CUTTHROAT ISLAND (1995)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2004
At first glance, a pirate film looks like an excellent recipe for box
office success. Those movies have it all - exotic setting, exotic
costumes, mystery, romance, drama, humour and plenty of action.
But they also tend to be extremely expensive, especially in this day
and age. When done right, they could become successes like
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. When done wrong, they turn into
disasters like CUTHROAT ISLAND, directed in 1995 by Renny
Harlin.
The plot of film is set in 1668. Pirate captain Black Harry (played by
Harris Yulin) is about to die and he tells her daughter Morgan
(played by Geena Davis) about hidden treasure. Morgan inherits his
ship and crew but also needs two pieces of treasure map before she
could start her quest. That brings her in conflict with her
psychopathic uncle Dawg (played by Frank Langella) who wants the
treasure for himself. Morgan recruits services of Shaw (played by
Matthew Modine), former slave who reads Latin and can help her
decipher the map. In the meantime, Morgan and her ship become
target of Ainslee (played by Patrick Malahide), English governor who
wants to wipe out piracy in Caribbean.
These days, CUTTHROAT ISLAND is remembered mostly as one of
the worst commercial disasters in Hollywood history and misguided
project that brought down entire movie studio. Those who watch this
film now can see it as unfortunately overambitious but not
particularly bad film. As a pirate movie, CUTTHROAT ISLAND
delivers most of the ingredients, especially the non-stop action.
Renny Harlin, master of spectacular scenes, doesn't show any hint of
subtlety in the almost endless stream of swordfights, chases and
"minor" skirmishes that would reach crescendo in the final naval
battle. All that is accompanied by John Debney's very good music
soundtrack and Thailand locations are put to good use.
However, all this razzmatazz can't compensate for the poor script
and even poorer casting choices. Geena Davis, who used to be
Harlin's wife during the production, is a good actress but in this film
she simply fails to present herself as action heroine, obviously lacking
skills that would serve her well in THE LONG KISS GODNIGHT.
Her modern American accent doesn't help the film eitheir, being so
out of place in 17th Century Caribbean. Her partner Matthew Modine
makes even worse impression and is even less convincing as
Morgan's sidekick and obligatory love interest. Other actors are
slightly better, although many of them, like Frank Langella and
Patrick Malahide, can't do much with their one-dimensional and
cartoonish characters.
The worst thing in CUTTHROAT ISLAND can be found in what was
supposed to be its best thing - action scenes. Many of them sacrifice
plausibility and any trace of common sense for the sake of cheap
thrills and even cheaper spectacle. At times they even manage to
insult viewers' intelligence. The worst example is the scene where
English commander destroys his own port with artillery
bombardment in a futile attempt to stop a single man from running
away. This was too much even for 1990s Hollywood standards.
CUTTHROAT ISLAND is nevertheless entertaining at times, but
those moments are too brief to lift this film much above its disastrous
reputation.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
Review written on September 8th 2004
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
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