Club Paradise (1986)

[Edgy MD]

Robin Williams is a Chicago firefighter who invests his disability money in a small-time beach resort on the fictional Caribbean island of St. Nicholas. Jimmy Cliff, in the role that ended his viability as a movie star, is his reggae-playing local partner. Harold Ramis directs and half the Second City company plays supporting roles, in addition to Peter O'Toole, Twiggy, and Adolph Caesar, in his last film role as the corrupt small-time prime minister trying to take over the club.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

I remember seeing this movie on cable back in the day (repeatedly) and loving it, but I imagine if I watched it now I would cringe at my 12 y.o. self.

[Edgy MD]

There's a cringe-able moment or two --- zany resort satire hijinks like Andrea Martin riding on a parasail that snaps free and flies her away, and Rick Moranis climbing on a windsurfer and sailing miles out to sea --- but more keep-worthy moments than you might expect.

And great music. Cliff composed like eight new songs for the film, and the opening and closing credits are set to "Seven Day Weekend" --- Cliff's duet with Elvis Costello and the Attractions. They also pull a track from "The Rhythmatist" --- Stewart Copeland's ambitious but forgotten anthropology rock album.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Mets-Willets Point's memories of Club Paradise from 25 years ago:

* Rick Moranis windsurfing in a major storm. Woman with Carribbean accent saying "he went way, way out there. He very good too!"
* A couple of guys arguing if Ipanema is a real place.
* A couple of guys seeking marijuana to impress girls and ending up with a massive bag of it. Pot jokes and stereotypical rastamen galore.
* Andrea Martin's husband complaining that the photo of their hotel room must have been taken with a fish-eye lens from one of the corners of the room.
* Robin Williams and Jimmy Cliff having this conversations:
--- RW: I once gave advice to a young black man like yourself. 'Wear one glove. Just one glove.'
--- JC: Who was that?
--- RW: Willie Mays.

Basically it was Police Academy runs a tropical resort. And HBO played it almost as frequently as Midnight Madness.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

So are my memories on the mark?

[Edgy MD]

Pretty much dead on. Not so much in the way of stereotype rastamem (though there's some overbroad stuff there). And more plot and fewer set pieces than your standard Police Academy film.

What struck me is what a wet blanket it was on some hot careers. Harold Ramis had done big hits Caddyshack and National Lampoon's Vacation by then, but wouldn't come back until 1993 with Groundhog Day. With Bob Marley dead and Peter Tosh in a sort of professional exile, Jimmy Cliff was poised for a breakthrough. (Springsteen had just included a version of Cliff's "Trapped" on the megaselling USA for Africa album.) Even as he played a character in the film resenting being sanitized for the masses, he was reggae's biggest hope for a market in Babylon America. The film failed and he hasn't appeared as an actor since, and his singing profile in the US continued to wane even after Tosh was killed.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

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