The Chicago Traveler

So, remember how I said I would document some of the great and not-so-great flicks that have been filmed here in Chicago? Well, you might want to count this one among the latter.

Club Paradise is a 1986 comedy about Jack Moniker (played by Robin Williams), a Chicago fireman injured in the line of duty, who uses his disability money to retire in the Caribbean. While there though, his friend Ernest Reed (Jimmy Cliff) is threatened to be evicted from his beach property, so Jack agrees to finance him and open a rundown resort. Through a series of tricks and schemes, the duo—along with Phillipa Lloyd (Twiggy)—manage to attract enough conceited, pretentious dandies to become somewhat successful. However, Jack and Ernest are in for big trouble when a developer (Brian Doyle-Murray) wants to build a massive casino right where their “business” stands.

The film was probably hilarious at the time in that campy, cheap-laugh, ‘80s-Saturday-Night-Live sort of way, but it falls flat I think by today’s standards. One of the biggest problems is the pairing of Robin Williams, manic and over-the-top as ever, with Twiggy. She may look beautiful, but she is truly out of her acting league next to Williams. The rest of the cast is full of big names… perhaps too many names. There is too little time for the multitude of characters to fully develop. Maybe that’s why many of the actors over-perform in what few scenes they are in. Whatever the case, Club Paradise is probably a delight to those who can appreciate a good amount of corny silliness.

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