Fit’s Movie Review: The Wolverine

For once, I (Alana aka “Fit“) am writing the movie review for the superhero movie. I personally don’t think I’m qualified because I’ve never read the X-Men comic books (although I really want to *ahem*). So let me just say, if you haven’t read the comic books, you will enjoy this movie. At least I did. A few reasons include Hugh Jackman’s performance (duh), awesome battle scenes, and interesting plot. And I love anything Japanese too.

Let me doubly preface this by saying I didn’t watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I heard it was great–haha, just kidding, heard it was terrible. So I haven’t seen Wolverine’s past, but I did watch all the “X-Men” movies with the whole cast and all. So this movie is set after those X-Men movies. Jean is dead, but reappears constantly to talk to him and goad him into death so that they can finally be together. She gets pretty annoying, kinda creeps me out. But it was interesting, kind of letting the audience see what was going on in Wolverine’s head during this whole movie.

To make a long story short, Wolverine goes to Japan to visit someone he saved long ago. There are a few famous Japanese actors here such as Tao Okamoto, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Will Yun Lee which were a pleasure to see. They delivered excellent acting, creating believable roles whom you actually felt for. Hugh Jackman always steals the show, though. In any movie I’ve seen him in, he gives his all, emotion and body. It was great to see Wolverine be his badass self with the softie inside, always “playing the hero” as Jean taunts.

This movie really kicked butt in the action, battle scenes. They were fun, fast-paced, and exciting with settings like on top of a bullet train and in a huge laboratory with tons of stories. It didn’t leave you seasick like many jerky-camera action scenes in other movies, but stayed to the point and hit it where it hurt. It left me gripping Chris’ hand, hoping that she escaped, or that he didn’t get his head ripped off by a cable.

Speaking of gripping, this movie had a plot that had me guessing. I kept thinking I had it (obviously that Viper girl is evil), but then another twist would appear and throw me through a loop! I really appreciated that, it makes movie-going a more active activity, if you will, for me. The movie combined the perfect mix of suspenseful plot action in the middle of huge battle scenes, giving the audience the feel of anxiety and curiosity and even some sense of emotion for these characters.

All in all, if you aren’t picky about the background of X-Men comics, I believe you’ll enjoy this movie. Sure it’s not going to win the Best Picture at the Oscars, but it was worth the $7 ticket we paid for. I’d even get it on DVD, though I’m not sure Chris would. Fit gives this movie a definitely thumbs up. Watch “The Wolverine” to stay hungry and fit (seriously, it made me want to do some beastly workouts and learn martial arts)!

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Feb262013

What We Thought of the Oscars

Bollocks. Well–mostly. It was a tough year, tough competition, for a lot of movies and actors that deserved awards. This will be just a quick review of our night and what we thought of the beloved Academy Awards. And let me insert that I didn’t quite pay attention to all of it. However, I enjoy everyone getting together to celebrate actors and movies.

Well, our night was filled with cuteness from baby kittens to a baby human. Regardless of who won, it was going to be a good night for us–pizza, bread and brie, salad, homemade banana bread, girl scout cookies, family, and more. We came over hungry and ate a lot, watching the Awards as the night went on. We didn’t watch the pre-show where everyone shows off what they’re wearing because we don’t particularly care for it. We tuned in at 6:15 MT, right before Seth McFarlane went into his introduction.

So, McFarlane pretty much lived up to his reputation, being funny sometimes, trashy many of the times, and awkward most of the time. He was also laughing at himself a lot, which I found amusing. I didn’t hate him as a host, but would rather have Ellen DeGeneres instead (good God, she was hilarious). Now I will just highlight some of the parts we either loved or hated (maybe we are extreme-type of people).

Anne Hathaway winning Best Supporting Actress. Yay! We were happy about this and think she deserved it. Though Chris didn’t like the new Les Mis that much (because he had seen better productions of it, I thoroughly enjoyed it however), we both agreed that Hathaway threw herself into that performance and really gave it her all. That’s when I think people deserve awards, when they act through passion and really transform into the role. Cheers to you, Hathaway.

Daniel Day Lewis winning Best Actor. Okay, so yes it’s Daniel Day Lewis. And yes, he’s an incredible actor. He completely transforms himself into whatever character he’s playing. We Saw Lincoln and it was creepy how much he looked and acted like him, as if we were seeing the real Lincoln before us. He did deserve it, of course he did, it’s Daniel Day Lewis. However, Chris and I both really wanted Hugh Jackman to win it for Les Mis. He completely carried that movie, he was incredible in it. We knew Daniel Day Lewis would win, but wish somehow there could be a tie for Jackman.

Les Miserables Cast Singing. We loved when seemingly the entire cast of Les Mis came out to sing their Oscar-nominated song (I now have Les Mis Pandora station on, I’m doomed to have it in my head forever again). It was a powerful performance and great to see everyone singing. True talent there.

The Hobbit Not Winning Anything. Now, we know The Hobbit was not nearly as good as the LOTR Trilogy, but it deserved something. Make-up (how did it NOT win that), costumes, visual design–come on, something! That was something that definitely ticked us off.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi Not Being Nominated. This was Chris’ favorite movie of 2012. It was a brilliant documentary of a brilliant Sushi chef and his sons. It deserved great credit, and should’ve at least been nominated for Best Documentary. Very, very disappointing. If you haven’t seen it yet, do so. It’s on Netflix Instant.

Beasts of the Southern Wild Being Nominated for Best Picture. We obviously don’t do our research, so we were very delightfully surprised that it got a nomination for Best Picture–good for them! It was one of our favorites for the year, extremely real and honest. Chris found it the most emotionally-provoking out of all the films we saw in 2012, even more than Les Mis. There was just something about it, hard to describe. Can’t wait to get it on DVD. That little girl was amazing.

Quvenzhané Wallis being nominated for Best Actress. WOW. Speaking of “that little girl,” we had no clue she had been nominated. This was definitely a high point of the night. She was absolutely incredible. We loved her spirit, her voice, her view of the world–the acting was just flawless in our opinion. So happy to see her get recognition she deserved. She was truly amazing, she made the movie.

Life of Pi winning so many awards. We were shocked to see that Life of Pi got so many awards including Best Director! We are happy though, because we feel it deserved it, though it didn’t get as much attention in the Box Office as we thought it should have. It was great to see such a wonderful adventure and story get great recognition. And who doesn’t love Ang Lee!

Brave Beating Wreck-It Ralph in Best Animated Film. What! I know it’s Pixar, and it’s about a kick-butt little girl, but this Pixar movie didn’t live up to its other excellent movies. And Wreck-It Ralph–what a movie! It was so well done, with a star-studded cast, great humor, and awesome throw-backs for us nerds. Maybe that’s why it didn’t win, because it definitely spoke to nerds. Well whatever with awards, Wreck-It Ralph left us smiling the whole time.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but that is a quick run-down of our highs and lows for the night. Tell us what you thought, too!

Cheers!

Nov282012

Holiday Movie Review: Rise of the Guardians

I know we’re called Hungry and Fit. I know. But take this as a metaphor. We are Hungry and Fit. All the time. But there’s more to life than eating and obsessing with fitness, it’s called fun and relaxing. So here’s another movie review, presented warmly by yours truly. 😉

Rise of the Guardians. A nice holiday movie for the kids (and the rest of us). It was Black Friday Night and we were strolling the beautiful outside 29th Street Mall with family. We all got big cups of hot cocoa and enjoyed the sparkling lights on the tree and light poles. After some last-minute relaxing Black Friday shopping in an empty Macy’s (new boots, thank you very much!), the elder generation of the family decided to hit the sack, but us youngsters wanted to see a movie. Well, really just Chris and I did, but we dragged my brother, Kai, along anyhow.

Passing by the quiet ice skating rink, we slipped into the Century Boulder Theatre (which we had never attended) and saw a 9:30 showing. We were one of three other groups watching the movie–guess it’s not a real popular time or day to watch a kid’s movie. Anyhow, onto the movie! Tell me to stop story telling.

Rise of the Guardians has a great cast: Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Chris Pine, Jude Law, and Isla Fisher. All of them do an absolutely incredible job at the voice acting, they really get into it, making it that much more enjoyable for the audience. We actually couldn’t believe Alec Baldwin played Santa so we had to watch this of him live-action doing it to believe. And for any Elder Scrolls fans, Santa totally sounds like a Nord so I spent the night annoying Chris and Kai with Nord-accented Skyrim quotes. I’m sure they enjoyed it.

With top notch actors, DreamWorks did a lovely job with making it beautiful and fun CGI. Definitely visually-pleasing and enjoyable to watch. I especially loved Sandy’s effects. The imagination of the creators was what was really the best part of the show…the story, the powers, the “guardians“…all of it. I found myself leaning forward into the movie, getting really into it, it was quite captivating as any magical holiday movie should be. Probably the funniest parts of the movies was whenever the yetis were in the scene. We definitely cracked up every time they were there.

It wasn’t excellent. But it was good and we left feeling happy. A good holiday movie that gets you in the spirit for the upcoming holidays. Go see it on a winter night and don’t forget the hot cocoa.