Cutthroat Island (1995)
Country: US/FR/IT/GER
Technical: Technicolor/2.35:1 124m
Director: Renny Harlin
Cast: Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Patrick Malahide
Synopsis:
In seventeenth century Jamaica, a cutpurse joins forces with a lady pirate to unite three fragments of a map showing the whereabouts of Spanish treasure.
Review:
Even the gold looks phoney in this third decennial attempt to revive the pirate sub-genre, before Disney finally got the lightness of touch absolutely right with Pirates of the Caribbean (the other two being Swashbuckler and Pirates). The star (Mrs Harlin, no less) is hopelessly out of her idiom, as is the charmless Modine, while Langella and Malahide afford only two-dimensional villainy. The fault mainly lies with the script, absurdly overblown, full of arch innuendo from the off, and with contrived situations and miraculous escapes that culminate in the movie's undoubted 'money shot', the blowing to smithereens of a full-size galleon. The bombastic score doesn't help either. Meanwhile Miss Davis survives being gut shot, jumping off a precipice onto rocks, falling from the yard arm onto the deck, and being blown up, while still managing to fight duels and climb rigging for no other reason than that the stunt coordinator couldn't think of anything else. The entire story also rests on the premise that a freshly bereaved daughter could bring herself to scalp her father!
Country: US/FR/IT/GER
Technical: Technicolor/2.35:1 124m
Director: Renny Harlin
Cast: Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Patrick Malahide
Synopsis:
In seventeenth century Jamaica, a cutpurse joins forces with a lady pirate to unite three fragments of a map showing the whereabouts of Spanish treasure.
Review:
Even the gold looks phoney in this third decennial attempt to revive the pirate sub-genre, before Disney finally got the lightness of touch absolutely right with Pirates of the Caribbean (the other two being Swashbuckler and Pirates). The star (Mrs Harlin, no less) is hopelessly out of her idiom, as is the charmless Modine, while Langella and Malahide afford only two-dimensional villainy. The fault mainly lies with the script, absurdly overblown, full of arch innuendo from the off, and with contrived situations and miraculous escapes that culminate in the movie's undoubted 'money shot', the blowing to smithereens of a full-size galleon. The bombastic score doesn't help either. Meanwhile Miss Davis survives being gut shot, jumping off a precipice onto rocks, falling from the yard arm onto the deck, and being blown up, while still managing to fight duels and climb rigging for no other reason than that the stunt coordinator couldn't think of anything else. The entire story also rests on the premise that a freshly bereaved daughter could bring herself to scalp her father!
Country: US/FR/IT/GER
Technical: Technicolor/2.35:1 124m
Director: Renny Harlin
Cast: Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Patrick Malahide
Synopsis:
In seventeenth century Jamaica, a cutpurse joins forces with a lady pirate to unite three fragments of a map showing the whereabouts of Spanish treasure.
Review:
Even the gold looks phoney in this third decennial attempt to revive the pirate sub-genre, before Disney finally got the lightness of touch absolutely right with Pirates of the Caribbean (the other two being Swashbuckler and Pirates). The star (Mrs Harlin, no less) is hopelessly out of her idiom, as is the charmless Modine, while Langella and Malahide afford only two-dimensional villainy. The fault mainly lies with the script, absurdly overblown, full of arch innuendo from the off, and with contrived situations and miraculous escapes that culminate in the movie's undoubted 'money shot', the blowing to smithereens of a full-size galleon. The bombastic score doesn't help either. Meanwhile Miss Davis survives being gut shot, jumping off a precipice onto rocks, falling from the yard arm onto the deck, and being blown up, while still managing to fight duels and climb rigging for no other reason than that the stunt coordinator couldn't think of anything else. The entire story also rests on the premise that a freshly bereaved daughter could bring herself to scalp her father!