carbuff Solid but uninspired movie which could have been profitably edited down by around 45 minutes. I can't remember the original plot too well anymore, but I believe that this production does seem to reflect some modern liberal political sensibilities, which likely weren't there originally--in and of itself, this is a legitimately different twist to put on things, except that it throws a few forced clunkers into the script. The performances by Izzard as a subdued Silver and Wood as Jim are pretty strong, but, Sutherland, as with all of his later movies, is just cashing a paycheck and does not at all seem invested in, or appropriate to, the role. Also, as a long-time small boat sailor, it kind of drove me nuts that they never raised more sail than they did--my guess is that this is not historically accurate, but instead reflected the limited budget of the movie, meaning that they didn't want to shell out for the cost of additional sails for the ship. If the movie was going to be dragged out to three hours, I personally wanted a lot more exciting sailing action. The production values are not quite up to that of a theater quality film, but compare favorably to those of a top-notch TV production. A perfect movie to watch with children if one wants to avoid sex and extreme violence, but for a modern adult audience, as long as liberties were going to be taken, it could maybe have been a bit grittier. Still, I can't say that I feel that I have wasted three hours or anything like that, and I'm not really significantly disappointed in any way at all, except for the dearth of sailing action.

David Holt (rawiri42) This yet-another cinematic version of Treasure Island is a typically well-made and remarkably accurate British portrayal of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic masterpiece swashbuckling 1891 novel. It is not over-dramatised whilst also not "over-softening" the violent and bloody scenes.As a TV miniseries, the run time of three hours when viewed all at once on DVD isn't too much either. I found it well worth the time spent and, whilst knowing what to expect having read the book, no less enjoyable. I did notice a couple of continuity errors that I thought unusual for such a well-made movie - in particular, the number of men in Long John Silvers' party before and after several were killed in their siege of the stockade but I suppose it didn't make it any less enjoyable.For what it's worth, I couldn't help visualising Jason Statham in the role of of Long John Silver (not that Eddie Izzard didn't do a great job - it was just that I kept seeing him in his more typical comedic role) and Sam Neill as Captain Smollett. Donald Sutherland was brilliant as Captain Flint and Elijah Woods a bit quirky as Ben Gunn and nothing like I'd previously imagined the character from the book. Another big surprise was Billy Bones being a negro but certainly not out of character.I also thought that Tony Regbo, an actor I had never heard of prior to this movie did a very competent job as Jim Hawking - arguably the star of the novel. It will be interesting to see what this leads to for him.All in all, a jolly good British evening's entertainment.

elliott78212 I have never read the book and the last movie version I may have seen was over twenty years ago, honestly don't remember it much. This was mini series was very good I enjoyed it, Eddie Izzard gave an unexpected well rounded performance, many of the supporting roles are well played by this cast of mostly unknown English actors.There is a grittiness and sense of realism, unlike Pirates of the Caribbean which is played up for the Hollywood big screen epic.This moves along at a well managed pace drawing you in to the story and characters. Steve Barron is no stranger to the TV medium he is well adept at maximizing the small screen making you feel like your watching a big screen epic, best known for Merlin, Arabian Nights and the Adventures of Pinnochio he brings his distinct style to this tale and delivers Robert Louis Stevenson to a new era and generation. I think you will enjoy Treasure Island as I did.

Tyrolean I was looking forward to this! The great cast (Glenister, Penry-Jones, Mays, Izzard) should have guaranteed a great movie. Well, it didn't!Firstly, what about the historical inaccuracies? Granted, they probably couldn't find a seaworthy ship from the proper era, but what about the props? Can't be to hard to find guns from that era instead of rummaging through Sharpe's prop-box. As well, what about the non-Europeans? Granted, there was the odd black fellow in piracy, but surely not on a merchant ship and definitely not as first mate! And the guys from Asia? Chinese, Malayan, Melanesian? How did they find there way to Bristol? And back to the ship: It seems that ever since Pirates of the Caribbean writers seem to think that ships requiring a crew from at least 50 (in this movie) or 200 (PotC) can just as well be sailed by one or two fellows. And then the characters: Why, why in god's name, change them all? They have nothing to do with the novel but are just modern clichés slapped on the original characters. The rich landowner has, of course, to be a greedy, immoral bastard, because rich people are like that! The doctor is a drunkard and a coward, and then suddenly changes his character 180° degrees, so that the audience can see, that every man can change for the better when he needs to.Long John is just a poor, misunderstood philosopher who wants nothing more than to live a life without worries, married to his sweetheart whom he saved from prostitution. Nevermind the scores of people he killed.Even the baddest bad-ass in this movie, Israel Hands, is really only a victim, as he was pressed into service as a boy and thus can't really be held responsible for his actions.Oh, nearly forgot: Which idiot built that stronghold five feet from the sea? The pirates really only had to bring their ship in just a little bit closer and a broadside would have blown that place to kingdom come and saved us from suffering through this sorry efforts ending.=== SPOILERS FROM HERE ===Well, the ending. After killing and maiming, being killed and being maimed, young Jim suddenly decides to throw the whole goddamn treasure overboard, not thinking about the debt his mother has or that they both will probably end up in the poor house or as slaves in the colonies. And the rest actually helped him. The helmsman will stay a helmsman for the rest of his life, the poor doctor won't get to marry Jim's mom and the skipper won't be able to pay the rent on his house as he doesn't get paid for that journey.At least, that's what would happen IRL, though this movie seems to be teaching us, that throwing money away is a good thing, because you'll get money from somewhere else anyway. Sounds to be inspired by the Euro crisis.Oh yes, and after they dropped the treasure into the waves, the captain said "let's sail to Jamaica and crew up". Someone should have spoken up and said: "Uhm, skipper, we just threw all our gold overboard. Gonna be hard finding hands of we can't pay 'em! Arr!"