Exit to Eden

Exit to Eden is a 1994 American comedy-thriller adaptation of the book of the same name by Anne Rampling. The film stars Dana Delany, Paul Mercurio, Rosie O'Donnell, Dan Aykroyd and Hector Elizondo. The film was directed by Garry Marshall and the film score was done by Patrick Doyle.

Dana Delany stars as Lisa Emerson (while she's named Lisa Kelly in the book version) and Paul Mercurio plays the role of Elliot Slater. The film was mostly written as a comedic detective storyline. There were also new characters added to the film adaptation, including detectives Fred Lavery (played by Dan Aykroyd) and Shelia Kingston (played by Rosie O'Donnell) that are out to find a group of diamond thieves on the island resort called Eden, which mostly consists of sex slaves donning S&M leatherwear.

Plot
LAPD detectives Sheila Kingston (O'Donnell) and Fred Lavery (Aykroyd) are assigned by their boss to pursue diamond thieves on an island resort called Eden. In order to find the thieves, both detectives dress in S&M leatherwear to find the thieves and arrest them.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) The story is atrociously written and is themed on BDSM (mentioned in the Reception box), which makes the film even worse.
 * 2) Boring and unlikable characters, even the lead characters are awful.
 * 3) Outlandish S&M costumes.
 * 4) The residents on Eden are almost always dressed up in S&M outfits complete with whips, chains and leatherwear.
 * 5) Sex slaves are present on Eden, which is totally gross.
 * 6) Unfunny buddy cop clichés.
 * 7) Dan Aykroyd gives an awful performance, same thing for Rosie O'Donnell, who won a Golden Raspberry Award for this film, The Flintstones and Car 54, Where Are You?.
 * 8) The jokes aren't funny.
 * 9) Degrading dialogue.
 * 10) The film tries to be sexy, cute and/or amusing, but fails on every level.
 * 11) The story is completely different from that of the book, which was originally a romantic drama story.
 * 12) While Shelia is reading the Miranda rights, she at one point sounds as if she’s doing a poorly put-on Romanian accent.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Dan Aykroyd has stated in an interview with the American radio show Hill-Man that he would like to forget ever making this movie.
 * 2) Garry Marshall redeemed himself after directing the hit films The Princess Diaries 1 and 2.

Reception
The film gained notoriety for its premise of the themes of BDSM. The film was panned by critics, audiences and fans of the book alike and currently holds a 6% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average of 2.3 out of 10. Roger Ebert awarded the film with a 1/2 a star out of 4. On At The Movies, he and Gene Siskel gave the film a "Two thumbs down, way down!" and named it as the fourth worst film of 1994 on The Worst Films of 1994. The film sparked controversy after The Saskatchewan Film and Video Classification Board banned the film from theaters and critics didn't know why it was banned. The ban was extended a week later.

Box Office
The film opened at #8 at the Summer box office and had a budget of $25 to $30 million. In the U.S., the film only grossed $3,012,695 and overall the film had a box office return of nearly $7 million making it a box office bomb.

Awards and nominations
Rosie O'Donnell was the winner of the 1994 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for this film (also for The Flintstones (1994) and Car 54, Where Are You?) and Aykroyd earned several nominations for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor (also for North). Both O'Donnell and Aykroyd were nominated a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple.

Trivia

 * The buddy cop subplot was not in the film originally. After the test audience saw the original cut and hated it, the executives demanded it be inserted.
 * Sharon Stone turned down the role of Sheila.
 * Susan Sarandon turned down the role of Lisa.
 * Antonio Banderas was set to play Elliot, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with Interview with the Vampire.

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