It’s a late Saturday night. I head into the movie theater to purchase my ticket for Ticket to Paradise and grab my snacks that I, of course, will finish before the movie even starts. 

I make my way to my seat, ready to see if Julia Roberts and George Clooney can actually pull off the hilarious rom-com perfection the trailer promises. Spoiler alert, they can’t.

I was not completely surprised that this movie was so abysmal. These days, when you have a star studded cast, it is usually to cover up for the fact that the movie itself has no substance to it. I mean, besides a few witty jokes exchanged by Roberts and Clooney and the bloopers reel during the credits, there isn’t much to highlight about it.

First off, the love story between Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) and Gede (Maxime Bouttier) is boring and extremely exaggerated. It feels like the writers are trying to speed along the story so that they can get to the middle without establishing a solid beginning.

I mean seriously, Lily goes to an island and falls in love with Gede in two days. That’s unrealistic, to say the least. Then of course, there’s the chemistry. Watching these two characters, there does not seem to be much between them. It feels like two actors going through the motions rather than two characters actually living it.

The plot is also very predictable and lacks a real story and depth. From the beginning, we know Georgia (Roberts) and David (Clooney) are a divorced couple that are going to end up back together, it’s just a matter of how. The only shocker is that Lily actually goes through with her wedding to Gede, which feels like a major mistake because they don’t have anything in common. Is this all the movie is about, is it? Unfortunately, yes, yes it is.

The trailer promises an abundance of snide and clever jokes, but delivers boring one-liners and relies way too much on physical comedy instead. In the end, only a few gags are able to tickle this reviewer’s funny bone.

The setting is a major miss. I get the ambiance they were going for, but instead of a romantic getaway, it looks like a big jungle.The majority of the movie took place on the edge of one island. Honestly, other than the beautiful views from the hotel rooms and infinity pools, the set feels a little lazy to me. 

It also greatly mishandles some of the more intense moments. Instead of feeling full and meaningful, they feel extremely forced and rushed. It is as if the actors are trying to summon a feeling rather than really be one with their characters, which leads to poorly done scenes that lack true heart and the ability to impart the lesson being shared.

Overall, this movie is boring and full of wasted potential. It fails as comedy, romance or adventure and lacks any substance at all.

My advice? Save yourself the time and money. Scroll through your junk mail––you’ll have more fun looking at the spam advertisements than watching this abysmal attempt at a rom-com.

I give it a 3/10, which I think is pretty generous.

Follow Nyah Rama (@nyah_rama) and @thesidekickcoppell on Instagram.