Trapped in Paradise

Directed by George Gallo, Trapped in Paradise follows three brothers (Nicolas Cage’s Bill, Jon Lovitz’s Dave, and Dana Carvey’s Alvin) as they find themselves unable to leave a small town after committing a very high-profile bank robbery. Filmmaker Gallo, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a just-barely watchable endeavor that receives plenty of mileage out of the charming efforts of its various performers, with this especially true of a predictably idiosyncratic turn by Cage that goes a long way towards smoothing over the narrative’s various lulls and less-than-engrossing missteps. (Lovitz and Carvey rarely fare as well, unfortunately, with the latter offering up one-note work that’s rarely as amusing as he’s presumably intended.) And although the movie contains its fair share of head-scratchingly ill-conceived set-pieces, including a bizarre, unpleasant sequence wherein a horse almost drowns, Trapped in Paradise benefits from a pervasively pleasant Christmastime vibe that does, at the very least, ensure the whole thing basically sustains one’s interest for the duration of its (palpably overlong) running time – with the end result a mostly forgettable piece of work that’s far from the hilarious, frenetic comedy for which Gallo is presumably striving.

**1/2 out of ****