One of the biggest financial flops of the 90s was the Renny Harlin pirate flick Cutthroat Island. The high-seas romp, which starred Geena Davis, cost nearly $100 million and only eked out $10 million in the US. It was a big enough flop that it sunk the studio that produced it, Carolco Pictures, but Harlin and Davis were able to bounce back fairly quickly and make The Long Kiss Goodnight, which has since become a classic. However, it’s worth noting that the stink left over from their pirate epic muted the latter film’s box office.
Despite being one of the biggest disasters of the nineties, Cutthroat Island is finally getting a 4K Blu-ray release. Check out all the details here. While (initially) only available at Wal-Mart, the loaded disc (which includes a Renny Harlin commentary) should encourage fans to give the movie another shot because it’s a pretty good movie. Here’s the thing – in 1995, Harlin and Davis, for some reason or another, were the target of some very hostile press, and the movie never really got a fair shake critically. It’s a rip-roaring adventure epic with some fantastic (practical) action set-pieces and a terrific action heroine role for Davis that’s ripe for rediscovery. She also has top-shelf support from Matthew Modine as her heroic love interest, while Frank Langella is amazing as the movie’s villain Dawg Brown (Davis gets a terrific one-liner in the final battle with him – “bad dawg”). It also has a great score by John Debney and is legit better than most of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (outside of the great first one).
Hopefully, now that it’s getting an excellent re-release; it’ll lead to a re-appraisal of one of Harlin’s most underrated films. We love Renny Harlin here at JoBlo – check out two of our interviews with him below!