Thursday, January 09, 2014

Movie review - "Paradise" (1982) *1/2

The preview of this Blue Lagoon rip off could be seen constantly at the beginning of many a VHS rental back in the 80s - I assume it enjoyed a lot of popularity, with plenty of shots of its two handsome young stars, Willie Aames (fresh off Eight is Enough) and Phoebe Cates (pre- Fast Times at Ridgemount High but well known as a model) cavorting in an oasis.

Both of them look like they've stepped straight from the mall but it's actually set in 1823 (!). I think Cates at least is supposed to be English - she's a rich girl with a servant, he's the son of a missionary and his wife, who travel from Baghdad to Damascus. They are attacked on the way by men led by a sheik who wants Cates for his harem. In the 1920s the sheik would be the hero, and Cates would fall in love with him, but for now he's the baddy.

There's a comic chimp, Cates having nude showers, a mocked up house and which is a bit too close to The Blue Lagoon (as are the costumes Cates and Aames wear), the sheik rocks up at convenient points to be a threat (to kill off adults, to prompt Cates to sleep with Aames, to give the movie a climax).... although it's laughably easy for Aames to get rid of him at the end by firing off an arrow (what happened to his men?)

There's plenty of nudity - a body double was hired to add it for Cates, but she provides enough herself - and some Blue Lagoon style love-making. The locations are pleasing, the acting uniformly bad but Cates is pretty at least.

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