David Nau leads a band of modern day pirates who raid yachts and sail boats of people on vacation in the Caribbean. When reporter Blair Maynard and his son arrive to investigate the mystery of the disappearing boats, Nau and his band of raiders decide to induct them into their tribe.
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Reviews
Good movie but grossly overrated
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
I watched this back when it was new, and recalled it being reasonably adventurous trash, but workable. Just watched it again and... OMG. So bad. Not just in the details, but so badly paced it is boring, so badly written it is too improbable to be scary adventure. And weird, weird choices. There's happy adventure music when the pirates attack shipping and as they murder innocent people, for example. Oh and minus another point for everyone but the pirates being totally incompetent. No one can shoot, and the USCG guys are buffoons for no clear reason. None of the fights have any tension because the bad guys are so destined to win every time.
Who needs aliens or space monsters for a horror flick? "The Island" is a horror film. It's billed as an action and adventure drama. It's not sci-fi but it would more accurately be described as a suspense and horror movie. It fits in that sub-genre of human horrors that include "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." The movie is based on a 1979 novel of the same title by Peter Benchley. Benchley worked on the screenplay as well. Movie fans, if not readers, will know him from his 1975 blockbuster film (and 1974 book), "Jaws." Benchley's works were mostly set around the ocean. Sea monsters were usually his subjects, but in this case, he conjured up human monsters in the form of a colony of savage pirates. This group is descended from 17th century pirates and has lived undetected since then in the Caribbean Sea. The story suggests that this band of bloody brigands may be responsible for the many disappearances of boats and ships over the decades in the Bermuda Triangle. It was a novel idea. The cast for this film is very good and the acting is probably very good. But this is the type of film in which one can't appreciate the arts of movie making because the plot is so heinous. The movie, "Jaws" set an all-time box office record through 1975. But it pitted people against a sea monster. "The Island" pits humanity against barbarism. It isn't in the same class of films and failed at the box office. I'm not a fan of horror films about the human race on rampage. This is the most gruesome film I've ever watched. I had to watch to the end to see if Michael Caine's Blair Maynard and his son, Justin (played by Jeffrey Frank) survived. They do, so there's no need for anyone else to have to struggle through this film. It's definitely not a film for children, or even the vast majority of adults for that matter. I can't think of who might enjoy this film. The box office is good evidence, in this case. I can't imagine why Michael Caine or David Warner (the character John David Nau) would want to appear in this film, even if it offered lavish salaries. This is a hard movie to stomach – the kind that otherwise belies being able to be rated for its quality.
That's what I was thinking when I saw The Island on HBO 35 years ago. I have almost no memory of this thing except for a bunch of Coasties or pirates getting mowed down by a .30 caliber machine gun. My clearest memory is wondering how Michael Ritchie and Caine and Peter Benchley could produce something this bad. Well, that's easy enough. Benchley was an awful novelist. Michael Ritchie did some great work--The Candidate and The Bad News Bears come to mind. Prime Cut is a disgusting piece of dreck that I love to watch for its very yuckiness. He did a number of fairly good movies, too, but my impression of Ritchie is one of journeyman skill.Why he did this thing makes no sense. Why Michael Caine, a force of nature, has done so many crappy movies along with the good ones makes dollar sense only.If you happen upon The Island on TV--or on the bottom left of the movie section of the library--my suggestion is to watch it if your time is of absolutely no value.
Probably one of Michael Caine's worst movies, if not his worst.. Could have been an interesting and gritty movie, but some of the direction is plain bizarre. Basic plot was good, and the initial set-up was quite gritty, however, from a point it becomes rather frivolous. One moment the pirates are the bad guys, killing people in cold blood, next moment we're almost expected to like them and sympathise with them. From that point, every time the pirates attack a ship, a rather jaunty soundtrack is playing in the background, as if this is a kid's movie, or a comedy! But then they go and kill people, rather graphically.Plot does become rather random towards the end, too.Caine's performance is OK, especially considering what little he had to work with. Some of the pirates are a bit over-the-top though.