George Gallo

(In French, On Cable TV, September 2022) Yeah, no, not feeling that one. Trapped in Paradise had its promise: Nicolas Cage, Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz as three brothers (two of them career criminals on probation, the third one freaking out) stuck in a small town at Christmastime. They intend to cause mischief (can’t help themselves from causing mischief, actually), but they end up learning a lesson about family and community being more important than money. Actually, now that I’ve typed the summary, there’s not even a good premise to go on: Cage is always fun, but Carvey and Lovitz are annoying performers most of the time and the hackneyed life lesson at the heart of the film is nothing special. So, it’s fairer to say that Trapped in Paradise has a lame premise that becomes even less interesting once you get into the execution. Cage is fine, but the Carvey and Lovitz are worse than usual, and the saccharine handling of the film by writer-director-producer George Gallo quickly and consistently sucks the energy out of the film’s assets. (Gallo, incidentally, has an interesting filmography ranking from the terrible to the not-so-terrible—he strikes me as the kind of filmmaker who would be really interesting to talk to.)  The small-town atmosphere is pure Americana fantasy, and the Christmas theme that should be giving the film a pass on its worst maudlin excesses simply falls flat when seen in September. There’s some amusement from the film having been partially filmed in quaint Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario (an almost-mandatory diversion for anyone on their way to Niagara Falls, as I did a few weeks ago) but otherwise Trapped in Paradise is about being trapped all right, but nowhere near paradise.