Although the same character names are used for the two kids, this is by no means a sequel to the Blue Lagoon film that Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields made a decade earlier. A lot of plot changes but this is the same story of kids growing up on their own on a south sea island.
This pair who grow up to be Brian Krause and Milla Jovovich have a bit of bringing up from a woman who is cast adrift with them played by Lisa Pelikan. They learn their ABCs from her if not the birds and bees. In a lot of ways Pelikan is the best in the flm with her portrayal of motherhood.
When civilization comes calling finally it's not quite to their liking. That makes the biggest difference in plot.
Return To Ther Blue Lagoon is not near as good as the 1980 fim, but it wasn't deserving of all the Razzie nominations it got.
Return to the Blue Lagoon
1991
Action / Adventure / Drama / Romance
Return to the Blue Lagoon
1991
Action / Adventure / Drama / Romance
Plot summary
While the general theme of this film resembles "The Blue Lagoon" (the film for which this is a sequel),the basic plot is quite different. We open the film with a ship finding the craft with our original characters in it, Richard and Emmeline dead and Paddy alive. Established in the first film, the only word Paddy ever says is "Richard", so the crew assumes Richard is the infant's name. Taken in by Sarah, a widow with an infant baby girl Lilli, Richard (Paddy) is cared for in a return to civilization. Struck by cholera, the crew of the ship start to die and the captain sets Sarah, Richard, Lilli and a healthy crew member on a lifeboat in an attempt to preserve their lives. With water and food running short, the crew member escorting Sarah and the children becomes dangerous, so Sarah takes the only course of action she feels suitable to preserve the children: she strikes him and throws him overboard. Taking control of the small craft, she eventually guides them back to the island of the first film. The infant Richard, recognizing where he is, finds his home and is very upset not to find his parents. Fixing up the hut and settling in the children, Sarah begins their life on the island, slowly teaching the children survival tools, as well as schooling them as though they were in school, and teaching them slowly about the facts of life, including Lilli's eventual growth to womanhood. When Sarah dies from pneumonia, she leaves the children far more prepared than Richard and Emmeline in the first film. Years later as the children grow into adulthood, the film skims the same themes as the first of their developing relationship, and introduces the characters to civilization when a ship, low on fresh water, stops on their island and offers to take them home. After a confrontation with one of the crew and the captain's daughter, Lilli finds herself pregnant and they decide to stay, as they feel the civilization the visitors have to offer will not compare to the life they lead on the island.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
Misleading title
back to the beginning
Richard and Emmeline Lestrange die leaving their son Paddy as the sole survivor. The rescue ship is overwhelmed with suspected cholera. Mr. Kearney, Mrs. Sarah Hargrave with her daughter Lilli, and Paddy renamed Richard are cast off in the lifeboat. Kearney threatens the toddlers and Sarah kills him. The trio ends up back at the original island. After Sarah's death, Lilli (Milla Jovovich) and Richard (Brian Krause) are left to themselves.
The story gymnastics are annoying as heck to make the sequel basically a repeat of the original. I'm sure anybody would be laughing with derision at the silly plot repeat. The original has the possibility of being a guilty pleasure. This is an unforgivable embarrassment for anybody who actually likes the sequel. I have nothing against the two young actors. Milla obviously has more acting abilities than the usual model. However, there is simply no point to this sequel for an unworthy franchise.
Lukewarm leftovers
RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON, made 11 years after the successful first film, is one of those movies that's happy to reprise the plot of the original while adding a few twists and tweaks of its own. It's an entirely superfluous kind of film that sees yet another couple of kids washed up on a desert island and having to fend for themselves against nature and their fellow man.
There are a few differences here - the adult with them is a woman, the boy is the son of the couple from THE BLUE LAGOON, they're staying in the same place so make use of the already-there house, etc. - but none of them make a difference. Once again the film is all about puberty, isolation, love and family, except as it's not original it feels like a lukewarm rehash of the first movie.
The acting doesn't really sit right either. The age gap between Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause is too obvious, and Krause is as equally wooden as Christopher Atkins before him. Jovovich definitely has something feral within her, but less use is made of that as in THE FIFTH ELEMENT, which handled her unique qualities perfectly. Director William A. Graham made a career of TV movies and although RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON had a theatrical release, it feels very much like a second-rate outing in every respect.