[fruitful_ibox_row]
\n[fruitful_ibox column=”ffs-two-one” title=”Fed Up”]
\nBy Jenna Beresheim
\nStaff Writer<\/p>\n
Looking for a non-shaming, obesity-epidemic-blasting documentary? Look no further than \u201cFed Up\u201d by Stephanie Soechtig.<\/p>\n
Narrated by Katie Couric and averaging a rating of 4 out of 5 stars, this documentary is well-made and definitely worth the watch. Plus it is free on Netflix.<\/p>\n
Popcorn and soda pop not included, but at only an hour and a half, snackage will not be required.<\/p>\n
Unlike some other marathon movies that require pre-apocalyptic hoarding to survive to credits, this documentary will be over in a blink. And may even make you re-consider those sugary snacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message that\u2019s been pushed on us: it\u2019s your fault you\u2019re fat,\u201d Dr. Mark Hyman, the chairman for the Institute for Functional Medicine said, in regards to the obesity epidemic in America:<\/p>\n
\u201cForget about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top scientists and board members across the country in all forms of public health take a stand to break long-standing problems in the way we view health, debunking myths such as calories are calories, regardless of what form they are in, as well as what it really means to balance diet and exercise.<\/p>\n
Instead, the focus is on sugar and how exactly it works in the body \u2014 even going so far as to compare junk food companies to tobacco companies.<\/p>\n
Following the lives of several children suffering from zobesity, the viewer gets a more personal view of the daily struggles of those who are overweight and cannot seem to break away from it.<\/p>\n
No matter how hard these children try, what they do is not working. Until they begin making the \u201cright\u201d changes to their daily life.<\/p>\n
Unlike some documentaries, this film does not force the facts upon the viewer or demand a strict allegiance to their cause be made. Instead, \u201cFed Up\u201d focuses on the facts and providing information, encouraging the public to reduce sugar intake, backing it up with all the right reasons. For those who wish to make the change to their lifestyle, this documentary offers a 10 day sugar-free challenge to break the habit.<\/p>\n
FOUR OUT OF FOUR PAWS<\/p>\n
[\/fruitful_ibox]
\n[fruitful_ibox column=”ffs-two-one” title=”Avengers: Age of Ultron” last=”true”]By Declan Hertel
\nStaff Writer<\/p>\n
In the first 10 minutes of \u201cAvengers: Age of Ultron,\u201d Captain America (Chris Evans) does a high-speed endo on a motorcycle, launches into a front-flip, and throws the motorcycle into a Hydra troop truck that spectacularly explodes upon impact. This is utterly ridiculous; it is also TOTALLY AWESOME.<\/p>\n
Those two words are the core of \u201cAge of Ultron,\u201d Joss Whedon\u2019s final foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I saw this movie at a midnight showing during its opening weekend, and throughout the entire movie the audience was laughing and cheering as the punches flew, the lasers pew-pewed, and the Hulk smashed everything.<\/p>\n
The fight choreography is without flaw and everyone gets their chance to be the butt-kicking action hero. And oh boy, do butts get kicked: \u201cAge of Ultron\u201d takes the over-the-top stylized violence of the first \u201cAvengers\u201d film and ratchets it up to 11, and then says \u201cnah, man, we can go higher.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film starts out at \u201cNuts\u201d with the fight in a European forest that includes the aforementioned motorcycle stunt and keeps pushing until it hits \u201cCompletely Freaking Bonkers\u201d in the third act. I won\u2019t spoil any other fight scenes; you\u2019ll thank me.<\/p>\n
Joss Whedon is well known for the one-liners and rapier wit he brings to his scripts, and he is on top of his game here. Every character packs as many quips as they can into the 141 minute runtime; they are almost all hilarious, and the ones that aren\u2019t are worth a chuckle.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Renner\u2019s Hawkeye delivers my favorite of the film right in the middle of the climactic battle, which ought to be a pleasant surprise to anyone who saw the first \u201cAvengers,\u201d where Hawkeye was pretty boring.<\/p>\n
To be honest, Hawkeye steals the show. Ultron (a masterful voice performance by James Spader) may have his name in the title, but Hawkeye\u2019s subplot and improved characterization really lend the film its emotional heart.<\/p>\n
The addition of a romantic subplot involving Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Bruce Banner\/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) made me skeptical at first, but Whedon\u2019s writing and the performances of Ruffalo and Johansson sealed the deal, and I was on board. Well done, Mr. Whedon. Well done.<\/p>\n
My only real complaint about the movie is that when you\u2019re driving a behemoth of a story at maximum overdrive as this movie does, bits are bound to fall off. There are a number of small happenings in the movie that are never explained and come off as useless. Whether they actually are or they\u2019re foreshadowing the next phase of the MCU, it\u2019s irritating.<\/p>\n
That said, this only mattered to me after the movie was over, and I wiped the doofy smile from my face.<\/p>\n
In all honesty, if you\u2019ve liked the MCU so far, you\u2019ll love \u201cAge of Ultron.\u201d If you hate the MCU, you\u2019ll likely hate this too. But if you\u2019re just looking for two hours of plain old escapism, you can\u2019t do much better than this.<\/p>\n
THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FOUR PAWS[\/fruitful_ibox][\/fruitful_ibox_row]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cAvengers: Age of Ultron\u201d and \u201cFed Up\u201d fuel our hearts and minds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}