The Lost Treasure of Sawtooth Island

The only reason I elected to give this flick a shot was due to the presence of Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine. All I can say is, it was the greatest waste of a good actor ever put to film. As far as I could tell, Borgnine was the ONLY actor in it. The other performances were so uniformly terrible, I am amazed a studio would actually pay the "performers" to appear. Couple this level of talent in the acting department with a story so plodding and insipid that I thought my eyes were going to start bleeding by the time the credits rolled, and you have a perfect cinematic disaster. Obviously the movie was made to appeal to an audience of children, and to its credit, it was better than most of the original programing on the Disney Channel and similar kid-focused networks. But honestly, that is not saying much.

Where do I start? What an epic disaster of a film. Bravo.

First, the clichés. So, many, clichés. It was as if they took every treasure hunting trope and utterly butchered every single one.

The camera work and lighting were also pretty bad. I realize that they had a small budget, but for very cheap, they could have improved their techniques for lighting and making the camera work more interesting.

The acting was also pretty bad, though that can probably partially be attributed to poor direction.

The plot itself was at times confusing and failed to help me get to know any of the characters. Danny was the typical hero who believes in the treasure and proves to everyone else that he was right; his best friend is the typical best friend who is only there for exposition and occasional jokes; the girl is there because...they need a girl on the team, I guess? And so on. Still, I had no idea who any of the characters were (still don't remember their names), and they had no real introduction to the story, except for their roles in the plot. None had any humanlike qualities to them, but were simply a "type" designed to fit their role in the story.

Still, I found it hilariously entertaining to watch. There were some spectacularly funny plot twists at the end (with no buildup or logic to them at all). If you are looking for a film to kill time and laugh at with your family and friends, give it a shot.

Certainly not a high end movie, but quite watchable as far as I'm concerned. I purchased this for a whole $3.88 at Walmart so my expectations weren't that high, but it entertained us for and evening and it was a lot better than some of the stuff that I might have found channel surfing. Some movie snobs might scoff at this but I felt like it was better than a multi-million dollar movie that uses tons of special effects, but has nothing else. This movie reminded me of the kinda shows I saw at the theater when I was a kid when they showed free movies during the holiday season. It brought back those feelings and I liked it!

Over several years of looking for half-decent films to rent for my kids, I've developed a sixth-sense for spotting the really cheesy, direct-to-video efforts that are really painful to sit through (for anyone over the age of eight). I dropped the ball on this one and the kids spent half the movie asking me "what did she say that for?" and "why did he do that?" and my eyes got sore from rolling them every minute or so as characters did a really bad job of introducing seemingly random plot changes. And the next time someone decides that having absolutely no skill with a sword is simply "bringing realism" to a film, please run them through with a dull butter knife. "Prehysteria!" was head and shoulders above this. Arrgh.

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest- ...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Drink and the devil had done for the rest- ...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" " Ernest Borgnine as Ben Quinn lures you into this overacted after-school special.

A treasure reported off of Sawtooth Island lured many to their death. Due to fortune/misfortune Danny Quinn, Smokey Jeanne (19year old Brennan Hesser,) and friends armed with a map and legions take up the quest where his past away father left off.

Danny and friends overcome the various obstacles and decipher the marabouts of a lost treasure? Or did the treasure ever really exist?