Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I remember reading a review once, I believe by Roger Ebert, where he said he knew the picture he was watching was in trouble when the supporting actors thoroughly outshined any of the leads. Such is the case here. The few laughs (more like chuckles actually) I did emit were from lines delivered by Richard Jenkins, a fed chasing the three lead characters, and Florence Stanley, the trio's mother. To be fair, a bad script can make laughs tough to finagle, but it doesn't preclude them entirely. This is where the director is supposed to come in and help create some comedic chemistry. He obviously did not do this. I mean, come on, we have a movie starring H.I. Mcdunnough, Garth Algar, and the critic. Yet only their mother, an actress previously unknown to me, elicited any laughs. Particularly annoying was the voice Carvery chose to do. It wasn't AS obnoxious as Cage in Peggy Sue, but it was close. Honestly, doing his George Bush impression the entire movie would've been funnier and made just about as much sense.Soft, generalized spoilers - over the course of the night, all three have a life altering epiphany. If that sounds contrived, wait til you see the love story. Comedies don't need to be well written if they make us laugh. Laughing automatically suspends our disbelief. Unfortunately, I had plenty of time to ponder the writing and direction while I was busy not laughing.

Nicholas Cage, Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey are "Trapped in Paradise" in this 1994 film also starring Madchen Amick, Donald Moffat and Florence Stanley. Cage plays Bill Firpo, a man desperately trying to distance himself from his jailbird brothers Dave and Alvin (Lovitz and Carvey) and take the high road; unfortunately, overcrowding in the prisons causes the boys to be released early. One of them heard a great story in prison about a bank ripe for the picking. It's too good to pass up, so the three head for Paradise, Pennsylvania to rob the bank, only to find that once they have, they can't get out of town due to the overwhelming hospitality of the townspeople.This film is very funny, and I admit to loving Nicholas Cage in comedy. It always comes from a real place, making the comedy even funnier. His reactions to his brothers are hilarious. As he puts it, "In the Firpo family, the man with half a brain is king." Florence Stanley is a riot as the boys' mother and is given some great lines like, "You guys are dumber than a box of hair." Lovitz and Carvey are goofy; Carvey's Alvin is a kleptomaniac who doesn't seem completely there, and Lovitz' Dave is a conniver with a mind that goes right to criminal intent at all times. The three make quite a trio.Good fun. It's not War and Peace, its just light entertainment with some good performances, a funny premise, and some great dialogue. For some reason, it's often hard to get all three.

It was a good mixture of some action and comedy. There was a couple of spots I did not care for personally. Here I do not want to give out any information that would give anything away. Just some short scenes, that did not like. Overall it was good. I would recommend it to most anyone. It would be a very good show for the television stations to air at Christmas time. I happen to like Nicolas Cage as an actor. I watched it a few years ago. Now I own it and am going to enjoy my re-runs of it in the future. Watching the interactions of the three characters Cage, Lovitz, and Carvey was interesting. The turn of events were sometimes surprising and sometimes could be guessed. I did find the comment about where and how Tripod came to be in the movie interesting.

I absolutely adore this movie. This movie was not made to dazzle people or make them stand back and go "wow that was an awesome scene." Trapped in Paradise is about the healing powers of a small town at Christmas. If you've ever live in a small town, or even visited one, you could relate to this movie. To me, this is more of a feel good comedy than anything. It might not hit a lot of top ten lists because its not flashy and it doesn't have a huge trailer, but its a good movie to sit down and laugh to and make you feel good about the human race once again. Nicholas Cage, John Lovitt, and Dana Carvey's characters are believable, even if they are not dynamic. I highly recommend this movie for anyone, from the young to the young at heart.