Trapped in Paradise

As welcome as a race riot on Christmas Eve, this excruciating comedy is destined not to become a year-end television perennial. [02 Dec 1994, p.I32]

Sentimentality exceeds the bounds of the seasonal fantasy in Trapped in Paradise and ends up with all the charm of winter slush. [03 Dec 1994]

It holds its audience hostage for an unconscionable 111 minutes with a rambling, unfunny, thickly sentimental comedy that plays like third-rate Frank Capra. [02 Dec 1994, p.F6]

If Frank Capra had directed the Three Stooges in a Disney Christmas release, the results would have been considerably better than this godawful Fox comedy (1994) by writer-producer-director George Gallo. Read full review

One of the worst Christmas comedies in history and certainly one of the worst pictures of the year, Trapped in Paradise is a movie with exactly one laugh. [02 Dec 1994, p.77]

Derivative and lead-footed, Trapped in Paradise is another addle-brained comedy that portrays small-town folk as inbred, backwoods hillbillies who wear funny hats with ear flaps. Writer-director George Gallo, who penned Midnight Run and Wise Guys, tries to shoehorn holiday cheer into the formula, with stifling results. [02 Dec 1994, p.G5]

Trapped in Paradise is the kind of dreadful holiday mush that often is declared Capra-esque. But if It's a Wonderful Life's George Bailey were forced to watch it, he might reconsider suicide. [02 Dec 1994, p.4D]

The sad truth is that it's dreadful, despite a top cast and strong production values. [02 Dec 1994]

It should be preserved by the Library of Congress, as an example of creative desperation. It plays like a documentary about a group of actors forced to perform in a screenplay that contains not one single laugh, or moment of wit, or flash of intelligence, or reason for being. Read full review

Interminably unfunny, this holiday offering about how the three Firpo brothers learn the true meaning of Christmas from the inhabitants of the quaint small town whose bank they've robbed is something of a crime itself. Read full review