Jack Moniker is a Chicagofirefighter who is injured on the job. Using his disability insurance payout, he retires to the small (fictional) Caribbean island of Saint Nicholas, and buys a small property. Anthony Croyden Hayes, appointed by the British crown as governor of St. Nicholas, is concerned more with vacationing than governing. Miss Phillipa Lloyd, who is visiting St. Nicholas with some friends, decides to stay permanently, and becomes Jack's girlfriend.
Jack befriends financially-troubled reggae musician, Ernest Reed, and they form Club Paradise, which they market as a Club-Med-style resort, complete with a brochure that features photographs of Jack in various disguises on every page. This attracts a handful of tourists, including Barry and Barry, who are there for the marijuana and the women. Much of the film involves the tourists' comic misadventures adjusting to island life, and the low-rent facilities of Club Paradise. Also traveling to the island is The New York Times travel writer, Terry Hamlin, who ends up spending most of her time in the company of Governor Hayes. Adding to the comedic content is suburban housewife, Linda White, who is vacationing with her husband, Randy, who, despite the very favorable surroundings and atmosphere, is not very randy.
Voit Zerbe plays a key role, as a developer who wants to force Jack and Ernest from their property so that he can build a massive high-end casino on the beach, as part of a deal that he is making with two business partners. To do that, he uses the help of the local prime minister, Solomon Gundy, and his men to cause trouble to have Club Paradise to close "legally". Jack and Ernest board Zerbe's yacht to provide some "useful intelligence" for Governor Hayes, by finding out what is going to happen to the future of Saint Nicholas. They skin dive to the yacht, where they are captured by local police and thrown in jail. When Prime Minister Gundy's strong-arm tactics do not work, he orders a military takeover of the island. Ernest builds up a resistance force, and St. Nicholas is soon threatened with the possibility of civil war, which is averted at the last minute with assistance from Jack and Governor Hayes. As Gundy's takeover fails, Zerbe and his partners leave Saint Nicholas, and head for the Cayman Islands.
Bill Murray turned down the film's lead role, which was eventually given to Robin Williams; his brother, Brian Doyle-Murray, ended up in the cast instead.[8]John Cleese was also slated to star, but immediately dropped out, before Peter O'Toole signed on to replace him.[9]
"Ed Roboto" is a pseudonym for Harry Shearer, who was asked to do a rewrite with Tom Leopold. Only two words of what the two writers wrote ended up in the film (the title). Shearer commented that he was "so appalled by the movie" that he removed his name from the credits.[10]
Adolph Caesar died of a heart attack four months before the film's release.[5]
The film was given mostly negative reviews from critics, with Rotten Tomatoes maintaining Club Paradise an 11% rating, based on 28 reviews.[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on a scale of A+ to F.[12]
Variety said, "There are enough funny skits in Club Paradise to make for a good hour of SCTV, where most of the cast is from, but too few to keep this Club Med satire afloat for 104 minutes."[13]
People wrote, "Director Harold Ramis, who co-wrote the film with Brian Doyle-Murray, never stoops for an easy laugh. He seems capable, however, of making a movie with more momentum than this."[14]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 stars out of 4 stars, and wrote, "The movie never really comes together, and I think the fault for that begins with Williams. When the star of a movie seems desperate enough to depend on one-liners, can the rest of the cast be blamed for losing confidence in the script?"[15]
Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader wrote, "Moranis and Levy get most of the laughs as a pair of geeky business partners desperately on the make for beach bunnies; Williams is saddled with a lot of soggy insult humor that doesn't really let him show his gifts."[16]
Ramis said, "We thought Club Paradise had a good chance at the box office. But we were the fourth Caribbean comedy out that year, and none of them did any business. The casting ended up being diametrically opposed to what was intended. It was intended for Bill Murray and John Cleese, with Bill as the laid-back guy and Cleese as the over-the-top guy, and we ended up with Robin Williams and Peter O'Toole, with O'Toole as the laid-back guy and Robin the over-the-top guy. The polarities shifted, and it was probably not as interesting or as solid as it might have been if Bill and Cleese were there."[17]
^Moranis and Ramis were never actually cast members of SCTV at the same time; Ramis left SCTV partway through season 2, before Moranis joined in season 3. Ramis also made a guest appearance on SCTV in season 5 -- by which time Moranis had left the series.
^Duke also was never an SCTV cast member at the same time as Ramis, having only appeared in season 3.
