Cutthroat Island

When her father is killed by pirate Dawg Brown, Morgan Adams takes up his ship and crew and continues his hunt for treasure – the map for which is on several parchments. Enlisting slave William Shaw to help her, they set out to find the treasure and avoid Brown.

With Pirates of the Caribbean getting everyone's gander up for pirate movies all of a sudden I decided to review this film, having seen it first in the cinema and being unimpressed. On TV the feeling is the same. The plot is a treasure hunt, but it never really sets the pulses racing or feels like it is a really fun romp or such. Instead the story telling is rather workmanlike without spark or life.

What exists in it's place is a lot of noise and energy – but it is energy that is misdirected and misplaced in this case. The action scenes look very expensive (when a lavish harbour town is destroyed you can see the budget) but the also lack excitement or tension. Instead they are hollow spectacles. I'm not a big fan of Harlin's work. Cliffhanger was OK but Die Hard 2 was the weakest of the series. Here he can't seem to find the excitement in his action – maybe because some much effort was on the design of effects shots than on reasons for the action.

Davis is OK in the lead role but it is easy to think of a couple of actresses that might have been more convincing playing it tough. Modine has a few lines that suggest his character will be better than he actually is. Despite a few witty moments of banter early on he just becomes a bland character. Langella is OK but only because he has a reasonable screen presence rather than having a great character.

Overall this is dull and not very engaging at all. The action is hollow and the plot/characters have nothing to really grip. Not worth it's awful reputation but certainly not really worth watching.