TICKET TO PARADISE – Review by T.J. Callahan

Ticket to Paradise: Uses every cliche in the book

Julia Roberts and George Clooney reunite on the big screen in Ticket to Paradise, a romantic comedy that is so full of cliches it’s like a cheap knockoff. They’re just beating a dead horse. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but with Ticket to Paradise you can definitely read
between the lines.

Roberts and Clooney are Georgia and David, divorced parents who can’t stand to be around each other. They fight like cats and dogs, but decide to join forces just long enough to keep their only daughter, Lily, from marrying a young island man she met while vacationing on Bali. They don’t want Lily to make the same mistake they did 25 years earlier because, as you know, marriage is no bed of roses.

You don’t need to purchase a ticket to this paradise to know where the film is going. Basically it’s bickering and buffoonery… that may make you giggle, but you certainly won’t bust a gut. At least Julia and George are having fun while trading jabs. Clooney said after One Fine Day in
1996 that he was only making dramas from now on, but apparently getting to spar with gal pal Roberts was enough to bring him back to the romcom ring.

In the end, everyone lives happily ever after…except maybe the audience. You can’t please everyone. My husband Ricky amazingly stayed awake throughout the entire movie. I did not. A mid movie doze was my Ticket to Paradise. I give it a 5 out of 10. In theaters.