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Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
2014 | Action, Sci-Fi
This first sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger is everything a sequel should be. It has bigger and better set pieces, it has a bigger emotional centre, it brings in already established MCU characters and introduces new ones, and is arguably one of the best entries into the MCU to date.

Chris Evans does nothing more than tighten his grip around his most famous role. He joins Robert Downey Jr. in the category of irreplaceable actors for these characters.
Scarlett Johansson is once again great as Black Widow, and newcomer Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon provides Cap with a likeable new ally. The three of them as a sort of mini Avengers in this movie are fantastic.
Sebastian Stan plays The Winter Soldier with aplomb, and gives us a truly dangerous antagonist. The dude is fucking terrifying, yet his relationship with Steve Rogers gives us the heart of this movie. It's a tragic story which of course will be further explored in Civil War further down the line.
The cast is rounded off with Samuel L. Jackson returning as Nick Fury, Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce, Emily VanCamp as Agent 13, Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow, and some smaller roles for Cobie Smulders and Hayley Atwell.
It's a really solid cast all in all, an area that Marvel Studios rarely missteps.

The set pieces are hugely high octane and thrilling. The opening scene on the barge is a highlight, as well as the teams fight with the Winter Soldier midway through. Even Nick Fury gets a banger of an action sequence. Also, this film boasts probably the biggest plot twist gut punch in the whole MCU with the SHIELD/Hydra reveal. It's an extremely well crafted, ballsy narrative that impacts the shape of the MCU going forward.

There's honestly nothing bad to say about this one. It's top tier comic book cinema.
  
Hairspray (2007)
Hairspray (2007)
2007 | Comedy, Musical
7
7.4 (18 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Quite a bizarre entry on the countdown but stick with me and all will become clear.

In the winter of 2007, I went through a hard break-up and believe it or not, the remake of Hairspray really helped me through it.

It wasn’t all plain sailing however; the DVD was bought by my former lover for us to both watch at some point in the future. Alas that wasn’t meant to be and the box sat on my shelf for a couple of weeks completely unloved as I tried to come to terms with my loneliness.

Eventually I decided to pop the DVD on and was blown away by how well written and beautifully acted the whole film was. From John Travolta’s amazing turn as Edna Turnblad to Michelle Pfeiffer’s villainous Velma Von Tussle, it was the cheerful uplift that I so desperately needed at that time.

https://moviemetropolis.net/2017/07/08/films-that-influenced-me-adam-brannon-2/
  
After an especially tension filled Township Board meeting, paramedic Zoe Chambers is called to an abandoned car with a dead body in the front seat. That discovery on a cold winter night plunges Zoe and Police Chief Pete Adams into a complex mystery that hits too close to home. Where will it end?

I shouldn’t have put this debut off for so long. It’s an amazing book full of great writing. The characters are strong, and they pull us into the story quickly. There are so many twists and turns along the way, but everything makes perfect sense by the time we reach the end. Zoe and Pete share third person narrator duties, something the author uses perfectly to let us get to know the leads and build the tension in the story.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2017/07/book-review-circle-of-influence-by.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
  
Melmoth: A Novel
Melmoth: A Novel
Sarah Perry | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
10
7.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
A gothic, spellbinding novel.
A dark, gothic story, of a woman living an austere life in Prague, set in winter - which makes it all the more foreboding!
Melmoth is omnipresent throughout the novel. Helen, the main character, seems to have something in her past that she is punishing herself for. She makes sure that she has no enjoyment in her life: from food to clothes, to friendships. She does have some friends, though: Thea and Karel.
Karel finds some documents about Melmoth the Wanderer, and so an obsession begins.
For a dark, depressing novel, there is a lot of hope in it too. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It got to the stage where I was sure I could see a dark shadow in my peripheral vision - could it be Melmoth looking for company in her lonely wanderings?
This is a compelling read - once started, I really didn't want to stop. I enjoyed the historical detail in Karel's documents too.
Another great story from Sarah Perry.
  
The Long Winter (Little House, #6)
The Long Winter (Little House, #6)
Laura Ingalls Wilder | 2007 | Fiction & Poetry
6
8.3 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
Not one of my favourite in the Little House series, I must admit. We follow the family through a VERY long winter full of repetition and worry that eats away at the reader as much as it must have done poor Laura to live through it! (I must add, I read this during a period of bad snow ehere I had nothing to live off for several days but bagels, and as much as I love them, you don't half get fed up of blooming bread!)

One lovely highlight of this book is the loser interaction between the Wilder boys and the Ingalls family, even if, at this stage, it is just limited to Pa! It's nice to see the gradual steps towards what we already know occurs, and it's written well!

Not a bad read, drags a little and at times is like a plaster, you just need to whip it off and get on with it!