Happy Thursday everybody! I’m going to hit two birds with one stone again this time by combining two series in one. Surely you don’t mind that right? 🙂
Ok, so let’s start with some of my favorite posts from the past couple of weeks:
It seems that Jonathan Glazer‘s indie sci-fi which stars Scarlett Johansson as an alien with a penchant for Scottish men have captivated many. I’d say this alien has a great taste in men, ahah. Check out Sati‘s and Andrew‘s ‘hit me with your best shot’ posts on Under the Skin.
…- There have been some fun blogathons circling the blogosphere so far! There’s one from the King of Blog Series Nostra: Six Degrees of Separation and Wendell: Against The Crowd Blogathon which asks participants to list movies they love that others don’t and vice versa.
… - Ckckred asks what people think of the use of voice overs in films.
… - After being sidelined by the mammoth event that was the World Cup, avid soccer/football/futbol/futebol fan Niels finally had time to catch up with some movies and posted his one-sentence review of a bunch of them!
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As far as classic movies go, be sure to check out Josh‘s picks for the 1941 CinSpec Award and Steven‘s review of Bonjour Tristesse (1958). Meanwhile, Dan reviewed a coming-of-age classic Stand By Me (1986), whilst Eric just saw the first Karate Kid movie from 1984, which some people might call a classic 🙂
…- This is a very cool series by Michael that you should check out if you haven’t already: Same Song, Different Movie – this time it’s This Must be the Place.
… - Fernando‘s been on a list roll lately. Check out his latest one on top 10 actors he’d see in pretty much anything.
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- Now last but not least, both Ryan and Joseph are excited for TIFF 2014, and rightly so! Check out the film fest line-ups they’ve posted and prepare to drool away! 😉
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Now for this week’s Music Break!
Boy it’s been ages since I posted on Opening Title Sequence. I just stumbled upon an old list I made four years ago on 10 of my favorites, and I immediately thought of the one for Black Sails! When I caught up on the Starz pirate show extravaganza earlier this month, I was blown away by how awesome the opening title is [well aside from Toby Stephens‘ Captain Flint of course] 😉
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The Art of the Title site has an extensive behind-the-scenes look of the making of this spectacular work using real-life sculptures designed by Imaginary Forces. Combined with the rousing score by Bear McCreary, who also did the amazing score for the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica), this opening title is quite a masterpiece! Both the opening title AND the score have deservedly been nominated for Emmy Awards this year, woo hooo!
I LOVE this video of McCreary explaining how he envisioned the theme that’d fit the gritty world of piracy, not the cliched and romanticized version of pirates you’ve seen before. It also shows the making of the score in multiple recording sessions. This is the first time I’ve even seen a Hurdy Gurdy. WOW, now THAT’s creativity, well done Mr. McCreary!
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I also found a couple of great Flint-centric fan videos featuring fantastic music by composer Mark Petrie who’s done a bunch of TV work. OperaGhost, whoever and wherever you are, THANK YOU for these awesome videos, hope you continue making them!
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Hope you enjoy this music break!
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
Great breakdown of the Black Sails theme. I love love love that show and I love the opening credits even more. Great music.
Hello there Nick! Oh you love Black Sails too? Glad to hear! I LOVE that show too, and I’ve been obsessing over Toby Stephens who’s fantastic as Flint. The opening title & music are out of this world, perhaps one of the best EVER, not just from this year!
Thanks for the shout-out and linkage, Ruth. Great spotlight on Black Sails — always enjoy the work of Art of the Title. Toby Stephens is an intriguing actor in looks and demeanor. I still have to get to The Machine!
We both always have music on our minds don’t we? I always love your innovative series, Michael!
“Toby Stephens is an intriguing actor in looks and demeanor” Indeed he is! He’s fantastic in virtually everything he does, including The Machine 🙂
Awesome, Ruth! Thanks for the linkage!
Pleasure! Hey do you watch Black Sails Dan?
Thank you for the link! This is a great theme! It’s so cool your guy does TV series – several episode of eye candy always wins with a movie. Unless of course he is in 10 minutes of the season….(stupid GoT showrunners)
My pleasure! Yeah I’m happy Toby got this gig, though he’s not in as many scenes as I like despite being the lead. But I shouldn’t complain considering how underused your Dillane is in GoT. It’s criminal that they do that to great actors, whilst giving screen time to younger and perhaps more popular actors. Well I hope he gets his own show like Michael Sheen y’know, for the longest time he’s always playing second banana!
He is a co-lead in The Tunnel, I really hope they’ll do the second season, though the longer there is silence around a show or a movie, the less likely it looks
I really need to start watching Michael’s show, I adore him and I have so little time I’m down to one movie a week 
Oh right I remember now. Well I sure hope the second season will happen! Boy he’s quite busy then splitting his time between that and GoT, I wonder if that’s why he doesn’t have many scenes then? Yeah, too many shows too little time as it is 😦
Oh no, he shoots GoT for maybe 2 weeks tops, does a bit of theater and then, well, he vanishes :). Though lately he rides the train to London, apparently, but more on that in my tonight’s RF 🙂
Ah I see, no excuse for the GoT folks then. I love that he does so many different forms of acting… TV, movies, theater, that’s what a TRUE actor is to me, when they could handle all the different formats. So he doesn’t live in London? I love that he takes public transportation like Toby who rides the Tubes all the time, he’s just *one of the guys* who happen to act for a living 😉 Ooooh, can’t wait for your RF, I always look forward to that every week!
He actually was a journalist and began acting after college 🙂 I think he just wants to act and doesn’t like to promote stuff, I have no idea where he lives, he might as well be living in abandoned lighthouse, he is so private 🙂
It’s a miracle…some lunatic…didn’t jump them in those trains…
yet….
😉
WOW, he was a journalist??! I’m always impressed by actors who didn’t do proper training but somehow could be better than those who did. He seems even more private than Toby then, well actually Toby tends to over-share stuff when he does interview, telling them the exact street he lives in and stuff. But he’s not in the public eye very often.
Ahah well he’s lucky that you don’t live in the UK then or he won’t be safe 😉
Hell I don’t even know if he is married, he does wear a wedding ring in a lot of his roles, though. His son played teenage Voldemort in one of HP movies lately his friend tweeted him that he saw his father having sex on the table in GoT and they were like ‘gross’ and I was thinking ‘son I’d be hitting on your dad so fast and not even noticing you’ 😀 #messedup4life 🙂
Thanks for the shout, Ruth :).
You’re welcome Joseph!
Grea post, Ruth! Thanks for the mention.
That Black Sails intro is very cool. I LOVE the opening credits and song for True Detective, and the score in Sherlock!
Pleasure Fernando! Yeah Black Sails score is really unique, I’m so impressed w/ McCreary’s innovative style. Oh you’re right, Sherlock does have a cool opening sequence and music, very stylish!
Thanks so much for the link, Ruth!
My pleasure Eric!
Always love your posts and recommendations. Yes, to Black Sails! No wonder you have a crush on Toby Stephens. What a perfect Captain Flint. 🙂
Hey Cindy! I think you’d enjoy Black Sails, it’s quite well-written and has quite a lot of dialog, of course I avert my eyes from all the nudity & bloody sequences. Yes Toby is extraordinary, he’s never boring that’s for sure! He’s perfect as anything really, including Capt. Flint 😀
One of my current favorite TV shows is The Walking Dead and I LOVE its opening title:
It’s creepy and fits the mood the show perfectly, it always gives me goosebumps.
Wow that is cool! Opening titles have been more and more creative these days. I still think the Black Sails one is very imaginative that they went with something 3D w/ those sculptures, I mean this Walking Dead one is great of course but it’s not as innovative.
You just had to find a Toby Stephens link there didn’t you! Ha ha!
Of course! 😉 But can you blame me? He’s a terrific actor & criminally under-appreciated!
I’ve never even heard of Black Sails to be honest, looks pretty cool though!
You’ve never heard of Black Sails??! Clearly you haven’t been around my blog in a while 😉 It’s a great show Chris, definitely worth a look. It’s not a cliched pirate show, no peg leg/parrot/eye patch in sight!
Really didn’t like Under The Skin. I thought it was boring and pretentious. Scarlett wasn’t bad though.
Haven’t seen Black Sails, but these videos intrigued me, so I might have to hunt the show down and give it a watch!!
Oy, boring and pretentious? Hmmm that can’t be good. I’m still curious to check it out but w/ neutral expectations, ha!
You should give Black Sails a shot Rodney! It’s really gritty and well-written, fantastic performance by Toby Stephens as Captain Flint too, of course 😉
Haven’t even heard of Black Sails, but the documentary of how the music is meant to sound has my interest piqued.
And Under the Skin. Wow.
Ha..ha.. it must’ve been a while since we met Josh, or you WOULD have heard of Black Sails 😉 I’ve been obsessing over Toby Stephens who plays Capt Flint here, who’s absolutely captivating (as he always is in every role).
So you’ve seen Under the Skin? I’ll be over to check if you’ve got new reviews up 🙂
I don’t have them advertised yet, but they are posted – if you’re engineering enough, you can find it in my indexes. But I’m waiting to post that they exist until I see one more movie (probably Dom Hemmingway from iTunes or maybe Locke if they have that one for rent yet). So far I’ve only seen Under the Skin and the new Planes flick.
You know … Now that you mention it, I think I remember you mentioning Black Sail. I had just forgotten what it was called, apparently. 🙂
Hey Josh, well Black Sails is now on iTunes, definitely worth checking out. And I’m not just saying that because of Toby tho he’s truly the best actor of the whole lot 😉
Btw, can you send me the link to your latest reviews?
I’ll look into Black Sails soon, then!
And sure. Why not? I didn’t have all that much to say about either. Planes comes in under 200 words. Under the Skin, despite how much I liked it, comes in under 300.
http://jjamesreviews.wordpress.com/the-reviews/2014-2/by-letter-grade-2014/planes-fire-and-rescue/
http://jjamesreviews.wordpress.com/the-reviews/2014-2/by-letter-grade-2014/under-the-skin/
Cool, I’ll check ’em out tonight or tomorrow as soon as I get a chance.
Thanks again for the link Ruth!
Black Sails looked interesting from the trailer, but I haven’t watched any of it. I might check it out at some point, as I like pirate-themed stories.
My pleasure!
Oh if you like pirate stories, the authentic one not the silly, cliched versions like in Pirates of the Caribbean, then do check out Black Sails. I like the political/economic intrigue of the golden age of piracy, it’s quite relevant to today’s business/politics in terms of survival of the fittest, where the ship captain is like a CEO of a corporation. Of course the setting in such a lawless era makes it all the more intriguing.
Nice excited to hear about all the TIFF movies and looking forward to reading the reviews. So jealous I want to go to that! Still working on Black Sails, much to my husband’s dismay, but hopefully going to finish that soon. You are right that opening song is great.
Hello there Queen Mel! If only I could go to TIFF again, I always remember that place as the time I met Gerry Butler. He was my biggest crush back then as you know 😉 Oh so you haven’t finished Black Sails yet? Glad your hubby is into that too, yay!! LOVE Toby as Capt. Flint, amazing that he could be as convincing in that role as he is playing Rochester, he really is a chameleon!
Oh my was he hunkier in real life?! What made you stop liking him? Or are you just not that into him anymore. 2 more episodes and I done with Sails. Yes my husband loves it, while I was away at Comic Con he finished the whole season without me, so now I am playing catch up. Luckily he is just as crazy as all of us and likes to rewatch them. Yes he is good, I swear every time he talks I just think of the Dowager.
Well I was expecting him to be much darker, y’know like in the Phantom of the Opera. But he’s pretty hunky yeah, and tall too. I blogged about my *encounter* here: http://wp.me/pxXPC-5q I was such a moron as my brain sort of shut off when I saw him, ahah, as you’ll see in my detailed recap 😛 I stopped liking him as he picks the most idiotic projects. I think the last straw was the rom-com Playing For Keeps, which was terrible IMO. I mean I like rom-coms in general but it was so badly-written and cliched that I finally had to write a farewell letter to him.
Yay! LOVE that you & your hubby are loving Black Sails. I normally wouldn’t be into such shows but man it’s so well-made and of course Toby is soooo good! I also love some of the supporting characters, esp Mrs Barlow and John Silver. Ha..ha.. Toby’s said that his mum probably won’t be into Black Sails, can you just imagine Dame Maggie grimacing every second… she wouldn’t last even 5 minutes watching that show LOL!
Oh yes I will check out that recap, I need to see that! Yes those rom-coms are horrible. He needs to go back to doing those Rocknrolla type roles. Goodbye Gerard it was nice while it lasted. 😉
Oh yes grimacing and shuddering at it I am sure. I honestly saw some crazy stuff the other night and I thought I don’t know how Ruth got through this since I know you don’t like violent stuff. Anything for Toby!
I’d love to hear what you think of my crazy fan-girling moment. I seriously don’t know what I would do if I meet Toby, I probably just drop to the floor & faint [SOL] From some of the pics I saw Toby w/ his fans he always look sooooo good!
YES I love love GB in Rocknrolla! He’s great in comedies, esp edgy British comedies like that. LOVE the pairing w/ Idris Elba too, two super hunky dudes!
Which episode was that? I remember the scenes when that guy’s leg was trapped under the boat was too much, but I think the part when Capt. Zane beat up those guys from the brothel was worse! I kept my eyes closed the whole time, ducking under my blanket, ahah. Thankfully the most violent stuff w/ Capt. Flint was in the first episode. I sure hope they tone it down in season 2 but I doubt it. Most people love all that gore except me 😦
If you saw Toby omg they will need to have an ambulance waiting on the side to provide oxygen. A whole tank may be needed for that one! LOL!!! You would SOL and FIRL (Faint in real life). For sure that would all go down.
The one I was thinking about was when they raided that ship, it has a weird name the one with the slaves under it. The little nerd accounting guy who never had fought before, basically bit someone to death. It was absolutely disgusting. Sort of like Toby did in the beginning. AHHH!!!!!! That was seriously gross.
Mwahahaha, yeah I think even the entire hospital couldn’t help me! But in all seriousness, I’d LOVE to meet him and actually strike a conversation with him y’know, he seems like someone who’s lovely to talk to. I’ve chatted a few fans who’ve met him and they said he’s an English gentleman and he has such a vast vocabulary. Plus his accent would be so dreamy, it’d be a shame if I fainted and not be able to hear him in person 😛
Oooh THAT scene. Yeah my goodness, that guy bit another guy’s throat like some crazy vampire!! Even Billy Bones was like, ‘what did you do??!’ It was super gross indeed. But I guess they’re right when they said they weren’t glamorizing these pirates!
Awww just read it!! Well at least he was nice and not a jerk. I seriously hate when your image of someone is ruined. Oh how fun! Jerry can I shake your hand? Jerry do you want to come over my house? Jerry can I offer you some wine? Jerry can I help you take off your shirt? LOL!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I’m always grateful that Gerry didn’t pull his hand and curse at me or something, ahah. It helps that I’m tiny [I’m only a little over 5’2″] so he probably thought, what in the world is this Asian chick trying to do?? LOL! I wish I had the guts to ask him to take his shirt off!! He’s starting to train for 300 at the time so I’m sure he’s already pretty buff 😛
I haven’t entirely given up on him to be honest… I mean I’ve liked him for sooo long, almost 6 yrs, so sometimes I still check what he’s working on tho sadly nothing that’d change my mind about him yet 😦 Fortunately Toby is the opposite of him in terms of choosing projects, plus he’s just a much more talented & committed actor.
I am sure every woman there would have appreciated if you has asked about his shirt. Oh yes he got totally ripped for that. I agree I like him too, I would just like to see him in good movies. Not stupid corny movies or action movies that are pretty pointless, but just good old gritty roles. I think that is what he does best because he actually is a good actor. But Toby yes that is a whole different kind of dude. 🙂
Ha..ha.. yeah I’m sure all the girls there would’ve been ‘yeah GB, show us the result of all your gym training!’ 😉
Well his next movie is Gods of Egypt which doesn’t look good at all, he’s starring w/ Jaime Lannister aka Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau so I’m sure all the girls will flock to see it no matter the quality, ahah.
Yep, Toby’s ruined it for other actors for me. He’s just fantabulous in every way 😛
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