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Movie:		7.0
Picture:		9.0
Sound:		8.0
Extras:		4.0
Score:		7.0

Director(s):	Renny Harlin
Writer(s):	Michael Frost Beckner& James Gorman and Bruce A. Evans & Raynold Gideon
Starring:	Frank Langella • Matthew Modine • Geena Davis
Genre:	Action • Adventure • Comedy
Release Date:	August 11, 2009
Rated:

List Price:	Blu-ray - $13.99
Amazon:

Either I'm a sucker for pirate stories, or I owe Renny Harlin an apology. After lambasting him for his disaster of an action film 12 Rounds, I now see that as a director he was hideously robbed of the fame CutThroat Island should have brought him when the box office of its time failed to recognize the greatness inherent in pirate epics. Fast forward eight years to Disney’s vastly inferior Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and you begin to realize just how bad Mr. Harlin got hosed. Compared to PotC, CutThroat Island’s visuals have a much grander scale; its story’s plot has actual merit; and it’s not all kept afloat by a flamboyant Johnny Depp in pirate garb.

Morgan Adams (Geena Davis) goes into the family piracy business when her “uncle” Dog (Frank Langella) has her father walk the plank with an anchor tied about his ankles. Before her father can sink down to Davey Jones’ locker, he reveals to her his part of a three-section map that will lead to an untold amount of wealth in a place called CutThroat Island. The only catch? The section of the map Morgan and her pirate crew have is written in Latin, thus they require a translator. Enter Shaw (Matthew Modine), a cunning thief currently rotting in Jamaica’s prison after a daring stunt at a luxurious ball.

Morgan makes an uneasy alliance with Shaw and together they embark on a series of rollicking adventures on their way to CutThroat Island. But getting there is only half the fun – once arriving they find the race for the treasure to be fraught with peril with more than just pirates vying for a piece of the treasure.

The scope of the tale is grand, and the set pieces fit the bill. While Harlin’s big action sets in other films like Die Hard 2 suffered from an unfortunately dated sampling of CGI, everything you see in CutThroat Island has been constructed – and destroyed in grand fashion. PotC may have had some fun battle sequences, but nothing there rivals the spectacle of watching a huge ship explode. Even more interesting (and you learn this in the disc’s sole featurette), is the method used to film the final sea battle between the ships. Instead of taking the ships out on the seas or using small models, Harlin created what is in essence a humongous infinity pool big enough for two full-sized ships.

Geena Davis and Matthew Modine lend an exceptional level of believability to their squabbles as pirates in partial cahoots. There’s so much pirate-based distrust that you’ll start to hear faint echoes of some of the more clever conversations of PotC – a concept which makes you chuckle when you realize that what you thought was clever in 2003 was more clever in 1995, we just didn’t pay attention. Geena Davis manages to muster up a convincing level of bravado for most of the film, but there are more than a few instances where the boldness called for just doesn’t arrive on cue. Brief flashes of insecurity would add a lot to the character of Morgan, but only when added at just the right time; as is, there are moments when the façade seems to falter with the entire crew present and you have to wonder how some more ambitious pirate didn’t dethrone her long before the film had ended. This may be my favorite performance of Matthew Modine (which doesn’t say much), but he pulls off the scoundrel role quite well. Frank Langella makes a terrific pirate villain – though his demise at the end begs one question “You couldn’t have take one step to the left?”

Wow. Just wow. The film looks spectacular on Blu-ray and the widescreen presentation just makes sweeping glances of the varied sea and jungle horizons. The picture is brilliantly crisp and the film looks like it could have been made in the last two years. The audio deserves equal recognition as the score and bone-shattering sound effects keep the viewer enraptured amidst all the derring-do of this adventurous romp.

Blu-ray Bonus Features

The aforementioned lone featurette includes archival footage and gives a little behind the scenes information on Renny Harlin’s massive pirate undertaking. It’s only six-minutes, so why not take a peek? Unlike 12 Rounds, CutThroat Island’s audio commentary with Renny Harlin is very interesting to listen to as you get a lot of background on the trials involved with filming a production of this magnitude. After that all you have are theatrical and teaser trailers.