Reel Paradise

R

Released Aug 17, 2005

1h 53m

Documentary

List

69%

48 Reviews

Tomatometer

61%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

New York film programmer John Pierson decides to pull up stakes and relocate his wife Janet, son Wyatt, and daughter Georgia to Fiji for a year. It's there that he purchases the 180 Meridian, ostensibly the most isolated movie theater on Earth. Despite a multitude of problems -- a drunk projectionist, bouts with dengue fever, local priests who disapprove -- the theater proves a success with locals, and documentary filmmaker Steve James chronicles the last month of their experiment.

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Critics Consensus

The travails of the Piersons as they try to adjust to a radically different culture while introducing American cinema to it makes for amusing viewing.

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Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Highly watchable.

Oct 25, 2005

Full Review

Joe Williams

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The director's visit wasn't long enough to fully humanize this culture clash, but some of the movie's conclusions seem universal.

Rated: B

Oct 25, 2005

Full Review

Ty Burr

Boston Globe

An amusingly damning portrait of a man trying to impose his will on a world that, really, has better things to do.

Rated: 2.5/4

Oct 21, 2005

Full Review

Ethan Alter

Film Journal International

A fascinating study in cross-cultural communication, as well as a deeply personal examination of family dynamics.

Mar 1, 2007

Full Review

Boston Phoenix

What is learned? Not so much how cultures impinge on each other as how cinema shapes our lives.

Rated: 3/4

Oct 25, 2005

Full Review

Scott Renshaw

Salt Lake City Weekly

Though these scenes may have energy, they're also mostly noise -- distractions from a collection of scenes without a driving force.

Rated: 2.5/4

Oct 25, 2005

Full Review

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Audience Member

If you enjoy both movies and traveling then I think you will really be engaged by this film.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Following dreams when things simply don't always work out to your advantage.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Overlong but intermittently fascinating documentary about indie film producer John Pierson, who uprooted his family for one year to open and operate a movie theatre in remote Fiji. What sounds and begins as rather cutesy turns out to be a rather tense, layered exploration of culture clash.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A documentry about a family who moves to fiji for a year and run a movie theater to show american free movies. It is actually more of a family drama than it appears. There are many parts that are interesting like the teenage daughter going through a rebelious stage and envious of the locals.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Fabulous little documentary about a man who ventured to Fiji to display free movies to the public over the course of a year and the troubles he encounters doing so. Really gripping and entertaining to say the least.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

Audience Member

documentary about a family who moves to Fiji to run a movie theater. He shows them free to the public and runs both mainstream and independent movies. They showed Jackass to them one night and the crowd loved it.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

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Synopsis

New York film programmer John Pierson decides to pull up stakes and relocate his wife Janet, son Wyatt, and daughter Georgia to Fiji for a year. It's there that he purchases the 180 Meridian, ostensibly the most isolated movie theater on Earth. Despite a multitude of problems -- a drunk projectionist, bouts with dengue fever, local priests who disapprove -- the theater proves a success with locals, and documentary filmmaker Steve James chronicles the last month of their experiment.

Director: Steve James
Producer: Janet Pierson, John Pierson, Kevin Smith
Distributor: Wellspring Media
Production Co: View Askew Productions
Rating: R (Brief Crude Humor|Language|Including Sexual References)
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 17, 2005, Original
Release Date (DVD): Feb 14, 2006
Box Office (Gross USA): $31.0K
Runtime: 1h 53m