Hawaii Movies

We love watching movies that are about or filmed in where we are living or visiting. Hawaii, of course, is a favorite location for movies. Here's a review about several... favorites? or at least interesting movies about Hawaii. (If you want to see justice related Hawaii movies, check out this post instead.)

50 First Dates

Adam Sandler plays a womanizer who finally falls in love. But his interest, played by Drew Barrymore, had a medical condition that causes her to forget what happened every single day. So, Sandler constantly has to woo her over again. 

It's actually a really sweet movie (though mixed with many dumb scenes). Sandler becomes a better person. Barrymore's family has to question how they've kept her in the dark about her condition and not let her move forward with her life. Despite her amnesia, she gets empowered to be better educated about her own life and gets to make her choices about how she wants to live it. At one point, she breaks up with Sandler, and he respects it, instead of trying to trick her again. 

Locations are fun in these movies. Sandler plays a zoo vet and works at Sea Life Park on Oahu, about 30 minutes south of our home in Kailua. We visited there once. 

Stephen at the penguin show

I liked the birds

Barrymore's character lives north of us. Her family home is on the water, and we can see views of Mokoli'i Island in several scenes. (Their property would be extremely valuable! Probably not the home of fishermen). The Hukilau cafe is allegedly at the Kualoa Ranch, but we did not see it there. The characters share a kiss at Makapu'u Lighthouse, one of my favorite hiking trails. (It's the easiest hike!)

The whole plot would have worked fine in any location: being in Hawaii was just a beautiful backdrop. 

Lilo & Stitch

I love this movie. It's a super weird mix about sci fi aliens, real Hawaiian natives, and real struggles. 

Lilo is a little girl, maybe only 5 years old, who is being raised by her adult sister, Nani. (Nani might be 18?) Their parents recently died, and they are struggling. Lilo is weird and doesn't fit in with the other kids, even picking fights.

Nani works at a tourist luau, which she calls "fakey" after she gets fired. Her almost-boyfriend David is a fire dancer who has accidentally set himself on fire more than once. (Nani is too overwhelmed with her responsibilities to commit to him, but it seems like he'd like them to partner together.) Nani struggles to find a new job. 

Lilo adopt alien monster Stitch, thinking that he's a dog. She emphasizes with his misbehavior because she acts out her bad feelings too. 

Given her age, Lilo doesn't understand the severity of their family's situation. Nani is reasonably terrified that the state is going to take her sister away from her. 

Native Hawaiian children are taken from their families at disproportionate rates. Like Lilo and Nani, this isn't always about abuse: it's more likely about poverty. Lilo is eventually taken from Nani in the movie. (The sci-fi storyline does play a role in this: aliens blow up their house.) A foster family would get paid to care for Lilo... although that money could have just been given to Nani. 

This story gets a happy ending. The CPS worker relents when he meets the aliens, and the alien leader insists the family be put under special protection. The worker and two aliens become part of the family too, helping them out. (Community support and financial support both make the difference for struggling families.)

Lilo and Stitch live in a town based on Hanapepe on the island of Kauai. We visited there.

After living in Hawaii, I noticed more little authentic details in the movie. Lilo has a handmade sign saying, "Kapu" on the door, an equivalent of, 'Keep Out!" We hear truck drivers speaking pidgin, David greets by saying, "Howzit!" and Nani sings Lilo "Aloha Oe" on their last night together. They fly on an alien spacecraft through the beautiful canyon on Kauai- then land next to Volcano Park on Big Island a minute later. The movie ends with Lilo's hula group performing at the Merrie Monarch Festival, and they take family photos that including the Duke Kahanamoku statue on Oahu. I loved all these real life details about life in Hawaii. 

Moana

This movie doesn't take place in Hawaii. But, there's a lot of cultural overlap! Moana lives on a fictional island that is based on true history.  Locations like Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga and Tahiti inspired the story. 

Ancient Polynesian people were excellent Way-finders, sailing all over the Pacific ocean, following the stars and settling different islands. This history was questioned when Westerners arrived in the islands. They suggested "Accidental Drift Theory," meaning that natives in boats happened to crash into islands. I think it's the same attitude when people say that ancients couldn't have built incredible stone architecture... musta been aliens!

More recent travels have been undertaken long distance trips using traditional methods. The Hokule'a began sailing in 1976 to demonstrate the accuracy of the ancient techniques.

Moana tells another surprising part of the story: the ancient peoples quit sailing for many years. We aren't sure why! But then they re-discovered their own lost practices, and began sailing across the ocean again. A beautiful theme from the movie is Moana singing, "I know the way." 

South Park: Going Native

I can't talk about South Park without numerous content warnings. Swearing, gory violence, crudeness, rudeness, etc. The South Park writers do an "equal offense" style of comedy and don't care if they are punching up or punching down. However, in this episode, they get it right. S16:E11

Elementary school student Butters leaves home in South Park, Colorado, to travel to his "native" home Hawaii. His (white) parents explain that they used to live in Hawaii, and he needs to return. So, he travels to Kauai . The local white population explains to him how they are the real natives of Hawaii.  Despite living in Hawaii only a month out of the year, they complain about tourists and haoles (white people).

Obviously there is exaggeration at play here (I never heard a white person call themself native), but the entitlement and cultural appropriation are all based in truth. (There's a similar scene in Princess Kapiolani where white land-owners explain that they're the real Hawaiians.)

This episode became the source of many inside jokes for us. "Mahalo Rewards Card" for anytime we got a local discount. Chi-chi as a silly drink to order, and, years later, saying Vincent needs to visit Hawaii for his hapa noa. 

We watched it with David Roe during our trip to Kauai together. Driving by an old hotel, we said, wait... is that the Kapu (forbidden) hotel? Of course we wanted to take a look. (I'll share more of this some day when I write a Kauai blog post.)

Coco Palms Hotel

The Descendants is a sad movie. I didn't love it. There's two storylines woven together: George Clooney plays a man who is dealing with grief and betrayal. His wife is in a coma after an accident, and she won't recover. Then, his teen daughter tells him that mom was having an affair. 

Meanwhile, Clooney's cousins are gathering soon to make a big decision about family land.  The family is the descendants of rich land-owners in Hawaii. (A fictional Hawaiian princess married the son of white missionaries.) They still own a huge property of undeveloped on the Island of Kauai. They have decided to sell and divide the profits between the various cousins. They have several offers from competing resorts. Locals, both on Kauai and Clooney's own neighborhood on Oahu, have strong opinions about what the family should do: no new development!

Clooney is the primary decision maker in the family, and he eventually decides against the development. But, his reasons aren't exactly based in care for the people of the islands. He finds out that one of the main real estate agent who is going to profit off the sale is the man his wife was cheating with. Clooney's decision seems to be mostly to penalize him. 

This movie is an interesting view of rich families and island hopping. We start on Oahu, then fly to Big Island where the teen daughter attends boarding school. Then, over to Kauai to look at the family property and reminisce about camping trips. Clooney has some honest reflection about his family's disproportionate amount of power. He mentions that even though they have a little native blood, they are still haole. 

Magnum PI

Just for fun. Magnum (played by Tom Selleck) lives in the guest house of a mysterious millionaire. He drives the owner's Ferrari everywhere. ("That isn't yours!" people keep saying.) We knew we had to watch the show since strangers called Stephen Magnum on a regular basis.

Mostly, Hawaii is simply a fun backdrop for Magnum's adventures and shenanigans. 

The mansion was located in Waimanalo, a local, less touristy town just south of Kailua. We think it was demolished during our time there. (Rumor: Obama knocked it down for a compound?) A lot of Hawaii hasn't changed since the 80's: we loved seeing the same road signs. It was funny to watch a chase scene where the car magically moved from the tunnels in the center of the island to the curvy road on the East side. 

A new version of Magnum started filming while we lived there. We got some gossip from locals: Stephen's car guy worked on the old Ferrari, and a leader in the Ferrari Club refused to rent the film his authentic car unless they let him body-double as the driver. Turns out: the 80s Ferrari gets destroyed in the first episode! New Magnum drives a newer car. We found it once while they were filming in downtown Honolulu. 

Magnum PI filming on location

The Ferrari was sitting across the street

Again, this was just fun and relevant to our experiences. The actual show is pretty cheesy and often misogynistic. I enjoyed one episode (S1:E5) which had both and Mandy and a Ginger in it: Ginger was only seen in the morgue, and Mandy was the Girl of the Week who ends up being an IRA spy.  (I don't think we made it past season 1.)

Do you have any favorite movies about Hawaii?