Cutthroat Island
Cutthroat Island

Cutthroat Island

1995Movie124 minEnglish

Morgan Adams and her slave, William Shaw, are on a quest to recover the three portions of a treasure map. Unfortunately, the final portion is held by her murderous uncle, Dawg. Her crew is skeptical of her leadership abilities, so she must complete her quest before they mutiny against her. This is made yet more difficult by the efforts of the British crown to end her pirate raids.

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Insights

IMDb5.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes8%
Metacritic32/100
Google Users44%
Director: Renny HarlinGenres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Plot Summary

In the 17th century Caribbean, a swashbuckling female pirate captain, Morgan Adams, inherits a treasure map from her deceased father. She embarks on a perilous quest to find the legendary Cutthroat Island and its buried riches, facing off against a treacherous rival pirate, Dawg Brown, and the cunning British Navy. Along the way, she enlists the help of a charming con man, William Shaw, whose loyalty is constantly in question.

Critical Reception

Cutthroat Island was a massive critical and commercial failure, widely panned for its convoluted plot, excessive action sequences, and wooden performances. Despite its ambitious scope and high budget, it became one of the biggest box office bombs in history, sinking the production company Carolco Pictures.

What Reviewers Say

  • Overblown, nonsensical, and lacking in charm, the film drowns in its own ambition.
  • An exhausting spectacle with a story as shallow as a puddle.
  • Geena Davis tries her best, but the script offers little for any of the cast to sink their teeth into.

Google audience: Audiences found the film to be a chaotic mess with a weak storyline and uninspired action. While some appreciated the attempt at a classic pirate adventure, most felt it was a dull and forgettable experience.

Awards & Accolades

None notable. It was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture.

Fun Fact

Cutthroat Island is often cited as the most expensive independent film ever made, with its reported budget exceeding $100 million, contributing significantly to its status as one of Hollywood's biggest financial disasters.

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My Review

TMDB Reviews

4 reviews
CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

OK, so there's precious little original here but I still quite enjoyed Geena Davis doing her best Maureen O'Hara impression as the buccaneer "Adams". She sort of accedes to the ship's captaincy after the death of her father, but her crew ar...
John Chard

John Chard

I was born poor, I had no choice but to become a thief and a liar. Cutthroat Island is directed by Renny Harlin and written by Robert King and Marc Norman. It stars Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Maury Chaykin, Patrick Mala...
Wuchak

Wuchak

***Fun pirate flick tries too hard to be heroic and panders to youngsters*** In 1668 a female pirate captain (Geena Davis) purchases an educated slave (Matthew Modine) to read a treasure map written in Latin and help her & crew find th...
talisencrw

talisencrw

Not as bad as it's notoriously condemned as being, but still clearly shows that both leads and the director were ill-advised (you know very well that if you were getting Harlin at that point in time, you were getting Davis--that's exactly w...