Treasure Island.

The way Sky carpet bombed us with trailers and ads for Treasure Island I felt obliged to watch, much in the same way Chelsea players are obliged to celebrate goals with AVB, and boy was it a long voyage. 

You certainly got the feeling that all concerned, with the making of this version, were big fans of  Dead Man's Chest and At Worlds End. Because they seemed to labour under the misapprehension that what we all needed was another lengthy, drawn-out pirate adventure. The pace was cripplingly slow, in fact Treasure Island made the aforementioned Pirates of the Caribbean films look like an episode of 24. It seemed to take forever to get to the Hispaniola and then another eternity to get to the island. The whole venture was screaming out for, at least, an hour to be cut from it. I seem to recall the classic Disney, Robert Newton version got it all done in around an hour and a half.

And there in lies another problem, the ghost of Robert Newton hangs heavy over Treasure Island and especially anyone taking on the role of Long John Silver. Sadly Eddie Izzard wasn't really up to the task. As usual he was just alright. In fact, that probably sums him up in most everything.

    

"How was Eddie Izzard in (add an Eddie Izzard performance here) -------?"

"Oh, he was alright." 

But alright is not good enough for Long John, he must be the charismatic centre of the piece. I found myself wondering why they didn't give the role to Philip Glenister, who played Captain Smollett. We all know he can be a powerful actor and as Life On Mars showed us he can steal every scene he is in. Perhaps with Mr. Glenister in the lead role, and an hour cut out, Treasure Island might have been smoother sailing. 

Over