Product Details

• Actors: Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Joaquin Phoenix, David Conrad, Vera Farmiga
• Directors: Joseph Ruben
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Polygram USA Video
• VHS Release Date: July 13, 1999
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305245991
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #176,415 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
In Malaysia, three young Americans with little else in common are united in a shared enthusiasm for beer, women, and righteous hashish. Eventually, "Sheriff" (Vince Vaughn) and Tony (David Conrad) head back to New York. Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix), a spacey but good-hearted sort, stays on with the notion of helping save the orangutans. Two years later, a brassy lawyer (Anne Heche) shows up in Manhattan with the news that her client, Lewis, has spent the interim in Penang prison. Arrested for a prankish misdemeanor they all shared in, he's taking the rap for something worse: the dope stash they left him holding was a fatal few grams over the limit. Unless his fellow Americans return voluntarily to (literally) share the weight, in eight days Lewis will be hanged as a drug trafficker.

Eight days is about as long as Return to Paradise stayed on theater screens--the victim, perhaps, of Anne Heche-Ellen DeGeneres burnout in the press, or just too damn many movies out there to keep track of. Whatever the reason, it's a pity, because this is one of the most compelling movie-movies in recent memory. The screenplay turns the ethical-psychological thumbscrews with insidious effectiveness, despite the probability that the two writers brought separate agendas to the project--Wesley (Cape Fear) Strick working the complicity of the two home boys (each represents the halving of the other's prison sentence if they both agree to go back), and Bruce (The Killing Fields) Robinson revving his engines for another face-off of implacable East and irresponsible West. And director Joseph Ruben, specialist in serving up B-movie excitement with class-A skill (Dreamscape, The Stepfather), does his sleekest work yet.

But the real news is a trio of career-best performances: Phoenix, harrowing as a child-man whose sanity has been all but eaten away by terror; Vaughn limning a fascinating portrait of a man at war with himself, self-interest and furtive decency seesawing in his conscience; and Heche, part cagey poker player, part angel of mercy, mixing strength, delicacy, and desperation with devastating precision. Oscar blinked, three times. --Richard T. Jameson

From The New Yorker
Three young men meet up in Malaysia and have such a ball that it's only a matter of time before fate intervenes. Sheriff (Vince Vaughn) and Tony (David Conrad) fly back to New York, leaving behind the sweetly spaced-out Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix) and, more important, a stash of hash. Two years later, Sheriff learns that Lewis was arrested in possession of the drugs and sentenced to death; only if the other two return to Malaysia and share the sentence-three years each in a hellhole-will their friend be allowed to live. It's a sharp hook for any plot, but Joseph Ruben's movie, written by Bruce Robinson and Wesley Strick, spends so long skewering us on the ethical predicament-How much should we suffer for the sake of others?-that pretty soon all you want is for Sheriff and Tony to make up their damn minds. One further complication: Lewis's lawyer, Beth (Anne Heche), falls in love with Sheriff while begging him to go to jail. The result of all this is a sort of primer on current American moviemaking: it starts off hip and loose, lightened by the presence of its young indie stars, but slowly seizes up into mainstream melodrama. The best reason to stay with it is Vaughn, whose lanky wryness wards off the threat of pomposity. The worst reason is Jada Pinkett Smith, who gets stuck with a thankless role as the unwittingly lethal villain-a newspaper journalist, of course. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AN INVENTIVE AND PROFOUND MODERN DAY MORALITY TALE..., January 4, 2003

By	Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Return to Paradise (DVD)

This is a wonderfully creative movie, with top-notch directing and award caliber performances by a talented cast. The premise is a fairly simple one. Three young men, Sheriff (Vincent Vaughn), Tony (David Conrad), and Louis (Joaquin Phoenix), who previously didn't know one another, team up in Malaysia and party hearty. They have fun drinking, smoking hashish, and picking up girls. Sheriff and Tony head back to the states, leaving Louis behind, as he has a wildlife conservation idea involving orangutans that he wishes to pursue while in Malaysia. Before they go, Sheriff makes it a point to leave his dope stash in the house in which Louis is remaining. Later, the police come to search the premises on a matter unrelated to the dope stash. When they find it, however, they arrest Louis, who literally has been left holding the bag.

Two years later, Anne Heche enters the picture as a lawyer, ostensibly working on behalf of her client, Louis. She seeks out Sheriff and Tony with a proposition. It seems that while Sheriff and Tony have been getting on with their lives, Louis has been rotting in a Malaysian prison for the past two years and living in sheer terror. You see, Louis is scheduled to be executed in eight days as a drug dealer, as the amount of dope that had been left behind and discovered by the police was just over a threshold amount that would classify it as being for distribution, rather than for personal use. The only hope Louis has of staying alive is if Sheriff and Tony go back to Malaysia to take responsibility for their part in this and serve three years each. If only one returns, then the sole returnee faces six years. Will it be all for one and one for all? Will Louis live to personally thank his friends? Watch the movie and find out.

Vince Vaughn as Sheriff gives a compelling performance. Playing the quintessential Everyman, he struggles with his moral obligation. It is strictly a moral one, as legally he can just sit by and do nothing. Tony, too, undergoes some soul searching. They finally both come to the same conclusion, or do they? The dilemma that they face is an excruciatingly personal one. The movie builds up to a level of suspense that is totally unexpected. There are enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. Meanwhile, Joaquin Phoenix, one of the finest young actors of his generation, gives a performance that will haunt the viewer for days. Anne Heche also give a noteworthy performance, intense and relentless in her quest to save what life Louis has left. Jada Pinkett also gives a strong performance as a news reporter who is interested in the story. Her interjection into the movie brings into the forefront the issue of the responsibility of the press. When you see this movie, you will understand what this means.

This film is excellent on all fronts. The only weakness was an unnecessary subplot, which involved a blossoming romance between Sheriff and the character played by Anne Heche. Were it not for this digression, I would have given the movie five stars. It is an otherwise profoundly moving film that deserves to be seen.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars what would you do?, May 2, 2005

By	Abby Ray "Abby" (AUSTRALIA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Return to Paradise (DVD)

When I was at university I was asked to write an essay on the ethical issues in this film. Wow, the whole idea really blows me away. What would you do it their position? It really is a tough one.
It's one of those films where you can really put yourself in their shoes, not that anyone would want to. The story itself is touching and I think it's well made. I can't stop thinking about it.
Oh.. and Vince Vaughn is so hot!
ENJOY

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Paradise Found: A Lush, Intelligent Character-Driven Film , October 20, 2004

By	Marie E. Toenniessen "shelbbaby" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Return to Paradise (DVD)

(NO SPOILERS...)

Return to Paradise is a beautifully written, crafted and acted film, one of the few DVDs in my collection that I just keep coming back to.

The prologue in Malaysia begins during the credits and is worth the watch in itself. The driving music, hand-held camera effects, and MTV-style editing evoke the carelessness of youth, of drugs, sex, booze ... a young man's idea of "Paradise". This grabs our interest, and establishes the dynamic between these three guys, who are off for a post-college fling before assuming their "real" lives.

The bulk of the film is devoted to the consequences of their idyll. The characters are: Tony, an opaque, friendly, Everyman in his pursuit of an honorable, yet conventional life. Louis (Joachim Phoenix) a gentle soul - whose plan is to stay in Southeast Asia and pursue Animal Rights ... and "Sheriff", played by Vince Vaughn - a tough, straight talking hustler from Brooklyn.

It is Sheriff's journey that we stay with as the action moves over to America, then back to 'Paradise'. And Vaughn brings a paradoxical depth and subtlety to this character. Ann Heche matches him by creating an intense volubly erotic counterpart. We feel for them as each delicately, falteringly, uses the other as a catalyst to reach for the nobility in their souls.

Things do not turn out as we (or they) expect. Character relationships reshuffle a bit near the end, but rather than being devices to surprise or tweak our emotions, these twists and turns of the plot help ensure that Sheriff's decisions feel like his own.

The best thing about Return to Paradise is that there are no bad guys. A life 'hangs in the balance', but the competing forces are (as in the real world) created by a myriad of individuals all acting out their own interests with no real malice, yet perhaps without the purposeful empathy represented by the Louis character.

The interplay between Tony, Louis, Sheriff, Beth, the Malaysian officials and MJ Major (an aggressive reporter played by Jada Pinkett-Smith in an acerbic, pivotal, cameo) keep us riveted all the way through to the final, cathartic, conclusion.

Lush settings and cinematography, complex emotional sub-plots. Don't miss it.