Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Blistering performances.

I saw only the last two thirds of this clunker and it was enough. How Michael Caine could be associated with this film is hard to understand. The only memorable scene shows him mowing down all the pirates with the machine gun, thereby obtaining revenge for the massacre of the Coast Guard crew. Finally, he burns up David Warner with a flare pistol which anybody would guess would happen. David Warner works at playing a bad guy, but was much better at it in TITANIC. Caine and Warner are passable, but the plot, the direction, the other actors and action, aren't worth discussing. The more I think about it, I feel I over rated the movie.

Blair Maynard, seeking to reconnect with his young son Justin, takes him on a Caribbean cruise to research Bermuda Triangle disappearances. Unfortunately, they discover an explanation - a lost band of descendants of 17th century pirates who take Blair into slavery as a breeding source of fresh genes, while Justin is brainwashed into becoming the "son" of the pirate leader.After Jaws became a massive-selling book and then a box office movie smash, Peter Benchley was flavour of the month for a while. The Deep followed, less successfully, and then The Island, which more or less put paid to Benchley's career as a source of movie ideas.It's not entirely clear why. The idea is not a bad one and, in Michael Caine as Blair and David Warner as the pirate leader, it has two potentially good leads (albeit Caine was going through his phase of taking any part as long as there was a decent pay cheque attached to it).Although the film is a fairly good adaptation of the book, it is no fun at all. It is very violent and purports to be adult (as was the book) but doesn't feel credible. Had it been played as a family-oriented adventure rather than almost-horror, it might have worked better.

Oh, Peter Benchley, did you ever write a narrative that didn't involve the ocean in some manner? Well, no! After the huge success of his fishy saga, Jaws (both book and the massively superior film), his output was generic to say the least. The Deep (1977) was a story of deep sea divers, Hunters of the Reef (1978), is self-explanatory, and The Beast (1996), also incredibly obvious. And here, The Island, is a story of the high seas, of quasi-seventeenth century pirates, living in obscurity in modern-day Bahamas. A promising opening sees a crew of boat-dwellers being attacked, with all the gruesome and graphic horror of axes plunging into heads (reminiscent of the opening of John Carpenter's The Fog (1980 - Review #268) - but without the supernatural elements).The opening sequence turns out to be a spate of mysterious "boat" disappearances, much like the Bermuda triangle enigma. Blair Maynard (Michael Caine), a New York journalist (of "Limey" origin), sets out for the island of Navidad with his son Justin (Jeffrey Frank). After a dramatic entrance to the island, they charter a boat for a father-son fishing trip, where they are kidnapped by pirates, headed by John (the always watchable David Warner). The son is bizarrely indoctrinated into the gang immediately, and he becomes instantly suspicious of his father (?). Did daddy not take you to Disneyland? Typical civilised children!It's a pretty banal affair that becomes tiresome and predictable. Warner does bring his usual charm to the screen, but even he struggles with a tedious script. His pirate gang is littered with familiar faces (Dudley Sutton, Frank Middlemass, Don Henderson), and there are even some relatively humorous dialogue. For example, after the boarding of a boat, the female pirate, Beth (Angela Punch McGregor), asks what the white powder on the floor is. Blair answers: "It's medicine called cocaine." Beth: "What does it cure?" Blair: "Insecurity." However, this does not save a dubious affair, despite some competent direction from Michael Ritchie, who had previously worked on The Candidate (1972).www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Michael Caine is a reporter who goes to Florida with his young son, to investigate the disappearance of hundreds of ships over a three year period. While out fishing, they are captured by vicious pirates, who speak pidgin English, live by their own set of laws and have been eking out an existence by plundering ships for centuries. Caine's son is rather partial to this lifestyle, and one of the pirate women has an eye for making Caine her new husband. will Caine's son grow up to be the next Blackbeard, with Caine doomed (I guess) to being a pirate chick's sex slave? Or will Caine manage to rescue his son and get back to civilisation?The Island sounds totally silly, and yes, it IS totally silly, but on a plus side it has David Warner as the leader of the pirates, and Warner is awesome imho. It also comes with some nice scenery and has an effectively nasty and attention grabbing opening scene. As well as this, it's surprisingly gruey in parts with some decently and well executed bloody kills and a way OTT scene involving a heavy machine gun. There's some rather offbeat touches to The Island also, with some of the gory kills being played out to the score of swashbuckling matinée music, as the Pirates plunder ships, as well as a hilarious spot of impromptu and wholly unexpected Kung-Fu.So overall, it's a dumb but fun flick which reasonably delivers.6.5/10 worth checking out for some decent kills, and an overall offbeat enough set up.