Paradise Cove (2021) User Reviews

Well...

[kellyq12 · 4/10 · 2 March 2022]

It's hard to feel invested in a movie where the characters behave in ways that logical humans would not. The husband constantly downplays the wife's concerns, when if anything, they should both be MORE concerned. An unstable woman is squatting below their house and that woman is breaking and entering and claiming the house is hers. That's not a nuisance. That's a BIG PROBLEM and to treat it otherwise is just unrealistic. It's always better in storytelling when the characters do everything a logical person would do and yet STILL find themselves in trouble.

Also, how long has this woman been homeless? There's a point where a person's Botox and face and lip fillers would have worn off. Or am I supposed to believe a homeless woman is buying plastic surgery and aesthetic procedures?

On a positive, it's kind of a throwback to domestic thrillers like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle or Pacific Heights. That far-fetched weirdly uncomfortable scenario.

Well, I gave it a chance. That was my first mistake.

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 4/10 · 15 February 2021]

This felt like one of those cheesy made-for-TV Lifetime movies, but worse. The concept story was actually decent - and the main reason I gave this film a chance, but 15 mins in, it felt like a high school drama class production.

Paradise Cove was newb writer Sherry Klein's 5th writing credit, all previous mainly TV movies (which explains the Lifetime TV movie feel). Considering she's a newb, there's some forgiveness for her long dragged out screenplay. It had decent continuity, but lots of plot and technical issues, as well as many "huh" and "wtf" moments. It was highly predictable, with nothing left for the imagination, and the scenes were long and dragged out. The 103 min runtime felt like 3+ hours with the terribly slow pacing. This screenplay needed to be cut/edited down to "at most" a 1 hour TV movie length. You can pretty much fast-forward this film at 10x faster speed, and be done in 15-20 minutes and not miss a thing - even without hearing the dialogue.

But were there is no forgiveness, is the terrible directing from seasoned director Martin Guigui. He could and should have upped the ante with the screenplay he was given. But instead, it felt like a high school drama class production. He had a great cast to work with, but failed to direct them properly. All the acting felt like a bad soap opera, and I know the 3 experienced leads can perform much better. The only somewhat convincing and thrilling performance was Kristin Bauer van Straten. The cinematography was bland, with a 1980's camcorder production feel to it. Malibu deserved sharp bright summer colors - bright orange and yellows, with beautiful blues for the sea and sky, instead of the drab pale and bland color choices that were made.

The score was ok, although I don't recall hearing much of it, which I guess is better than the loud, overbearing and annoying typical b-grade film scores. I'm giving this one a very generous 4/10. Never mind the two current bogus 10/10's, and I'm sure there will be many more, considering the effort from one-week member "David_Vogel_1", who managed to watch 49 movies in exactly 7 days, and rated all of them a 1 or 10 lol. To see how generous my 4 is, compare it to the professional Top Critics on Rotten Tomatoes where it's at 29%. So, should you invest almost 2 hours to see this? Unless you're an obsessed fan of Todd Grinnell, Mena Suvari or Kristin Bauer van Straten, I'd steer clear of this one.

Waste of time

[Draysan-Jennings · 4/10 · 16 February 2021]

I probably should of watched the trailer before I put this on. I liked the concept but this movie sucked. Some of the acting and cinematography were terrible. I wouldn't recommend watching this film. 4 stars.

Awful

[connolley325 · 2/10 · 13 October 2021]

This movie was so bad. And I normally love bad movies. Not this one. Everything looked cheap, the script was bad, the acting was indifferent to bad. The husband opens the curtains in the bedroom to reveal an amazing ocean view and the wife is all "meh"? The homeless woman lives below them and can hear everything they say and it's not even muffled? Nice insulation. They can't get rid of the homeless woman and remove her from living right below their house and the law doesn't help? It all seemed very disjointed. They go from a burned-out shell of a house to having a gorgeous green-tiled bathroom overnight without showing any cleaning or reno. Was that supposed to be the same poo-filled meth den we saw about 10 minutes before? What the heck? PS I can't take it when animals get hurt or killed in movies. BYE!

The best episode of Diagnosis Murder you'll ever see!

[Go_For_The_Jugular · 2/10 · 15 February 2021]

Silly plot, silly storyline, silly characters, silly dialogue, silly CGI...just downright silly!

Movie highlight: A government employee saying 'peace out' to a client, instead of 'goodbye', like a normal human being in that role would.

Would not recommend.

Not worth your time

[wickhard-41018 · 1/10 · 5 March 2021]

The acting was terrible, the story was unbelievable, the movie looked like junior high students made it.

Another day in paradise

[Stanlee107 · 2/10 · 24 February 2021]

I was surprised to see the protagonist Mena Subaru (American Pie, loser & American Beauty) & had a glimmer of hope for this. But within 15 minutes into the film, this dim flame was extinguished. This was NOT done as spectacular as The dying phoenix from the flame but rather like a match that is blown out with a light gust of wind. My twisted metaphors are better than any lines from the screen writers for this bargain bucket of a TV movie.

The film is riddled with clichés & plot holes that each character stumbles over. These include the sad back story of the antagonist/ swotter, the inept police that cannot do their jobs, the neighbours that buy into & support the antagonist's sad back story, etc the stoic husband that is passive & has that triumphs in spite of all adversities attitude and the wife that is an emotional mess that can be nasty at times.... The ending is so ridiculous that even for a TV movie it has a wft/ shake your head in disbelief moment. Please avoid this like it was the pandemic!

This is possibly one of the worst movies i've seen

[rookron · 1/10 · 2 April 2021]

I work from home on a computer and sometimes put movies i'd never waste my off time on in the background. I found myself cringing from the dialog to the point of where I may have lost my job because of errors from twitching. This is a movie to watch with friends to laugh at after self medicating.

Absolutely stupid!

[haroot_azarian · 21 July 2022]

Now I like Mena Suvari, especially in Locked In. But I think she made a big mistake in accepting a role in this crapiola! Gosh where to start? The neighbor saying "can't you leave that woman alone?" And his stupid wife saying; "don't make us bail her out again! The parking in the valley is terrible!" Oh and it just gets better! The sheriff saying: "now if you'll excuse me, I have real bad people to catch!" The plot is ridiculous, especially when Knox (the husband) is anything but a hero, not right until the end anyway. The actress playing nutjob Bree did a good job. But all the rest were totally crap. Especially the irate construction worker. And the short clip in the crazy credits was stupid!

Perfect movie for everyone's going to have a different perspective on who's the villain and who's the hero

[eprusulis · 7/10 · 26 February 2021]

This is a great movie it was written well the ACTing was done well. It's one of those movies where perspective is going to be different and you really don't know who the true villain is and who the truth here always it's not a it's a very gray movie but that's what made this movie so special no it wasn't like oh okay so this person's the bad guy and he's a good people they're all good and they're all bad in their own way

Wow, just wow

[psmith-61228 · 2/10 · 22 February 2021]

Bad acting, bad script, bad storyline. Everything that happens is just so unbelievable. The story, their actions, just everything. Give it a miss

Good acting!

[hangten-52034 · 10/10 · 13 February 2021]

Good acting in this film. Especially with Eddie Goines with acting in multiple roles like: being chill smokin, being funny, getting angry, and conversational.

Gross Movie. The Dog Dies!

[anilakygt · 1/10 · 18 February 2021]

To make it short - the husband accidentally runs over the dog with a car, turned it off immediately. The movie is boring to begin with. Thank god I didn't have to sit for the rest of it

Dumb

[hlnmcgu · 1/10 · 28 November 2021]

This movie 'Paradise Cove' couldn't decide if it was a thriller or comedy, but no matter, this fiasco was neither thrilling or funny. In fact, I think violence combined with wisecracks, is offensive. Plus, why do villains in these awful movie's pick on people's pets? Shame on the producers.

The actors were super bad at their job, by the way.

Painful

[cardinalswin · 1/10 · 6 January 2022]

The acting and the many, many ridiculous, stupid, totally unbelievable parts of this movie make it unworthy of even one star. The actors, the producers, the director, anyone involved in the making of this trash should be embarrassed that their names are in the "credits" at the end of this garbage.

Terrible acting

[jazguy · 2/10 · 18 February 2021]

One of the most ridiculous movies I have ever seen absolutely terrible acting and one unbelievably laughable seen after anothwr

Nightmare bay

[jfost75 · 1/10 · 5 December 2021]

The most intriguing thing about this movie was that it was SO awful that it borderlines on comical. The acting was on par with a poorly produced lifetime movie, and that was the best part... An emotionally abusive couple moves in to an I'll-gotten beach house with the intention of flipping the property (with the help of their pothead contractor, Griff, who is only good for pretending to get high. The couples plans are put on hold when they discover a mentally I'll homeless woman living beneath the home. Chaos ensues as the couple attempts to flip the property, have a child over the age of 40, all while being thwarted at every turn by "Bree" the psychotic squatter.

This movie has absolutely no redeeming value. Trust ur instincts, pass in this one.

One of the worst movies I have ever seen

[Jblum5 · 1/10 · 9 November 2021]

A couple inherits a house from the husbands mother, and the previous owner of the house lives underneath it and won't leave. If this sounds like it should be a short film - you are correct. The way the police is portrayed in this movie borderlines on offensive - with how uncaring and incompetent they are.

The previous owner is extremely unlikable and crass.. So these two things make you root for the characters the film wants you to root against... which is a sign of horrible writing and directing. The pace is slow and predictabe.

This film is really just a dumbed down version of The House of Sand and Fog (which is an awesome movie.)

Great if u like lifetime channel

[Tina_jeppesen · 4/10 · 6 April 2021]

LOL...it's entertaining enough but ya...& really dude leaving your envelope full of all your cash in a drawer with insane lady & a construction crew in & out, lol. I will say the take on the stalker was something I haven't seen (her home being stolen, makes you root for her, at first, especially since the other characters aren't likable- but she's not very likable and pretty evil so... I thought because of that, I was about to see something I hadn't seen before, but not!

Awful

[Scottishtvwatcher · 6 September 2021]

I love bad movies. I watch the channel 5 afternoon movie 5 days a week. They're really bad but this is unwatchable. You would just have locked her out. Was it meant to be a bad film? Also, killing the dog... why.

Now that's what I call a thriller!

[Chartreuse1 · 8/10 · 6 March 2021]

Kristin Bauer van Straten makes this movie as good as it is. Her performance as Bree Lehvey, a "homeless", deranged woman was great and the plot unwinds slowly. Knox and Tracey try to renovate a Malibu home belonging to his estranged and dead mother but Bree will have none of it. She lives under the house!!! Eerie music and a good director makes this a winner! Highly recommended and would watch again!

Feels like a movie people would watch in a sitcom

[gavintheshiba · 2/10 · 24 May 2022]

I decided to watch this film because there wasn't much else on. I usually watch older horror films, but I decided to just go with this anyways.

Uh, well, it's certainly one of the films ever.

The only two big things I liked was Kristin Bauer's role as Bree, the main antagonist, and I also liked how she definitely had some compelling motivation, but most other aspects of the film fall flatter than a pancake.

All of the characters are so stupid that they might as well be CPU's from a video game, especially how people like the detective and neighbours take Bree's side. How dare a couple not like a deranged homeless woman living under their house!

I do not recommend, sadly.

Painful!

[lubrown-06419 · 1/10 · 27 November 2021]

This was painful to watch. Bad writing and even worse acting. If these actors thought they were good in this joke of a movie they need to find a new career.

Pacific Heights rip off

[ccwilson-69886 · 5/10 · 15 February 2021]

Although it's a complete rip off and of the Keaton thriller it does have a couple redeeming qualities, one being Kristin Straten. Watchable but forgettable.

Should have been better

[beachpatricia · 5/10 · 22 February 2021]

I had high hopes for this movie. I popped the popcorn anticipating a suspenseful movie. Well it unfortunately didn't turn out as I had hoped. It started off pretty good and then died towards the middle. This character Bree in the movie turned out to be very psychotic. Kristen Bauer did do an excellent job of portraying a crazy lady in this film.The other actors did a great job in their roles but the story could have been better. The story would have been better if Bree had made Tracey the wife more jealous. There were extra characters in the movie that weighed it down. It is not the worse movie I ever saw even though I found myself wishing it would hurry up and end.