Cutthroat Island

When her father is killed by pirate Dawg Brown, Morgan Adams takes up his ship and crew and continues his hunt for treasure – the map for which is on several parchments. Enlisting slave William Shaw to help her, they set out to find the treasure and avoid Brown.

With Pirates of the Caribbean getting everyone's gander up for pirate movies all of a sudden I decided to review this film, having seen it first in the cinema and being unimpressed. On TV the feeling is the same. The plot is a treasure hunt, but it never really sets the pulses racing or feels like it is a really fun romp or such. Instead the story telling is rather workmanlike without spark or life.

What exists in it's place is a lot of noise and energy – but it is energy that is misdirected and misplaced in this case. The action scenes look very expensive (when a lavish harbour town is destroyed you can see the budget) but the also lack excitement or tension. Instead they are hollow spectacles. I'm not a big fan of Harlin's work. Cliffhanger was OK but Die Hard 2 was the weakest of the series. Here he can't seem to find the excitement in his action – maybe because some much effort was on the design of effects shots than on reasons for the action.

Davis is OK in the lead role but it is easy to think of a couple of actresses that might have been more convincing playing it tough. Modine has a few lines that suggest his character will be better than he actually is. Despite a few witty moments of banter early on he just becomes a bland character. Langella is OK but only because he has a reasonable screen presence rather than having a great character.

Overall this is dull and not very engaging at all. The action is hollow and the plot/characters have nothing to really grip. Not worth it's awful reputation but certainly not really worth watching.

"Cutthroat Island" is a 1995 film with chaotic production and distribution and with unfair reviews of the professional critics. Renny Harlin and Geena Davis were married at that time and he convinced the producers to cast his wife in an action film in a complete misevaluation of her talent. Geena Davis was a great actress in comedy and drama genres in the 80´s and 90´s but was only reasonable in the role of the female pirate Morgan Adams. Another problem was to find an actor for Morgan´s slave William Shaw since Matthew Modine was the last choice in a long list of actors that refused the role. It seems that this notorious film was also the responsible for the bankruptcy of Carolco Pictures since the box office was frustrating.

Said that, "Cutthroat Island" is indeed an entertaining modern (in 1995) pirate movie, with a good story. The successful franchize "Pirates of the Caribbean" is an improvement of "Cutthroat Island" with better technology, budget and cast. But the stories are equaly entertaining and funny. In the end, forget the bad ratings of professional critics and have a goodtime watching this film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Ilha da Garganta Cortada" ("The Cutthroat Island")

Making a valiant stab at becoming an action figure, Geena Davis plays Morgan Adams, a wily, rough & tumble pirate woman who lives for adventure and the like. When her evil Uncle Dawg (Frank Langella) turns on her and her dad, it's a race against time for Morgan as she tries to piece together a map that will lead her to Cut-Throat Island, where unimaginable wealth in stolen pirate gold resides. Along the way she is pursued by an evil British officer who goes into cahoots with treacherous crew members and Dawg, aided by a pretty boy Jack-of-all-trades thief named William Shaw (Matthew Modine), and confronted with a series of wildly over the top set pieces that no human being could possibly survive.

One of the most expensive flops ever made, this overlong but endearing and even occasionally exciting film deserved much better than what it got in the summer of the mid-90s. Not quite as funny as "Pirates of the Caribbean" but still fun.

Already a cardboard cut-out role to begin with, Geena Davis struggles to overcome her natural aura of motherly warmth to play the roughish Morgan, but she plays the part well enough (she really does come across as somebody's mother, albeit the kind of mother neighborhood boys fantasize about). It's easy to imagine her in the ring with Keira Knightley - who played Elizabeth Swann in "Pirates of the Caribbean" - and to have Geena walloping Keira's waif like frame. Matthew Modine has his moments as Shaw and Frank "Dracula/Skeletor" Langella is enjoyably hammy as Dawg.

If nothing else, rent it for the expensive sets, fancy costumes, and elaborate, over the top stunts - many of which Davis and Modine did themselves.

Just take this as it is: a fun aventure film to enjoy with a big bowl of popcorn. Geena Davis' natural face and statuesque figure, Thailand's breathtaking beaches/islands, ridiculously entertaining fight and chase scenes, gorgeous pirate ships, a hilarious pet monkey, and memorable characters, they're all a delight to watch. The soundtrack is perfectly suited for it. I give this film a 6.5.

Cutthroat Island is a movie that you can just sit back, relax and watch it with a big goofy grin on your face. Sure it tanked at the box office, but don't disregard it totally. It's entertaining as hell. Geena Davis is rather engaging as a female pirate and Frank Langella seemed to be enjoying himself. Most people will say that this movie can't hold a candle to the pirate films of Errol Flynn, and they're right. But for a rock em sock em pirate adventure with more explosions than the high seas ever saw, watch Cutthroat Island.