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.

Barbarian Queen (1985) Movie Review

Barbarian Queen was a 1985 sword-and-Sandal fantasy action film directed by Héctor Olivera, written by Howard R. Cohen and produced by B-movie king Roger Corman as part of his nine picture deal that included shooting several films in Don Torcuato, Argentina. The cast includes six foot bombshell Lana Clarkson, actress turned writer/director Katt Shea, Frank Zagarino, Dawn Dunlap, Armando Bó's son Víctor Bó, Susana Traverso, Andrea Barbieri and Tony Middleton. The film was one in a series of fantasy films Corman shot in that country throughout the 1980s, including Deathstalker (1983), The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984), Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (1985), Amazons (1986) and Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans (1987). Most of these films recycled the same sets, props, costumes and even footage, each movie recycling more and more resources.

The wedding of Queen Amethea is interrupted by a gang of bloodthirsty soldiers following the orders of Lord Arrakur. Her groom is captured and her sister is raped. Amethea unites with her handmained, Estrild, and a warrior, Tiniara, in order to rescue her loved ones and defeat the man who caused her such pain.

Without much to brag about, Barbarian Queen functions very smoothly and without issues as a likable and fast paced fantasy flick with all of the ingredients that make this type of formula work: cheap attires that add to the drab ancient look, lots of violence and nudity for the sake of exploitation that makes the whole ordeal sleazy, captivating characters that fall into archetypes but that are decently played by the cast, a simple but ultimately engaging storyline that has all the emotion and rawness needed to entertain and a particular rhythm that makes things more digestable. It's a pretty complete package, it goes along well with the technical skills of Hector Olivera and his wonderful directing as the film is well blocked and expertly lit, giving a lot of texture and grittiness to the images.

While the characters are not profoundly explored they are very well defined, which gives the routine plotline some more substance. The performers do their job very well and the three main ladies stand out both because of their skills and their physicality seen on the frame. They really do have some screen presence. We also get some cheap and silly but endearing special effects that are not that bad considering that it's such a meager production. The film's biggest flaws are the more misogynistic components and the lack of investment in the bonding or interactions between the female leads themselves.

The fact that this was a low budget genre film should already give you a hint of how sleazy this film is going to be. Some will find shocking the fact that a film with a semi-feminist message ends up exploiting women and has some lurid nudity and sexual assault as a form of spectacle for the public but a lot of these contradictions are why exploitation movies are fascinating. By having to appeal to the market they can also inject some thoughtful commentary or ideas without having to lose the audience. Nothing wrong with touching upon subjects directly, but having this distance and paradoxical nature does give us some very interesting results. It should also be said that this is a common thing for Corman, especially considering how there's small remains of The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957) throughout this film, only updated and modified to fit the Conan rip-off mold. 

Overall, this is a good sword-and-sandal item of the eighties with enough virtues and interesting implications in its subtext.

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.