Treasure Island (1999)

Jack Palance's last movie appearance finds him in the lead role of Long John Silver in this well-produced account of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel directed by award-winning TV writer/director Peter Rowe. The rest of the players are able enough, although it could be complained that Rowe's compositions are directed more to the demands of small screen TV rather than big screen cinemas. Nevertheless, Rowe makes impressive use of a real, full-sized sailing vessel, and there is plenty of action for young and old. The cast is credible and even more importantly, the script follows the novel closely and will not disappoint RLS's legion of fans. Jack Palance makes a superb villain and his son, Cody Palance, can be glimpsed in a full-screen close-up as Blind Pew. Available on an excellent New Concorde DVD.

Jack Palance is magnificent as Long John Silver in this sparkling new adaptation of an old classic. Packed with a stellar cast of great British character actors and three Hollywood stars, it must rank among the top 5 versions ever made of Robert Louis Stevenson's legendary novel. Shame there's only one sexy female, but at least she was well cast - Sarah Holland played the saucy strumpet with a charm, power and sincerity that made me wish we'd seen more of her. It's true that the Isle of Man location left a lot to be desired, but it was fresh, different and added a surprise zing to the action. All in all, a cracking film worthy of more than a passing nod.

Ill tell you why. I was read the story when i was a little boy. And then my grandfather got me the 1934 adaption of it and i loved it. We would always watch it together. Even after he died i continued to watch it. When i saw the commercial for this one on TBS i thought, "Ok i know it wont be as good as the first adaption or the book but ill watch it anyway." So I'm watching the movie and so far its alright a few things i didn't like but then it took a huge turn for the worse. Anyway skip to the end and all the wrong people are dead!!!!!!!!!! And it ends with a corny, childish, watered down, happy ending of Silver, Ben, and Jim sailing off alone into the sunset! I couldn't stand it. It made the Doctor, Captain Smullet, and the Squire (couldnt remember how to spell their names) out to be the bad guys only after the treasure in the end! Completely unlike the book and the original movie where the doctor was a close friend of Jim's and his mother. I cant believe they took a childhood story and a movie that i used to watch with my grandfather, hacked it up, and served it to me as an obviously low-budget piece of garbage

I've never read the book. In fact, the only version of this novel I knew was a comic book version where Dennis the Menace was Jim. And I don't even remember anything about that except that Long John hit one of the other pirates for showing Jim his long underwear, and that Ben Gunn looked like he hadn't seen another person in years.And this type of adventure movie is not really for me. But it was all that was on, and I seem to recall it was a literary classic. Still, it seemed to be a family adventure if you don't mind the blood (personally, I could have done without quite so much violence). I thought Kevin Zegers did quite a good job as Jim, and while I was surprised Long John was so old, Jack Palance did a fine job with the role as it was written here.I thought most of the actors did a good job, particularly David Robb as the doctor and Walter Sparrow as Ben Gunn. Sarah Holland had maybe two lines as a young lady who seemed to have less than a stellar reputation, but she still managed to impress. I wouldn't rank this as one of the great movies. I also had trouble figuring out who was on what side--at times Long John seemed to be one of the good guys! But he was usually with the pirates. One thing is certain: most of the pirates seemed quite mean, ugly, dirty and unpleasant.It's an interesting way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I guess.