Treasure Island
Treasure Island
PG-13 | 01 January 2012 (USA)
Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream thousands of hit movies and TV shows

Start 30-day Free Trial
Treasure Island Trailers

Treasure Island is a two-part British television miniseries adaptation of the novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was made by BSkyB and first shown in the United Kingdom on Sky1 on 1–2 January 2012. The screenplay was by Stewart Harcourt and it was produced by Laurie Borg and directed by Steve Barron.

Reviews
StunnaKrypto

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Kien Navarro

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

View More
Sarita Rafferty

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

View More
Brooklynn

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

View More
msafine

I've read the book in my childhood. This movie is way too far from the real story. I could not just predict what is going to be next, but also the race of the actors. Common, it was England, which was white 300 years ago as well low-class people such as pirates would never be in a racially-mixed team. Looked very weird, especially that the pirate's chef, such as Captain Silver was chosen to be black. No offense, but it's far away from the reality and why not just to be honest and keep the story real? Looks like movie creators were afraid in the "racist" accusations. There were too many other distortions, which made me sick and I even stopped watching.

View More
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.

View More
weeeezii

The movie has a great story, but the actors were cheap and bad. It is a shame to see a good movie being presented in such a cheap way. Do not watch this version of the movie, either watch an older one or wait for a new one, because this version is amazingly cheap and all of the actors were extremely bad. In addition, after watching the battle scene I realized that I was wasting my time watching a CHEAP low grade movie.I would just save my time and watch any other movie instead of this movie. the graphics in this movie were good in general, but the characters don't fit the actors and most of them do not know how to act in general. the actors basically have no emotions in their acting. you will not believe any of them not even for 1 second. save your time and watch something else.

View More
celr

I wanted to like this recreation of the classic Treasure Island. One doesn't expect a slavish adherence to the original as long as the main story elements are in place, and who would be nitpicking enough to criticize every deviation from precise details of 18th century settings, customs and props. Making the feckless first mate a black guy might be a stretch, Billy Bones is not black in the original, but even the book describes Long John's wife as "a woman of color." Political correctness would be certain to ruin any classic, but I didn't detect toxic amounts of that here. No, the violation was far worse. About one third of the way through this re-creation takes a dark and nasty turn.So I was enjoying this Treasure Island and it's dodgy crew as they set out to sea. Only having had it read to me as a small lad, but I kept coming up short: "Wait a minute! I don't remember that!" I knew my memory of the book was quite faded so I had to look it up. In this TV production squire Trelawney is turned into an angry, abusive tyrant. He virtually keelhauls some poor fellow as a punishment and the fellow dies as Jim looks on. That is totally gratuitous, it's not in the book. In fact, Trelawney is supposed to be a decent fellow and invites Jim on the voyage because he likes him. Later in the TV version the Squire abuses Jim irrationally and cruelly and drives him out of the camp on the island. He is supposed to be Jim's protector, but in this version he becomes his persecutor. Classics are classics for a reason. In the story of Treasure Island it's the power of the narrative, the storytelling, that's the key to its popularity for many generations. The makers of this TV drama, as in so much of movies and TV drama, have no sense of the narrative. Treasure Island is a story of a rite of passage, of a young man being introduced to the world and for this to work he needs people on his side, protectors who care about his welfare. For him to be betrayed by the people who brought him along and took him into their confidence, makes no sense at all. At that point the narrative loses its moral compass and becomes absurd. I can't imagine a motive for such a drastic alteration in the story. Certainly Trelawney is given no motive to turn on Jim and leave him to the mercy of a bunch of cutthroats who intend to kill him. At that point in the TV version Jim is on his own, he virtually has to take care of himself. He has no allies. But rite of passage is not something that adolescents do on their own, as in "Lord of the Flies." They need compassionate adults to help them along. And though I can't imagine why the screenwriters made such a poor decision about the plot line, I can see the parallels with contemporary culture where many young people are virtually abandoned by their elders and left to raise themselves on junk food and pop culture. Along with that comes a visceral dislike of established values, the well-off, and any authority, combined with an exaggerated feeling of entitlement. Perhaps the writers thought that the values of the RLS book were too outdated and corny for an audience of feral children used to getting their own way. As in the "Occupy" movement, all rich guys are automatically considered evil just because they're rich, so the squire has to be evil. I don't know. But you can see the result of such a philosophy in the London riots of 2011 and the ever expanding percentage of out-of-wedlock births in the Western world. In any case these seemingly unnecessary alterations in the story line throw the entire story out of kilter, and Treasure Island is no longer fun. Don't get me started on the ridiculous ending. Avoid this version.

View More