Filipe Neto
In this film two pirates will compete against each other to find a great treasure, waiting hidden in a infamous island. Directed by Renny Harlin, it has a script by Robert King and Marc Norman. It features a cast led by Geena Davis, Matthew Modine and Frank Langella.Before "Pirates of the Caribbean" were rare pirate films that had some success. This was just another movie that tried unsuccessfully to popularize these genre, leading to bankruptcy the company that filmed it. Lots of action (sometimes too much, making the film a comedy of improbabilities), a few jokes with greater or lesser sense of humor, a good mix between a villain bad as snakes and a very attractive heroine and... bingo! We have a pirate movie that manages to entertain without delight or become memorable.Geena Davis was quite regular in her role, but not enough to make the movie of her life. Matthew Modine seems to have been chosen for the role to be cute, he's not a remarkable actor. Langella turns out to be the heaviest actor in the cast, though he has only "grown" after doing it. And he did a good performance, making his character worthy of our anger. Shot in the Mediterranean and the Indian seas, this film has a series of visually appealing scenarios and memorable scenes because of its visual beauty. Boats built for the movie are replicas romanticized of eighteenth century ships, and are beautiful to behold. The special, visual and sound effects worked without stand out. The soundtrack is excellent and, speaking only about pirate movies, its second only to "Pirates of the Caribean".In short, although this movie is far from being a masterpiece, its very good in entertaining the public for a few hours.
Leofwine_draca
CUTTHROAT ISLAND was a film I never got around to seeing as a kid. I suppose the idea of an American pirate film didn't really appeal and indeed this is very much like a 1990s-era precursor to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, with the same look, the same kind of comedy, the same kind of action-packed feel. Not really my cup of tea as cinema goes; I much prefer the grittier, better-acted style of the BLACK SAILS TV series (Michael Bay's finest hour).In any case, I thought I'd catch up with CUTTHROAT ISLAND and see what I missed. The answer? Not very much. Renny Harlin has always been a hit or miss director and this is a big miss even this early on in his career (surprisingly so, given how entertaining DIE HARD 2 and CLIFFHANGER are). Geena Davis is woefully miscast in the role of a female pirate battling against an even greater foe; she looks ridiculous when attempting to do the action scenes and even outside of the action her open-mouthed style makes her look wooden and out of her depth.The only genuine performer of note is the seasoned Frank Langella as the charismatic villain, although he's too suave and good-looking to be all that hateful. He certainly shows up Matthew Modine's laughable would-be roguish good guy. Patrick Malahide is saddled with predictability, Maury Chaykin is annoying, and the reliable Stan Shaw wasted in a nothing-except-stand-around-and-look-tough part. The action is endless, endlessly cheesy, and completely fake-looking, with the stupid climax being particularly bad. Overall the film feels fake and wishy washy, and it comes as little surprise to me that this film flopped. It makes Costner's WATERWORLD look like a Oscar winner by comparison.
KadeemG61
I know what you thinking, we ripped Cutthroat Island before, but what critics didn't know that it's a swashbuckling pirate movie. Yeah, even with the bad dialogue, poor production value, and Geena Davis performance as a female pirate were lackluster at best. Suddenly, Carolco returned to sender and destroyed the film industry as becoming the latest victim of facing bankruptcy soon after the film crashed and burned hard at the box office and holds the (now-defunct) record of Biggest Box Office Flop of All Time with an embarrassing $98.1 Million budget only to reach $60 Million.Make no mistake, the film was bad. But I haven't even watched it on TV or appearing on other premium networks. To me, I felt like it should've add more money to make and director Renny Harlin still has lots of gas in the tank left for his ailing career.But Cutthroat Island is one of those films that is criminally underrated. And much like the success of the long-running Pirates of the Caribbean series, Cutthroat Island never had a chance of becoming a potential franchise too. But if you haven't seen this classic, it's worth a rental or buy on Blu-Ray.
Jeff V
Gina Davis and crew overact so much it makes me cringe. The humor is so simple that you can virtually finish everyone's lines before they do. Everyone overacts with such drama and gusto, that if someone had said they were going to make a sandwich, it'd be said as if they were going to do something that may sink the ship, and would take 10 minutes of sandwich making/dramatic discussion. Boring, overacted, over dramatized and childish writing. I've walked out of other movies not because they were awful, but simply because they weren't my style. I can't honestly figure out who would get into this movie. Perhaps people who've never seen a movie? I love Gina Davis, but the director and script steered her toward a performance that any first year drama student could have pulled of just as well.
AD
