggae musician Ernest Reed (Jimmy Cliff), they make a holiday resort known as Club Paradise, with help from British governor Anthony Croyden Hayes (Peter O'Toole) and Jack's new girlfriend Phillipa Lloyd (Twiggy).

On holiday at Club Paradise are Barry and Barry (Rick Moranis and Eugene Levy) and writer Terry Hamlin (Joanna Cassidy). There's trouble when Saint Nicholas' Prime Minister Solomon Gundy (Adolph Caesar) wants to shut Club Paradise down for a big resort, but Jack fights back.

It's a very silly comedy, sort of like an 1980's version of those Ealing comedies where a small group of people fight back against authority figures. Williams somehow feels restrained in places, when he should have been let off the leash in a comedy like this, but it's the supporting cast that manage to do better.