Cutthroat Island (1995) Movie Review

Cutthroat Island is a 1995 action adventure swashbuckling film directed by Renny Harlin and written by Robert King and Marc Norman. The film stars Renny's wife at the time, Geena Davis, and was considered to be some sort of vanity project because of this. It also features Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Maury Chaykin, Patrick Malahide and Stan Shaw in the cast. Originally pitched to Disney's CEO Michael Eisner, who considered making it a Pirates of the Caribbean film, only to be turned down, writers James Gorman and Michael Frost Beckner went to independent production company Carolco Pictures which greenlit the film. Harlin was hired to direct and the movie changed into a pirate adventure featuring a female protagonist, the budget was increased to somewhere around 92 or 115 million dollars. Once released, the film was a huge box office bomb, only making 16 million dollars back, this pretty much damaged the career of the people involved and gave the film a bad reputation.

Set in 1668, the film follows dreaded captain Morgan Adams as a female pirate leading her men to Cutthroat Island, but she needs someone who can read Latin, so they rescue enslaved thief William Shaw, who claims to be fluent in the language. What follows is a series of obstacles, usually set by Morgan's nefarious uncle and the British forces, that keep our heroes from getting the valuable treasure hidden in the infamous Island.

Far from the awful mess it's reputation might lead you to be believe it is, Cutthroat Island is a well-oiled machine that nowadays comes off as fresh, well crafted, exciting and potent because of its dazzling spectacle that relies heavily on great sets and impactful practical effects and real stunts that are wonderfully captured by real film cameras, as in stark celluloid. All of these elements kind of set it apart from the usual muck that gets distributed to theaters or the type of movie-making format that arrives directly at streaming services. While people at the time might have been somewhat resistant to the charms of an expensive production that could only deliver light fun, it seems like it was ahead of its time since films like Pirates of the Caribbean would come later on and become hits with audiences.

While the character writing is not particularly thoughtful, we do have some nice interactions and a great chemistry between the cast members. The tone is well balanced all around with some funny touches on top of the dynamic action. Directing-wise I gotta say that Harlin can pull off some really intricate set-pieces, and this film has an abundance of them, but he is sort of lost when it comes to the more normal sequences and his work can come off as pedestrian there, even when aided by cinematographer Peter Levy. The sets and production design do the heavy lifting and help the film visually.

I do like how we see the usual day-to-day proceedings of Morgan's pirate crew and how the fact that she is a female pirate, while being strange to some, isn't really a problem for a lot of the other characters in order to modernize the film to a degree. Davis is very active throughout the film, both as a character driving the story forwards and physically engaged in several battles. Morgan has her moments of glory and the movie never really gazes at her in sleazy ways just for the sake of it, so it's not just eye-candy for male audiences.

I do recommend this unrelenting roller coaster to anyone interested in the film both because of its mark in recent film history and because of its most obvious virtues that were underrated at the time. It kind of deserves a second look. Give it another chance, especially if you enjoyed stuff like The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), another Harlin-Davis collab.

Bimini Code (1983) Movie Review

Bimini Code is a 1983 action adventure movie directed by Barry Clark and written by Gabrielle Rivera and Barry Clark. It stars Vickie Benson, Kristal Richardson, Rosanna Simanaitis and Frank Alexander. It's one of those movies that spawned after the success of Indiana Jones at the box office that features treasure hunters, mixed with some old school sea adventure but with female leads. The film is now sort of obscure, rarely seen and badly reviewed; it's hardly a popular flick and the available copies are of bad quality.

Stacy (Vickie Benson) and Sheryl (Kristal Richardson) are two thrill-seeking adventurers who are tasked with finding a kidnapped boy, they realize what's at stake when evil rich countess Magda von Cress searches for Mayan power stones at the Bermuda Triangle.

While this is a satisfying flick, the procedures are mostly TV-level in their execution with very crude shots lacking style and a static camera work that reveal the background of the filmmakers but also give the film a simplistic and precise nature that strips down to the bare essentials the elements that it features, focusing on the characters and the plot.

The storytelling is a bit wonky because of the way the film is structured it presents itself more like a random episode of an on-going TV series rather than a proper movie with introductions and character moments or arcs for them, it unfolds as such through most of it as it has very little regard for tapping into the dramatic potential of the scenario, instead just presenting some action sequences and brief moments of intrigue strung together without much to really glue them together as a story and even less emotional substance. Maybe that's why it had a small lifetime on TV or home video since it barely registers in your mind after watching it.

The action is swift and well done, the constant array of fun and cheesy comic book peril sequences involving scuba diving around sharks and karate fights do give the movie not only a charming aura of lite entertainment but also add to the fast pace and the easygoing attitude it has and that the carefree characters also embody. The main girls are lovable and have some nice moments as friends and partners, they have a solid bond and chemistry but it's all obscured by the rather pedestrian script. The cheesy villain is too over-the-top but I honestly loved that about her. We don't have enough malicious ladies with eyepatches doing evil schemes anymore.

Not a hidden gem but an easygoing and watchable piece of obscure adventure cinema that can only be recommended to B-movie fans who wanna get into some uncharted territory. 

Pink Force Commando (1982) Movie Review

Pink Force Commando (Hong fen you xia, Ninja Fighters, Pink Force) is an action adventure martial arts Hong Kong film directed by Kevin Chu (Chu Yen-ping). It stars Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh, Chung-You Chang, Yang Hui-Shan, Chun-Chun Hsu and Hao-Yi Liu. It is sometimes considered to be a semi-sequel to Golden Queen's Commando (1982) by the same producer and crew. It's also a film that collects a variety of mixed components from fantasy and genre cinema as a whole.

Three female bandits steal a great amount of gold and some time later the other two find out their leader, Jackal, has used the money for her own pleasure and businesses. She has paired up with her Nazi Commander lover and now wants her old partners dead.

Like Golden Queen's Commando here we have a mixture of genre components and narrative scenarios that are mishmashed, taken from other movies and then put into a blender, only to change the protagonists of the stories to a diverse group of action girls dressed in striking and contrasting outfits in order to be easily identifiable. This time we have the usual thugs but also Nazi officers, cowboys, Klansmen and magical heroines as well, it's a seemingly never-ending list of bizarre mashups that pay off in one climactic grand battle. 

As I mentioned before, the movie takes not only inspiration from stuff we have seen in other movies but it also features a variety of scenes taken directly from Golden Queen's Commando and spliced into the movie in a haphazard manner, always in a manner so clumsy that the quality of the footage itself is mismatched and contrasts highly from the footage that's original to this movie. Scenes like the card game trick, the primal wrestling match and the drunken samurai's humiliation were put into the movie but they come out of nowhere and have really nothing to do with the rest of the movie, seeming completely disconnected from their original context. Not only that but we also have music that's stolen from movies like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Conan the Barbarian (1982) and even Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970). The former and the latter movies being scored by Ennio Morricone isn't a surprise since Queen's Commando did this as well, so at least these two flicks have some bangers music-wise.

The storytelling is about as flawed as you would expect but also eclectic and fun for a film made under such a weird production process and carefree attitude. The plot takes insane twists and detours to the point where a good amount of it becomes nearly incomprehensible and borderline ludicrous once the footage from Queen's Commando shows up to confuse you even more. I wouldn't want to be the poor bastard who watched this movie before Queen's Commando and without any clue as to how this film was made because that must have been a truly strange experience. Nothing is well glued and events rarely connect coherently, you pretty much have to put together the entirety of the film in your head, being able to identify the important moments and plot points by the way the film conveys which point of the story you are technically in, for example, you know you are at the climax because there's a great battle with two opposing armies about to take place.

I gotta say that by having much of the same cast we are able to witness some badass performances by the actresses and the wonderful stunt work during the fights. The leading ladies from this movie are not that interesting as characters, when compared to a very solid and perfectly defined roster of tough girls like the one from Queen's Commando, but the core idea of the movie is quite interesting as a jumping off point to then stick a good amount of crazy scenes after the introduction.

It's a fun time if you know what you are getting into. Only recommended for Z-grade actionsploitation film fans.