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Cutthroat Island

Play trailer Poster for Cutthroat Island PG-13 1995 2h 3m Adventure Action Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
40% Tomatometer 42 Reviews 40% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
Feisty Morgan Adams (Geena Davis) inherits her late buccaneer father's galleon and one-third of a map to buried treasure located on Cutthroat Island. The map had been tattooed on her father's scalp, and to find the treasure, she must locate and scalp his two brothers. But Morgan's swashbuckling uncle, Dawg Brown (Frank Langella), wants the treasure for himself, and does battle with his headstrong niece and her unwilling accomplice, Latin-speaking physician William Shaw (Matthew Modine).
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Cutthroat Island

Cutthroat Island

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Critics Consensus

Cutthroat Island may aspire towards the earnest thrills of classic swashbucklers, but a distinct lack of charm and stilted script make this adventure a joyless hodgepodge of the pirate genre's flotsam and jetsam.

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Critics Reviews

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Todd McCarthy Variety What seemed like a dubious proposition on paper plays even more dubiously onscreen, as "Cutthroat Island" strenuously but vainly attempts to revive the thrills of old-fashioned pirate pictures. Mar 26, 2009 Full Review Trevor Johnston Time Out In this $90m revisionist swashbuckler, we get Geena Davis doing the all-action honours, and a hotchpotch script that seems to think pirate movies are so funny in themselves the need for more humour is superfluous. Feb 9, 2006 Full Review Janet Maslin New York Times It's not possible to believe that Ms. Davis is the highly respected captain of a pirate ship, and it's not even fun to try. May 20, 2003 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews ...a larger-than-life (yet comfortably familiar) premise that is, at the outset, employed to engaging, briskly-paced effect... Rated: 2.5/4 Dec 28, 2023 Full Review Paul Mount Starburst ... A fitfully enjoyable, if frustratingly uneven and deeply flawed, attempt to create an unpretentious, thrills-and-spill adventure in the classic tradition. Rated: 3/5 Oct 2, 2023 Full Review Eddie Harrison film-authority.com as a Saturday night frolic in ye olden style, Cutthroat Island is worth a visit Rated: 3/5 Mar 24, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Carlos N Ok, so it’s camp and silly but it’s fun to watch……is that really so bad? Does every film have to be an Oscar nominee? The actors are fairly good and Geena and Bodine make a good pair, although I think she was miscast…..a less imposing figure would have been a better match for Bodine. It is a shame that this genre died for so long as a result of this flop at the BO, but heck, all it took was Pirates to undo the spell. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/29/25 Full Review Hughe J Cutthroat Island was released in theatres in 1995 and stars Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella and is directed by Renny Harlin. Set in 1668 Geena Davis stars as Morgan, a female pirate, who is simultaneously trying to rescue her kidnapped pirate father from her pirate uncle who did the kidnapping while also trying to find three pieces to a pirate map that leads to a pirate treasure. The movie really harps on the pirate thing with lots of dueling, sea fights, jumping off cliffs, sinking ships, and so forth. The plot is overly complicated, the acting is bad, and the movie really drags. Audiences didn't like it either as the film set a Guinness World Record for biggest box office bomb and the company that released it literally shut down. So yeah, not a very good movie. I would skip this and go watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl which is a pirate movie similar to this one but done well. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 10/04/25 Full Review Audience Member This was an incredibly action packed and entertaining flick. The adventure-style storytelling actually works for those who give the film a chance. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 08/02/25 Full Review Jared B. Great explosions, but otherwise lackluster. Problems are resolved almost instantly. Wouldn’t watch again, but I did finish it. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 07/08/25 Full Review thiago s Filme fraco, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são fracas, a história é fraca, o elenco é fraco, e ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, os personagens são fracos, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes, para fazer o filme ser bom. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 05/26/25 Full Review Monique G Maybe bc I am a woman and I used to watch Erroll Flynn movies as a kid, but I really loved this movie and esp bc of Geena Davis her lead-role, strong action role too and funny, which was still an anomaly for me, gave or take a dozen of movies, I still live strong, female roles. She only needed a better actor for the male role (I even forgot his name🤭), but I really liked this movie a lot and get the bad reviews, but will bet there are more women of my generation who did love the movie too, coz I am normally much more critical of a movie, but this one, I didn’t have to take seriously, just lots of fun, for me anyway🫠 Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/15/25 Full Review Read all reviews
Cutthroat Island

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Movie Info

Synopsis Feisty Morgan Adams (Geena Davis) inherits her late buccaneer father's galleon and one-third of a map to buried treasure located on Cutthroat Island. The map had been tattooed on her father's scalp, and to find the treasure, she must locate and scalp his two brothers. But Morgan's swashbuckling uncle, Dawg Brown (Frank Langella), wants the treasure for himself, and does battle with his headstrong niece and her unwilling accomplice, Latin-speaking physician William Shaw (Matthew Modine).
Director
Renny Harlin
Producer
Renny Harlin, Joel B. Michaels, Laurence Mark, James Gorman
Screenwriter
Robert King, Marc Norman
Production Co
Carolco Pictures Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Canal+, Forge, Laurence Mark Productions
Rating
PG-13
Genre
Adventure, Action, Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 22, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA)
$8.8M
Runtime
2h 3m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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