Seven vacationers agree to be flown to a tropical paradise/resort, even
though they are not told exactly where they are. Fantasy Island it
isn't, as things continually start to go wrong, turning this place into
a virtual, then finally, literal, hell.
After varied inconveniences and mishaps, the guests start to piece
things together. It seems each of them has had a "near death"
experience which they somehow survived.
Or did they?
Each of the
incidents could well have proven fatal. Are these people starting to
lose their minds due to surrounding circumstances or are they, in fact,
dead and damned for varied sins ? Unless you are a rich bastard yourself,
you will probably find yourself mumbling, good enough for the rich
bastards.
The ending is a promised explosion that delivers only a fizzle rather
than a nuclear blast. Very inconslusive, though the meaning is obvious.
Panic-stricken guests are seen running away from the resort, into the
jungle, though you know they will simply end up right back where they
started and they are in fact, facing their own damnation. Hell is not
the fire and brimstone, or that gay devil from the South Park cartoons
throwing a Christmas bash, but a place of cruel jokes, eternal
psychological suffering and repetition.
Taken from a short story, this plot is somewhat of a perversion of
Waiting For Godot and the one episode of the old Twilight
Zone, where
the robber is kileld by police and thinks he is in heaven, where
everything goes right to the point of absolute boredom. He then tells
his angel that he isn't happy in heaven and wants to
go to the other place. The angel then laughs and says to him,
"What made you think this is heaven ? This is the other
place!"
In spite of a capable cast, the actors seem to simply go through the
motions in this. It could have been great, but as is, might best be
described as so-so. Again, the ending could have been more dramatic,
though it does follow the short story fairly well. One time a screenplay
chooses not to vary a great deal from the original story and it becomes
a case where the film could have well been improved by doing so.
Still worth a look for a one time experience.
Like in Hotel California, these people realize "We are programmed
to receive. You can check out any time you like, but you can never
leave..."
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