I was amazed that Hallmark would put their name on it!
Jules Verne might have been one of the best storytellers of his time, but a century later, he doesn't stand up.The movie keeps faithful by using much of J.V.'s dialogs, but makes SIGNIFICANT changes in order to make for "good TV" (adding characters, making the pirates buffoonish, etc). I cant help but think that if they were going to make broad changes, they would have been positive ones.
Aside from the liberties taken with the story (too complicated to detail)there were so many BAD special effects and continuity goofs that I found a clipboard and started keeping track.
HUMOROUS MISTAKES:
-Two longboats of pirates attack the protagonists on the beach. Clearly there are only two boats and a total of 14 pirates. The good guys use rifles (and one arrow), to shoot down 12 pirates. Sensing defeat, the Captain rallies his sailors back to the longboats. SEVEN men return to the boats! 14 minus 12 should have made that one damn lonely boat ride back...
-During the pirate attack, two pirates start to scale a cliff face.
One pirate wears a Gray shirt and one wears an orange one:
Kyle McLauchlan shoots one of the pirates (the one in the Gray shirt,
the one in orange has magically disappeared) then he reloads, aims,
and shoots THE SAME GREY SHIRT PIRATE off the cliff again!
There are many more, but those were the most glaring...
I don't recommend the movie for conventional entertainment, but a "spot the flub-up" drinking game might be ripe for development!
score 3/10
david-3400 9 August 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1443471/35820
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