By Geno McGahee
Have I told you how much I love Nicolas Cage? The guy is awesome and has made some of the most entertaining films I’ve ever seen. On the other hand, I consider Dana Carvey one of the least funny, untalented “entertainers” to ever exist. So, TRAPPED IN PARADISE features both Cage and Carvey along with Jon Lovitz in a Christmas film.
Bill Firpo (Cage) runs a restaurant and life is good, but he has two brothers, Dave (Lovitz) and Alvin (Carvey) getting released early from prison. Bill desperately wants to distance himself from his two brothers, but he still has to deal with them. Alvin is a kleptomaniac and Dave is a scammer that has not changed his ways despite his release from prison. Dave wants to get both of his brothers into a plan to rob a bank in a small Pennsylvania town, but he has to trick Bill to do it. They tell him that he’s wanted in a crime and made it believable and they fled to PA.
In Paradise, PA, there is a small bank where Sarah (Madchen Amick) works. Dave brings up the idea of robbing the bank and gives Bill no options because he can’t go back home to New York. The plan becomes to rob the bank and flee, but it gets complicated. As they try to rob the bank, the bank president is at lunch. So, they have to bring him from the diner, along with everyone else in the diner, to the bank to get the vault opened.
Now, this is when I should talk about how much Dana Carvey is sinking this film. His impressions have always been shit. He has NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER been funny and here is no exception and he has this laugh and expressions that he uses in this and it makes me want to puke in my shoes. Why did they cast him in this? Why?!!! Why couldn’t they find somebody with any talent to play that role?
As the title of the film suggests, the trio gets trapped in Paradise. They begin to realize that they are robbing from the people in the community that they have come to like. Infighting leads to Bill discovering that Dave was lying to him about being wanted. The plan goes from robbing the bank and fleeing to returning the money and going straight from this point forth.
A couple of goons that Dave knew from prison find out that the bank in Paradise was robbed and break out to come get revenge. Dave stole their idea and now being trapped in town could prove deadly. I was hoping that they’d get Alvin and shoot him. Well, they could have done it in the first 2 minutes of the film and this would have been a much better movie.
The townspeople that they have come to love come to the rescue of the trio and the goons from prison are taken down. TRAPPED IN PARADISE is a mixed bag. The elements were here to be a real good holiday movie, but it’s got one big thing going against it: Dana Carvey. Dana cannot act. He thinks he’s hilarious and he’s the only one and we have to suffer from that. Cage and Lovitz are great in this, but they are saddled with Carvey and it’s hard to overcome.
I recommend TRAPPED IN PARADISE, but try to find a version with Carvey edited out.
