Movie reviews

FANTASY ISLAND

Recommended. Adventure and dark fantasy with a second bottom. Shot on Fiji which makes for the seemingly paradise island and just the right premise for adventures including a military action in Venezuela, a drug lord estate as well as an idyllic beach. A handful of good actors, no big shots, and a thoroughly engaging and mysterious story. Each person's fantasies differ, they sometimes match one another's, at other times collide and either leave the people unfulfilled when leaving a dream or turn out wrong which is a decent allegory of life, especially when you consider how we think we want something but then discover we wanted something hidden much deeper. The way the movie's made, it's all entertainment, with a number of twists and constant uncertainty: is it a game or for real? And who is played by who? The song heard over the end credits is aptly titled "Don't Wish Your Life Away". While I could find tropes from "Hostel 3", "Jumanji", "Flatliners", "eXistenZ", "Saw", I also quickly came to the conclusion the structure of "Fantasy Island" was in fact original. Well, it turns out it's based on Gene Levitt's TV series from the 1970s-80s which I have never watched but from what I'm reading now: The movie may be the first installment of a series since Mr. Tattoo is kind-of introduced at the end. He's short and Asian. Julia is the one who shouts "The plane! The plane" and she's Hispanic. Mr. Roarke wears a white suit and wants all his staff to smile. Another reference to the series is when the vengeful girl dubs him a "genie". Roarke makes it clear each fantasy has to be played out to its natural conclusion. The guests arrive having won a competition. Some are in another person's fantasy. One character is a private eye. Few supernatural elements appear in comparison to the series. Typical guests are said to want to enact sexual fantasies - the original idea the TV series stemmed from. TV used Kauai, Hawaii for the opening view of the coastline and shot the rest in California, not Fiji.