Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

shoobe01-1 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.

PeterMitchell-506-564364 My recollections of this movie weren't favorable. The movie was really good until Caine, a journalist, investigating so called abductions on the high seas, and his annoying gun nut son, end up on this island, after such a smooth landing (saracastic note there) by a nonchalant old buzzard of a pilot, who Caine goes off at. A worthy moment. After that it really sucks, where his theory becomes shockingly true, where this band of modern day pirates, hijack and rob unsuspecting boat folk, and keep them hostage, where they eventually submit, to the inescapable. Here they corrupt the mind of Caine's son, turning him against him. And too we have Angela Punch Mcgregor in this, for god's sake. For an Aussie actress, out of all the American films, would you really want to be remembered for starring in a crappy vehicle like this. Again, this film is an adaption of a Peter Benchley novel, who like Jaws and The Deep, has a fondness for the ocean. This film adaption was obviously like a one off for him, where his novel would surely be better. The son was fun like in the gun shop, and he's not a bad aim. On the island, this film becomes a dull bore, with some weird sex, it's only interesting attraction. It's a shame in one side, where from the start, the film showed promise, but on the island, it's just became utterly pointless, fruitless viewing if you will. I can just say, I'm glad I didn't see this at the cinema, but there is worse floating about, but not much. What a stinker.

tomgillespie2002 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

Corpus_Vile 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.