Just perfect...

A different way of telling a story

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Talking to a family friend about movies that he had watched during the Christmas period,I got told about a family film that he had recently tracked down,which was an adaptation of a huge adventure series of children's books by Robert Arthur, Jr.Being keen to start my movie viewing year off in an easy-going manner,I felt that it would be a good time to meet The Three Investigators.The plot:After successfully solving an art forgery case,young investigating team Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw & Bob Andrews decided to pay a visit to a island in Africa,where one of the investigators dads is designing a theme park to be built on the island.Reading up on the history of the island,the gang discover that the island is meant to be cursed,due to there being some legendary treasure buried deep within it.digging around for details on the inhibitions of the island,the gang soon discover that mythical curses are not the only thing that they are up against.View on the film:Directed in a slick, brisk manner by Florian Baxmeyer,the screenplay by David Howard, Ronald Kruschak, Philip LaZebnik and Thomas Oliver Walendy transfer Robert Arthur's outdoor Adventure US novel to a hi-tech African jungle.Whilst the screenplay sadly fails to give any of the gang strong personalities,the writers do very well at capturing the spirit of the book,by mixing high-octane thrills (sky gliding!) with cave-searching mystery chills,with the writers also finding space to include a sweet message on anti- apartheid.Joined by a likable trio of kids,Langley Kirkwood gives a deliciously cheeky performance as Tom Farraday. Initially appearing to be rather charming,Kirkwood soon shows that in Farraday,The Three Investigators may have met their match.

Director Mr Florian Baxmeyer portrayed the Book of Robert Arthur successfully on this Movie.Screenplay was nice written by David Howard.I'm a big Fan of "Three Investigators" Book series. In our country this series recognized by Rakib Hasan. We called it " Tin Goyenda - Kongkal Deep" On this movie acting of 1st Investigator was brilliant, also others did great too. Music was just great. They used some rural songs of South African territories. We didn't saw any Special effects on this Movie. No horror & nudity. 100% for kids and Family Movie. Personally i want's to say Casting wasn't good enough. Three investigators weren't brave although it was described in book they were very brave. Dialogue wasn't good enough. I wanted more thrilling scenes on this movie, I had expected more from this movie. I can say , it was nice try. We expected more adventures from movie. We didn't found nothing ! For a tight budget movie crews were did great. Thanks for their efforts on this movie. Sorry, 5 out of 10!

I'm a huge fan of the original book series so I was very enthusiastic about seeing this movie, which I finally saw in the form of an English-dubbed version online. Even as a kid in the 1960s I fervently wished these books would be made into movies, and I finally got my wish, though I had to wait over four decades to that to happen. To summarize my impressions of this movie, I thought it was fairly good, but throughout I kept wondering when specific scenes and events would happen, but they never did, although some of the details were quite accurate. The plot is so different from the original book's plot that it was difficult for me to enjoy the story. After all, a plot is the essence of any story, so to alter the entire foundation of a very popular book is to invite failure, which in fact seems to be what resulted, since the filmmakers didn't even recoup their investment yet, from what I read, and old fans are generally coming away disappointed.Some of the more memorable events for me in the original book were the skull talking to the boys in the cave, the boy Chris Markos being trapped in an underwater cave by a freak accident, finding gold doubloons hidden in a blow hole, Jupiter catching a cold, Pete waking up and not recognizing right away where he was, crowds of treasure hunters flocking to the island, and Tom and Chris and the Ballingers fighting at the end over the various frames to cover up an old hold-up. None of that existed in the film.In the book plot, a film was being made on the island, and the boys were invited there by Alfred Hitchcock to be filmed while scuba diving, but in the movie, an amusement park was being built on the island, and the boys were there by invitation by Mr. Crenshaw, Pete's father. In the movie the setting was changed from the southeast coast ("Atlantic Bay") of the USA to South Africa, and the Greek boy Chris was replaced by an African girl Chris. There were no underwater scenes at all, to my disappointment. The movie climax involved a hang gliding chase where Victor Hugenay uncharacteristically tries to kill the boys chasing him. African racial issues were also fairly prominent in the movie, such as it being dangerous for white boys to enter a black township, which was a little too much realism that killed the innocent and charming character of the book series, for my taste.However, I believe the filmmakers expertly meshed the different world of the 1960s with the world of the 2000s by not introducing too much high tech equipment, they kept foul language toned down to innocent levels, and they thankfully avoided any flatulence humor. They also kept the essential sense of adventure intact with the presence of a large uninhabited island that contained caves, both of which are guaranteed to fire any boy's imagination. The youthful romance was kept innocent, as well.The details that were kept fairly accurate were the Jones Salvage Yard and the secret gate to headquarters and headquarters itself (though it contained a modern plastic chair), the Investigators' business card (though it contained the acronym "T3I" that wasn't in the book), Jupiter's pensive gesture (though that consisted of fingers under his mouth instead of pinching his lip), all of which were delightful to see. The film character of Jupiter was appropriately cool-headed, formal, and intellectual to be convincing to me, though not chubby as in the book. The ages of the boys in the film seemed a little young to me, but still quite convincing since if they were any closer to puberty they would have had a different view of the world, likely a different set of interests, and people in general would react to them differently.Miscellaneous observations... The romantic angle was interesting since such an angle was never present in any of the books. Even boys of ten would be starting to become interested in girls, so that was realistic enough for my taste, even if not true to the books. As others noted, the theme music had a James Bond theme sound due to its half-step melodic sections, which I thought fit well since it related to action and investigation without being too much of a ripoff of Bond film music. The references to presumably upcoming adventures (a stuttering parrot in the salvage yard, Jupiter calculating jelly bean volumes, and Jupiter mentioning a haunted castle) were all delightful. I'm a little disappointed that whiz kid Jupiter would erroneously assume that Gamba was the entity being confined to Miss Wilbur's room, a risky assumption I detected right away. The itching powder gun was very cool but unrealistic in several ways. At least the plot's twists and deceptions of the characters were true to Robert Arthur's style, which was true to the style of the old books.I'm enough of a fan to keep watching upcoming Three Investigator movies, no matter how bad they become, but sadly, after four decades, I *still* find myself wanting to see the books converted to film *accurately*, not like this.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch 'The Secret of Skeleton Island'. To keep it simple: I liked the movie. Nonetheless, the movie is obviously made for a family audience, kids, younger teens. As Wikipedia says 'The Three Investigators' are a juvenile detective book series, good mystery books for kids/teens. The movie tries to be the same. In my opinion they succeed even though the changes are more than obvious. 'The Secret of Skeleton Island' as a book is up to 5 percent in the movie. 95 percent are modernized, relocated etc. For those you know and love the books (or tapes): you will not be bored because you don't know the story. The question is: is it a good thing? What was changed? The movie has plenty of humor. It is funny, yes, but do we want to remember 'Home Alone' by seeing 'The Secret of Skeleton Island'? Bob seems to know more than Jupiter. That is odd. The investigators are younger than expected. Yet, filming several movies will let them grow into it. The location of the movie is South Africa. Quiet interesting. It enriches the movie. The 4th kid is a girl. That's OK if you forget the puberty scenes. What was good about it? As I already said. South Africa was a good choice even if the topic eventually comes to the different races. Jupiter appears to be a little Sherlock Holmes (just a little bit) and mentally grown-up. I liked the popping up of hints. Hints towards other cases, e.g. 'The Stuttering Parrot' or 'Terror Castle'. From the beginning of the movie you have the impression of other movies: - James Bond (music, starting scene), - Indiana Jones (cave). The only thing I still can't answer myself: are the changes good and do I want it similar in 'Terror Castle' or more like the book?