Absolutely brilliant

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The set up on this film sounds like one of those fake movie announcements that pop up on the internet around April 1rst - an Italian miniseries adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's TREASURE ISLAND but set in space and starring Anthony Quinn as Long John Silver. But it is real and I've seen it. Young Jim Hawkins finds himself going on a intergalactic journey when Billy Bones (Ernest Borgnine, who has the sense to get out early) hands him a treasure map. Directed by Antonio Margheriti, this actually sticks pretty dang close to Stevenson's classic (yes, I've read a book) and features all of the famous bits from the book except with the occasional spaceship and android running around. Quinn just barely saves himself from Richard Harris STRIKE COMMANDO 2 levels of Italian exploitation embarrassment because this production actually looks like they had a budget to work with. There are actually some pretty impressive space ship set here. Plenty of familiar faces fill out the cast including David Warbeck as Dr. Livesy, John Morgan as Hands, Klaus Löwitsch as Capt. Smollet, Bobby Rhodes as Black Dog, Sal Borgese as Morgan, Biagio Pelligra as Pew and Hal Yamanouchi as the amusingly named Pete. The version I watched was actually a condensed one that runs 2 and 1/2 hours.

If you've seen every other goofy Italian sci-fi flick and thought you'd exhausted the field, fear not! Here's EIGHT HOURS of Antonio Margheriti doing what he does best, compositing cool model spaceships with beautiful starscapes and familiar B-level actors, in an utterly unnecessary (yet glorious) updating of Treasure Island. Everything here holds together: the sets, the models, the props, the costumes, etc. This is no bottom-of-the-barrel cheapskate production! This is Margheriti's magnum opus, and the logical pinnacle of Italian SF - derivative, fast, and fun!See it if you can! Unfortunately for us Americans, we'll have to make do with cruddy "grey- market" versions until (if ever) a real release comes along . . .

When I am writing this comment it is nearly 3.00am in the morning. I had this flash of memory coming back to me which reminds me of this gem. I was hardly 10 years old when I saw it for the first time.I fondly remember it for its contrast to the original novel I read later in my life. Ever since I have been searching its name and origins. Glimpses I remember include a blind greedy man with the stick being betrayed, a beautiful circular space craft called Hispaniola and the new planet full of leeches and broken space crafts. The series marries a teenager interest in adventures to his obsession about space and alien life. A special thanks to all who contributed before me regarding info on this beautiful series. I think sites like Amazon.com should store a few copies so that it is not lost forever. As for me I wish I could watch it again but maybe this wish will never be fulfilled. After seventeen years, thanks to the internet, I now know what to look for.

I'm surprised someone has written about this movie, because you cannot find it easily in the shops.The movie tells the story of a 12-year old boy, Jimmy (played bij Itaco Nardulli), who lives in the year 2300 at Sicily in an abandoned spacecentre. His mother owns the inn. This is the place where Billy Bones arrives, and later on the scoundrels: they are looking for the treasuremap. Of course the story is well-known. But this time it all happens in outer space. A marvellous idea, because I like sf-films.Fortunately I have got this film on VHS-tape as one complete movie with a length of 2h and 25 minutes; English spoken with Dutch subtitles. Unfortunately the quality of the tape is not as it should be. I will try to make a scan of the cover, so that Imdb can show it on the empty place of the page of "Tresure Island in outer space" or "Isola del tesoro,L" if they still want it of course.My opinion is: a feel-good movie, suitable for all ages above 8, with great adventure and humour and suspence. I will vote for this film and mark it with a 9.Greetings from The Netherlands, Govert van der Kemp.