Captain America: The Winter Soldier or Avengers 1.5, as some might call it. Is the sequel to the Captain America: The First Avenger and the ninth installment in Marvels. Some of the characters in the Avengers: Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and  Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury return with very good performances. Chris Evans is still the shield wielding all action good guy that is Captain America. The sequel tries to be a political thriller of the 60s and 70s and almost succeeds.

The flick starts off showing how Steve Rogers is coping in the modern world and quickly establishes his relationship with Falcon who is also a military vet. The black widow summons Rogers for his mission. During the mission, we see a bit of Captain America's fighting skills as he dominates the guards protecting the ship. After the mission, the dialogue between Steve Rogers and Nick Fury displays the two sides of the debate, the movie is centered on - the pros and cons of a surveillance state. The movie tries not to take sides but as it progresses, one may get where is it leaning towards. 

Spoiler Alert

The Winter Soldier makes his first appearance during the assassination attempt scene on Nick Fury. Which must the best action sequence in the entire movie. Fury escapes to Roger's apartment and informs him that SHIELD is compromised. The Winter soldier fires shots at Nick Fury and "kills" him. Captain America gives chase and throws his mighty shield at The Winter Soldier, only for him to catch and fling it back.

The story continues with Captain America now a fugitive and trying to evade Shield operatives and bringing down Hydra.

The action in this movie is well choreographed and at times, feels very intense.  The plot and acting is excellent. It is arguable if this movie is better than the Avengers but one thing we can agree on is that is one of the best super hero movie of all time, whatever side you are on;DC or Marvel.,

Rating: 9.5/10

The first Trailer of the Guardians of the Galaxy is here, finally.

In the trailer, we get to see the heroes of the title — Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Groot and Rocket Raccoon. The movie will be Marvel's attempt to expand their cinematic universe towards the cosmic realm.

Guardians of the Galaxy opens in theaters on August 1.

A new Trailer for the upcoming movie Captain America : Winter Soldier.
Watch below

Global hostage situations are rife in scifi movies. Some are lame while others have a place in the history books. We are not talking about "mere" hostage scenes involving a few people, but rather the threat of an extinction level event being battered around if the villain does not have his way.

We will look at some really cool ones. If you have other suggestions, let me know.

1.Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen

The "we are not alone" question is let out of the bag,when the Fallen hooks himself up to telecommunication wires and transmits his threats to the entire world; asking for Sam in return for man's survival.

2.Superman

Terence Stamp's portrayal of Superman's nemesis was much superior to Callum's. And in this video , you can see why.

3.Man of Steel

General Zod announced himself to earthlings in the most creepy way. Demanding the people of Earth handover to him in 24 hours, a Kryptonian living amongst them or else.

Star Trek

USS Enterprise finds the planet in grave danger from an alien probe attempting to contact now-extinct humpback whales. The crew travel to Earth's past to find whales who can answer the probe's call (Wikipedia) or else the planet is doomed.

The mysterious leader of the Centipede Project on the Marvel's Agents of Shield is causing quite stir. And proving to a formidable foe to Shield's well-oiled machinery. Who could be this all-seeing Clairvoyant?  See our options below

The Leader/Dr. Sterns

Most likely could be Dr. Sterns a.k.a The Leader. In Marvel's comic series titled Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week

Which take place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In issues 6 and 7, Sterns is seen undergoing a rapid head mutation just as he is discovered by Natasha Romanoff who stumbles upon him immediately after Hulk has escaped. Although his brainpower has already drastically increased to the point where he can pinpoint the exact location of Black Widow's birth just by a brief hint of Stalingrad in her accent, Natasha shoots him in the leg when he attempts to bribe her by offering to help her return to her home and he is detained into S.H.I.E.L.D custody.

He might have escaped and formed the clandestine unit or he might just be running the operation within SHIELD itself.

Cassandra Webb 

Though Cassandra Webb suffered from a lifetime of blindness and many years of neurological deterioration, she compensated with her profound psychic abilities, establishing herself as a medium. Her considerable talents brought her to the attention of the United States government. Initially recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. prior to the appearances of mutants across the world, Webb was a considerable find. In her early days with S.H.I.E.L.D., she was used as a code breaker and interrogator (Marvel Wiki). 


Eric Williams a.k.a The Grim Reaper 

Is the brother of Simon Williams (also known as Wonder Man), was born in Paterson, New Jersey. Eric was always the black sheep of his family. 
During The Civil War Arch, the Grim Reaper was apparently one of the many villains who escaped from the Raft prison. After being at large for several months, the Grim Reaper was eventually tracked down by Captain America and Cable, who together with their other friends brought the Reaper down. He was placed back into custody by S.H.I.E.L.D. Grim Reaper was next seen teamed with Man-Ape & Saboteur; how he escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. is uncertain (Marvel's Wiki).

The means by which Agent Coulson was resurrected has been the best kept secret in television until episode 11 of the Series. SPOILER ALERT: Episode 11 revealed the procedure used. Very few suspected that would be the way by which Coulson was brought back to life. Does that kind of science even exist?

According to the story, the Clairvoyant - a shadowy ring-leader of a super-secret Project Centipede organization, wants this knowledge to make his army un-killable. Sounds like a plan, right? 

Anyway, the plot sounds like it is straight from a comic. So why not refresh your memories with a couple of comic stories.

1. The Leader/Dr. Sterns 

There has been theories floating around that the mysterious Clairvoyant could be The Leader- a gamma mutated Genius, with uber-elite probability calculation ability so advanced, that it boarders on clairvoyance.

2.Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week

Which take place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In issues 6 and 7, Sterns is seen undergoing a rapid head mutation just as he is discovered by Natasha Romanoff who stumbles upon him immediately after Hulk has escaped. Although his brainpower has already drastically increased to the point where he can pinpoint the exact location of Black Widow's birth just by a brief hint of Stalingrad in her accent, Natasha shoots him in the leg when he attempts to bribe her by offering to help her return to her home and he is detained into S.H.I.E.L.D custody(Wikipedia).

Happy Reading...

Superstar Beyonce did two astonishing things Thursday night: Release a complete album without any promotion or advance notice, and sample Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Adichie, who lives part of the year in the U.S., is the author of the acclaimed 2013 novel "Americanah," a smart and surprisingly funny take on race and gender in contemporary society. In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, after the publication of "Half a Yellow Sun," a historical novel set during Nigeria's bloody Biafran war.

Adichie appears on Beyonce's track "Flawless." She isn't in the short video sample of the song that's online; according to Rap Genius, the video is of the third verse, while Adichie's sample makes up most of the second.

The sample is from a talk Adichie gave at TEDxEuston in London earlier this year titled, "We Should All Be Feminists." What appears in "Flawless" pulls from different parts of her speech:

We teach girls to shrink themselves

To make themselves smaller

We say to girls

"You can have ambition

But not too much

You should aim to be successful

But not too successful

Otherwise you will threaten the man"

Because I am female

I am expected to aspire to marriage

I am expected to make my life choices

Always keeping in mind that

Marriage is the most important

Now marriage can be a source of

Joy and love and mutual support

But why do we teach to aspire to marriage

And we don't teach boys the same?

We raise girls to each other as competitors

Not for jobs or for accomplishments

Which I think can be a good thing

But for the attention of men

We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings

In the way that boys are

Feminist: the person who believes in the social

Political, and economic equality of the sexes

Songs:

1. Pretty Hurts

2. Haunted

3. Drunk in Love (Featuring JAY Z)

4. Blow/Cherry

5. Angel

6. Yoncé/Partition

7. Jealous

8. Rocket

9. Mine (Featuring Drake)

10. XO

11. Flawless (Featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) 

12. Superpower (Featuring Frank Ocean)

13. Heaven 

14. Blue (Featuring Blue Ivy)

Videos:

1. Pretty Hurts - directed by Melina Matsoukas

2. Ghost - directed by Pierre Debusschere

3. Haunted - directed by Jonas Åkerlund

4. Drunk in Love - directed by Hype Williams

5. Blow - directed by Hype Williams

6. Angel - directed by @lilinternet

7. Yoncé - directed by Ricky Saiz

8. Partition - directed by Jake Nava

9. Jealous - directed by Beyoncé, Francesco Carrozzini & Todd Tourso

10. Rocket - directed by Beyoncé, Ed Burke & Bill Kirstein

11 .Mine - directed by Pierre Debusschere

12. XO - directed by Terry Richardson

13. ***Flawless - directed by Jake Nava

14. Superpower - directed by Jonas Åkerlund

15. Heaven -directed by Beyoncé & Todd Tourso

16. Blue - directed by Beyoncé, Ed Burke & Bill Kirstein

17. **BONUS VIDEO – Grown Woman - directed by Jake Nava

Source: lattimes

Get it on iTunes here

In The Amazing Spider-Man™ 2, for Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), life is busy – between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the person he loves, Gwen (Emma Stone), high school graduation can’t come quickly enough. Peter hasn’t forgotten about the promise he made to Gwen’s father to protect her by staying away – but that’s a promise he just can’t keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain, Electro (Jamie Foxx), emerges, an old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past.

Director: Marc Webb

Writers: Alex Kurtzman (screenplay), Roberto Orci (screenplay)

Stars: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx 

Opening 2 May 2014 (USA)

The First Trailer of the sequel of the rebooted Spiderman franchise is out.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is directed by Marc Webb and written by Jeff Pinker, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) finds, life is busy between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the person he loves, Gwen (Emma Stone), high school graduation can't come quickly enough. Peter hasn't forgotten the promise he made to Gwen's father to protect her by staying away, but that's a promise he just can't keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain, Electro (Jamie Foxx), emerges, an old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past. Sony will release Amazing Spider-Man 2 in theaters next summer on May 2nd

It's Hammer Time! Marvel unleashes the full power of the  Viking Folklore mythology in the latest entry in its  cinematic universe rooster, titled Thor: The Dark World.
The movie is the sequel to the 2011 Kenneth Branagh directed flick. Marvel decided to change directors and go for Game of Thrones' Alan Taylor, in an effort to give the sequel a more epic, Lord of the Rings-like feel.
Spoiler Alert.

Thor: The Dark world starts off with a quick history lesson on how Thor's great grandfather stopped  Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves, who tried to destroy the nine realms, 5000 years ago at the specific moment when all the realms are perfectly aligned, using Aether, a liquid reddish substance capable of destroying reality itself. Later in the movie, Jane Foster, Thor's main squeeze will inadvertently absorb it. Thus re-awakening Malekith, and the dark elves from their  slumber of over 5000 years. Maleith as well as picking up English very quickly, also develops a high affinity for the red substance.
His horned senses traces the Aether to Asgard, where Jane Foster is attempting an Aether "exorcism" after Thor brought her against his father's wishes. The sleathy invasion of Asgard by the Dark Elves, goes unnoticed until  a prison break instigated by Kurse, alerts Asgard's defenders.
The ensuing battle culminates in the death of Thor's mother (Alan Tylor has developed a penchant for killing off major characters) and Asgard in ruins. Unable to defend Asgard in next wave of Dark Elves attack,  Thor comes up with an elaborate plan to lure Maleith's forces to more remote part of Asgard in order to destroy the  Aether. However, for this plan to work, it would require Loki's aid. 
The death of Frigga, sort of ignites the "righteous" part of Loki and become drug that heals the rife between the two brothers, at least for the mission.

The movie shines in the interactions between the Loki and the rest of the Odin family. Tom Huddleston's Loki dominants every scene he is in. Despite all the build up, the main villain is pretty weak and one dimensional. He just wants to purge the universe back into darkness. Why? we'll never know. 

Marvel has succeeded in expanding a part of its universe which hithero was considered risky, cue Green Lantern for instance. Guardians of the galaxy will surely benefit from the success of this release.
Next stop, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Rating 8/10

Wande Coal

Micheal Collins a.k.a Don jazzy took to twitter to accuse Wande Coal, his former artist on his label, Marvin Record of plagiarism. The intellectual property in contention is titled Babyface, a song Don Jazzy claims to have put up on sound cloud.com , over a year ago.

1. Michael Collins ‏@DONJAZZY19h

   I can decide to shut him down with one call. but didnt. all i ask for is "give me my credit" and nothing else.

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2. Michael Collins ‏@DONJAZZY19h

   I honestly expected y'all to come at me with me being childish. But enough is enough. even if i send my legal team on him una go complain 2.

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3. Michael Collins ‏@DONJAZZY20h

   OK THIS IS A STUDIO DEMO I MADE ABOUT A YEAR AGO. DON JAZZY - #BABYFACE ==>> https://soundcloud.com/mavinrecords/babyface … #INTERLECTUALPROPERTYTHEFT

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2. 

   Wande Coal ‏@wandecoal15h

   Here is the Original studio demo version of babyface that @donjazzy recorded with me last year http://hu.lk/k03kyxx0a6m8  …I REST MY CASE

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It is our policy not to take sides, we just report the news. Find the two versions of the hotly contested song below and judge for yourselves folks.

Wande's Coal Version

Don Jazzy's Version

Bryan Singer has delivered as promised the first trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past, giving us our first proper look at next year’s hugely anticipated blockbuster.

One of the biggest reasons that it’s so anticipated, of course, is that Singer is reuniting the cast of X-Men: First Class with that of the original X-Men trilogy, and that is definitely worthy of the excitement and buzz surrounding the sequel.

The Official First Teaser Trailer of the Upcoming Movie, Captain America: Winter Soldier is out.

Marvel Entertainment has just released a first 10 seconds look at the upcoming Captain America sequel.
Take a look below.

There is a montage of what I consider to be the most iconic scenes in movies. Of course, there are a lot of movies, I left out since it will be a near impossible task to satisfy everyone. So this list is purely subjective and feel free to mention yours in the comments.

In no particular order, see the list below.

No 10, The Dark Knight- The Interrogation Scene 




In this scene, the Batman comes face to face with his arch nemesis- The Joker. And it exceeds all expectations, with the Joker rilling the Batman and almost driving him to the brink where he almost broke his one rule.

No 9. Star Wars Empire Strike Back - I am your father.

Empire Strikes Back to some, is the best movie in the Star War saga. Although, there are many scenes of equal repute, none seems to have the dramatical twist,suspense and intrigue all rolled into one as this scene. The movie had been building up to this encounter between Luke and Vader and probably assumed it would be the same old good guy wins at the end. But Lucas had something to say about that.

No 8. Avengers - Avengers Assemble!

Marvel took a big risk in merging their cinematic universe into one epic movie in the Avengers. Fortune favors the brave. The movie made over a billion dollars and the Avengers Assemble scene epitomizes the great directing skills of Joss Whedon. 


No 7. Forrest Gump- Life is like a box of choclates.

One of Tom Hanks great performances. The Oscar nomination might be due to this scene that has echoed through time.
No 6- Gladiator - Are you not entertained

The General who become a slave fights his way to become a Gladiator. Scene can be heard as a skit in Jay-Z's black album.

No 5 300 - What is your profession.



The scene illustrates what the spartans where all about. They were professional soldiers, not part-timers like the Athenians.
No. 4 The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly.

The quote in this scene is still used and paraphrase in many ways and circles.
No.3 Scarface- Say Hello to my little friend.

The crazed Tony Montana goes on a bloody rampage and acts one of cinemas most iconic scenes.

No. 2 Good Will Hunting - Bar Scene

This scene is one of my personal favorites. Very funny and witty. Could never get it out of my head. 

No 1. God Father- Cat Stroking scene.

The speckled feline that famously perches on Marlon Brando's lap in the Francis Ford Coppola classic "The Godfather" was not scripted to be there. Brando reportedly found the cat lurking around the set and picked it up to pet it. The animal subsequently got a role as an extra.

Notable Mentions

Shawskank Redemption, Roof top scene

by Chinedu Efoagui