Hollywood Comes Calling for Ocho Rios Again in Netflix's "Like Father"
At this point, it’s hard to imagine any other exclusive resort destination with a stronger tie to big budget Hollywood productions than Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
Already with a well-documented connection to James Bond and Hollywood icons like Tom Cruise, Ocho Rios’ latest brush with stardom is in Netflix’s most recent feature length film, “Like Father.”
Starring Kristen Bell (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), Kelsey Grammer (“Frasier”), and Seth Rogan (“Knocked Up”), the recently released film starts off in New York City but quickly centers around a cruise vacation to Jamaica and one of Ocho Rios’ most popular attractions, the Blue Hole waterfall in the Blue Mountains.
Blue Hole Stars
Located just minutes away from downtown Ocho Rios, Blue Hole has long been a favorite of locals and visitors to Jamaica, as it cuts a path through the mountains before emptying into turquoise pools, thanks to a series of unforgettable waterfalls.
In “Like Father,” Bell and Grammer, who play an estranged daughter and father, visit the waterfall as part of an excursion in Jamaica and share a cathartic moment of reconciliation with a backdrop of paradise in a tropical rainforest.
Although the film is a comedy, the movie’s most sincere scenes take place at Blue Hole. Several other shots are also filmed in Ocho Rios, including the bumpy road trip and hike to the waterfalls and the kayak scene between Bell and Grammer.
Blue Hole -- also known as Irie Blue Hole, Island Gully Falls, and Secret Falls -- is one of numerous picturesque waterfalls in Ocho Rios, though there are several others that are just as popular and with even more cinematic history.
Ocho Rios’ Film History
Tom Cruise and Elisabeth Shue snuggled romantically at Ocho Rios’s most popular waterfall, Dunn’s River Falls, in the 1980s classic “Cocktail,” and one of cinema’s most iconic moments, a bikini-clad Ursula Andress emerging from the crystalline waters of the Caribbean in James Bond’s “Dr. No,” took place at Laughing Waters waterfall which empties into the sea.
All that and we haven’t even mentioned the origins of the James Bond character from writer Ian Fleming’s imagination, born just miles from Ocho Rios in Oracabessa, or Jamaica’s most popular comedy, “Cool Runnings,” after which a bobsled ride was built on nearby Mystic Mountain.
Make Your Own Movie Magic
With all the cinematic history running through Ocho Rios, a stay at Moon Palace Jamaica next to the cruise port, will give you a chance to tour all or any of those venues.
Explore the waterfalls on excursions and tours (you can even use Resort Credit for some), recreate movie scenes, including the kayak scene from “Like Father” by departing from the resort itself, and even engage in water activities like FlowRider, which was also featured in the movie. Not only movie stars get to have fun in Ocho Rios!
