Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Return to Paradise Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson February 11, 2020

Return to Paradise (1998) is being released by Mill Creek Entertainment as part of a double bill of Joaquin Phoenix movies.

Return to Paradise was the second of three films that Anne Heche starred in during a busy 1998. She appeared opposite Harrison Ford in that summer's romantic adventure Six Days Seven Nights and near year's end in Van Sant's remake, Psycho. Return to Paradise is the best of the trio and co-stars her Psycho slasher, Vince Vaughn. Three college-age graduates meet for a summer of paradise in Malaysia for what one character describes as five weeks worth of "rum, women and good, cheap hash." John "Sheriff" Volgecherev (Vince Vaughn), Tony (David Conrad), and Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix) are wrapping the trip up at a beach hut but only two will go home. Lewis is an ecologist and Greenpeace volunteer who plans to venture to Borneo as part of a wildlife expedition to save the endangered orangutans. Two years pass and Sheriff is a chauffeur for a limo service in New York City while Tony works not that far away as a structural engineer and architect in-waiting. One evening Sheriff picks up a woman claiming to be Lewis's lawyer. Beth Eastern (Anne Heche) explains that shortly after Sheriff and Tony flew home, the owner whose bike was rented out to Lewis and his friends came to the beach hut looking for it. Accompanying the cyclist are Malaysian authorities who uncover just over 100 grams of hashish in Lewis's trash bin. That amount exceeds the legal limit, which causes them to classify Lewis a drug trafficker. He's arrested and put in Penang Prison. The penalty is death by hanging and Beth gives Sheriff and Tony a proposition. If both them of them are willing to go back to Malaysia and take responsibility for the hash, they'll receive three years in prison each. If only one goes, then sentencing is six years. But if neither goes, then Lewis will hang.

The movie gives the familiar plot device of a countdown deadline (through intertitles) for the hanging. Sheriff and Tony have eight days to make their decision. That moral dilemma takes up the entire middle of the narrative. Tony has a fiancée (Vera Farmiga) and promising career to consider but even though he only knew Lewis for part of a summer, he's willing to go and serve his time. On the other hand, Sheriff doesn't have as clear of a conscience and hasn't made anything of his life so far (his father works in a junkyard). He negotiates with Beth in restaurants and hotels but is leaning towards not traveling back. According to the film's production notes, co-writer Wesley Strick added a subplot involving a tabloid journalist who wants Lewis's story to go viral. M.J. (Jada Pinkett Smith) is the persistent reporter who's pestering Beth about publishing a major article about Lewis's plight. Beth doesn't want her to go forward with it because she thinks it may jeopardize his chances of getting a lesser sentence from the Malaysian courts.

Return to Paradise does an admirable job of muddying the moral choices of its principals. Sheriff should accept more of the blame than Tony because it was he who threw the bicy­cle over a cliff and left the hash in the garbage. This is a thinking person's movie for even if one determines what's "right" in the quandary still may meet harsh consequences.

Return to Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Return to Paradise was first issued on DVD in late 1998 by PolyGram Entertainment on a "flipper." One side presented the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and the other side cropped it to 1.33:1. Twenty-two years later, we finally get the Blu-ray premiere courtesy of Mill Creek. The movie appears on one layer of the BD-50 opposite Reservation Road. You can choose to watch either feature after the disc's insertion and each comes with its own menu. The 1080p transfer is largely free of artifacts and defects but looks flat and soft. Background detail is somewhat lacking. One reviewer described the theatrical print as having "muted colors" which is exactly how I'd describe the grey day scenes in NYC (see Screenshot #s 6 and 16). One scene set in Malaysia is when the sun goes down and looks quite breathtaking (see frame grab #5). The movie opens with what appears is Super 8 footage transferred to video (see capture #20). There's some aliasing in the crowded marketplace seen in Screenshot #19. Mill Creek employs the MPEG-4 AVC encode and transfers this feature at an average video bitrate of 23541 kbps.

The 112-minute film receives twelve chapter markers.

Return to Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mill Creek has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround mix (2175 kbps, 24-bit). This is a serviceable, front-heavy track. Dialogue is intelligible but pitch levels aren't always consistent. There's some Malaysian spoken in the courtroom but parts of it are translated in English without the aid of subtitles. The sounds of prison doors and apartment doors closing provide some directional f/x. Mark Mancina's score is a far cry from the electronic music he wrote for the Speed films. The Eastern-sounding flute and percussion are nicely mixed along the satellite speakers.

Unlike the Polygram DVD, this disc has optional English SDH.

Return to Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (2 min., 480i) - the original trailer is presented in full screen from an interlaced source. There are several spoilers so don't watch the trailer first if you've never seen the movie!

Return to Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mill Creek Entertainment has issued two of Joaquin Phoenix's early films to coincide with an awards season that's seen him garner a BAFTA, Golden Globe, and now an Oscar for the title role in Joker. It's great to finally have them both in high-def and I consider Return to Paradise the stronger of the two. Phoenix appears mainly in the first reel and third act. He has a cameo (on a videotape made while he's in prison) during the elongated second act. Polygram marketed the movie as the second coming of Midnight Express but it's more psychological than it is visceral. Return to Paradise is loosely based on the French drama, Force majeure (1989), which co-stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Alan Bates. I'm a little familiar with the production but haven't seen it. But this 1998 international thriller directed by Joseph Ruben comes RECOMMENDED too all fans of Phoenix.