Better seen with a yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

billyfish

30 years out, this has got to be good, dirty fun! Michael Caine plays a straight man throughout, as the modern man kidnapped by real-life pirates of the Caribbean, but he's fun to watch, in spite of how flat the rest of the characters are. I haven't read Benchley's book, but I'd like to believe that it was a bit more realistically painted than this comic-book version. David Warner is completely wasted as the pirate commander, but even so he is an interesting presence on screen. One has to believe that this is a movie worth doing again, perhaps taking it both a bit more seriously and a bit more tongue-in-cheek. The 17th-century pirate lingo was not researched carefully (of course), but that in itself would make for a compelling new version of the story.

Even with all its pitfalls, it's still a watchable movie and I found myself (guiltily) enjoying it. Not bad for a 30-year old movie. I think you'll get a lot more yo ho hos out of it if you watch it with a bottle of rum, me heartie!

score 5/10

billyfish 4 August 2009

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2106583/