Michael Caine has made a lot of dross during his lengthy career, but THE ISLAND has to tie with JAWS: THE REVENGE as his biggest turkey. This adaptation of the Peter Benchley novel sees Caine playing an investigative journalist who goes off to track down some missing yachts in the Caribbean. Eventually he discovers that modern-day pirates are the culprits.
Admittedly, the film starts off on a decent enough footing. Things kick off with massacre featuring some outrageous gore effects (the axe-in-the-head is an unforgettable cheesy moment). The stuff showing Caine travelling to the island had me intrigued. Once the pirates are fully introduced, it falls apart completely, and for the rest of the film we're stuck with a sorry rabble of overactors and a script that forgets to be suspenseful or interesting in any way. For an hour we watch repetitive situations over and over again until things pick up for the brief, OTT climax which might well have inspired Stallone's recent RAMBO.
Caine tries to bury his head in the sand throughout and who can blame him? He must have known this was a sorry state of affairs during production. David Warner shows up in his most miscast role ever, while villain duties are mainly lent by LOVEJOY's lovable Tinker, Dudley Sutton! Zakes Mokae is the only one who comes out of this with any credit and that's because he bags what is essentially a cameo role. If the film had kept the same level of bloodshed as we saw in that cheesy opening it might have been a so-bad-it's-good piece of filmmaking; as it stands it's just so-bad-it's-bad.
Admittedly, the film starts off on a decent enough footing. Things kick off with massacre featuring some outrageous gore effects (the axe-in-the-head is an unforgettable cheesy moment). The stuff showing Caine travelling to the island had me intrigued. Once the pirates are fully introduced, it falls apart completely, and for the rest of the film we're stuck with a sorry rabble of overactors and a script that forgets to be suspenseful or interesting in any way. For an hour we watch repetitive situations over and over again until things pick up for the brief, OTT climax which might well have inspired Stallone's recent RAMBO.
Caine tries to bury his head in the sand throughout and who can blame him? He must have known this was a sorry state of affairs during production. David Warner shows up in his most miscast role ever, while villain duties are mainly lent by LOVEJOY's lovable Tinker, Dudley Sutton! Zakes Mokae is the only one who comes out of this with any credit and that's because he bags what is essentially a cameo role. If the film had kept the same level of bloodshed as we saw in that cheesy opening it might have been a so-bad-it's-good piece of filmmaking; as it stands it's just so-bad-it's-bad.