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Cutthroat Island weigh in


Firethorn

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Just finished viewing said movie and after all I've heard and read about it, I didn't think it was all that bad. If ya take POTC out of the mix, which all Pirate movies will be compared to, I would say it faired well.

It took awhile to get used to Genna as a pirate, I kept thinking about "Stewart Little", but I finally bought it along with Modine as the swashbuckling scoundrel. Anyhow, that be my take on it! :D

:blink:

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I loved it and that is a good thing because my cable system showed it about twenty or more times this year so far (and I watched it almost every time...lol). I loved the ship-to-ship battle, which I think to be second only to Master and Commander. I think it to be a true traditional pirate tale.

KP

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I liked it enough to buy my own copy on ebay for $7.49 in DVD format. After all no matter what ye may think., wouldnt ya rather be watchin a swashbuckler than a love story? and there arent that many Pirate movies out there as a whole., so for me "They are all good"

:blink: HarborMaster :D

I am not Lost .,I am Exploring.

"If you give a man a fire, he will be warm for a night, if you set a man on fire, he will be warm for the rest of his life!"

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I'd rather watch The Black Swan, The Sea Hawk, or Captain Blood. I like the cinematography and score of Cutthroat Island, but I can't get into Geena as a pirate captain.

For me it's like the old pirate movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood are cheesy, but with the patina of time layered over them. They're classics. Cheesy for sure, but wholesome, complete.

Cutthroat Island is shamelessly and poorly imitating those old classics, but just not as well. It seems hollow as if they were just going thru the motions. :blink:

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For me it's like the old pirate movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood are cheesy, but with the patina of time layered over them.  They're classics. Cheesy for sure, but wholesome, complete.

Cutthroat Island is shamelessly and poorly imitating those old classics, but just not as well. It seems hollow as if they were just going thru the motions.  :ph34r:

Spoken like a true film critic (albiet piratically inclined! :)), Red!

I also just saw Cutthroat recently, but I was rather split more than anything. I really, really enjoyed the story itself, minus the characters' flaws and such, becuase it's intricate, original, and it's not always just about the "pirate treasure," which is the annoying thing about most pirate movies by directors who don't understand pirates, just the convention of them.

Anyway, I love the story and enjoy the characters. I have never seen Geena Davis in any other film or tv show (I think), but even then it took a lot for me to believe in her. She had a lot of Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark in her, but Marion is so much cooler, personally. I liked the main male character, though... I forget his name. I think the movie carries a lot as well becuase there is character development in both main characters, which is such a big thing for me, and is a key theme for every good film.

I like the action of the film as well. The dialogue is cheesy and sometimes cringe-worthy, but it doesn't seem tongue-in-cheek enough for it to pass off as a parody, like the Classic Hollywood pirate films.

All in all, I enjoyed it and will buy it on DVD soon, becuase it's so cheap.

EDIT: And also the score! The score is exciting, rousing, and goes well for every scene in the film, reminds me a lot of PotC, and does Cutthroat justice.

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good score, good battle scenes. I liked the beginning a lot, but I don't remember much else besides liking it, and laughing hysterically at the corny dialog (bad dog, anyone?) I saw it a while ago. maybe I'm due for watching again

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I just watched it again..., had too..........., Just exaclty how many times can one watch POTC ? This time I took a REAL GOOD LOOK. The film itself is actually DAYLIGHT and I can SEE the beauty of the islands.., something POTC doesnt really give you. I loved POTC but I always hated the fact it was so dark., therefore I felt I missed alot of the scenery.

Also the weapons., at the end especially Geena Davis packs 5 pistols and a main guache with the triangle spanish hand guard., and its an active 3 pronger!!!

There is a great Blunderbuss pistol and a 10 barrel Duck foot along with a host of other goodies.

Also the ships we substantially bigger than Lady Washington ., The St. Peter or HMS Rose., and they had plenty more cannon power.

The figure head of the "Morning Star had a pretty good Neptune ridin a sea monster., and of course the Reaper on the other ship.

And last but not least I believe Frank Langilla is as good a bad guy as Geoffrey Rush could ever be., I just wish Kurt Russell would have gotten Mathew Modines part as Shaw.

Who Knows Kurt I am sure could have done his own Jack Sparrow as a 1800's Captain Ron just fine.

HarborMaster

I am not Lost .,I am Exploring.

"If you give a man a fire, he will be warm for a night, if you set a man on fire, he will be warm for the rest of his life!"

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I like the movie for most of the reasons everyone else has already pointed out.

It's probably the first movie that I've seen that a woman is depicted as a pirate. I haven't seen to many of the older movies, so I'm not totally sure. Anyway, several of my lady friends have asked me what to where as a lady pirate. I point 'em to this movie. Mostly, I tell 'em to dress like a guy. lol.

I like to watch it for the sword fights and the whole ship battle.

Oh, and I want that sword the Dawg has/had.

Chaos, panic, pandemonium - my work here is done.

Master-At-Arms,

Crew Of The Vigilant

Baltimore Maryland Based

17th & 18th Century Naval Living History

Crew Of The Vigilant

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I did not enjoy the "Napalm Grenadoes" that explode on impact. Nor the fact that a random pirate just happened to be shoving his jollyboat into the water on a deserted beach, yet he couldn't hear 3 horses thundering down on him at full gallop across hundreds of yards of open beach, until Morgan was right on top of him... :o

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I did not enjoy the "Napalm Grenadoes" that explode on impact. Nor the fact that a random pirate just happened to be shoving his jollyboat into the water on a deserted beach, yet he couldn't hear 3 horses thundering down on him at full gallop across hundreds of yards of open beach, until Morgan was right on top of him... :o

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  • 2 years later...

I finally got hold of this one and watched it. The score was outstanding - it was the highlight of the picture for me. The story was decent enough and many of the background characters were quite good. I thought Modine was really good (in a role that sort of presages Captain Jack in a way.)

The main problem I had with it were two actor portrayals. The first was Dawg Brown. He didn't seem nearly villainous enough to be a significant threat to me. Somehow I just couldn't buy Langella as being a bloodthirsty evil pirate.

If it were just that, it still might have been a good movie, though. The real problem was Geena Davis. There have been roles where she was really good (Tootsie, Beetlejuice and A League of Their Own come to mind) but a piratess was apparently not her cup of tea. Every time she spoke, she spoiled all that wonderful character work going on in the background for me. She didn't even attempt to sound like she was from the GAoP, much less a pirate. Plus she didn't display as much emotion as you'd expect a girl whose father had just been killed, putting her into a position where she had to win the crew over. She seemed miscast for the role to me. Unfortunately, the whole film turned on her portrayal which is why I suspect it didn't do that well at the box office.

"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.” -Oscar Wilde

"If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted is really true, there would be little hope of advance." -Orville Wright

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it's a movie...............and though has been a bit since have seen it a decent one if i recall. pirates, ships, and cannon fire, about all it needs :lol:

but i agree with the classics being the better movies for cinema and talent.

Salty

Mud Slinging Pyromanic , Errrrrr Ship's Potter at ye service

Vagabond's Rogue Potter Wench

First Mate of the Fairge Iolaire

Me weapons o choice be lots o mud, sharp pointy sticks, an string

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The movie is fun, and I have a copy of the DVD. I liked Mathew Modine, but not Geena Davis. The music was great, as were the locations, ships, battles, etc.

Some of the things I thought made the movie too hoakey or over the top =

A ship blowing up half a town's wharf district (Port Royal) just to catch one lady pirate.

Geena's dialog, a classic case of a movie trying too hard to be cleaver. Also, she didn't seem too repulsed at having to scalp her own father in order to get his half of the map.

The Halloween Grim Reaper figurehead on Dawg's ship. Looked like it was made of paper mache. :lol: And Dawg's wood-chopper sword.

However, that said, it is fun to watch, and it's about pirates, so ya gotta add it to your collection, aye.

...schooners, islands, and maroons

and buccaneers and buried gold...

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You can do everything right, strictly according to procedure, on the ocean, and it'll still kill you. But if you're a good navigator, a least you'll know where you were when you died.......From The Ship Killer by Justin Scott.

"Well, that's just maddeningly unhelpful."....Captain Jack Sparrow

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The book is not a bad little read should you find a copy.

I heard that this movie ruined Geena's second marriage to the director.

Overall I liked it as a fantasy thrill movie!

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I liked the movie well enough the first time I saw it. It wasn't great, but I liked it. Then I made the mistake of watching it again. It's awful. And...

...everything in that movie blew up. Everything.

You could upset a tea-cozy and you would be blown to bits.

 

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Actually Gary, the ships used in Cutthroat island were pinisi ships completely retrofitted to represent proper ships of the period. The "Morningstar" was restored back to its former state after the movie was filmed and as I understand it is still in service under the name Nakalay Junk as a day cruise vessel. Although their website no longer seems to use her movie history as the Morningstar as a promotion anymore.

As for the Reaper, What you see in the movie is what you really get. She was desimated for real for the sake of the ending. I have a handful of pictures that show the Reaper being built from a surplus pinisi. So far I can't locate any pictures of the pinisi used for the Morningstar before her makeover.

In all fairness though, The Morningstar and The Reaper were also replicated as "barges" for the close shots of the battle. I'm pretty sure that was done at the same tank that Titanic was filmed in.

It was a pure mistake that I finally found what type of vessel was used for their hulls. If anyone is interested I can get you the pics.

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I missed it when it was in the theaters, and it wasn't untill about a year ago that I finaly saw it....

So I didn't know it was a bad movie.....

Sure they blow everything up..... and its all fake......

But it was still fun....

If I can find a cheap copy I'd snag it.....

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