At first glance, a pirate film looks like an excellent recipe for box office success. Those films 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 Cutthroat 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 film studio. Those who watch this film now can see it as unfortunately overambitious but not particularly bad film. As a pirate film, 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 Goodnight. 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 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on September 8th 2004)
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