Rent Fantasy Island on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Jeff Wadlow & Christopher Roach & Jillian Jacobs, Gene Levitt (based upon the television series created by)
Directed by: Jeff Wadlow
Starring: Michael Peña, Maggie Q, Lucy Hale, Austin Stowell, Jimmy O. Yang, Portia Doubleday, Ryan Hansen, Michael Rooker, Kim Coates
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
When the owner and operator of a luxurious island invites a collection of guests to live out their most elaborate fantasies in relative seclusion, chaos quickly descends.
Verdict
I don't even know how to best capture how disappointing this is. It's aggressively bad. You watch, thinking how pointless the movie is. Then we get to the conclusion and the shocking thing is that this movie can indeed get worse. It's a waste of time. There's nothing redeeming about this. I don't think anyone set out to make a bad movie, but if that's the case what happened to this movie? Sadly the best part of this movie is the poster.
Skip it.
Review
The original series was based on a similar premise, running for seven seasons from 1977 to 1984. Often the fantasies would turn out to be morality lessons for the guests, sometimes putting their lives at risk, only to have Roarke step in and reveal the deception. This movie serves as a prequel.
Old released just a year later, and they share an island vacation premise. Old is a much better way to spend your time. I liked the poster of this movie, that's what piqued my interest. It's also the peak of this movie.
This is a mysterious island where fantasies and dreams come true. Just a few scenes in and guests are already having some kind of hallucination. How does that work? Initially, I wasn't sure if Roarke (Michael Peña) was creating these moments or predicting what his guests would want. Later we see these recreations, some people from the past are real at least in the sense of this movie. I don't know how they manifest. Some people are an island zombie, other people were actually kidnapped to create these fantasies. How much does a trip to this island cost?
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| Lucy Hale, Maggie Q, Austin Stowell, Jimmy O. Yang, Ryan Hansen |
The fantasies are all fairly boring. Each fantasy turns dark and the participants don't like it. I assumed the movie had to be setting up some kind of crazy twist. I hoped so, because this movie needs to offer more. It's just trading on the name. The participants see these hallucinations that might be some kind of foreshadowing or there's no basis at all. What is any of this? Rourke is some kind of magic, and what's up with the island zombies? This movie becomes mindless violence. The twist is that they're all in someone else's fantasy, but that's not the end of the twists.
There's Rourke's refrain that you must complete all fantasies. I thought that might come back to have a deeper meaning, but I think it's pleading with viewers to try and finish watching this movie. It's not good, bordering on pointless.
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