Movie Reviews

Lamb Mannerheim (Julianne Hough) is a young girl who realizes that the world is a lot bigger than the strict religious community she grew up in after surviving a plane crash, which left her with bad burns and a big insurance payout. Having lost her faith in god, she heads over to Las Vegas to with a checklist of sins she wants to indulge in. Daring stuff such as drinking alcohol and looking at a nudie mag… it’s just shocking! With the help of bartender Russell Brand and lounge singer Octavia Spencer, she not only makes it through the night but also finds out what she wants to do with her life. *collective swooning ensues*

After having written Juno and Young Adult (we’ll just forget about Jennifer’s Body), Paradise is Diablo Cody’s debut as a director while working from her own script. And it’s one major disappointment. I already wasn’t expecting a lot from a movie whose lead is called Lamb but it was even worse. We know that Cody is good at writing witty dialogues and there are a couple of funny lines strewn throughout the movie. Other than that however, this movie is about as edgy as a noodle that’s been boiled too long. That doesn’t take away from the fact that if you would ask me to take a second look at Paradise, I’m fairly convinced I would find a way to gouge out my eyes with that same noodle.

The premise of the movie is decent enough but what would could have been a fun movie that takes a swipe at the the born-again community, turned out to be something so dull and tame that even writers over at Disney would agree that they needed to spice things up.