Review of Cutthroat Island (1995) by Filipeneto — 17 Mar 2018

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.