A boy, a treasure map, a scurvy seadog eager to claim the booty ? filmmaker Fraser C. Heston brings the familiar elements of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure to movie life with a rousing emphasis on period detail and pirate parlance. Christian Bale, two years following his Empire of the Sun movie debut and 20 years before winning the Academy Award?* for The Fighter, plays impressionable hero-in-the-making Jim Dawkins. Oscar? winner* Charlton Heston, giving the role grit and gristle not seen in prior adaptations, is the one-legged cutthroat Long John Silver. Cross him and risk seeing the color of your insides. Yet that course of action is exactly what duty-bound Jim must do. Steel your courage, good mates, and let nary a secret slip. You're about to enter a realm where "dead men tell no tales."
* Bale ? Best Supporting Actor (2010), Heston ? 1959: Best Actor for Ben-Hur.