Review of Trapped in Paradise

This is a charming little caper movie with quite a bit of slapstick and heart, and would be near-nigh perfect if it weren't for one annoying thing! Now I liked Dana Carvey on Saturday Night Live. He was one of the highlights of the show from '86 to '93, with memorable characters like The Church Lady, Hans of Hans and Franz, George Bush, Ross Perot, John McLaughlin and many others, not the least of which was Garth from the Wayne's World sketches with Mike Myers they turned into a successful couple of funny movies. But that's it. Check out just about any other Dana Carvey movie, such as the wretched Master of Disguise, and you'll find somebody who overacts with silly, unreal voices. And yes, he almost ruins this movie. Playing dumb correctly is actually an art form that takes skill. Richard Ayoade does it to perfection in The IT Crowd as Moss, Fred Ewanuick did it in Canada's Corner Gas, Bob Denver did it as Gilligan. But Carvey flat out fails here, and brings the movie down. If I were Nicolas Cage, the first time I heard that silly voice coming out of Carvey, I would have done one of those buggy eyed freak outs that Simon Helberg of Big Bang Theory parodies so well, and would have said, "What...the hell...is THAT! What are you doin' bro? Stop it!"