Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
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.
Cutthroat Island is a high-budget swashbuckler that delivers impressive production values and some genuinely entertaining set pieces, but it struggles with a formulaic treasure-hunt plot and uneven performances. Geena Davis brings physicality to her role but the chemistry with Matthew Modine feels forced, and the supporting cast is largely forgettable. The cinematography captures the sea adventures with reasonable flair and the practical stunts are ambitious. However, the story follows a completely predictable pirate template with few surprises, and the villain Dawg (Frank Langella) is a generic menace. The ending delivers the expected action climax without much imagination. Its novelty as a female-led pirate adventure is undercut by how conventionally it executes that premise, explaining its legendary box-office failure despite decent technical craft.