PodBill
Just what I expected
Murphy Howard
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Rosie Searle
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
whiskeysauer
This was a movie that I watched primarily because of the photography of 1960s Hawaii. In the opening scene, there's a great pan of Diamond Head all the way to the Ilikai hotel. If you spend much time in Hawaii, you'll notice hotels that don't exists yet and several that are even being built during the filming of this movie. Specifically, you can see the Outrigger Waikiki under construction as well as what is now known as the Resortquest Waikiki Beach. Ironically, the Resortquest Waikiki Beach is now an Elvis era themed hotel. The Sheraton Waikiki is an empty lot.Another really neat observation is the scene at the beach park near Chinaman's hat. It is literally timeless! The beach looks the same today as it does in the movie. Almost everything else has changed in many ways.The film won't be an example of great acting and certainly the plot leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand, it's fun to see the island from 40 years ago. Even Kalakaua Ave is a two-way street!
Michael_Elliott
Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) * 1/2 (out of 4) Elvis plays a pilot who travels to Hawaii to start up his own business but he ends up falling for a woman (Suzanna Leigh) and this might just cost him more than his little bitty heart. I guess I should start off by saying that Elvis gives a truly bad performance here but considering the script I guess you can't blame him nor can you blame him for doing so many drugs. It's strange but it's easy to tell that he's not interested in the film as he pretty much sleepwalks through the entire thing but I also noticed that a lot of the scenes seemed to be rushed by him as if he was wanting to get the film over very quickly and to do so he read the lines extremely fast. It also seems like he might not have even known the lines as he's constantly looking to the side of him and appears to be reading some of the lines. I wouldn't bash him too hard because the film is stupid from the opening titles to the very last scene. The supporting players are all pretty lousy and Dona Butterworth didn't impress me either. There's one incredibly silly scene with them two singing on a beach but there's an even worse scene with Elvis flying a helicopter while singing to a bunch of dogs who eventually get into a fight. There's some nice locations but that's pretty much it. I was also shocked to see that David Hess from The Last House on the Left wrote one of the songs.
MARIO GAUCI
This is yet another resistible vehicle for Elvis Presley with a silly plot (here he's an irresponsible playboy pilot who opens up his own helicopter service), tropical setting, a plethora of girls, child interest, and below-par musical numbers (his crooning to a bunch of dogs while up in the air has to be the nadir of his singing career!). Elvis had already done something similar with BLUE HAWAII (1961) – but that's one which I haven't caught up with so far.Michael Moore (no relation to the controversial documentarist of the same name) had been the assistant or second-unit director of six previous Elvis titles; considering the dire results here, it's no wonder he wasn't called upon to helm another later on! Popular Asian-American actor James Shigeta is Presley's business partner; the female cast includes Suzanna Leigh (later a British horror/Hammer starlet) and Marianna Hill (she had already appeared uncredited in the Elvis film ROUSTABOUT [1964] and would go on to feature in such heavyweight modern classics as MEDIUM COOL [1969] and THE GODFATHER PART II [1974]!). Shigeta's little girl – she even gets to duet with Elvis on a couple of songs – is played by Donna Butterworth, who had debuted in the Jerry Lewis comedy THE FAMILY JEWELS (1965); it was also nice to see Grady Sutton, a favorite W.C. Fields foil back in the day, as the enthusiastic but nervous crocodile-shoe salesman.
TC-4
I watched this movie because a friend of mine who also has Irish Setters said I have to watch it because there is an Irish Setter in the helicopter with him all the time. Well, that turned out to be about 3 minutes. The rest of the movie was dreadful. When he came out of the ocean from a swim he looked like he was wearing a girdle and quickly put on a bathrobe. None of the songs I ever heard again. None of the leading ladies could act or perform. This was not Viva Las Vegas. The only good thing was seeing John Doucette who was one of my favorite character actors. This is only for the diehard Elvis fans.
