Cutthroat Island starts as evil pirate Dawg (Frank Langella) is making fellow pirate & his brother Black Harry (Harris Yulin) walk the plank in an effort to make Harry surrender his part of a three piece map that reveals the location of the biggest haul of treasure even stolen, Harry refuses to give his brother Dawg the map & jumps into the Ocean where he is saved from drowning by his daughter Morgan Adams (Geena Davis). Dying from his injuries Harry tells Morgan where the map is & to use his pirate ship & crew to find the treasure, Morgan agrees & sets out to find the other two pieces of the map, one is held by her uncle Mordachai Fingers (George Murcell) & the other by the vicious Dawg who also want the pieces of the map. Morgan & Dawg race against each other to work the clues out & set sail for Cutthroat Island where the treasure is hidden, the British army not fond of pirates are also along for the ride as the winner takes all...
This American, French, Italian & German co-production was produced & directed by Renny Harlin straight after his success with the excellent Cliffhanger (1993) which sort of explains why the production company gave him complete control to do whatever he wanted, well actually it doesn't does it? Anyway, already widely known as one of the biggest financial flops of all time (it cost over $100 million but made just over $10 million) this swashbuckling pirate action adventure film is one that I have seen several times & admit that I've enjoyed it each & every time. While Cutthroat Island is far from perfect it's great at what it sets out to be, a loud, fast paced action adventure centered on pirates, sword-fights, mysterious islands, stolen treasure & lots of simple comic book style character's. The typical Hollywood role reversal where the leading action star is a woman & has a man as her sidekick makes an unusual twist even if nothing is done with the idea apart from some smutty one-liners. At just under two hours maybe it's a little long & there really isn't enough plot here to justify that duration, Morgan reaches Cutthroat Island about an hour into the film & then it's her against Dawg & the British army with none stops fights, explosions & corny dialogue. I'm not sure people spoke like this back then, the script is a little wooden with cardboard character's but overall Cutthroat Island is good fun & it's a pity they don't make visually spectacular action adventure films such as this anymore.
I assume much of the colossal budget went on production design & it show's with gorgeous locations, sets & period production design. There are some great action scenes too, Morgan single handedly destroys two entire towns in her quest for the treasure & there's some quite violent fights with lots of clanging swords, rifles & even huge cannons being used. Michael Douglas was originally set to star in Cutthroat Island but pulled out saying the Geena Davis character was expanded at the expense of his. Oliver Reed was originally cast as Mordechai Fingers but was fired after getting into a bar fight & mooning at Geena Davis (!). Director Renny Harlin was dating Geena Davis at the time & managed to convince the studio that she should take the lead role despite never having made an action film before. Carolco Pictures who had financed Cutthroat Island filed for bankruptcy three weeks before it opened in theatres, quite why they spent so much on it remains a mystery.
With a supposed budget of about $115,000,000 there's a lot of visual flair on screen with exploding pirate ships, entire period towns, daring stunts, numerous fights, huge set-pieces & plenty of exotic locations. Filmed in Malta, England & Thailand. The acting is alright, no-one puts in a great performance but no-one is overly bad.
Cutthroat Island was a massive flop for sure but it's actually a pretty decent action adventure film that I have always liked watching, who would have though the similarly themed Pirates of the Caribbean films would go on to become such box-office hits. I liked it, a bit shallow but still very enjoyable.
This American, French, Italian & German co-production was produced & directed by Renny Harlin straight after his success with the excellent Cliffhanger (1993) which sort of explains why the production company gave him complete control to do whatever he wanted, well actually it doesn't does it? Anyway, already widely known as one of the biggest financial flops of all time (it cost over $100 million but made just over $10 million) this swashbuckling pirate action adventure film is one that I have seen several times & admit that I've enjoyed it each & every time. While Cutthroat Island is far from perfect it's great at what it sets out to be, a loud, fast paced action adventure centered on pirates, sword-fights, mysterious islands, stolen treasure & lots of simple comic book style character's. The typical Hollywood role reversal where the leading action star is a woman & has a man as her sidekick makes an unusual twist even if nothing is done with the idea apart from some smutty one-liners. At just under two hours maybe it's a little long & there really isn't enough plot here to justify that duration, Morgan reaches Cutthroat Island about an hour into the film & then it's her against Dawg & the British army with none stops fights, explosions & corny dialogue. I'm not sure people spoke like this back then, the script is a little wooden with cardboard character's but overall Cutthroat Island is good fun & it's a pity they don't make visually spectacular action adventure films such as this anymore.
I assume much of the colossal budget went on production design & it show's with gorgeous locations, sets & period production design. There are some great action scenes too, Morgan single handedly destroys two entire towns in her quest for the treasure & there's some quite violent fights with lots of clanging swords, rifles & even huge cannons being used. Michael Douglas was originally set to star in Cutthroat Island but pulled out saying the Geena Davis character was expanded at the expense of his. Oliver Reed was originally cast as Mordechai Fingers but was fired after getting into a bar fight & mooning at Geena Davis (!). Director Renny Harlin was dating Geena Davis at the time & managed to convince the studio that she should take the lead role despite never having made an action film before. Carolco Pictures who had financed Cutthroat Island filed for bankruptcy three weeks before it opened in theatres, quite why they spent so much on it remains a mystery.
With a supposed budget of about $115,000,000 there's a lot of visual flair on screen with exploding pirate ships, entire period towns, daring stunts, numerous fights, huge set-pieces & plenty of exotic locations. Filmed in Malta, England & Thailand. The acting is alright, no-one puts in a great performance but no-one is overly bad.
Cutthroat Island was a massive flop for sure but it's actually a pretty decent action adventure film that I have always liked watching, who would have though the similarly themed Pirates of the Caribbean films would go on to become such box-office hits. I liked it, a bit shallow but still very enjoyable.