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Reel Paradise (2004)

tomatometer

68

Average Rating: 6.4/10
Reviews Counted: 47
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 15

The travails of the Piersons as they try to adjust to a radically different culture while introducing American cinema to it makes for amusing viewing.

69

Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 5

The travails of the Piersons as they try to adjust to a radically different culture while introducing American cinema to it makes for amusing viewing.

audience

56

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 704

My Rating

Movie Info

John Pierson is a passionate cinema enthusiast who has written books on maverick filmmakers (including the bestsellers Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes and Reel Paradise), co-created, produced, and hosted the Split Screen series on the Independent Film Channel network, and helped produce a number of independent films, including early works by Spike Lee, Michael Moore, and Richard Linklater. In February 2000, Pierson traveled to Fiji to shoot an episode of Split Screen, where in the tiny village of

Feb 14, 2006

Miramax Films

All Critics (48) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (33) | Rotten (15) | DVD (1)

Highly watchable.

October 25, 2005 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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An amusingly damning portrait of a man trying to impose his will on a world that, really, has better things to do.

October 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Boston Globe
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Tthe comic fallout from his quixotic mission keeps Reel Paradise watchable.

September 24, 2005 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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The results stay with you, like memories of an unexpected and surprising vacation.

September 22, 2005 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
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Sometimes it's not whether you succeed, but whether you try.

September 22, 2005 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
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One wish[es] James could have followed him and his family from the beginning of their year-long adventure, rather than being swept in at the emotional tail end.

September 7, 2005 Full Review Source: Newsday | Comment
Newsday
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A fascinating study in cross-cultural communication, as well as a deeply personal examination of family dynamics.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

What is learned? Not so much how cultures impinge on each other as how cinema shapes our lives.

October 25, 2005 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix

The director's visit wasn't long enough to fully humanize this culture clash, but some of the movie's conclusions seem universal.

October 25, 2005 Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Comment
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Though these scenes may have energy, they're also mostly noise -- distractions from a collection of scenes without a driving force.

October 25, 2005 Full Review Source: Salt Lake City Weekly | Comment
Salt Lake City Weekly

Ultimately, it's the movies shown that make Reel Paradise so buoyant, for it speaks to the universality of a medium we often take for granted.

October 22, 2005 Full Review Source: Boston Herald | Comment
Boston Herald

Unfortunately, the Piersons can be so unpleasant that watching them misbehave in Taveuni becomes a chore.

October 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | Comment
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

I found the 10 days of free films to be the intriguing part of Reel Paradise and the Piersons' life to be something more interesting to them than to me.

October 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | Comment
Reeling Reviews

A funny fly-on-the-wall account of how the Piersons ingratiated themselves to the community, with uneven results.

October 21, 2005 Comment
Salt Lake Tribune

its scattershot structure makes it disappointing and its preeminent focus on the social problems the Piersons encounter grows tiresome

October 18, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | Comment
Reeling Reviews

You are buoyed by the purity of the islanders' responses to some of what Pierson shows them: the Three Stooges, Buster Keaton and, most delightedly, Jackass: The Movie.

October 7, 2005 Full Review Source: Oregonian | Comment
Oregonian

Serves not only as a charming, witty glimpse into an American nuclear family uprooted to browner pastures, but also as an exploration of how Hollywood product is viewed outside the Lower 48.

October 2, 2005 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | Comment
Austin Chronicle

The Piersons are warm, funny people, and most of Reel Paradise shows them comically bickering with each other and laughing at the absurdity of the whole project.

September 26, 2005 Full Review Source: AV Club | Comment
AV Club

Anyone who has relocated to a totally different environment will relate.

September 24, 2005 Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | Comment
San Diego Metropolitan
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Reel Paradise

A documentry about a family who moves to fiji for a year and run a movie theater to show american free movies. It is actually more of a family drama than it appears. There are many parts that are interesting like the teenage daughter going through a rebelious stage and envious of the locals.

June 4, 2010
HeroPK
Jeff Heruth

documentary about a family who moves to Fiji to run a movie theater. He shows them free to the public and runs both mainstream and independent movies. They showed Jackass to them one night and the crowd loved it.

January 16, 2010
jonnydaddy
Tim B

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