The road to getting a film picked up by a distributor after production on the indie circuit gets tougher and tougher every year that the allure of Sundance fades from its glory days. The top indie films, which used to get big distribution deals fairly regularly, are having a much harder time as fewer films get made and distributed into theatres period. The days of the big deal for anything that can get buzz from a handful of festival showings for nearly every quirky indie film are over. Thus an interesting, but hard to market, film like Two Tickets to Paradise can languish in post production for several years before being quickly dumped to DVD despite an impressive pedigree.
Heyson (John C McGinley) was a great athlete destined for greatness, now toils away as a degenerate gambler. McGriff (D.B Sweeney) had a rock band that had a moment of fame but faded away, now content to reliving his glory days in between beer deliveries. Klein (Paul Hipp) was remarkably intelligent and now works as a sales associate at Office Max. When Klein wins two tickets to the BCS National Title game, the three go on a road trip to Florida from their native New Jersey in a trip of male bonding and exploration.
The film’s main theme is about men approaching their middle ages wondering what happened to the glory they seemingly were destined for. It’s an interesting one that they explore in conversations with themselves and interactions with others. D.B Sweeney, pulling triple duty as star/writer/director, has crafted an interesting rumination on the nature of aging by three different perspectives. Heyson is looking for that big score to make his life easier, McGriff still clings to the moment of glory he had and Klein is seemingly content with his lot in life.
It makes for an interesting look on aging, to say the least, but Sweeney goes for quirky much more than he goes for drama and it take a lot out of the film. There’s too many attempts at being clever as opposed to merely being clever with a dramatic take; the film’s overall message about the glories of youth and the actualities of adulthood disappear amongst some of the more random moments in the film.
Having gone under several names trying to find a distributor on the indie circuit, Two Tickets to Paradise is an interesting but flawed film about the acceptance of aging.
Presented in a Dolby Digital surround in a widescreen presentation, the film doesn’t have a great transfer in any aspect. The video is grainy and looks like it was shot on home video and wasn’t cleaned up for release onto DVD.
There’s a Director Commentary included.
The usual Deleted Scenes and Outtakes are included.
The film’s Trailer is included under a couple of the name changes the film has undergone since being filmed five years ago.
Two Tickets to Paradise is best described as a bunch of first rate actors coming together to make a home movie but having just enough professionalism to elevate slightly ahead of most small budget indies.
Paramount Home Entertainment presents Two Tickets to Paradise. Written and Directed by D.B Sweeney. Starring John C McGinley, D.B Sweeney, Paul Hipp, Moira Kelly, Ed Harris. Running time: 91 minutes. Rated R. Released on DVD: September 14, 2010.
