Treasure Island on MGM+

 

‘Treasure Island’ Review: David Oyelowo and Hayley Atwell Can Only Breathe So Much Life Into MGM+’s Handsome but Undercooked Pirate Adventure

(by Angie Hann hollywoodreporter.com 10-10-26)

You cannot fault Treasure Island, MGM+’s new take on the Robert Louis Stevenson classic, for a lack of effort. Where some adaptations of beloved literary works might be content to recreate the source material beat for beat, creator Robert Murphy reimagines it wholesale.

Characters and plot elements are mixed and matched with abandon. Themes of subjugation and rebellion are brought to the forefront, while real historical events like the Haitian Revolution play out in the background.

The main cast is strong (David Oyelowo, playing the famed pirate Long John Silver, proves particularly adept at doing a lot with a little) and the detailed settings appealingly solid. In its intention to dazzle you with swashbuckling thrills in the moment, and leave you with deeper ideas to chew on in the aftermath, Treasure Island shows admirable ambition. It’s the execution, flat and repetitive and ultimately rather dreary, that lets it down.

It takes a while to reveal its shortcomings, however. Initially, there’s plenty to be intrigued by. Our hero to come of age is Jim Hawkins (Tom Sweet), a sweet-natured fellow with the height of a man, the acne-spotted cheeks of a teenager, the wide-eyed innocence of a boy and, most importantly to the plot, the eidetic memory of almost no one of any age. Jim and his widowed mother, Bess (Hayley Atwell), are barely scraping by running a bustling tavern, even with the occasional extra coin they pull in by having drunkards bet on Jim’s gift for perfect recall.

Then hopes of a better life suddenly wash up ashore in the form of Billy Bones (The Boys’ Tomer Capone), a shipwrecked pirate telling a wild tale of buried treasure and toting the cryptic map to prove it. Unfortunately for Billy but fortunately, in theory, for Treasure Island’s ability to craft a rip-roaring adventure, he’s not the only one after this legendary trove. As Jim and Bess race to the Caribbean on a ship chartered by a wealthy merchant, Graham (Jack Huston), they find themselves unwelcomely accompanied by Long John Silver, who was none too pleased when his former crewmate Billy absconded with that map.

The first few of Treasure Island‘s six hour-long chapters manage to stay afloat thanks to some helpful assets. One is that it is generally quite handsome, in a polished if not especially inventive way. From baroque European manors to endless blue seas to overgrown jungles, the world looks expansive and lived-in — no small thing at a time when big series like this so often look overrun with green screen. It’s easy to want to keep looking at this show.

More crucially, it benefits from a few performers capable of popping through the screen on sheer power of their charisma. The most compelling figure is Long John Silver, whose every glare or sneer or smirk Oyelowo imbues with a whole spectrum of feeling — the fury of a formerly enslaved man who’s had to fight tooth and nail for every scrap he’s ever gotten, the icy calculation of one clever and tough enough to have won all those battles, the flashes of decency still buried somewhere deep within.

The most fun is Bess, a scheming single mom whose ability to manipulate lovelorn men is akin to a superpower. Atwell makes her slyly funny and unapologetically mercenary — I laughed at how little she bothers to hide her delight when Huston’s Graham speaks of being lonely after his wife’s passing — and she’s never more appealing than when she’s paired with Capone, who gives off his own louche pan-Continental sex appeal. When they’re talking low and close, Treasure Island flirts with transitioning, incongruously but amusingly, into an overheated bodice-ripper.

Atwell and Oyelowo are working so hard, in fact, that it’s initially easy to overlook how thin the writing really is. The dynamics between the characters are complicated in the sense that they’re nearly all informed by ulterior motives and mutable loyalties. Everyone’s forever making false promises, or planning mutinies, or framing one another for murder, such that keeping up with their crisscrossing alliances becomes a head-spinning challenge. Emotionally, however, the experience feels empty, not least because most of these characters are defined and driven only by their desire for gold. You might as well be watching computers outwit each other at chess.

Once again, the flatness does not entirely seem to be for lack of trying. Treasure Island likes and understands Bess well enough to give her a chance to explain that, as a woman in a man’s world, “I am all I have to trade” — can you blame her for deploying her feminine wiles to get ahead? It’s curious enough about Silver to grant Oyelowo a brief but bitter monologue recounting his youth spent in bondage, and all the horrors he endured therein — the pirate-infested seas may be “no place for an honest man,” but doesn’t it contain a few antiheroes worth rooting for anyway?

But then, having raised these ideas, Treasure Island simply leaves them hanging in the air, unconnected to much of anything else. They’re serious but simplistic motivations, and ones all the harder to trust because when everyone is so duplicitous it’s nearly impossible to tell if anyone means anything they’re saying.

Even the one clearly earnest bond in the ensemble, between Bess and Jim, lacks a meaningful sense of history or nuance — I couldn’t begin to guess how such a cunning woman raised such a naïve kid, or what lessons he’s learned or rejected under her guidance. While it doesn’t help that young Sweet is outmatched by his more experienced costars, it’s hard to place the blame on him when there’s such scant evidence of depth anywhere else either. When the parent-child bond is fractured, the show barely bothers to give Jim a moment of reflection or regret before it simply barrels ahead to the next plot point.

In the series’ defense, those plot points involve objectively exciting things like an armed revolution, an aristocratic dinner party, a trek through the jungle, an active volcano and more guns held to temples and knives held to throats than any human could reasonably be expected to keep track of. (Not much graphic violence, though, give or take an upsetting shot of a murdered cat.) You can see why Jim and his companions would want to rush headlong toward them.

It’s just that in the absence of any reason to care all that much about the fates of these characters, even a raucous bar fight or a daring escape turns out to be a slog. If it’s a cliché that the real treasure is the friends we made along the way, it’s one Treasure Island proves true via the negative: Without anyone to feel for, even the most glittering cache of ill-gotten jewels might be rendered dull and mundane.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/treasure-island-review-david-oyelowo-hayley-atwell-mgm-plus-1236726456/

The Box Office Juggernaut That Almost Made Zoe Saldana Quit Acting

(by Devin Meenan slashfilm.com 12-28-24)

Zoe Saldaña is one of our best blockbuster actresses — and she's got the receipts to prove it. In the last decade plus, she's played Uhura in the rebooted "Star Trek" films, Neytiri in James Cameron's "Avatar," and Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. No matter how natural or made-up her character appears, she brings her A-game. (No wonder she was disappointed that her "Avatar" part felt overlooked.)

Her first blockbuster was "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," which unexpectedly turned one of Disney's most famous theme park rides into a successful movie. Saldaña plays Anamaria, a supporting character and a member of the pirate crew recruited by Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) on Tortuga. Anamaria introduces herself by slapping Captain Sparrow and yelling that he previously stole her ship, which he amends to "borrowed without permission." (For all we know, Anamaria's boat could be the sinking one we first saw Jack ride into Port Royal on.) 

Despite that, Anamaria is the one who pronounces Jack as captain of the Black Pearl in the film's final scene — and that's the last we saw of her. Sequel "Dead Man's Chest" got most of the original cast back (Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbossa even returned from the dead), but not Saldaña. Why?

Saldaña has said several times that she did not enjoy making "Pirates of the Caribbean" and so she was uninterested in going through that experience again. Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter in 2014, she explained: 

"Those weren't the right people for me [on the 'Pirates' set]. I'm not talking about the cast. The cast was great. I'm talking about the political stuff that went on behind closed doors. It was a lot of above-the-line versus below-the-line, extras versus actors, producers versus PAs. It was very elitist. I almost quit the business. I was 23 years old, and I was like, "F— this!" I am never putting myself in this situation again. People disrespecting me because they look at my number on a call sheet and they think I'm not important.

She recently credited her next movie, Steven Spielberg's 2004 comedy "The Terminal," as the experience that convinced her not to quit Hollywood. "If the studio and the producers and the director, they're not leading with kindness and awareness and consideration, then that big of a production can become a really bad experience and you may tip overboard. And I kind of did," Saldaña explained to Variety. "I worked with Steven Spielberg eight months later, and he restored my faith that big can also be great."

Saldaña hasn't changed her opinion in the 10 years since that Hollywood Reporter interview, but in more recent ones, she seems a little more measured talking about "Pirates." In a 2022 interview with Entertainment Weekly, she put less emphasis on the "elitist" atmosphere and more on it being a set with lots of moving pieces, where an inexperienced actor like her struggled to keep up.

"It was my first exposure to a major Hollywood mega movie, where there were just so many actors and so many producers and so many crew members. We were shooting in different locations, and the environments were not that agreeable, sometimes, to our shoot days. I was very young, and it was just a little too big for me, and the pace of it was a little too fast."

One reason for Saldaña's anger cooling might be because "Pirates" producer Jerry Bruckheimer reached out to her and apologized for her negative experience. Saldaña said (in a BBC interview) that Bruckheimer's apology "felt really quite honorable" to her. In a Buzzfeed UK interview, she spoke even more fondly about "Curse of the Black Pearl" — "What a great movie. It was all around such a diverse cast as well, all ages, all walks of life, but a hard production. It was just so big! It was too big of a machine for me, and it was too out of control."

Saldaña was, again, the only "Pirates" star so put off by the shoot that she didn't return. That said, other accounts support her claims that it was a chaotic set. The film was shot over five months (October 2002 to March 2003) between sets in Los Angeles and on location in the Caribbean island country Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Michael Eisner, the then CEO of Disney, did not have faith in the project either, so that meant inconsistent support from up top.

Speaking to Collider in 2021, "Pirates" director Gore Verbinski indicated that the chaos only increased during the simultaneous shoots of "Dead Man's Chest" and "At World's End."

"After ['Curse of the Black Pearl'] was successful, 'Pirates 2' and '3 start' to fall into the 'release date-driven experience'. There's a calendar and dates and "we need two more of these babies. How soon can you do it?" So you don't have scripts and you're making a movie to a release date."

If Saldaña couldn't stand how "big" the first "Pirates" shoot was, I can't imagine she would've been happy shooting the second and third. I am happy, though, that she stuck around in Hollywood despite the bad first impression.

https://www.slashfilm.com/1744909/zoe-saldana-almost-quit-acting-box-office-hit-pirates-of-the-caribbean/

Flying Colors

When you ace a difficult exam, your teacher says you passed with "flying colors." This phrase comes from the ultimate display of naval victory! In naval combat, the universal sign of surrender was physically lowering your ship's flag (striking your colors). If a ship survived a brutal battle and returned to its home port with its flags still raised and fluttering in the wind, it was a massive statement of victory. Despite having a shredded hull and broken masts, returning with "flying colors" meant they had faced the ultimate test of survival and won!

The Mainstay

When a person is the absolute most reliable, supportive member of a team or a family, they are called the "mainstay." This is a purely architectural naval term! On a massive sailing galleon, the tallest and heaviest wooden pole was the mainmast. To keep this massive mast from snapping and falling backward during a violent hurricane, it was supported by a single, incredibly thick diagonal hemp rope known as the "main-stay." If the mainstay snapped, the entire ship would physically collapse. Because it was the ultimate source of support, the word evolved to describe highly dependable humans!

Fan made Jaws poster - artwork by Paul Mann

Paul Mann official website

 

Palm tree on island wallpaper

Feel free to use this palm tree image as your phone's wallpaper if you like. I usually try to stay away from the AI artwork that you see all over the place now, especially on Instagram. But I guess staying away from it is like trying to keep the ocean back with a broom, it's just impossible. If you like palm trees like I do though, this is a fun wallpaper.

 

Davy Jones fan art - before the days of AI

 

Will and Elizabeth AI fan art

 

Jack Sparrow AI fan art

 

The perfect library

 

Sparrow artwork

 

Lucky guy

 

Sail GP

If you are in need of a sailing fix, Sail GP is pretty fun to watch.

All the videos they have on YouTube will come in handy this winter when I need some sailing to take me away.

Sail GP home page

US Sail GP Team home page

HMS Bounty by John Steven Dews

(from artnet.com)

The famed HMS Bounty is the subject of this monumental oil on canvas by accomplished marine painter John Steven Dews. The small merchant vessel of the Royal Navy was made famous in 1789 when its disaffected crew mutinied while at sea. With his incomparable eye for detail, Dews captures the drama of this historic moment in this extraordinary composition.

The mutiny of the HMS Bounty occurred in the waters of the South Pacific outside of Tahiti on April 28, 1789. The ship was acquired by the Royal Navy in order to transport plants from Tahiti to the West Indies on an expedition promoted by the Royal Society. Command of the journey had been given to Lieutenant William Bligh, an oppressive leader who was known as a harsh and cruel taskmaster. The crew arrived in Tahiti in October of 1788 and enjoyed an idyllic stay for months on the island. Perhaps the hospitality of the Tahitians only served to highlight the harshness of life at sea and the tyrannical nature of their commander - just 24 days after departing Tahiti, the crewmen seized the ship and set Captain Bligh adrift with 18 of his loyal supporters.

In HMS Bounty, Dews captures the moment of mutiny when Bligh is cast out in an overcrowded boat in the middle of the Pacific. With his deft eye for detail, the artist depicts the mutineers with their guns and swords raised on deck, while others toss the Tahitian tree saplings from the rear of the ship. Despite all imaginable odds, Bligh and his loyal crew survived their banishment, rowing almost 4,000 miles to Timor in the East Indies. The mutineers eventually reached Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific in 1790, and it is there where the HMS Bounty disappeared.

Overall, the work reveals Dews' ability to capture both the majesty of ships at sea and a compelling narrative. The artist has gained critical acclaim for his incredible maritime scenes. Born in Yorkshire in 1949, Dews learned his trade at the Hull Regional College of Art after being turned down as a candidate at numerous naval academies. He turned to art to express his love for the sea, eventually building a sizable enough portfolio to mount his first exhibition in 1976. An astounding success, nearly the entire collection was sold on opening night, and Dews received 17 new commissions. Ever since his blockbuster opening, Dews has enjoyed remarkable success and critical acclaim, earning numerous prestigious commissions and awards to this day as one of Britain’s most sought-after living artists.

Surfing Utah Lake

 

Pirates of the Caribbean 6 is in development !

Well, it would look as if Pirates of the Caribbean 6 is in the works, or early development at least. I started to see things pop up about it on Instagram a few days ago, buzz if you will. 

Now, of course it could be just rumors, all of our wishful thinking. But I will entertain the idea without a problem, I'm starving for another good pirate movie. The more the better.

Here are a few posts from Instagram I copied, along with some fan made posters below. Let's hope we get more official news later.

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OFFICIAL: It's confirmed that 'PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 6' is in development and apparently Disney has come to an agreement with actor Johnny Depp to return as Jack Sparrow and not only that, actor Bill Nighy would also return as Davy Jones.

The movie would be coming in 2028 and would also have names like Margot Robbie, Jenna Ortega & Kaya Scodelario.

Keira Knightley & Orlando Bloom could also be returning, but nothing is confirmed yet.

There are no plot details yet, but an important part of the story would focus on an undisclosed female character, who would be Jack Sparrow's daughter.

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Pirates of the Caribbean 6 is officially in development, with producer Jerry Bruckheimer confirming that two distinct scripts one of which is a full reboot are currently competing in a horse race to lead the series forward. This high stakes revival is being shaped by screenwriter Craig Mazin, the acclaimed creator of The Last of Us.

The Price of Freedom

(from Amazon.com)

Twenty-five-year-old Jack Sparrow is a clean-cut merchant seaman pursuing a legitimate career as a first mate for the East India Trading Company. He sometimes thinks back to his boyhood pirating days, but he doesn’t miss Teague’s scrutiny or the constant threat of the noose. Besides, he doesn’t have much choice—he broke the Code when he freed a friend who had been accused of rogue piracy, and he can no longer show his face in Shipwreck Cove.

When Jack’s ship is attacked by pirates and his captain dies in the altercation, he suddenly finds himself in command. The wily sailor’s skillful negotiations with the pirate captain—who turns out to be a woman from his past—result in a favorable outcome that puts Jack in line for an official promotion.

After making port in Africa, Jack is summoned by Cutler Beckett, who makes him captain of a ship called the Wicked Wench. Beckett gives Jack an assignment. He has heard a legend about a magical island named Zerzura whose labyrinthine bowels are said to contain a glorious treasure. Beckett suspects that one of his house slaves, a girl named Ayisha, is from Zerzura. He asks Jack to take her along on his voyage and seduce her into divulging the island’s whereabouts. In payment for his services, Beckett promises Jack a share of the treasure.

But this task isn’t as easy as Jack initially believes. Before she agrees to reveal the location of her home, Ayisha insists that Jack take her to the New World to rescue her brother, who has been sold into slavery in the Bahamas. Their voyage is long and arduous, and as they weather a vicious storm and a surprise attack from an old pirate foe, Jack grows to respect and admire Ayisha’s bravery. He knows that Beckett intends to enslave her people after robbing them of their treasure, and Jack’s moral compass revolts at the idea. It might be possible to deliver Ayisha safely to Zerzura, obtain some of the treasure, and convince Beckett that he never found it . . . but the greedy E. I. T. C. official has eyes everywhere, and if he learns that Jack has foiled his plans, he could take away the thing that Captain Sparrow loves most: his ship—and his freedom.

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I didn't even know this book existed, how did I miss it?!

It came out in 2011, had I known I would have snatched me up a copy no problem. But now? Asking price for used copies on Ebay are around $400.00! Are they crazy?

Anyway, you can get it of course on Kindle or Nook for only a couple of dollars. I might just have to do that although I despise trying to read things on Kindle or Nook. Ugh....

Key West Shipwreck Treasures Museum

(from keywestshipwreck)

Key West Shipwreck History

During the golden age of sail, over 100 ships per day passed by Key West. The waters they were sailing were well known as some of the most treacherous in the world. On average, at least one ship per week would wreck somewhere along the Florida Reef.

About the Observation Tower

The brave wreckers would watch the reef night and day from observation towers (some over 90′ high). They would also patrol the reef in their own small vessels. When a wreck was spotted, the cry of “Wreck Ashore” would echo all over the island as men scrambled to the docks to join the race to the reef. The first man to reach the wreck became the “wrecking master” who controlled the salvage operation and got a larger share of the prize. The goods salvaged from the wreck would later be sold at auction in Key West with the wrecking courts awarding anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of the profit to the wreckers, depending on how dangerous and time-consuming the salvage operation had been.

End of the Wrecking Era

Eventually, with the onset of railroads, and improvements in navigational aids, shipwrecks came fewer and farther between. In 1921, the wrecking courts were closed, ending an era that had made Key West one of the richest cities in America. Today, you can relive the era of the wreckers at our historical Key West Shipwreck Treasure Museum.

The Isaac Allerton

The ship was 137 feet long and weighed 594 tons. The Isaac Allerton spent her years as a merchant ship carrying cargoes throughout the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic Ocean. On the night of August 28, 1856, the Isaac Allerton was caught in a hurricane off Saddlebunch Keys, 15 miles ESE of Key West.

She road anchor for several hours before the lines were cut and she ground over Washer Woman Shoals, lost her rudder and sank in Hawks Channel in five fathoms of water. The crew and passengers spent the night in longboats and were rescued the following morning by Key West wreckers led by George Alderslade. Because the ship had sunk in such deep water, the Key West wreckers were unable to salvage all the cargo. But the cargo they did salvage resulted in a payoff of over $50,000 making the Isaac Allerton the richest wreck in KEY WEST HISTORY. Over 130 years later, in 1985, the wreck of the Isaac Allerton was rediscovered by a group of local divers who had been searching for the celebrated Atocha wreck. Today you can relive the days of the Isaac Allerton and see the original cargo from the ship at our The Key West Shipwreck Treasure Museum.

My 10 seconds of glory at the New York Yacht Club

So, in June of 2023, we took a trip to New York City for a vacation. 

We had been there once before as a family, and Aimee and I had been there separately many times before thanks to layovers and overnight stays on our many different international travels.

I never knew anything at all really about the New York Yacht Club until I watched the Netflix documentary about the famous America's Cup battle between the US and Australia. (see video clip in previous post)

I thoroughly enjoyed the Netflix production so right before our trip I did a quick search to see if daily tours were given of the NYYC.

Ohhh..... how naive I am.

The NYYC gives tours..... once a month! And the tour only lasts about 15 minutes. So it is basically get the heathens in and get the heathens out as quick as you can.

Anyway, I said to myself that I would be satisfied with just seeing the building from the outside so once we were in New York I found a day I could steal a little time for myself and off I headed to 44th street.

It didn't take long and before I knew it I was standing in front of this amazing building. For the most part it was a quiet street with not a lot of foot or car traffic and I was able to get some good photos and take a few minutes to enjoy the experience.

After those few minutes I noticed here and there a couple of people walking into the club but really only one gentleman was nicely dressed, the other two or three guys were just in shorts and a t-shirt.

I said to myself, "That's odd. This is supposed to be a fine establishment. What the heck?"

So I made the decision to investigate, by walking in the front door!

And that I did, but I was quickly asked "May I help you?" by a well dressed man standing behind the front desk. 

I said to him that I was just wondering if I could take a couple of pictures and he responded that I could but only of the staircase. 

I thanked him, took just two photos, and was out in about 10 seconds. But that is all I needed, it was my 10 seconds of glory.

At least now if I am in an awkward conversation with someone and need something to say I can always pull out, "Have you ever been inside the New York Yacht Club?"