I generally don't comment on movies I don't like, but I HATED this film enough to speak up.
This is yet another example of the jaw-dropping INANITY that has come to represent the pirate film, in Hollywood. And, like Cutthroat Island, it's another reason why we don't see more pirate films.
I'm not saying that every pirate film has to be 100% realistic -- this is the movies, we're talking about, not a history lesson. But, can we please TRY, people? I mean, come on...SELF-PROPELLED TANKS AND SUBMARINES? SEMAPHORE? FLAMETHROWERS? NITROGLYCERINE? I guess this is supposed to be humorous or cute, in an anachronistic, Wild Wild West kind of way? It isn't -- it's LAME.
Twice, in this film, a man at ground zero of an enormous explosion is left charred and smoking, like Wiley Coyote, with a stupid expression on his face. At what point does this cease to be the wildly entertaining pirate yarn that people seem to want it to be (it's even championed by Leonard Maltin), and become the RIDICULOUS CLOWN ROUTINE that it actually IS?
I mean, Lancaster actually gives us a DISCLAIMER at the beginning of the film. Saying that we should only believe half of what we see (too bad he didn't tell us WHICH half was the believable one). This is the mark of a truly BAD film. I mean, how often do you go to the movies, only to have the star come out before it starts to tell you that you're about to watch a bunch of NONSENSE? It looks more like a retroactive decision by the studio, in a pathetic attempt to keep audiences from walking out of what turned out to be a STUPID movie.
The movie's fans can keep this one; I'll take The Sea Hawk.
This is yet another example of the jaw-dropping INANITY that has come to represent the pirate film, in Hollywood. And, like Cutthroat Island, it's another reason why we don't see more pirate films.
I'm not saying that every pirate film has to be 100% realistic -- this is the movies, we're talking about, not a history lesson. But, can we please TRY, people? I mean, come on...SELF-PROPELLED TANKS AND SUBMARINES? SEMAPHORE? FLAMETHROWERS? NITROGLYCERINE? I guess this is supposed to be humorous or cute, in an anachronistic, Wild Wild West kind of way? It isn't -- it's LAME.
Twice, in this film, a man at ground zero of an enormous explosion is left charred and smoking, like Wiley Coyote, with a stupid expression on his face. At what point does this cease to be the wildly entertaining pirate yarn that people seem to want it to be (it's even championed by Leonard Maltin), and become the RIDICULOUS CLOWN ROUTINE that it actually IS?
I mean, Lancaster actually gives us a DISCLAIMER at the beginning of the film. Saying that we should only believe half of what we see (too bad he didn't tell us WHICH half was the believable one). This is the mark of a truly BAD film. I mean, how often do you go to the movies, only to have the star come out before it starts to tell you that you're about to watch a bunch of NONSENSE? It looks more like a retroactive decision by the studio, in a pathetic attempt to keep audiences from walking out of what turned out to be a STUPID movie.
The movie's fans can keep this one; I'll take The Sea Hawk.