Cutthroat Island

Cutthroat Island (1995)

Runtime: 124 minutes

Directed by: Renny Harlin

Starring: Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Maury Chaykin, Stan Shaw

From: Carolco

Yes this is a film I saw once before... but that was soon after it came out on VHS. This isn't terrible yet it's not great either: 

Rare is it that a film managed to sink at least a decently-sized film studio but this is one of those; Carolco was hurting for awhile and woe is them for hoping beforehand that this would make enough money to save them. Instead it's still one of the worst bombs in Hollywood history. The behind the scenes and production horror stories ended up being far more interesting than the plot that unfurled on screen.

It was originally a Michael Douglas vehicle then when Geena Davis and then-husband Renny Harlin got on board, his part shrank so he left, and there went the one who could have been a worldwide box office draw. There were plenty of other calamities, such as Harlin not being on set right away, so sets were built, only for them to be destroyed once Renny saw them and did not approve. My favorite was how Oliver Reed was originally cast in a small role but he ended up doing Oliver Reed things... meaning he turned into Mr. Hyde after he started drinking, and not only did he get into one of what had to be hundreds of bar fights, but he either threatened to moon or actually did moon Davis, and there went his role in the movie.

Six credited people went into making the story (and I know there had to be at least a few uncredited ones) and that is amusing because the tale is a standard adventure archetype; sure, it's novel because the lead is a female pirate who leads a crew because her dad made that decree, but they try to search for buried treasure and Matthew Modine is the love interest; their relationship you can probably figure out how it progresses without even having seen this.

I feel it's a shame the movie is only average overall, as the score is quite good, Frank Langella naturally does great at chewing up the scenery, the locations they had representing the Caribbean (Malta then Thailand) were lovely, and this should have at least been a fine adventure. After all, it's not like any of the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels are any good... and I appreciate how unlike the Pirates film, this was not based in the supernatural. Unfortunately, the production issues were evident and the two leads were portrayed by actors who weren't the best for the roles, even if Modine actually knew how to fence and did use those skills. At least this wasn't horrid and felt like it was 6 hours long like the third Pirates movie.