The 300s Marvel Cinematic Rewind Presents: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

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The300s MCU

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Captain America: The Winter Soldier was released on April 4th, 2014. Coming off two of what I consider giant letdown films in the MCU, I was praying to god that this movie wouldn’t stink. The Avengers was wildly successful in teaming up all our favorite heroes, only for Phase Two to split them back up into individual roles and bringing us pretty much back to square one. After whatever the hell Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World were, I was starting to become a bit skeptical that this series was finally starting to lose steam. Boy oh boy was I wrong.

The film starts off with Steve Rogers out for a brisk morning run in Washington, D.C. He’s constantly lapping Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie) who can’t match Cap’s speed. After a brief rest, Wilson tells Cap he works at the VA and that he’s a former soldier himself and asks Cap to stop by at some point, which Cap agrees to. Black Widow pulls up in a car to tell Cap he’s needed for a mission and they take off.

Somewhere overseas, Cap and Black Widow are in a military jet and discuss the mission at hand. They need to board a freighter that is operated by SHIELD that has been taken over by pirates. The freighter contains key information that is critical to SHIELD that Black Widow is tasked with recovering, unbeknownst to Captain himself. A large fight ensues with Cap rescuing the hostages and them barely escaping alive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ7y3pEjNUI

A little pissed that he wasn’t told about the true nature of the mission, Rogers returns to D.C. to confront Nick Fury at SHIELD headquarters. He’s still a bit untrusting after the events of The Avengers and doesn’t fully believe SHIELD has the right intentions, regardless of what they claim. Fury explains to Rogers that times have changed and he better get with the program if he is to remain apart of SHIELD. In a show of good faith, Fury let’s Rogers see what SHIELD is currently working on: Project Insight, which is essentially three massive Hellicarriers that are tasked with eliminating threats before they even happen.

After Rogers takes off, Fury tries to review the data obtained by Black Widow and is denied access. Questioning why he was overridden, he begins to suspect that something is going on behind that scenes at SHIELD and he becomes a bit suspicious. He brings his suspicions to Secretary Pierce, the political figurehead of SHIELD played by Robert Redford. Pierce tells him theres nothing to worry about (sure Redford, whatever you say).

We’re then given what is one of the best scenes in Marvel cinematic history. Watch and enjoy.

Fury’s escape is then stopped by The Winter Soldier himself and he barely escapes just in the nick of time.

We cut to Rogers entering his apartment, only to find Fury sitting there listening to some old records. He is badly injured, and warns Rogers that he shouldn’t trust anyone and that SHIELD has been compromised. Fury gives Rogers the data that Black Widow obtained. Just then, Fury is shot through the walls of Roger’s apartment by The Winter Soldier.

At the hospital, Fury is pronounced dead in front of Cap, Black Widow, and Maria Hill. Black Widow asks Rogers why Fury was in his apartment and he doesn’t truthfully answer. Cap is then summoned to SHIELD headquarters to speak with Secretary Pierce. Taking Fury’s advice, he hides the flash drive of information in a vending machine in the hospital before departing. At his meeting at SHIELD, Pierce not so subtly accuses Cap of knowing more than he is letting on, and labels him an enemy of SHIELD. On Rogers way out of SHIELD headquarters, he’s ambushed in yet another amazing scene from this film and the MCU as a whole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUpvwMLHdUE

After his escape, Rogers returns to the hospital to retrieve the flash drive only to find it missing, but luckily taken by Black Widow. They then travel to an Apple Store together (groan) to try and unlock a bit more information. They uncover a secret military installation in New Jersey where Captain was originally trained. Underneath the base, they discover a hidden room that is filled with antique computers and technology which is revealed to be recreation of Zola from Cap 1’s brain? (Yeah, this is the one thing in this movie that has me a little confused) Computer Zola pretty much tells Cap and Black Widow that HYDRA has been infiltrating SHIELD for the last half a century. Just then a missile strikes the base, destroying it and nearly killing Cap and Black Widow.

After another run in with the The Winter Soldier, it is revealed that he is in fact Bucky Barnes, Steve’s long thought dead best friend. They are captured by HYDRA agents and taken to Pierce. In transit, Maria Hill is discovered to be posing as one of the HYRDA agents and busts them out of captivity. She brings them to a secret base, where we see Nick Fury, alive and well. He faked his own death because he wasn’t sure who he could trust (Sure, whatever, i’ll let it slide).

The World Security Council shows up to SHIELD headquarters for a demonstration of Project Insight. Captain America gets on the loudspeaker and announces to all SHIELD employees that HYDRA has taken over, with Pierce being their leader. Gunfire ensues as the employees quickly take sides. The Hellicarriers are launched and Cap and Black Widow attempt to take back control, with The Winter Soldier waiting for them on board. Cap is convinced Bucky remembers who he is, with Bucky trying his hardest to not let on that he’s right. The Hellicarriers are destroyed and as they are crashing, Bucky saves Cap and places him along the shoreline before he walks into the proverbial sunset.

SHIELD is disbanded after the dust settles. Fury burns his eye patch and heads to Europe to track down more HYDRA bases, Maria Hill takes a job with Stark Industries, and Cap and Wilson set out in search of Bucky.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the exact moment in the MCU for me that things went from good to great. It is living proof that the stand alone films still work, even after Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World pretty much stunk up the place. The film almost felt like a Bourne movie, as opposed to just another cookie cutter entry of a Marvel film. To this day it remains one of my favorite films in the series.

Final verdict: 9 out of 10

If You’re Going to Embarrass Yourself in Public, Own It. Or Don’t Suck at Fantasy Sports

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This year, in one of my four fantasy football leagues, I came in dead last. As a punishment, the winner of the league got to choose a song for me to sing at karaoke. As it turns out, the winner of the league taught me how to play drums back in middle school. I use the term taught very loosely, as I don’t know how to play drums today because I never wanted to practice. My fault, not his. Anyway, it was for that reason that he chose Little Drummer Boy for me to sing.

I was dreading this day for weeks. I mean seriously, who wants to sing a Christmas song two weeks before St Patrick’s Day to a bar outside of Boston? Well, the time finally came, and with a little help from my boy Danny aka the mic stand, I think I killed it.

If you’re going to do something, do it 100%. Whether that means singing karaoke, eating pimento loaf, or any of the hundreds of other hilarious fantasy punishments, own it. It might even get you a free Mai Tai.

This Nintendo Video is the Most Relaxing Thing I’ve Watched in Weeks

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This apparently falls into the ASMR category of videos, which is big business these days, but it’s not some chick whispering into a mic. It’s a guy all by himself just hiking to the top of a mountain and then instead of doing what I expected he would do and lighting one up, instead he sits down and pulls out his Switch to bang out a few minutes of Zelda. Just looks like the best day. Maybe I’ve been cooped up inside too long in this snowy hell hole we call Boston, but going for a quiet hike and playing some Switch on top of a mountain sounds like the best day.

Will NFL Sudden Death Finally Receive a Pardon?

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Three things are guaranteed in life: death, taxes, and a team the Patriots beat in the playoffs pushing for rule changes in the offseason. Andy Reid would have been better served drawing up a defense that would have guaranteed HIS team a possession five weeks ago, but in his defense the NFL overtime rules are the worst in sports. Pure sudden death definitely had its drawbacks but at least it was simple. The fact that the NFL has to flash the overtime rules on the screen every time a game is tied with less than four minutes to go is how you know it’s too complicated for its own good.

I’m in favor of the NFL adopting the college football overtime rules. Short of that, I think I have an easy fix for the current overtime mess. Give each team the opportunity to possess the ball at least once. No questions asked. Team that had the ball first scored a TD? Cool. Now the other team gets its shot. If it’s tied after that, then go to sudden death. The team that gets the ball a second time in overtime could win on a field goal at that point, but at least the other team could’ve gone for two after scoring their touchdown.

In other rule book news, we may not see any changes to Instant Replay next year. While replay certainly helped the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, the Chiefs were by no means robbed the way the Saints were. Maybe we’d see changes to Instant Replay if the Patriots benefited from a (non-)call the way the Rams did. Or if Belichick didn’t support expanding it.

My first choice would be to eliminate replay all together. My second choice would be to take coach’s challenges out of the process and install a neutral observer in the press box. to handle all replays. If we’re going to keep the system the way it is right now, though, why not allow coaches to challenge everything? Pandora’s box has already opened.

John Harbaugh made some great points on this topic earlier this week. Watching football at field level is tough. Oftentimes fans in the crowd and fans at home have a better view of the play, in real time, than the on-field official. Why not use all the technology available to make sure the game is officiated properly and fairly?

Whatever happens, at least credit the NFL for being the league most willing to continually tweak its product and give the fans what they want.

Clay Buchholz Will Be Back at Fenway in 2019!

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…as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Curious that the Diamondbacks didn’t want him back, no? Granted he only made 16 starts, but he had a 2.01 ERA last season. That really is a classic Buchholz stat line though. Absolutely dominant for 98.1 innings then misses the rest of the year with a myriad of injuries.

When Buchholz is on he is one of the nastiest pitchers in the game. Unfortunately he’s so rarely “on” that it becomes more trouble than its worth. He’s 34 years old now so if it hasn’t happened by now it’s probably never going to happen, but he has still yet to pitch 200 innings or make 30 starts in a season. One of the most frustrating Red Sox players of all time, but its hard to not look back fondly on a guy that was part of two World Series winning teams and someone who threw a no-hitter at Fenway.

You can’t complain about how the Sox have done over the past 15 years with 4 championships during that span, but this team has won in a much different fashion than what many would have expected. I’ll never forget looking at this team in 2008 and thinking our rotation would be set for a decade with Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Clay Buchholz all spinning gems with Papelbon and Craig Hansen closing games out. (I’ll never forget seeing a guy on Landsdowne with a stitched Hansen jersey the WEEK he made his MLB debut. Save your money and think twice before buying a jersey kids.) Things worked out a bit differently, but can’t complain about the results.

I’ll see you again Clay, this side or the other.

 

An Emotional Hockey Moment for Your Friday

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Normally not a “sad stuff” blog but always good to do a bit of reflection.

Hockey man. Those who haven’t put the skates on just can’t quite understand why a moment like this is intense as it is. Why the passion for this game gets to this level for players, former players, fans, coaches, and of course, the mythical “hockey parent”. The game-play itself comes with a thrill that is second to none (no combination of Rugby, clumsy forays into various martial arts, or blacktop hooping have come even close for yours truly), the lows feel like the lowest parts of your life even if you’re in the second grade, and the highs feel like you’re in a packed arena hoisting the cup, even if you’re in a small rink in Hingham in front of 40 some odd, tired spectators.

So I get this kid. I get why it meant the world to him to meet Carey Price. I get why it was his mother’s last pursuit to make it happen.

Cheers to Carey price. Cheers to hockey.

(P.S: I still hate the Canadiens.)

The Bruins Just Dropped the Best Team in the NHL and Now Have a 15 Game Points Streak

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I’m in. This team is legit, I am convinced.

Bruins v Lightning is always a heavyweight bout, especially with the Lightning already over 100 points on the year and its not even March. Thats insane! The Bruins were literally 19 points behind the Lightning in the standings heading into Thursday night. It was the first time two teams with point streaks of at least 14 games had faced off in NHL history. And the Bruins took Tampa Bay behind the shed and beat them with a garden hose, 4-1.

Granted, Tampa was coming off of 3 straight OT games and was playing back to backs, but hey a win is a win and that was a statement win.

“If it wasn’t for Louis Domingue I think this game could have been 9 or 10-1,” Jeremy Roenick said on the NBC Sports postgame.

They’ve been rolling lately, but after Wednesday nights W filled with clutch goals, hard hits, and Zdeno Chara ass beatings

and Thursday’s dismantling of the best team in the NHL

I am all in.

The Bruins showed up in a big moment once again and looked excellent all night, yet only lead 1-0 after the first 2 and a half periods. Domingue was standing on his damn head once again, but after a Noel Acciari goal the flood gates opened. The Bruins scored 3 goals in 1:28 seconds to open up a 4-0 lead and Domingue proceeded to lose his shit on national TV.

It’s only one game, but the Bruins showed Thursday night that they absolutely can play with the best of the best.

Is Kanye West’s Yandhi Going to Be the Greatest Album in the History of Music? This Video Makes Me Think Yes

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I have absolutely zero idea what is going on here, but I am all about it. Kanye has been recording his upcoming album Yandhi, which was supposed to be released at the end of 2018 but got pushed back.

Now Kanye had a lot of bad press last year with his Trump tirade and received mixed reviews on his two projects Kids See Ghosts and Ye. I enjoyed both, but they each felt like a mixtape more than individual completed albums. So maybe he’s doubling down his efforts to put together something special. The guy is no stranger to tweaking his work until the last second, most notably when he essentially crowdsourced Life of Pablo and changed some songs on the albums AFTER it had already been released.

So while I have no idea what in the hell is going on in that above Kanye video, it looks like it JAMS. If Yandhi is anything like his previous christ-like self titled album, Yeezus, then we are in for a trip. Yeezus was yet another example of Kanye releasing music that was ahead of its time that seemed to be bizarre, out there, and borderline manic, but quickly implanted itself in your brain and became unforgettable.

Either way, Kanye is cooking up something.

New X-Men: Dark Phoenix Trailer Drops. Will This Be the Last X-Men Before Inevitable Marvel Reboot?

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If we’re being honest I’m pretty bummed about the inevitable reboot of X-Men now that Marvel owns the rights to the mutant characters. For better or worse I love the X-Men movies. Some are incredible like X-Men 2 and Logan. Some are god awful like X-Men 3 and Wolverine. I enjoy all of them though. So it’ll be bittersweet when Kevin Feige ultimately takes this crew out back and puts them out of their meandering misery. It’s bittersweet because we’ve seen great achievements by this cast including the first time we saw them all in X-Men: First Class, but we’ve also seen some pretty big misses in X-Men: Apocalypse. So in my brain I know Feige will probably create a better, if nothing else more cohesive, X-Men universe, but it’s still a bummer to see this franchise get rebooted AGAIN. But, hey they rebooted SpiderMan three times in 10 years and they wound up with the best Peter Parker ever put on film.

Now back to the trailer itself. It looks pretty crazy so I’m excited for that…but X-Men has a history of creating amazing trailers for pretty mediocre films a la Vinny Chase in Medellin.

Seriously just look at the Apocalypse trailer again.

That movie looks incredible. Yea, well it was not incredible. It was a convoluted mess and a waste of one of the best actors of our generation in Oscar Isaac. It currently has a 48% on Rotten Tomatoes and 52% on Metacritic. It does somehow have a 7/10 on IMDB though.

So I’m cautiously optimistic for this one though, especially because of the source material. The Dark Phoenix saga is one of the best comic book stories of all time and they completely bungled it with that disaster X-Men 3. The main problem with X-Men over the years has been inconsistency in their vision and convoluted storylines.

It looks like it could very easily go down that path with what looks like a potential Mystique death at the hands of Jean Gray. But that would be too obvious to put in the trailer right? Right?

Either way, I’ve been over Mystique for a while now. They cast a completely unknown Jennifer Lawrence in First Class, a year before Hunger Games made her a superstar, and she was great. In every X-Men movie since though she’s looked less and less interested in even being there. So if Jean Gray offs her in the first 20 minutes of Dark Phoenix I will not shed a tear.

As long as we get ALL the Fassbender.

Dark Phoenix is set to release on June 7th, 2019…barring any more delays.

PS – Are we ever gonna get the forever shelved X-Men movie starring the other Stark girl; The New Mutants? Or we just gonna let that one die on the vine despite looking pretty much done? IMDB lists the release date as August 2, 2019, but it’s already been pushed back almost 2 years at this point. Theres even been whispers through the grape vine that New Mutants could just be released straight to Hulu whenever it does come out. Yuck. So I’ll believe a firm release date when I actually see it with my popcorn and Mountain Dew in the theaters.

Golden Tate Wants to Sign With the Patriots!

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Earlier this week, former Seahawks, Lions, and Eagles wide receiver Golden Tate, who is currently a free agent, appeared on the Prostyle Podcast and let it be known that he’d love for the chance to play with TB12 & Co. next season:

“Man, I would love it. I would love it. That organization, they’ve proven to be champions year in and year out. They work hard, for sure. But you know where you’re going to be at the end of the season. You’re going to be looking at not going to the playoffs, but you’re going to be looking at maybe a first-round bye, which is key.”

“You gotta admire that organization. They do things right. They’ve been doing it for a long, long, long time. So, I’d definitely love to be a part of something like that and catch a few passes from ol’ Tommy Boy. Julian [Edelman] is a buddy of mine. I’m real good buddies with him and I’ve heard good things. Kyle Van Noy, who got traded from Detroit and has been there and has been balling out since, has said great things about the organization. I definitely would not mind going over there for sure.”

(h/t Sports Illustrated).

Sign. Me. Up.

Tate and the Patriots would be a match made in Heaven. The 31-year-old has compiled 446 receptions over the past five seasons, which included four-straight 90-plus-catch campaigns in Detroit from 2013-2017. He is one of the very best slot receivers in the game, and his high football I.Q. and route-running prowess would make Brady drool.

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This guy was an absolute stud out in the Motor City.

Yes, the Pats already have one of the game’s best slot guys in Julian Edelman, but adding someone like Tate to the mix would give opposing defenses absolute FITS over the middle of the field. Tate’s presence would allow the Pats to do what they do even better: wear down the opponent with short, quick timing routes that help move the chains and kill the clock all game long. As much as this team could benefit from a big-play receiver on the outside – especially if Gronk leaves and Josh Gordon doesn’t come back – Brady has always been much more successful with smart, possession receivers like Tate. It almost makes too much sense.

Tate has also had at least four touchdowns in every season since 2012. He also finished with the 11th-most yards after the catch at the wide receiver position last year, so he actually does have some big-play ability as well.

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With Edelman being the only receiver of note who is guaranteed to be on the field for the Pats next season, the position will obviously need to be addressed this offseason. And rather than go out and spend lavishly on a player like Odell Beckham or Antonio Brown, the team could spend far less to bring in a guy like Tate, who would probably be much more effective in the Patriots’ system anyway.

I know, I know, the team doesn’t have the best track record with free-agent wide outs, but I would be absolutely shocked if someone of Tate’s caliber and acumen didn’t work out here. Again, this one just makes too much sense. MAKE IT HAPPEN, BILL!