Film Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

     Marvel’s ‘Phase 2’ series of superhero films have a lot to live up to.

     These are no longer simply just origin stories anymore. The characters have been established, the stakes always need to be raised higher; and at the same time delicately interweaving the existing Marvel film mythos in such a way that these films can both be enjoyed as standalone stories as well as part of the greater canon. More specifically, this is all leading up to the massive 2015 event that is The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Recent Updates - combined!

Hi readers,

Just a quick update on recent developments.

I’ve been publishing a lot of articles elsewhere on’t web for the last few months, so thought I would link up some of them here. Whilst I eventually aim to have an index page up on this blog for easy reference to all the articles, for now here’s just a convenient summary.

My Top 5 Games of 2013

      Let’s do this before we get too far into January!

      I was toying with doing a Top 10 but am kind of pressed for time so… here’s my Top 5 favourite games of the year!

      These aren’t necessarily games that were released in 2013 – just ones I played during that year and completed.

      Oh and before you ask “where’s (insert game here)…”, I didn’t get to play GTAV, The Last of Us, Assassin’s Creed IV or finish Telltale’s The Walking Dead… or anything else you think I may have missed, so that’s why they aren’t included. I’ll do some special mentions afterwards too to see what else could have been in if there was a Top 10.

      If you are interested in 2012 and 2011’s best games lists, just click HERE or HERE.

      Anyway, here are my Top 5 games that I played this year.

Films of the Year 2013 - The Alternative Awards!

 

      Following on from the previous article of My Top 10 Films of 2013, here are some alternative awards. Again these are just my opinions, based on this list of films I saw last year (this time they don't necessarily have to be 2013 releases). Clicking on each title will also link to a relevant clip so do so if you are interested.

      Feel free to discuss and comment or offer your own suggestions afterwards!

47 Ronin - English or Japanese?

       Note: this article was written on the 23rd of December, but I’ve only just out it up now as I was busy with other articles and was waiting for my main review of the film to be published first.

       The Keanu Reeves starring samurai epic 47 Ronin is in a strange position. Having seen it recently in Japan (it’s yet to be released in the US), I had an unusual gripe – namely to do with the language in it.

       No, I don't mean cuss words – I mean English.

       It’s ALL in English.

       So? You ask.

       Let me give you a few details first.

My Top 10 Films of 2013

 

So here we go… My Top 10 Films of 2013!

Clicking on the title of the film should link you to a trailer and I will also include a link to any reviews/articles/Padcast episodes I’ve written/recorded about the film in each entry too.

After the main countdown I will include some ‘special mentions’ as there were a fair few up for consideration in the Top 10. Some of them were actually released in 2012 so I chose not to include them in this year’s countdown.

So just to reiterate, all the films in this countdown were released theatrically in the UK during 2013. I have also seen the majority of them more than once so as to be sure of their inclusion and relative position in the list.

Anyway, without further ado, here are my favourites of the year:

Preview: Top 10 Films of 2013 - place your bets!

It’s coming up to that time again when I reveal my Top 10 Films of 2013.

But before we get to that I want to lay the ground rules. This list is based entirely on my opinion so don't be mad if your favourite isn’t on there or if you strongly disagree with anything - but feel free to leave a comment!

The Top 10 is based on films that had a theatrical release in the UK this year. Because of that I’ve had to leave out some films (which I will probably metion after the official 10) that I watched this year (and were really good) but were released before 2013.

This doesn't matter so much for other categories - but I will be strict on that for the Top 10.

Track of The Week - Kaleida - Tropea

This week’s track comes from the Kaleida with the track Tropea. 

Have a listen below.

Double Dose of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

This week on Double Dose we have the second part of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy: The Desolation of Smaug.

Double Dose of Carrie

 

Welcome to another edition of Double Dose – this week we went to watch the remake of Carrie, starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore.