Frank Rysanek I recall reading the book and maybe seeing some movies as a young lad... and I recall that I wasn't very absorbed by the story. It always felt kind of serious and boring.Later on I've developed some admittedly geeky habits and "cultural preferences" if you will... Now that I've settled down, with my forehead boldly approaching the back of my head, and with my little kids fighting for my attention during the evening when I'm back from work, I've stopped even pretending interest in hoher Kultur. In the precious little free time that I have to relax, between the moment my kids (finally!) fall asleep and before I myself shut down for the day, I tend to like *simple* movies that are fun to watch, aren't complex, don't present conflict... but somehow aren't boring to the geek in me. Fairly tales for the boy who's never grown up. I don't mind an absurd black-humoured gag or two - at my age I know how that compares to reality.I have to say that I liked this piece. It was the right action brainwash, matching my tastes. It kept me waiting with a smile for the next funny twist, for another gag around the corner... and I don't mind the anticlimactic ending. Probably because of me living this side of the pond.Even during the scenes of sometimes absurd violence, the movie didn't feel insulting to me. I don't like torture porn thrillers, generally I don't like movies where women and especially *children* are being hurt. This movie is none of that. This is a well-cast comedy with a pinch or two of tongue-in-cheek bloody violence... Even the homosexual twist is presented in a very civilian, non-homophobic way. It makes you smile in surprise, but it's in no way insulting. Iconoclastic? Maybe... Well there you have it - I like much of what the Monty Python's had to say in their day... I liked the acting performance of the teenage Jim Hawkins (flat as he might seem) and especially the Dr.Livesey seemed rather persuasive to me, in all the bizarre situations :-)To me, the movie was good fun.

Nenko Genov I Hate This Movie! This is a mockery, outrageously dull, absolutely awful, rape of Stevenson's masterpiece. The script of this $#1T has NOTHING to do with the book, except for the names of the characters and the Jolly Roger. Jim Hawkins is some mentally challenged sucker, Dr. Livesey is some drunk idiot who even God doesn't know why CUTS OFF LONG JOHN SILVER'S LEG AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MOVIE!!! WHAT THE F**K, MAN!!! Not only that, but there is also a slutty poker-playing homicidal psycho bitch countess, a big bad black GAY of a pirate and I assure you - it's not funny, it's PATHETIC! For the sake of your sanity, avoid this movie at all costs!

Chris451 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.

rossellablack-1 One of those films that almost had me walking out of the cinema before the end. It's the most ridiculous hodgepodge of nonsense except is not even funny. 'Short' John Silver is an unfunny joke, Jim is dull and dimwitted, La Baronne is another unfunny joke though at least - and of course - she's beautiful. The heaving of her boobs alone is enough to make you seasick but vomiting you will be anyway if you waste your time and money on this - one of the laziest, most unimaginative, tedious pile of rubbish I have ever had the misfortune to come across. I knew it was French thus I imagined it wouldn't be any good - I have adored the novel since my childhood and I have to investigate anything remotely connected with it. However never did I expect such enormous nonsense. Honestly, I wanted to ask for my money back. Stay well clear....