Michael Caine had an interesting run of genre flicks starting in the late ‘70s. The Swarm (1978) was laughed off the screen, Dressed to Kill (1980) was enjoyed by audiences and critics alike, and The Hand (1981) dropped his batting average once again. Nestled in between all those was The Island (1980), a killer pirate movie from the author of Jaws and directed by the man behind The Bad News Bears. What could go wrong? Well, everything, according to most folk. It’s an odd one to be sure, but the wild tonal shifts that prevent the ship from staying on a clear course make it a fascinating treasure that gets better with each viewing.
Released in June by Universal, The Island had a surefire pedigree for success; the Jaws juggernaut of producers Zanuck and Brown and author Peter Benchley (here, adapting his own novel) promised a good time to be had by all.
Released in June by Universal, The Island had a surefire pedigree for success; the Jaws juggernaut of producers Zanuck and Brown and author Peter Benchley (here, adapting his own novel) promised a good time to be had by all.
- 1/21/2017
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Not to be confused with the Michael Bay-directed science fiction film of the same name, Michael Ritchie’s The Island finds Blair Maynard (Michael Caine) and his young son Justin (Jeffrey Frank) stranded on an island off the coast of Florida. Maynard is a journalist working on a story about mysterious disappearances, when a gang of pirates bring them face to face with the frailty of civilized humanity.
Michael Caine leads the cast with a terrific performance. An actor of natural ease and sheer likeability, Caine gives his character an unexpected ambiguity to the many emotional and physical situations he is placed in. David Warner as the leader of the gang of sea faring thieves does his due diligence in creating a character of unexpected complexity. He’s not just a thug, but also a sad character desperate for more in life. Young Jeffrey Frank as Justin is smart,...
Michael Caine leads the cast with a terrific performance. An actor of natural ease and sheer likeability, Caine gives his character an unexpected ambiguity to the many emotional and physical situations he is placed in. David Warner as the leader of the gang of sea faring thieves does his due diligence in creating a character of unexpected complexity. He’s not just a thug, but also a sad character desperate for more in life. Young Jeffrey Frank as Justin is smart,...
- 12/15/2012
- by Derek Botelho
- DailyDead
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