Cutthroat Island

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 Ital…

Wuchak

2019-02-27

⭐ 5

***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 boxe…

John Chard

2019-04-03

⭐ 7

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 Caro…

CinemaSerf

2024-03-30

⭐ 6

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 t…