User Reviews

Like earlier commenters, I have been a fan of Treasure Island for a long time, so when I had a chance to see this new French version of the classic story I jumped at it. I've learned my lesson: look before youleap. I suppose we have the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean films to blame for this horrible "comedy/adventure" version of the story. The 1999 Jack Palance version (in which Jim throws his lot in with the pirates at the last minute) was bad, but this! The last time such violence was committed on a piece of literature was the notoriously heinous Demi Moore version of The Scarlett Letter. Make no mistake, L'Île aux Trésors has about as much in common with Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island as Gilligan's Island has with The Lord of the Flies. Oh, there's a treasure all right, and it is on an island, but that's about where the similarities end. We still have characters called Jim Hawkins (although here he is a secondary character) and John Silver, but these are not the characters you know from the book. They are dunderheaded buffoons. Look in vain for the the Admiral Benbow Inn, Blind Pew, a parrot named Polly, an apple barrel in the hold of a ship. Instead we get a dull and befuddled teenage Jim Hawkins working as a prison guard, "Short" John Silver, a drunken Dr. Livesey, a buxom blonde serial killer named Madame La Baronne Evangeline Trelawney, and man-on-man sex play in the hold. By the time the ship has reached the island there have already been so many killings on board that you start to wonder who will be left to go ashore.

I guess it's meant to be funny, and perhaps the humor is lost in translation, but it plays like a Mel Brooks comedy without the laughs. There are a lot of badly timed slapstick gags, and a few of them raise a smile, but most fall flat. You know you're in trouble when the first scene is a "comic" depiction of Silver's leg being amputated. One major character is killed off abruptly in order to make a lame joke about cannibalism. In the end it is clear that the filmmakers have nothing but contempt for Stevenson's novel or their audience. Eventually they seem to run out of ideas and the movie simply ends with Silver and La Baronne apparently the only survivors, stranded and fighting it out for the treasure. At this point Jim Hawkins has already been blown to smithereens in a wacky sequence aboard the ship involving gunpowder and a cigar, but after being dead for the last ten minutes of the film there is a brief tacked on coda showing that he somehow miraculously survived and is none the worse for the wear. I wish I could say the say the same for the audience.

I think - no I am pretty sure that this is the worst adaption of a book i have ever seen! The main question which arises is why this movie is called "Treasure Island" and why the characters have the same names as in the classic novel by Stevenson. You may ask why? - The stories have got NOTHING in common apart from a treasure being on an island and the old crew of the diseased captain who buried it is out to find it. - The characters have got NOTHING in common with the ones in the book. And not only are they different, they are all incredibly flat and dull. - A new main character is introduced (or one of the main characters is exchanged): The big breasted killer Baroness Trelawney. Now you will say: Just because it is different from the book, does it have to be bad? No, it doesn't have to be. It could be just a totally different pirate story having the same name. But even if this was the case, it still is one of the worst movies I have ever seen! One good thing: After having seen the movie, you can still read the book or watch any of the other movies about the topic without spoiling your experience. The story has changed so much that you can watch "L'Île aux Trésors" without a spoiler warning before it. But don't. I can't say anything bad about the actors. Maybe they would have done a good job if only the script was not THAT awful. I am really sorry to have walked into the video store today and spend 3 Euros and almost 2 hours on this piece of c**p. My wife did the only good thing and fell asleep after 15 Minutes.