John & Becky’s Movie Review of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Becky and I took the boys and Bianca to see the new movie Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief on opening week at the AMC theaters in Highlands Ranch, CO. The Fandango website at Percy Jackson and the Olympians describes the movie as follows:

“Trouble-prone teen Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out school — but that’s the least of his problems. The gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters seem to have walked out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology texts and into his life…”

The Review
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is based on a children’s book series kind of like Harry Potter in a young boy who has magical powers, but instead of being a wizard he’s the son of the ancient Greek god. I started reading this book, but I didn’t like it quite as much as Conroy and his friends did. It’s a huge hit though since the girl sitting next to us in the film was seeing it for the second time after opening night!

Conroy didn’t like it as much as Corban since he had read the books and it was quite a bit different than the books. For example, the heroin girl, who is the daughter of Athena in the book has blonde hair, but in the film she is a brunette. That didn’t sit well with Conroy, but the whole story was bit too silly for Becky and I. I think I would rather see Clash of the Titans in April and see how they deal with the gods of ancient myth and legend.

One thing of interest, is that if you read the Book of Enoch, which is mentioned in the book of Jude in the Bible it talks about how the angels came down to Earth and had children with women and created “hero’s of old, men of renown”, see Genesis 6:1-4, which were also the giants mentioned throughout various places of the Old Testament. The most famous of which is Goliath, who David slew with God’s help to become King of Israel. Goliath was over 11 feet tall, so that would definitely be a huge man even by NBA standards and could have been considered “god like” by many people of ancient times.

I find it quite fascinating that the ancient Greeks had this same belief that their “gods” came down and had relations with women to create what were known as demi-gods, such as Hercules, Achilles and others, which is what Percy Jackson is in this film. There is a very good essay on this topic from a Biblical perspective called “Giants: Heroes of Old” that is online, if you care to read it and sheds some light onto how many ancient “myths” may not be myths after all depending on what you believe.

In the end, this film was entertaining and our kids really liked it. I thought it was a good rental and so did Becky, but all three of our kids thought it was definitely Worth The Trip.

John – ** Rentalz
Becky – ** Rental

Conroy – *** Worth The Trip
Bianca – **** Don’t Miss It
Corban – **** Don’t Miss It
_________________________________________________________________________
John Boyd

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

John & Becky’s Movie Review of The Wolfman

Becky and I went to see the new movie The Wolfman a couple of weeks ago at the AMC theaters in Highlands Ranch, CO. The Fandango website at The Wolfman describes the movie as follows:

“Though absent from his ancestral home of Blackmoor for many years, aristocrat Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) returns to find his missing brother at the request of the latter’s fiancee, Gwen (Emily Blunt). He learns that a creature has links to…”

The Review
The Wolfman was very true to the original Wolfman with Lon Chaney Jr and had some good special effects and cinematography. It’s a pretty graphic film, with a little too much gore and that would be the worst part of the movie. However, I guess you might expect that for a story about a guy who turns into a wolf and terrorizes and eats people. The special effects pretty wild. This film was a great remake of the old classic in black and white only with a few new twists. Parts of it were stupid though.

The screenplay was unusual and Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro were good together. I liked the movie more than Becky did and I thought it was in between a Rental and Worth The Trip. Becky thought it was a rental and didn’t like it that much. I think she fell asleep in part of it, but she’s not a big fan of science fiction films either.

John – *** Worth The Trip
Becky – ** Rental
_________________________________________________________________________
John Boyd

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

John & Becky’s Movie Review of Shutter Island

Becky and I went to see new movie Shutter Island on Friday night at the AMC Theaters in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

I’m a bit behind on the movie reviews again. I got pretty busy last week since I was moving my office as The Cool Car Guy to a new location. I need to write a couple movie reviews this week, but I wanted to get this one up for Shutter Island since it did $40 million at the box office this weekend.

The Fandango website at Shutter Island describes the movie as follows:

“The project centers on a U.S. marshal (Mark Ruffalo) who along with his new partner (Leonardo DiCaprio) travels to a Massachusetts island to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane. During their inquiry , the two encounter a web of deceit, experience a hurricane and become involved in a deadly inmate riot that leaves them trapped on the island. Ben Kingsley will play Dr. Cawley, the hospital’s enigmatic chief physician who must reluctantly play host to the two U.S. marshals…”

The Review
Shutter Island is a film that has great actors, incredible acting and Directing, but the story is totally whacked. We were really looking forward to this film because they have been advertising it for so long and we figured it would be great with the all star cast. However, it’s extremely graphic with disturbing violence and all kinds of stuff going on in the film that makes you cringe at times. It takes place inside of a mental hospital on an island that there is no way out and you don’t know who’s insane and who is normal.  It’s a bit nuts as you might expect.

It does keep your interest, but it moves really slow, it will keep you guessing for sure, but it’s too disturbing. The main character, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is brilliant in this movie, is dealing with some serious mental issues from his past with flashbacks to World War II and the Nazi camps.  You will see scenes with bodies everywhere and it’s a bit horrific. He has witnessed some sick events in his life and he believes that his wife has been murdered and a woman he’s looking for on the island is locked up for killing all of her children. At least, you think that’s what happened or maybe not?

The theater on Friday was packed. However, by the time the movie is over we both left thinking it was a rental at best and many people who were leaving didn’t like it that much either. We didn’t enjoy the movie because of the outcome and the reality of the insanity that is taking place. It will definitely make you shutter when you discover what’s really going on at Shutter Island and it was a let down.  This is not a film with a happy ending for sure, but was far too depressing for our liking.

John – ** Rental
Becky – ** Rental
_________________________________________________________________________
John Boyd

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

John & Becky’s Movie Review Of From Paris With Love

Becky and I went to see the new John Travolta movie From Paris With Love this Weekend at the Kerasotes theaters in Castle Rock, CO. The Fandango website at From Paris With Love describes the movie as follows:

“A low-ranking intelligence operative (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) working in the office of the U.S. Ambassador in France takes on more than he bargained for when he partners with a wisecracking, fast-shooting, high-ranking U.S. agent (John Travolta) who’s been sent to Paris to stop a terrorist attack…”

The Review
From Paris With Love is the new John Travolta flick that came out this weekend and we were surprised by this movie. There is plenty of violence and it’s quite graphic at times, but the story and the characters were really interesting. It’s directed by the same guy who did Transporter and Transporter 2, so there are some action sequences with the beloved Audi again, with a great chase scene.

it’s violent like the Transporter and Taken movies that Pierre Morel Directed and John Travolta’s character is violent, but very funny that helps alleviate the violence. He does a great job with his main character and so does Jonathan Rhys-Meyers who plays his side-kick, analytical, wanna-be secret agent.  The film has plenty of twists and turns with a good story. There are a number of parts that are not believable, as you might expect in an action film.

Overall, this movie was a surprise. It’s probably a rental for most people, but we both liked the film for an action flick, other than the violence being a bit over-the-top at times. We would have to say that it was Worth The Trip though.

John – *** Worth The Trip
Becky – *** Worth The Trip
_________________________________________________________________________
John Boyd

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

John & Becky’s Movie Review of Edge of Darkness

Becky and I went to see the new Mel Gibson movie Edge of Darkness last week at the Kerasotes theaters in Castle Rock, CO. The Fandango website at Edge of Darkness describes the movie as follows:

“As detective Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) is investigating his activist daughter’s murder he uncovers a corporate cover up along with government collusion that brings the unwanted attention of an agent whose job is cleaning up evidence of a crime…”

The Review
Edge of Darkness is a suspense thriller about a cop, played by Mel Gibson, who loses his daughter who works for a company that is involved with the U.S. government in manufacturing weapons. The story is very good, the acting is good, but the film is extremely graphic. It was much more graphic than we expected it to be, but it was also done really well. The character’s were believable.

Frankly, I’m kind of burned out on Mel Gibson like many movie goer’s are after his whacky world off screen, which is about as nuts as Lindsey Lohan. We didn’t go into this film with great expectations and I was expecting to see something on the same level of a Sylvestor Stallone movie with plenty of unrealistic action done by an aging actor. This movie didn’t do that though. Mel’s character was actually believable and his gun did the majority of the damage in this movie, much like an old Dirty Harry film.

There were some interesting twists, turns and characters in Edge of Darkness that kept the movie stimulating. If there was a big flaw it was that the film was far too graphic showing people being killed and it was disturbing. Be forewarned that this film is definitely rated R for the graphic violence, so keep the kids at home.

John – *** Worth The Trip
Becky – *** Worth The Trip
_________________________________________________________________________
John Boyd

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy