Cutthroat Island

5/20/2016

Not as bad as it's notoriously condemned as being, but still clearly shows that both leads and the director were ill-advised (you know very well that if you were getting Harlin at that point in time, you were getting Davis--that's exactly why she probably married him). She brings her A-game and definitely tries her best but this just isn't her thing, and Modine's clearly not blockbuster star material for action films. A few of Harlin's set-pieces worked particularly well, but he pandered too much for his wife. That can work if you're, say, the Rossellinis and you're filming a drama set in Italy, but it's not working here, though I'll adore Davis to my dying day. I will add that this is my 13 year-old son's favourite films. Very curious if they would have made sequels had it not bombed--the

2/27/2019

***Fun pirate flick tries too hard to be heroic and panders to youngsters*** In 1668 a female pirate captain (Geena Davis) purchases an educated slave (Matthew Modine) to read a treasure map written in Latin and help her & crew find the priceless lucre on Cutthroat Island. Frank Langella plays her villainous uncle who’s also chasing the hidden loot. “Cutthroat Island” (1995) is a pirate adventure in the spirit of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981); it even has a cute monkey as a side character. It’s a fun adventure with several worthwhile scenes (you can check all the pirate staple boxes) and magnificent locations, but it doesn’t have the movie magic of “Raiders.” For one thing, it tries too hard to be larger-than-life valiant and thus goes over-the-top with the action scenes, li

4/3/2019

I was born poor, I had no choice but to become a thief and a liar. Cutthroat Island is directed by Renny Harlin and written by Robert King and Marc Norman. It stars Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Maury Chaykin, Patrick Malahide, Stan Shaw and Rex Linn. Music is scored by John Debney and cinematography by Peter Levy. A film of many flaws, with a reputation akin to it being the devil of big budget failures, it is, however, a wonderful piece of piratical entertainment - that is if you are prepared to see past the monetary excess. Famously cited as the film that bankrupted Caroloco Pictures, the truth is that Carolco was going under anyway, the studio had filed for bankruptcy before Cutthroat Island had even been released, the box office performance was irrelevant, it would

3/30/2024

OK, so there's precious little original here but I still quite enjoyed Geena Davis doing her best Maureen O'Hara impression as the buccaneer "Adams". She sort of accedes to the ship's captaincy after the death of her father, but her crew are less than convinced. She's going to have to prove her worth. So, now pursued by the arch-baddie "Dawg" (Frank Langella), she and her hapless but handsome slave "Shaw" (Matthew Modine) must get hold of the three pieces of a rather unique map and find the treasure. What now ensues pitches loads of piratical duplicity against some colonial interference from the British Governor "Ainslee" (Patrick Malahide) and a scheming of a dastardly baddie - and all accompanied by plenty of quickly paced swash, buckle and musketry. It's a bit long, the story seems to t