Track of The Week - Wild Belle - It's Too Late

       To celebrate the nice weather today, here is a lovely track called It’s Too Late by Wild Belle. Have a listen below:

      Made up of siblings Elliot and Natalie Bergman, Wild Belle hail from Chicago. This song is taken from their debut album ‘Isles’ - an interesting mix of reggae, ska, indie-pop and electronica.

      Check out another track, Keep You, which sounds like a mash-up between The Specials and Beth Gibbons.

      I deliberated for a bit about which to put as the track of the week out of these two, but eventually went for It’s Too Late as I actually heard that one first via a tasty remix by Anoraak. The catchy and unusual vocal stylings led to me look up more of their stuff.

      You can check out the band and see what they are up to by visiting their official page HERE or on Facebook HERE

31st Mar 2014

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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.

     Eschewing the pulpy serial feel and plucky bombast of the period-set first outing for Captain America, The Winter Soldier is an entirely different animal: a superhero movie crossed with a spy thriller – something that we haven’t really seen before. Although a few story twist and revelations can be smelt a mile off, there is a pervading sense of mystery, subterfuge and paranoia throughout – and even one or two genuine surprises along the way.

     Cap himself appears much slicker and cooler this time around. It’s a real joy to see him in action - the opening sequence taking place on a hijacked ship being a terrific introduction to what the super soldier is now capable of. He’s still a boy scout and straight as an arrow, but with some much needed humour injected by way of the humorous back and forth exchanges with his allies (unlike the recent Thor: The Dark World’s somewhat shoehorned gags), this feels more like Whedon’s dialogue from The Avengers - certainly not a bad thing.

     Whilst Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Hawkeye are understandably absent, it's nice to see Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury receive significantly beefed up roles – more screen time here than in any of the previous films they have appeared in. Many other familiar faces turn up in small parts or cameos and future characters are also teased – making this a real treat for fans – although having a mid-credit AND a post-credit sting seems almost obligatory these days.

     Also of note are new ally Falcon and the main antagonist: the Winter Soldier himself. The former is re-imagined via the Hawkeye school of design (precariously balanced between high-tech cool and being ever so slightly goofy looking); the latter a terrifyingly efficient killer that adds real tension and a sense of ominous threat in his earlier appearances. Whilst his true identity is hardly a surprise to anyone, the build up and reveal of the character is excellently handled.

     Despite the abundance of Hollywood style shaky close-ups and fast editing, the action remains impressive, with inventive fight choreography (Cap gets to use his shield a bit more this time and in a variety of ways), tense set pieces (a fight in a crowded lift) and some great stunt work (Fury’s car chase). It’s often visceral and brutal, guaranteed to make you wince once or twice.

     Captain America has always been the most straightforward character out of The Avengers ensemble and is often overshadowed by his more colourful compatriots, but The Winter Soldier allows him to shine. There are a few issues here and there (character motivations and allegiances being slave to the twisting plot developments, one or two overly convenient escapes and the villain’s rather predictable character arc), but these can easily be overlooked in what is a slick action thriller. One that just so happens to feature a couple of superheroes.

27th March 2014 


You can also see this review at PillowMagazine.com

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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.

PillowMagazine.com – I’ve been writing film reviews for Pillow since June of last year. Mostly these have been mainstream theatrical releases, but I’ve also occasionally covered DVD releases, retrospectives, bits of film related news, reports from film screenings and the odd book review.

The index (pending) will eventually list all my articles but for now you can access them all HERE.

Know What To Watch – I’ve written a few articles there since last November – some DVD reviews and a few ‘list’ type articles.

Unfortunately the site is on hiatus at the moment so is unlikely to feature any new articles from me for a while. Click HERE to see all my articles.

Battle Royale With Cheese – Another dedicated movie-centric site that I write for. 

I’ve chosen to start a series here called ‘The Vault’ (tagline: ‘Unearthing forgotten films… So you don't have to) which takes a look back at older films – often cult/genre pictures. I’ve only just got given an account there so you can’t search my articles by author just yet, but here are links to the first three entries to ‘The Vault’.

The Cell (2000)

Shadow of the Vampire(2000)

The Twilight Zone Movie(1983)

More to follow in the series.

FunkstylersTV – A HipHop Dance website, FunkstylersTV films, hosts and streams videos from many dance events as well as offering news and interviews from the scene.

I’ve been writing articles here since last July and have my own column – covering random dance topics such as: The Maturing BBoy, The Impact of Footageand Have Large Comps Ruined BBoying?

You can check out all of the articles HERE.

Other stuff - I’ve also joined a local writing group or two recently so you may be lucky enough to catch some more fiction up here at some point, so watch this space!

I’ll also try to keep the updates coming on this blog too every once in a while. As well as the usual film related stuff (such as my recent Top Films of 2013 article), there will be more updates on my Journey into Lego series, Track of the Week, as well as various other random bits and pieces.

The Padcast (as seen in the Double Dose entries) is currently getting a format rehaul - so expect that to be back (soonish) but in a slightly different guise.

I also plan to do more Lego based photography (as the above picture) – will probably post up a bunch of these together here at some point but for now, follow me on Instagram: Sebski_kinsta.

And just to complete this bout of shameless self-promotion, follow me on Twitter (@Sebski_Kinsta) to receive updates on what I’m up to and what I’ve published recently (no mundane tweets about what I had for breakfast etc… I promise!)

That should pretty much bring us up to speed. Apologies once again for the lack of updates here but at least now you know why!

Anyway, thanks everyone who has supported me thus far and I hope to have more for you up soon!

2nd Mar 2014

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