This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Starring Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) in his directorial debut, this hilarious comedy follows an ordinary guy (Day) who happens to be a dead ringer for a hot-headed movie star. When he replaces the movie star in a major film, he becomes an accidental celebrity thrown into a fever dream of Hollywood fame brought to life by a stellar cast, including Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody, Jason Sudeikis, Edie Falco, Jason Bateman, Common, and Ray Liotta.

For in-depth thoughts on Fool’s Paradise, please see my colleague Larry Fried’s review from its original theatrical release here.

Video Quality

Lionsgate Home Entertainment brings Fool’s Paradise to Blu-Ray with a pretty great 1080p video presentation in its original 2.39:1. The presentation excels when it is exploring different locations as it provides a significant amount of depth to each setting. The transfer allows for rich textural details which adds to the dimensionality of the frame. The image is very crisp and clear with a vibrant natural color palette shining off the screen. The film serves up some bold colors within the costumes, locations and production design which bolsters the visual wonder of the piece. Highlights avoid all instances of blooming, and the black levels are nice and deep with no obvious digital noise. The flesh tones are natural with a tremendous amount of detail present in close-ups. Lionsgate has delivered a rock solid presentation.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray comes with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that does everything that is asked of it. The lovely score emanates from the speakers in a fulfilling manner which suits the narrative. Dialogue comes through clearly without being overwhelmed by any competing sounds. There is not much in the way of boisterous sequences, but the environmental sounds engage the surround speakers in a welcome way. There are a few exaggerated elements which add texture to the low end, but it is not the focus of the experience. Ambient sounds on set are precisely placed in the rear channels. The audio track is not meant to be a showcase, but it proves to be perfect for this feature. There are optional English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles provided.

Special Features

Theatrical Trailer: The two-and-a-half minute trailer is provided here.

Final Thoughts

Fool’s Paradise is a film that lulls you into a false state of confidence as you laugh quite uproariously during the first third of the experience, but once you get past the first 30 minutes the film hits a wall from which it can never quite recover. Charlie Day has a great commitment to his Charlie Chaplin-esque character, but the routine runs out of gas faster than The Tramp ever did. There seems to be a lot of favors called in with the amount of talented people who show up, but rarely is anyone used to their full potential. The film is not without its merits, but it has too much of an identity crisis to achieve greatness. Lionsgate Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray with a pretty excellent A/V presentation but virtually nothing in the way of special features.

Fool’s Paradise will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD on July 18, 2023. The film is currently available on Digital.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Lionsgate Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.