How Movies Inspire Us

Hungry and I are creative people. We use our creative juices and energy to create ideas, stories, concepts, and so on. With creativity, comes the need for inspiration. Lately, I haven’t been as creative as I’ve once been. I’m not writing much (besides blogging) and I don’t feel that pull to create, even though I know it would be wonderful once I start. Sometimes the best way to do it is just to start, period. However, there are other ways as well.

This past weekend, we FINALLY saw the last installment of The Hobbit movie series. We were a little late on seeing it because of conflicting busy schedules and whatnot. The Lord of the Rings trilogy on both paper and screen holds an incredibly special place in our hearts and minds. Even though The Hobbit movie series isn’t as good as the book (duh) or doesn’t come close to the Lord of the Rings movies, we still appreciate and enjoy Peter Jackson’s heart and humor. How pure Bilbo can be in the face of greed, danger, and death and how brave and understanding Gandalf can be after all things.

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As I watched, I got a twang of inspiration from the whole thing as a picture. The backdrop, the setting, the story, the characters, the heart, the battles–everything. Someone had thought of all this, someone had created this entire world, this entire story. You become inspired by a hobbit’s willing to risk the worst in order to help others, to watch good triumph evil, to see what really lies beneath people’s actions. It was a wonderful stroke of inspiration that made me want to go create my own stories and my own characters.

We don’t just watch movies because we enjoy them. We don’t just go to the movies for the popcorn, candy, and drinks. We go to the movies because they inspire us. They make us appeal to greater things and strive higher to become who we want to be. This may not apply to Love Actually (though, love can be a wonderful muse) or comedies, but next time you’re at the movies, really think about it. Let yourself become open to the experience and try to draw some inspiration from the story, the characters, the setting and see what happens. And as always, stay hungry and fit!

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*Question of the Day: What movie inspires you?

BONUS PUPPY PIC

Noke being a silly sleeper

Dec162013

Motivation Monday: Just Keep Swimming!

It’s Monday. Yes, I hear the moans and groans. But it is the start to a new week of goals and achievements! Time to get back on track with our fitness and willpower, more importantly. There are often times where the couch beckons you much louder than the squat rack or the treadmill in the gym. This happens to me as well. Resist the evil couch! Pick yourself up, no matter how unmotivated you are and just go. That’s the theme for this week: just keep going, just keep swimming. Because you will always be happy you went. One never regrets a workout unless there is an injury involved.

If you have a headache or feeling tired, go workout! I find that when these symptoms occur, a bout of exercise is the best thing to cure it! Keep the mantra in your head… just keep swimming. Here are some inspirations that I have been using lately:

The Lions vs Eagles game: it was literally blizzarding and they fought through, played through. They had to wade through half a foot of snow but they kept playing. Their skin was probably burning from the cold and they could barely see, but they went on.

It’s about to get nerdy up in here, but the quest in the Hobbit! Dwarves and Hobbits have damn short legs and they were able to get through all that terrain, climb all those mountains with bands of orcs behind them. Think about going to the gym as a quest. You must make it no matter what stands in your way–laziness or sleepiness! Fight on!!

Lastly, look to those around you for strength and motivation. I have a client who is in her later 20s, has a 6-year-old daughter, is a full-time nurse, going to school for her Master’s, oh and training for a half-marathon. She is in the gym every chance she can get. She gives me inspiration to get my butt up when I’m simply feeling lazy because that girl has her priorities straight and she is damn fit.

Never give up, never surrender! Fight past any laziness, sleepiness, or grumpiness and make your way into your workout, whatever it is. Fight hard and stay hungry and fit!

Dec142012

Midnight Showing Review: The Hobbit

If you know us, or if you’ve read this post, you know we are huge Tolkien/Middle Earth fans. So, obviously, we were at the midnight premiere of The Hobbit by the wonderful Peter Jackson & Co. Although we didn’t dress up (sigh), we were brimming with excitement. Finally! It’s out! So I was expecting to leave about 9:30/10PM to wait in line, my cousin said that there won’t be crazy lines. You never know, coming from Los Angeles and New York, we’ve both waited in hefty lines for big movies like this. So we left at 11 (took us ten minutes to get to the theatre).

We packed into the car and got there–no line. Yes! We didn’t have to wait in the cold. Plus, if we paid an extra $1 per ticket, we would get a free t-shirt. Uh, duh. So we got our shirts, our tickets, my smuggled popcorn and sat down for a 3D Dolby Atmos viewing.

Eventually, the movie started. Now with this insane amazing sound system, our ears kind of hurt. And it wasn’t just mine (I have sensitive ears, Chris calls me “wolf ears”), everyone’s was kind of ringing after. Especially battle scenes. The 3D was good, immersive, and not that silly “pop-out” kind of 3D that I hate. And for the picture…I believe it was a much faster frame rate. Now this was distracting. It looked like a filmed play, it was too realistic, and not theatrical enough. If you have an HD tv, sometime you can see this in certain shows. However, the action was pretty incredible and had a good flow. But…onto the story!

The story was pretty accurate to the book, though I haven’t read it in awhile. And he obviously split it up. I would give the Best Acting Awards to Martin Freeman (Bilbo), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), and Richard Armitage (Thorin). And of course, to Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, and Christopher Lee, though small roles in this movie they played. One thing I wished is that they made Thorin look more like a Dwarf and less like a Man. I know people were nervous about Martin Freeman playing Bilbo, but let me tell you, he was spot on. Seriously. And of course there’s Andy Serkis as Gollum who really just brings the caliber up. The riddle scene between Bilbo and Gollum was absolutely brilliant.

I started off unsure about it, how I felt, because it takes a little while to get rolling. There’s good humor with the dwarves and it’s fun to see Bilbo before he was an adventurer. By the end, after all the lore (which we love to see), fight scenes, troll scenes, and excellent dialog, I was happy. I want to see it again when it’s not 12 AM. Perhaps during Christmas week with the family.

Lastly…Howard Shore. What would the Lord of the Rings trilogy be without those held-close-to-heart themes that you know as soon as you hear them…the Shire…the Trio…Gollum’s music…It’s all Howard Shore. And he brings it back just as well this time. When we see the Shire, that familiar light-of-heart music comes on and you can’t help but smile. When Gollum comes creeping into the movie, so does his eerie music. And, with this new story (or old, if we’re talking timeline wise), he created a brilliant sound bit for the new adventure gang.

Rest assured, you will be laughing, gripping your seat, and holding your breath. Now stop reading this and go see it!

Dec112012

Nerd Movie Marathon: Lord of the Rings

Every Sunday, we try to see two movies at discounted rates before we have to work in the afternoon. However, we’ve now seen 28 movies in theaters this year, and even though we skipped Sunday (because some of the movies we wanted to see weren’t playing and mainly because I have been very sick) because we saw a triple on Saturday!

In preparation for the Hobbit, theaters were showing a marathon of all the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It clocked in at a whopping 13 hours and 27 minutes of movie watching. There were intermissions of 30 and 40 minutes in between each movie, but we wish they were shorter so we could keep watching. And we wanted more when it was over.

There were probably less than 100 people in the theater that holds 500 and the employees were saying how it was an underwhelming turnout. Basically, in terms of reviews, these are some of my favorite movies of all time. They’re all basically tens if you ask me. I have my favorite parts in each so I won’t rank them. And now we can’t wait for the Hobbit, which we have tickets for Thursday night at midnight with the family.

We got a free lanyard with a keychain, and even treated ourselves to snacks. We brought some goodies that we went to the car to eat, but we bought Skittles, Buncha Crunch (went so fast), and a large large root beer. And we renewed our AMC Stubs card, finally.

Fellowship: So happy, with beautiful landscapes and an upbeat soundtrack. Gimli in Moria.

Towers: So quotable, incredible action and big sound.

Return: The beacon is lit, Into the West incredible wrap up.

We love these movies so much which makes us so excited for the Hobbit. It was a pretty epic marathon, and we left with sore upper backs, but it was worth it. Everyone clapping, cheering, and laughing together. Everyone is so connected to these films The Shire made us want to go to New Zealand so badly. Soon! Much love to Tolkien for creating such an amazing world.