Moon Over Parador ** (1988, Richard Dreyfuss, Raul Julia, Sônia Braga) – Classic Movie Review 11,357

Moon Over Parador (1988): ‘Welcome to Parador. The Dictator’s cold, the First Lady’s hot, the people are revolting… and Jack Noah just got the role of his life.’

Co-writer/ producer/ director Paul Mazursky’s 1988 comedy Moon Over Parador stars Richard Dreyfuss, Raul Julia and Sonia Braga.

Dreyfuss plays a hammy American actor called Jack Noah working on a movie in Parador, a fictional Latin American country, when he is forced by the chief of police Roberto Strausmann (Julia) to impersonate Parador’s dead dictator.

This broad, uneven, sentimental farce reunites Dreyfuss with Mazursky, talented director of their 1986 hit Down and Out in Beverly Hills. Yet, although there are bright moments, particularly at the start, an air of self-indulgence damps the fun here, and the antics of the sometimes slightly uncomfortable-looking stars eventually start to become a bit tiresome.

However, it helps a lot that the always pleasing and enjoyable Dreyfuss is certainly enjoying himself in the double role, and that the entertaining Julia appears to be having fun too, and they are good together. Sonia Braga graces the film as Madonna.

Also in the cast are Jonathan Winters, Fernando Rey, Sammy Davis Jnr, Michael Greene, Polly Holliday, Milton Goncalves, Charo, Marianne Sägebrecht, Dick Cavett and Edward Asner. The famous co-stars are wasted in tawdry roles.

One F-word, likely to be edited out on TV.

It is written by Leon Capetanos and Paul Mazursky from a story by Charles G Booth.

Raul Julia and Sonia Braga also both star in the 1985 Kiss of the Spider Woman.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,357

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