Stranded in Paradise (2014)

Strong and Moving!

Excellent, smart action film.

Excellent adaptation.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I thought the idea behind this script was great. I was let down a bit by the actual final product however. I didn't feel romantic chemistry with the leads. The female lead is tiny and attractive, she played her role very believably. I was impressed by her. I liked the character of Stella also, but it felt a bit scripted when the dialogue took place. I would like to see this movie reworked and with different actors, but I am just a housewife not a producer lol. All in all a cute story for a love movie fix if you need one. Spoiler Alert: At the end I wondered why Luis appeared to be hailing a cab to leave the airport (when he sees Tess arriving), then appear to be in line to get on a plane a few moments later. When he is asked why he is at the airport he responds he is going on vacation. But then, he is in the end scene (very prominently) dancing with Stella?

After having to fire an employee the head of Human Resources Department named "Tess Nelson" (Vanessa Marcil) walks into a meeting with her boss--and gets laid off as well. So she then takes a flight to Puerto Rico where she was previously scheduled to have a business meeting in the hope of marketing herself for a new position in another company. Unfortunately, on the flight there everything seems to go wrong and the business meeting turns out to be a disaster as well. So there she is, stranded in a tropical paradise with no idea of what to do with herself. It's then she gets to know a fellow traveler named "Carter McConnell" (James Denton) who manages to convince her to have some fun and enjoy life for a change—and then things get much worse. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an okay rom-com which was diminished to a certain degree by its made-for-television format. That said, while Vanessa Marcil performed well enough for the most part I don't believe she was able to carry the film all by herself and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Your Hollywood directors do not know the difference between cultures, like Puertoricans and Mexicans. The music, food, sayings and most of all the dances are all wrong. Hint, for you so call directs. Before you direct a Spanish movie next time you might want to do your home work on the culture. Every movie I watch that has to do with Spanish people you so call directors get it all mixed up.

Literally half the movie was one disaster after another for Tess. I don't watch these movies to spend half of the time being depressed. What made it more depressing is that the disasters were not the usual overdone parody of bad luck, but you could actually see them happening. Except for the cellphone. This is a common plot device, but leaving your cellphone on a taxi seat seems idiotic to me, especially for a woman who is supposed to be so detail oriented and organized. That's just it. I couldn't buy it that this woman was supposedly so successful and suddenly became completely inept. She whined, albeit briefly each time a new one hit her. She was so uptight, nervous, and overly fearful, especially about the hurricane. She was a totally unlikable leading lady. And don't even start about mom. Why would either one of them fall for the other? Except for the Bambo dance and a walk though the island, there was no connection. She was a basket-case and he was just a boring vagabond. Both actors were stiff. I was shocked when they started dancing in the square because it just didn't fit either one of them. Through the entire movie there were only a few short minutes of any kind of joy.