THE BLUE LAGOON enjoys something of a cult reputation these days after proving an enormous success on first release and recuperating its own budget many times over. It's a simple enough story about a young boy and girl who are stranded on a tropical island, but instead of the usual survival elements of the story the focus is on their developing sexual relationship.
I admit it's not particularly the type of film I find interesting but the stunning Fijian locations were enough to keep me watching. Unfortunately the acting from the clearly inexperienced leads is less than impressive and wooden in places and seasoned performers such as the ever delightful Leo McKern have all too little screen time. Sure, Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins may be superficially beautiful but they're able to reveal little below the surface.
Instead of getting more gripping as the story progresses, I found that this film actually got less interesting as it focuses more deeply on the relationship between the characters. The so-called sexual tension is handled in a rather twee and dated fashion and the ending feels tacked-on instead of a natural development of the plot - you think they're either incredibly lucky or wonder why they didn't try it long before.
After directing the hugely successful GREASE Randal Kleiser saw his star gradually waning with the final inevitability of making TV movies and straight-to-DVD releases. THE BLUE LAGOON reveals him to be a workmanlike character rather than a real auteur with a love of his material so it's no surprise that he faded into obscurity after one brief blast of fame.
I admit it's not particularly the type of film I find interesting but the stunning Fijian locations were enough to keep me watching. Unfortunately the acting from the clearly inexperienced leads is less than impressive and wooden in places and seasoned performers such as the ever delightful Leo McKern have all too little screen time. Sure, Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins may be superficially beautiful but they're able to reveal little below the surface.
Instead of getting more gripping as the story progresses, I found that this film actually got less interesting as it focuses more deeply on the relationship between the characters. The so-called sexual tension is handled in a rather twee and dated fashion and the ending feels tacked-on instead of a natural development of the plot - you think they're either incredibly lucky or wonder why they didn't try it long before.
After directing the hugely successful GREASE Randal Kleiser saw his star gradually waning with the final inevitability of making TV movies and straight-to-DVD releases. THE BLUE LAGOON reveals him to be a workmanlike character rather than a real auteur with a love of his material so it's no surprise that he faded into obscurity after one brief blast of fame.