Cutthroat Island may have closed down an entire movie studio (Carolco) due to its Box Office failure, but like all cult films, it has a bizarre charm – with some outstanding action sequences, practically achieved, this is quite the unique vehicle even though it was plagued with production issues, rewrites and even set builds without director/producer Renny Harlin go-ahead, which is discussed in the commentary!

As a quick background, the film stars Geena Davis and Matthew Modine in a swashbuckling pirate-adventure. We follow the life of Morgan (Davis), who’s a notorious lady pirate (and the daughter of an infamous pirate) who’s out to sail down her riches. After a series of situations, she ends up teaming up with William (Modine) – a wannabe charmer with the roguish antics of Cary Elwes and Errol Flynn – on a feisty encounter against Morgan’s wicked Uncle Dawg (Frank Langella), who also wants the treasure.

First things first, even for 1995 this film feels out of time, it’s an adventure with a lot of old-school charm, occasionally contemporary, but also with more than a dash of innuendo alongside a loud, adventurous film score. The strangest thing, considering Pirates of the Caribbean didn’t arrive until 2003, is that there’s a huge vibe of this film in their opening sequences – especially with the bravado and comedy elements of the action.

Straight up one of the most exciting things is Geena Davis taking on her own stunts with some being highly elaborate, and so there must have been a lot of trust at that point in her career – as she was also married to the director. But, regardless of that reality then, I found her excellent throughout and completely committed. There’s a specific escape sequence that blew my mind, in the best way, with an air of those huge scenes in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves but I actually think the early one in Cutthroat Island is frankly better. Deeply complex, hundreds of extras with Davis literally throwing herself through the air, out of windows and even back onto a horse with perfect timing. The explosions, chases and huge wide shots offer great scope and visuals for the audience.

Modine is good as well, but he’s definitely second fiddle to Davis leading the way, it’s also interesting to know that although he wasn’t originally first choice for the role – and there’s a mighty list for who it might also have been – his real-life experience as a fencer puts him in good stead, and he’s likeable throughout – if a little overwhelmed on occasion. With an ensemble cast, it’s Langella bringing out a quite brutal baddie – and his accompaniment of merry men are violent and ruthless in their actions as well, which raised an early question of ‘who’s the target audience?!’

Script wise, there’s more than a modern twang in the conversing – almost akin to the likes of Heath Ledger-starrer A Knight’s Tale (that one is definitely better), with lines such as “Stop your chatter and say something Latin-ish.” And also, the final response in this odd line, which is from Davis with a cheeky grin “You’re a very beautiful woman, and I’d like to wash your feet! “You like to wash things? Wash out your mouth!”

But, you see, it feels longer than a fair two-hour running time. It starts and ends with a punch, but it just lacks in a balance of pace and humour, and one of my key enquiries returned often – who is this actually ‘for’? On the 4K UHD restoration side, it looks really sharp, the detail and depth of the designs comes through, which does go to show that even in a messy production, the team building everything brings the big raucous world of the pirates to life – and then some. From what I’ve learned, this 4K is uncut and there’s some severe injuries beyond what I’d expected, so keep an eye out (or a crushed arm) for those. There’s also a latter ship explosion that I watched twice because… it’s worth it and looks incredible with the restoration.

On the Special Features, disappointingly on the 4K* itself there’s only commentary from Director Harlin and it was previously with the DVD release. It’s clear he’s come to terms with the huge problems they had in making it, and they did what they could in the end – even after losing their DOP before starting, plus the issue writing the script whilst filming, let alone the budgeting problems…  but he’s still here giving his insight, so fair enough in that respect.

Overall, Cutthroat Island comes to life with its huge set pieces, when the scope of fantastical sets and real locations are used to their utmost. Sadly in the middle, it does lose its way somewhat and I wouldn’t say bad, but there’s little doubt it becomes a little chaotic with people doing the best with what was left. But, as I always need a positive to end, that John Debney score is worth celebrating and I wish I’d got to use the term swashbuckling more often.

Cutthroat Island is out now on 4K UHD: https://amzn.to/48IXl5c

*I only had access to the 4K UHD, but on the Blu-ray two-disc version there’s also the following:

• NEW The Adventure Of A Lifetime: Making Cutthroat Island

• NEW Charting The Course: Creating Cutthroat Island

• NEW Across The Bow: Editing Cutthroat Island

• NEW Summon Your Courage: Scoring Cutthroat Island

• NEW Ecce Pirate – A Short Film By Matthew Modine

• Commentary from Director Renny Harlin

• Making Of

• Behind The Scenes

• Storyboards

• Interviews

• Original Trailer