{"id":446,"date":"2024-07-08T16:46:45","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T16:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=446"},"modified":"2024-10-14T00:55:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:55:18","slug":"cutthroat-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/08\/cutthroat-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Cutthroat Island"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\"\"Cutthroat Island<\/strong>\u00a0 (1995)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 124 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (some strong pirate action\/violence and brief sensuality)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Renny Harlin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert King and Marc Norman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Levy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 22, 1995 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Stan Shaw, Maury Chaykin, Patrick Malahide, Harris Yulin, Rex Linn, Paul Dillon, Chris Masterson, Jimmie F. Skaggs, Harris Yulin, Angus Wright, Ken Bones, George Murcell.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $10 million (US)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Cutthroat Island<\/strong> is the bomb that sank Carolco Pictures. It cost roughly $100M to make and managed only a meager domestic box-office take of $10M (plus another $6M overseas). It still holds the record for the biggest box office bomb of all time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Executive producer Mario Kassar, one of the co-founders of Carolco, had a lot riding on Cutthroat Island<\/strong>. It was a risky venture making a pirate movie given how unpopular they had become with audiences- e.g. the 1986 Roman Polanski swashbuckler Pirates did only $1.6M against a $40M budget. It didn\u2019t help that it was a lousy picture. In any event, Kassar needed a hit to save the studio he founded with former partner Andrew Vajna. Instead, he fired the kill shot.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Contrary to what you\u2019ve heard over the years, Cutthroat Island<\/strong> really isn\u2019t all that bad. It\u2019s actually a pretty good flick, especially if you like pirates. Unfortunately, its fate was sealed long before it sailed into theaters circa Christmas \u201995. Reports of a troubled and chaotic production- rewrites, casting issues, going over budget and falling behind schedule- went public. The bad reviews didn\u2019t help any. It quickly sank taking Carolco down with the ship. Now to be fair, that might not be entirely accurate. According to director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2), the studio was already in financial ruin before Cutthroat Island<\/strong> even went into production. They actually filed for bankruptcy a month before its release. Whatever the case may be, it disappeared over the horizon almost immediately. It was a distant memory by Martin Luther King Day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0I saw Cutthroat Island<\/strong> at an advance screening a few days before it opened. I braved a snowstorm to see it; my movie addiction knows no bounds. Despite the inclement weather, there were a fair number of people in attendance. I guess, like me, they were curious, but didn\u2019t want to pay to see it. I steeled myself expecting the worst. If what I heard was true, it would be the second big-budget water-logged dud- Kevin Costner\u2019s infamous Waterworld came out that summer- in the space of a year.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0I have to admit I was surprised. It wasn\u2019t terrible. It\u2019s bloated, miscast and there\u2019s no chemistry between the two leads, but it kind of\/sort of works. Why? Simple, it touches upon all the necessary and expected conventions of the pirate genre- i.e. salty buccaneers, big ships, sea battles, sword fights, cannons blasting, a map leading to buried treasure, a mutiny, a dastardly villain and a swashbuckling hero- or in this case, heroine. \u00a0Yes, it\u2019s a pirate movie for the 90s!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Geena Davis, Mrs. Renny Harlin at the time, stars as Morgan Adams, the daughter of the infamous pirate Black Harry (Yulin, Scarface). She becomes the captain of his ship the Morning Star<\/em> after he\u2019s murdered by his brother\/her uncle Dawg Brown (Langella, 1979\u2019s Dracula) over his piece of a map showing the location of a huge stash of gold. Before he dies, Harry gives his piece (which is tattooed on his scalp) to his daughter. There are three pieces in all. Dawg has one and another uncle has the final piece. Whoever has the whole map is going to be rich.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Just one problem, the writing on Morgan\u2019s map is in Latin. She needs a translator. At Port Royal, she learns that William Shaw (Modine, Full Metal Jacket), a thief\/con man about to be auctioned off as a slave, is fluent in the language. Morgan wins the auction, but destroys the port in the process of escaping after Governor Ainslee (Malahide, The Long Kiss Goodnight) recognizes her from her wanted poster. Once Morgan and company hit the open sea, it\u2019s a race against Dawg to obtain the third part of the map and locate the gold.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Cutthroat Island<\/strong> is a robust pirate adventure not much different from the ones that delighted kids at Saturday matinees in the 40s and 50s. The only real difference is the huge price tag. The good news is that it shows in the finished product. The film boasts a few cool action set-pieces including a final sea battle between two ships replete with cannons firing and pirates swinging from one ship to another. The effects team does a masterful job as do the stunt people. Best of all, it\u2019s all practical work, no CGI or green screen here.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Alas, Cutthroat Island<\/strong> isn\u2019t flawless. It has some pacing issues and the chemistry between the two leads just isn\u2019t there. To be fair, Modine wasn\u2019t the producers\u2019 first choice. The role was supposed to be played by Michael Douglas, but he bowed out before filming began because his screen time kept getting reduced in favor of Davis\u2019 character. A whole bunch of A-list actors (e.g. Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves and Liam Neeson) turned down the part of Shaw before Modine accepted. He\u2019s a fine actor as evidenced by Full Metal Jacket, but he\u2019s too mild-mannered to play an action hero. He does, however, lend some nice comic relief.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Davis, on the other hand, does a good job in the lead. Cutthroat Island<\/strong> is her foray into action and she executes herself quite well. Her physique (she\u2019s six feet tall) definitely helps. Langella hams it up nicely as the villain of the piece. He positively oozes malevolence. Maury Chaykin plays John Reed, a writer along for the ride. His role is similar to Saul Rubinek\u2019s in Unforgiven. The supporting cast also includes Stan Shaw (Harlem Nights), Rex Linn (Cliffhanger), Patrick Malahide (The Long Kiss Goodnight) and the late Jimmie F. Skaggs (Puppet Master).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0Just because a film flops at the box office, it doesn\u2019t automatically mean it\u2019s bad. Personally, I enjoyed Howard the Duck, Hudson Hawk and Last Action Hero. Ishtar, not so much. Cutthroat Island<\/strong> is one of the good ones. It\u2019s a fun movie. What more can you ask of a pirate movie?\"\"<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cutthroat Island\u00a0 (1995)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 124 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (some strong pirate action\/violence and brief sensuality)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Renny Harlin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert King and Marc Norman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Levy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 22, 1995 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Stan Shaw, Maury Chaykin, Patrick Malahide, Harris Yulin, Rex Linn, Paul […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Cutthroat-Island-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6033,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/6033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}