Swept away

Language : English / Italian / Greek

Year of release : 2002

Run time : 1h29m

Genre : Adventure / Romance / Comedy

Cast : Madonna, Elizabeth Banks, Bruce Greenwood, Jeanne Tripplehorn

Director : Guy Ritchie

Written and directed by Guy Ritchie, the movie is a remake of the 1974 Italian movie of the same name.

Amber is the wife of a millionaire who lives to complain about everything to everyone. As the movie opens, she complains about the boat her husband booked to spend their vacation on with two other couples, as it sails from Greece to Italy.

Giuseppe is assigned to show her and her husband their room, and she complains about the space and the lack of a gym.

Amber complains about the staff, the food, which she sends back, and even her husband, which she berates in front of everyone for the way he dresses! I honestly don’t know how can he stand her!

Amber is such a b1tch, she can’t even enjoy the sun, as she uses an umbrella, and refuses to swim.

Amber complains mostly about and to Pepe whom she calls names, as she doesn’t and won’t pronounce his name correctly, as he was assigned to her.

One day, seeing most of her friends went sailing to the caves, she insists Pepe takes her to the caves, although he says it’s a long journey and there’s strong currents. Their boat stops in the middle of the sea, and Pepe can’t start the engine no matter how hard he tries. Due to the strong currents, they drift too far away from the cruise boat, and end up on an island.

The moment they reach land, Amber threatens Pepe with law suits (only she knows for what, because the poor man didn’t do anything), but that ends fast, as it’s a deserted island, and she doesn’t know how to do anything.

Pepe finds a deserted small cabin, builds things to hunt with, and starts hunting for sea creatures, like fish and octopuses, to eat. Not knowing how to do anything, Amber is asking him to give her food too, and he only agrees after she starts calling him “master” or “mister Esposito”, and cleans his clothes for him.

The movie started well, but after the first part, started losing me,and in the end I felt it didn’t go anywhere.

It had beautiful landscapes, which looked burnt by the sun due to the colors (like a faded picture).

At first I sided with Pepe as she’s a b1tch, and in the beginning, while stranded, she throws the food away because she doesn’t want to eat it raw, instead of giving it to him (showing how spoiled and entitled she is, as she doesn’t think of others, only herself) and not just that, but she still keeps it up with her antics, to the point, when she slaps him and insults him, he slaps her back, but then, when he started kicking her, I didn’t find it Ok anymore. We know she’s a b1tch, but you don’t have to sink to her level.

The acting was fine. I don’t know why everybody hates on Madonna when it comes to acting. No matter what movie she does, they hate her and it. I thought she was fine, the one who can’t act is Jlo, but nobody seems to notice her atrocious acting! Madonna has to sing off key in the movie, and considering she’s a singer (who sings live), I thought she did a really good job.

The soundtrack was good. It had Greek influences, which I though matched the romantic comedy vibe of the movie. The other songs chosen, again, I thought matched in the movie context.

The movie received negative reviews from critics (with only 6% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a score of 18 on Metacritic! ), and grossed only 1 million dollars at the box office (it blows my mind it only made this little, where were Madonna’s fans?!), against a budget of 10 million!

The movie won 5 Golden Raspberry Awards ( for Worst Picture, Worst Actress for Madonna (who also won Worst Supporting Actress for James Bond : Die Another Day), Worst On Screen Couple, Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Director) out of 7 (for Worst Screenplay, Worst Actor for Adriano Giannini)!

Swept Away also won 3 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards for Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst On Screen Couple, out of 6 (Worst Director, Most Intrusive Musical Score, Worst Remake).

Movie Trivia : Adriano Giannini, who played Pepe, is the son of Giancarlo Giannini, who played Pepe in the original!

You can watch the full movie for free, if you follow this link :

https://m.ok.ru/video/2388782352923

Rating : Could have been a contender !