Redundant and unnecessary.

A Surprisingly Unforgettable Movie!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Airline pilot Elvis Presley--sacked for fooling around with a stewardess mid-flight--can't find work because of his bad reputation; he returns to Hawaii, his old stomping grounds, to hit up friends for the funding to start a helicopter-shuttle business for tourists. Presley's buddy this time is James Shigeta, a family man with lots of little ones to coo over Elvis and sing with him. Strictly for die-hard Presley fans. The mixture of location shots/travelogue footage with studio fakery and back-projection gives the end results a tatty look, and Elvis just walks through it. There's not even a standout song here, so that the movie isn't even exciting to listen to. *1/2 from ****

The only thing that spoils this film, is the soundtrack. I'd say it's a better film than Blue Hawaii (this is understandably nicknamed Blue Hawaii 2) if it had been recorded the other way round (before the "mundane movie formula" had kicked in) and had the songs from "Blue Hawaii" (half of which weren't great themselves anyway) THIS could easily have been Elvis Presley's highest grossing film of his lifetime instead of it's Hawaiian predecessor. English beauty Suzanna Leigh plays the leading "Elvis Girl" in this Movie...what a fabulous figure!! 9 year old Donna Butterworth is arguably the most memorable female in the movie however, with a series of scene stealing performances that makes it hard to understand how this was her final film. She sings two songs with Elvis - the silly "Queenie Wahini's Papaya" and the tongue in cheek "Datin'" as well as a number of her own at a party. Elvis plays out of work pilot Rick Richards (sounds more like a Nascar driver!) who sets up a helicopter tourist business with his pal Danny Kohana (little Donna's dad) and digs himself into a hole by loaning funds to back his business from a bevvie of beauties he'd fled from 2 years earlier. Like most Elvis movies - it's enjoyable. Silly but enjoyable entertainment, never likely to win awards, get nominated for awards or even top anybody's "favourite film" lists, but sometimes it's good - especially for Elvis fans - to just sit back, enjoy some easy entertaining viewing. These films might have been panned in their day - even by the man himself - but now it's great to have so much visual footage of The King singing, talking, romancing, joking and fighting, even though this is the movie where for the first time it looks apparent that Elvis had grown tired of Hollywood and his dreams of being a "serious movie star". His previous few movies had been particularly soft, and heavily criticised and mocked and Elvis doesn't look as good as he had even 6 months earlier in "Harum Scarum" (a trend and a look that would continue over into his next few films, most notably "Clambake").

Paradise, Hawaiian Style is the second of three films Elvis Presley filmed in Hawaii. What a lucky guy, three trips to Hawaii for free at Paramount's expense. Good a reason as any to visit the islands.Elvis plays a pilot who gets together with good buddy James Shigeta to form a helicopter touring and freighting service. Shigeta takes care of the business end of the business and Elvis both flies and charms his way into the hearts of various local beauties to plug his service at the hotels they work at.Funniest thing in the movie is Elvis trying to fly a helicopter with about five dogs running around with their ditzy owner as well, miracle he wasn't killed. The owner insists they not go in doggie carriers and Elvis, desperate for business, is the only pilot to agree with that insanity.Paradise, Hawaiian Style is not as good as Blue Hawaii, the songs he sings here are markedly inferior. But I like the film because a lot of it was shot at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Northern Oahu. Some might recognize the film music used when Elvis makes his first appearance there. It's the famous theme from Donovan's Reef, also shot in Hawaii and another favorite of mine.That center was the highlight of the attractions I saw in the Aloha State and should not be missed by any tourists.Another reviewer said the film must have been a deal with the Hawaiian Tourism Board with all the beautiful outdoor location shooting. Good a reason as I've ever heard to watch a film.

If Hal Wallis had produced this little epic 10 years earlier, it might have starred his other contract players, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (with Lewis in the role of the little girl played by Donna Butterworth). If it had been made 10 years later, after "The Godfather Part II" made it fashionable to number sequels, "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" might have been titled "Blue Hawaii, Part II." It's not an official sequel, but that's a mere technicality. The only real difference between the two films is that this one is infinitely worse. Whereas "Blue Hawaii" was little more than a travelogue, it was professional looking with some decent songs and a star who still seemed to be in touch with some form of reality. "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" is a grubby, grimy, cheap looking thing with a pudgy, seemingly zonked out Elvis warbling tunes so dreadful ("Queenie Wahine's Papaya," "Datin'"), they weren't worthy of the vinyl record on which they were pressed let alone a gold one.Watching Presley in this wretched vehicle, one can only look on in amazement and wonder if this is, indeed, the same sneering guy who set the world on fire a decade earlier. This is a Twilight Zone Elvis in a movie for those curious to know how the state of mind known as "stunned disbelief" really feels.