Even Hollywood's flops and bombs need some love. Just because it didn't take in much cash when it was released doesn't mean nobody liked it or can like it if they see it. Impressive packaging and extras.
Absolutely! Lots of fantastic films failed and lots of films I don't like have vibrant fan bases. The things people love should be available to those who want them and in as nice a packaging as possible.
I think the reason that Cutthroat Island never quite landed with me was that it pulled narrative devices from too many different recent pirate films and didn't have enough grounding in real emotions. My complaints were all in the script and not in the execution per se. Take the map-guffin. It was very close to what had been done in the Kristy McNichol film The Pirate Movie. That's not exactly a parallel a more action based Pirate movie wants to make. One might like McNichol as an actress, and I very much do, but The Pirate Movie is a parody of a parody and having moments from it run through my mind when I saw Cutthroat Island definitely skewed my viewing of it.
I also think that Davis got better at portraying someone capable of physical action later on. She lacks a certain hardness that her character should have here. I don't know if that's because of Harlin's direction (I'm going to guess it is) or the fact that she had a hard time drawing on emotions to give her an edge she needed.
The balance of camp and seriousness is difficult to pull off and Cutthroat Island didn't quite do it for me.
That said, it is a film about Pirates and that means I'm still going to buy it.
That might be more of a "you" problem than most -- I'm not sure how many others could name ANY "recent" pirate films of the era, though I'm certain you can name them all.
It's kind of funny how I became aware, and later watched Cutthroat Island. It was mainly due to seeing it on "Worst Movie Flops" and/or "So Bad it Bankrupted the Studio" list and videos consistently. After watching the movie, I thought it was ok, it wasn't as terrible as people would claim and it wasn't a movie I would go out of my way to go see. I think that now with the accessibility to information that films with certain reputations can actually have a different life similar to a movie like Troll 2, were it was lambasted on it's release and now has become a "so bad it's good l" movie due to the expectations people have going in and the film either not living up or shattering said expectations.
Even Hollywood's flops and bombs need some love. Just because it didn't take in much cash when it was released doesn't mean nobody liked it or can like it if they see it. Impressive packaging and extras.
Absolutely! Lots of fantastic films failed and lots of films I don't like have vibrant fan bases. The things people love should be available to those who want them and in as nice a packaging as possible.
I think the reason that Cutthroat Island never quite landed with me was that it pulled narrative devices from too many different recent pirate films and didn't have enough grounding in real emotions. My complaints were all in the script and not in the execution per se. Take the map-guffin. It was very close to what had been done in the Kristy McNichol film The Pirate Movie. That's not exactly a parallel a more action based Pirate movie wants to make. One might like McNichol as an actress, and I very much do, but The Pirate Movie is a parody of a parody and having moments from it run through my mind when I saw Cutthroat Island definitely skewed my viewing of it.
I also think that Davis got better at portraying someone capable of physical action later on. She lacks a certain hardness that her character should have here. I don't know if that's because of Harlin's direction (I'm going to guess it is) or the fact that she had a hard time drawing on emotions to give her an edge she needed.
The balance of camp and seriousness is difficult to pull off and Cutthroat Island didn't quite do it for me.
That said, it is a film about Pirates and that means I'm still going to buy it.
That might be more of a "you" problem than most -- I'm not sure how many others could name ANY "recent" pirate films of the era, though I'm certain you can name them all.
It's kind of funny how I became aware, and later watched Cutthroat Island. It was mainly due to seeing it on "Worst Movie Flops" and/or "So Bad it Bankrupted the Studio" list and videos consistently. After watching the movie, I thought it was ok, it wasn't as terrible as people would claim and it wasn't a movie I would go out of my way to go see. I think that now with the accessibility to information that films with certain reputations can actually have a different life similar to a movie like Troll 2, were it was lambasted on it's release and now has become a "so bad it's good l" movie due to the expectations people have going in and the film either not living up or shattering said expectations.
Troll 2 is indeed every bit as insane as claimed.