WHAT’S IT ABOUT
The enigmatic Mr. Roarke makes the secret dreams of his lucky guests come true at a luxurious but remote tropical resort, but when the fantasies turn into nightmares, the guests have to solve the island’s mystery in order to escape with their lives.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
Another television show getting a movie makeover. This time it’s the seventies show Fantasy Island. The premise is the same; a group of people go to an island with the promise of having their wildest wish fulfilled and then there’s a twist that causes them to rethink their life and/or life choices. The original show ran for seven seasons. Not every episode was good but they all had a twist at the end. Sometimes it was horror-based (it was 1978, so nothing close to what’s on tv today), while others ended with a lesson learned. In this new version, the most memorable things about the original are missing. Tatoo, the little person that always said “the plane, the plane” at the beginning of every episode, is nowhere to be found. All those happy islanders have been replaced by a few stone-faced bellhops. And the suave Mexican host, Mr. Roarke, played initially by Ricardo Montalbán, has been replaced by Michael Peña, a somewhat dumpy Latino with no personality. Basically, there are so many differences, I wondered why they bothered to call it Fantasy Island at all. This movie was seemingly one big twist after another. The first hour was so dull, it felt like one long introduction to set up the four individual fantasies. They were; 2 brothers that wanted it all, a cop that wanted to be a soldier, a girl that was bullied in high school and now, years later, wants revenge, and a lady filled with the regret of not accepting her boyfriend’s proposal. Just like the show, everything was great, until it wasn’t. Unlike the show, none of the guests were ever threatened with the fear of death. Also, the plots of the series were much easier to follow. This film was all over the place when it came to the story. There were tons of blink and you’ll miss it moments that needed to be seen to fully understand the story. The characters were annoying and forgettable. The entire feel of the film was inconsistent since each story was so different as the tone went from serious to satirical. Overall, Fantasy Island, like all of the other television adaptations, was on the small screen for a reason. One big-screen version of a show can’t possibly give an entire generation the experience an old television series did for another. Especially if so many changes are made, it shouldn’t even have the same name.
OUR RATING – AN UPSETTING 3
Media
- Genre – Thriller
- Street date
- Digital – April 14th 2019
- DVD/Blu-Ray – May 12th 2019
- Video – 1080p
- Screen size – 2:39.1
- Sound – English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
- Subtitles –English SDH
Extras
- Deleted Scenes
- Unrated and theatrical versions of the movie included
- Unrated Director and Cast Commentary: Audio commentary by Director Jeff Wadlow and Cast (Unrated Version Only)