Captain Ron

Few people like this film as much as my family and I, but we never miss it when it comes on TV. Perhaps that's because we've sailed the Caribbean and can relate to the misadventures of the characters in the movie. It's a terrific family film.

Kurt Russell is hysterical as the one-eyed Captain Ron. Martin Short, for a change, plays the straight man. The rest of the cast are cute and funny.

By the end of the movie, I actually found myself nostalgic for the sense of freedom and fun that only Captain Ron can steer you towards. I gave this movie a 9; don't throw me overboard for that!

Hamilton Fisher

This movie begins with a man named "Martin Harvey" (Martin Short) and his wife "Katherine Harvey" (Mary Kay Place) inheriting a sail boat once owned by Clark Gable. The only problem is that they have to sail it from a small island in the Caribbean called Pomme de Terre to a port in Miami to have it surveyed in order to sell. However, once they get there they find that the boat is in great disrepair and unable to sail it themselves they hire a local sailor named "Captain Ron" (Kurt Russell) to help them out. What they don't realize is that Captain Ron is a complete idiot and is liable to get them all killed before they ever get to Miami. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that a friend recommended this movie to me many years ago and upon eventually watching it I found it to be as good as he said it was. I especially liked the acting of Kurt Russell who was absolutely hilarious. In any case, those who are looking for a good light-hearted comedy might want to check this one out and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Splashy adventures in the Caribbean as a mild-mannered big city businessman suddenly inherits a yacht and talks his reluctant family into a spontaneous month-long sea voyage. Martin Short is the oft-frustrated family man, whipped and stifled by the corporate world, who almost instantly regrets hiring his polar opposite (a mostly shirtless, mulleted, eye-patched Kurt Russell) to teach his family how to control their new toy. Most of the fun lies in watching Russell do whatever he wants - flirting with the wife and daughter, teaching the son to drink and gamble, pushing the boat to the point of disintegration - which rankles the father who sees himself being replaced by a newer, hipper model.

There's nothing world-shattering here. It's a simple recipe that coasts on easy laughs and nice scenery, but at least it has a unique angle and a decent amount of heart. Short is vanilla and snobby as the leading man, prickly and unlikable, but that's how the character is written. Russell, on the other hand, pushes an overshadowing support role, one which could've easily been just as grating, into something more personable and endearing. We buy into Captain Ron's world philosophy because the actor also buys into it.

As formulaic, predictable family comedies go, one could do far worse. Bonus points to those who choose to lean into the winking urban legend that this is how Snake Plissken relaxes between escapes.

Although there had been hints of it before with Kurt Russell, in Captain Ron he breaks out with a full blown comedy. In the title role Russell creates a character, a raffish sort to rival Cary Grant in Father Goose and Charles Laughton in The Beachcomber. Not to mention Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou, John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn and the best of all Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen.

Martin Short and his wife Mary Kay Place inherit a yacht that was once owned by Clark Gable and I'm sure if the boat could talk it could tell some fabulous tales. It's in dry dock in The Bahamas and in need of repair to put it mildly. But fix it and flip it as they say in today's world and get someone to pilot it to Florida.

Who Short and Place get is Kurt Russell the legendary Captain Ron who's seen and done all. At least according to him and the tales get taller as Russell imbibes. But he sure has Place enchanted their daughter Meadow Sisto is a believer and he's really got their young son Benjamin Salisbury ready to go to far away places with him.

I won't go into it, but the castaways on Gilligan's Island never faced anything like what Kurt Russell puts Short and his family through in their '3 hour tour'. I'm sure Clark Gable and Carole Lombard and anyone else whoever sailed on this craft never had a saga like Short, Place and their kids have.

Everyone performs well and I have to say Martin Short must have been a great sport about essentially being Kurt Russell's straight man. As for Russell you can see what attracted him to the part, a chance to have a seven course meal on the scenery and not be criticized for it as the role calls for it. It's an actor's dream.

Kurt Russell is having fun and the fun is infectious for the viewer.

Between the sex-charged thriller UNLAWFUL ENTRY, and the Western classic, TOMBSTONE, Kurt Russell kicked back and had some fun, playing one-eyed reprobate Captain Ron Rico, in Thom Eberhardt's easy-going comedy, CAPTAIN RON. The tale of a Chicago family's sea-faring odyssey, moving an inherited sailboat (once owned by Clark Gable) from a tiny Caribbean port to Miami for sale, CAPTAIN RON never gets the big laughs you'd expect from a movie co-starring Martin Short, but is entertaining, with Russell again proving he is as adept at comedy as in action or dramatic roles.

Co-starring the wonderful Mary Kay Place as Short's practical but supportive wife, and Meadow Sisto and Benjamin Salisbury as their scheming children, the story would be a routine 'by-the-numbers' sea comedy, if not for Russell's larger-than-life presence. As the sailor hired to take the boat and family to Miami, Captain Ron is wild, occasionally inept, and the kind of seaman you wouldn't trust a rowboat to, much less a broken-down yacht! "If we get lost," he tells a nervous Short, "we'll just pull into an island and ask directions." Whether he's rescuing Short and Place from a flooding shower stall ("Your folks were playing 'Hide the Salami' in the shower", he calmly explains to their young son, who promptly falls out of his chair), or warning the family to keep an eye out for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ("So you've been to Disney World," Short quips...before pirates indeed attack the ship), Russell's 'Ron' is a comic gem, commanding the screen each time he appears.

While CAPTAIN RON will never make anyone's list of 'Best Comedies', it is a pleasant diversion, and if you're a Kurt Russell fan, you won't be disappointed!