FOOL’S PARADISE

Name: FOOL’S PARADISE
Item: FOOL’S PARADISE
Author: Gaby Gaduh

"A Fool’s Paradise Indeed"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

FOOL’S PARADISE is a satirical comedy about a publicist who gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he finds a man who looks like a method actor. On their race to the top of fame and fortune, they experience the immorality of the entertainment industry. Eventually, their antics catch up with them after a serious injury, and they’re forced to reflect on what’s really important in life. Will they turn away from the party scene of fame and fortune and realize what’s most important? Or, will they drown in their own ambition?

The comedy in FOOL’S PARADISE does show some of the pitfalls of fame in the entertainment industry. However, the comedy is often immoral and unfunny, the performances are over-the-top, and the pacing is poor. The movie feels more like a bunch of half-baked comedy sketches forced together than an actual movie. It has a shallow, mixed worldview that never really condemns the consequences of pursuing pleasure and money. FOOL’S PARADISE also contains heavy foul language, drunkenness, cocaine use, and strong sexual content. The movie is excessively immoral and unacceptable.

Content:

(PaPa, B, LLL, V, SS, AA, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Mixed pagan worldview that does show some of the pitfalls of fame and immorality that often comes with fame and for those who pursue their personal pleasure with disregard for anyone else, but it often makes light of the immorality that it attacks

Foul Language:

At least 40 obscenities (including many “f” words) and several strong profanities

Violence:

Some comedic violence, characters go to jail, character falls from a building and goes to the hospital, a character beats up a photographer, and a man accidentally hangs himself

Sex:

Strong sexual content overall includes a scene where a character hired for a pornographic movie watches a video with depicted fornication, characters shown lying in bed after implied fornication, some crass sexual dialogue, including references to death by autoeroticism

Nudity:

No explicit nudity, but a woman drops her robe in front of main character, and her shoulder is seen, and a woman’s back is shown during a sex scene

Alcohol Use:

Constant drinking throughout at parties, with some scenes of drunkenness

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Brief cigarette smoking, and characters snort cocaine in one scene;

Miscellaneous Immorality:

The movie ends up glorifying the immorality it tries to satirize.

More Detail:

FOOL’S PARADISE is a new satirical comedy from Charlie Day, about a failing publicist. He finds a man who just left a mental institution but looks exactly like a method actor who never leaves his trailer. The two team up to take on the entertainment industry and find fame and fortune. However, this quickly leads them to see the consequences of self-gratification and a hunger for money. However, they’re willing to do whatever it takes to make it.

Eventually, their antics catch up with them after a serious injury and they’re forced to reflect on what’s really important in life. Will they turn away from the party scene of fame and fortune and realize what is most important? Or, will they drown in their own ambition?

FOOL’S PARADISE is meant to be a satirical comedy about the entertainment industry but ends up failing to say much of anything at all. The comedy is immoral and unfunny, the performances are over-the-top, and the pacing is poor. The movie feels more like a bunch of half-baked comedy sketches forced together than an actual movie.

On top of that, the movie ends up promoting the very actions it seeks to satirize. Thus, it shows immorality in a flippant way without ever truly condemning it. It is a fool’s paradise indeed, as the movie becomes more unfunny as its runtime comes to an end.

FOOL’S PARADISE takes a crack at the entertainment industry and does show some of the pitfalls of fame through its comedy. However, it has a shallow, mixed worldview that both makes fun of but never really condemns the consequences of pursuing pleasure and money in the entertainment industry. FOOL’S PARADISE also contains abundant foul language, drunkenness, cocaine use, and strong sexual content. So, MOVIEGUIDE® labels it excessive and unacceptable. Movieguide® advises that audiences avoid FOOL’S PARADISE altogether, due to its poor writing and excessive immorality.

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Quality:

- Content: +4

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