Becky and I went to see the movie The Big Short at the AMC theater in Hollywood, CA on Thursday with Conroy, Corban and Bianca. The Fandango website at The Big Short describes the movie as follows…

“This adaptation of Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book The Big Short explores the 2008 financial crisis through the lens of four unorthodox moneymen, who foresaw the consequences of the fraudulent mortgage-lending practices of large banks on Wall Street. Christian Bale plays Michael Burry, a former hedge-fund manager who was one of the first to forecast the collapse of the credit bubble due to excessive subprime lending. Steve Carell is Mark Baum (based on the real-life Steve Eisman), a money manager who rose to fame after successfully betting against subprime mortgages…”

The Review:  If you’ve been wondering what happened to bring about the big recession of 2008 and you’re curious about how incompetent the United States government and Wall Street investors really are, then you will want to see this movie.  It has an all-star cast and they all are excellent at playing a group of eccentric investors from California, Denver and New York City who all arrive at the same conclusion – the big banks were committing fraud and packaging bad loans as “A rated paper”, when it was really junk paper.

The movie has some comedy mixed in with this tragedy about American Capitalism when it is allowed to go unchecked by corrupt government officials.  If you lived through the 2008 recession when our two incompetent Presidents, George Bush followed by Barrack Obama, came out and said how we had to save the banks with a $700 billion bailout or we would all plummet into the Abyss then you will appreciate this film.   This was even though the banks had clearly committed fraud on the American people and the United States taxpayer got to flip the bill, while the bankers ran off with their millions.

The film is very well done and it is very entertaining as a look back to just 8 years ago when some investors realized that “credit default swaps” were being packaged and sold without telling the whole story of why money was flowing to people with bad credit to buy homes.  It reminded me of the Savings and Loan scandal that we went through in the 1980’s and 1990’s, which was another financial fiasco that the Federal Reserve helped create for the American people and this sort of thing will more than likely happen again as is shown clearly at the end of The Big Short.

Conroy and I thought it was a Don’t Miss It and Corban thought it was Worth The Trip.  If you don’t pay attention in this movie and you’re not sure about what happened in 2008 you can easily get lost or find the movie really boring.  Bianca and Becky thought it was a waste of time and they didn’t like it at all.

John – ** Don’t Miss It
Becky – * Dont Bother

Conroy – **** Don’t Miss it
Corban – *** Worth The Trip
Bianca – * Don’t Bother

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant and owner of CoolCarGuy.com 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 or consign your vehicle – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter@coolcarguy

Becky and I went to see the new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens at the Chinese Mann theater in Hollywood, CA on Friday with Conroy, Corban and Bianca. The Fandango website at Star Wars: The Force Awaken describes the movie as follows…

“In this continuation of the epic space opera, a downed stormtrooper (John Boyega) goes on a journey that brings him face-to-face with heroes from the past (Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill). Directed by J.J. Abrams…”

The Review:  I saw the original Star Wars over 27 times when I was 10 years old in 1977 at the movie theater and many more times on VHS and DVD when it became available.  After Return of the Jedi, I thought the franchise went seriously downhill and started turning into more of a fantasy version of “The Days of our Lives” soap opera as they tried to make the movies as good as the first three.

Along comes Disney thats buys the rights to Star Wars for $4 billion and hires J.J. Abrams, who directed Star Trek to launch a new movie The Force Awakens, with a whole new set of stars and some of the characters from the original one.  The movie was really well done as you would expect, but it was a complete knock-off of the first three films.  I don’t wont to be a “spoiler”, but they went back to the “Luke, I am your father” situation again, only with another character, along with a female version of Yoda and even the classic bar scene.  Instead of Luke Skywalker, this time around there is a young female version of Luke who finds a droid just like R2D2 and if you’re a fan of the original Star Wars, you will see similarities to the first Star Wars, even including a bigger and more destructive Death Star.  There is even a new Obi-Wan, who arrives in the movie and will certainly be in the next one around.  I just have to wonder if the next one will be a remake of The Empire Strikes Back.

The bottom line is that there is very little new here at all.  It is definitely “The Force Awakens” because it’s a total rehash of the first one, which maybe everyone was expecting, but I thought it was supposed to be a completely new movie.  It is still entertaining for Star Wars fans and it was really well done.  We all thought it was entertaining, but I personally thought J.J.’s remake of Star Trek was actually better because the story was completely new and not a remake.  I enjoyed it enough to give it a Worth The Trip, if you’re a Star Wars fan.  Becky is not a fan though and she still thought it was Worth The Trip.

John – *** Worth The Trip
Becky – *** Worth The Trip

Conroy – **** Don’t Miss it
Corban – *** Don’t Miss it
Bianca – *** Worth The Trip

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________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant and owner of CoolCarGuy.com 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 or consign your vehicle – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter@coolcarguy

Becky and I went to see the new movie Sisters at the Hitching Post theater in Tehachapi, CA on Saturday night with Conroy, Corban and Bianca. The Fandango website at Sisters describes the movie as follows…

“SNL alumni Tina Fey and Amy Poehler co-star in this Universal Studios comedy about two daffy adult sisters, one an irresponsible single mom and the other a kindhearted nurse, who decide to throw one last wild party at their childhood home before it’s sold by their parents…”

The Review:  Sisters is one of those movies that everyone wanted to go see based on the movie trailers since it looks like it’s going to be really funny.  Especially with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler starring together in a movie about sisters and complete opposites.  Unfortunately, the film doesn’t deliver or even come close to living up to the expectations.  It has some good laughs, but overall the story is pretty lame.

The entire movie centers around two sisters who have parents that are downsizing and they are upset about their parents making this decision without them for selfish reasons.  One daughter is really responsible and the other one is pretty much a train wreck who has lived a life of partying.  They decide to throw one last party at their parents house, like they did when they were in High School and it gets out of control.  That is pretty much the entire movie.

As I mentioned, there are a few good laughs, but they are few and far between.  Sisters is like a funny Saturday Night Live skit that went far too long and eventually the joke is no longer that funny.  Three of us left the movie thinking it was “okay” and Corban and Bianca thought that it was Worth The Trip.

John – ** Rental
Becky – ** Rental

Conroy – ** Rental
Corban – *** Worth The Trip
Bianca – *** Worth The Trip

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________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant and owner of CoolCarGuy.com 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 or consign your vehicle – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter@coolcarguy

Becky and I went to see the new movie In the Heart of the Sea at the Regal Cinema in Lone Tree, CO on opening night. The Fandango website at In the Heart of the Sea describes the movie as follows…

“Ron Howard helms this adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick‘s historical novel about the harrowing high-seas encounter that inspired Herman Melville‘s Moby Dick. In the winter of 1820, the crew of the New England whaling ship the Essex struggle to survive after an attack by a rogue sperm whale leaves them stranded at sea for 90 days….”

The Review:  I was pretty thrilled about seeing a Moby Dick flick, having read the book as a kid.  Especially since it is directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth, who is the Australian actor who plays Thor in the Avengers.  Becky wanted to see it too, so we had pretty high expectations for this film.  However, I think we were expecting more than what it delivered for both of us.

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s a good film and it is directed extremely well as you would expect from Ron Howard and was fascinating being based on a true story, but the script could have been much better.  It is the true story behind the story of Moby Dick, so instead of Melville’s tale of Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, it is about the real whaler who encountered the beast that Melville wrote about.  I think that was part of the problem with the film for me is that it is entertaining and interesting, but it was almost like watching a documentary, instead of getting swept into the crazy character of Captain Ahab.

It’s a good movie, but I don’t think it’s a great movie.  It’s definitely more of a 7 than a 10 and I was expecting a 10, because at times it is boring.  It doesn’t go into enough of an explanation as to why they were whaling in the first place until the end of the movie when you find out that they need whale oil because oil from the ground had not been discovered.  I think that was a disservice to the audience because in this politically correct generation it is easy to judge the people from a hundred years ago based on the times of today.  The true story is fascinating and it’s amazing how they survived and gruesome and barbaric and from a historical sense unbelievably sad.

It is definitely a movie that is worth seeing and we suggest seeing it on the big screen because it is a big whale.  You’ll enjoy it, but you will probably leave wanting more than what it delivers.  We still thought it was worth the price of admission.

John – *** Worth The Trip
Becky – *** Worth The Trip

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________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant and owner of CoolCarGuy.com 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 or consign your vehicle – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter@coolcarguy

Becky and I went to see the new movie Creed at the AMC Theater in Castle Rock, CO on Wednesday night. The IMDb website at Creed describes the movie as follows…

“The former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Balboa serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed…”

The Review:  When I first saw the previews for Creed my initial thought was, “Are you kidding me?  Not another Rocky movie!  Come on Stallone, let it go already.”, but when we went to see the film I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought this movie was really going to suck.  Apollo Creed’s son is going to be a fighter and now we are going to get another rendition of Rocky?  Really?  Well, it was way better than I expected.

If you haven’t seen the Rocky movies I would recommend at least watching the first one, so you know about Apollo Creed, but they assume in this movie that most people have seen Rocky.  However, the younger generation may not have seen the Rocky films, so they won’t appreciate it as much as people who grew up seeing the Rocky movies.  The fight scenes are much better than the older Rocky movies, but I was waiting for Creed to say, “Cut my eye.”, like in the original Rocky film.  Actually, I’m glad they didn’t, but I almost expected them to do it.

The story is actually really good.  Rocky is played by Stallone again as you would expect, but now he is old and tired.  Fame and fortune has long since past and he has Apollo Creed’s son show up in his life asking him to train him, like “Mick” trained Rocky.  The story is similar to the original Rocky in that Creed’s son is an underdog and is not expected to be able to hang with the Champion.  It makes for an interesting story with new characters and it is directed well with really good acting.  Stallone is really good at playing Rocky and the film has heart like the original film.  It was very entertaining and we all enjoyed it.

We enjoyed it enough to rate it as a Don’t Miss It because we I’m confident that most people who will see it will like it as much as we did.

John – **** Don’t Miss It
Becky – **** Don’t Miss It

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant and owner of CoolCarGuy.com 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 or consign your vehicle – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter@coolcarguy

Becky and I went to see the new movie Spectre at the theater in Grand Junction on opening night and then I went and saw it again at the Regal Cinemas with Conroy and Corban, so you can guess how I’ll be rating this James Bond flick.

The IMDb website at Spectre describes the movie as follows…

“A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE….”

The Review:  I admit it that I’m a sucker for Jame’s Bond films and Spectre is one that I really enjoyed, so I had to see it a second time.  It’s a James Bond movie, so there is plenty of action, beautiful women and cool cars.  And of course Bond will find himself in predicaments that are impossible to get out of, but he always seems to be able to do it.

This particular Bond movie ties the other films together that star Daniel Craig, which was really cool. The opening of the film was over the top as is typical in these movies and they are really well done and take years to make, which is what you would expect from these movies.  I would definitely recommend watching Casino Royale and Skyfall before seeing this movie, if you haven’t seen them yet, so that you can see the correlation between this and the other films.  It’s hard to believe that Casino Royale was in 2006, so 9 years ago since Daniel Craig did the first movie.  We saw the last Bond film Skyfall when we were running the Rim Rock Marathon in Fruita, Colorado three years ago and we were there again to run the marathon when this new movie came out, which was pretty cool.

I thought this movie was fantastic and I would recommend seeing it.  It has plenty of action and a great story to go with it and it’s just great entertainment if you like action movies.  I’m rating it a Don’t Miss It and Becky did too.

John – **** Don’t Miss It
Becky – **** Don’t Miss It

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________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant and owner of CoolCarGuy.com 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 or consign your vehicle – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter@coolcarguy

Becky and I went to see the new movie Brooklyn at the AMC Theater in Highlands Ranch, CO tonight. The IMDb website at Brooklyn. describes the movie as follows…

“An Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a new romance. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within…”

The Review:  I wasn’t too keen on seeing this movie after reading about it, but Becky talked me into going to see it with her.  I was pleasantly surprised though because the movie was really well done.  It takes place in Ireland in the 1950’s and it is about a woman who’s family is pretty poor and with very little opportunity.

The oldest daughter wants her sister to have a better life, so she arranges to have her sent to America alone to start a new life.  The young woman arrives in America not knowing anyone and goes through the hardships of being an Irish immigrant in the 1950’s.  It has a great deal of heart and it’s a very clean and wholesome movie about what life was like for people who came to America as immigrants and had to start a new life with help from other immigrants who had come before them.

The movie moves slow at times, but the story is very well done.  She ends up going back to Ireland and has to make a decision on if she wants to remain in Ireland or go back to America, which seemed like something many women in her situation would wrestle with, so it was very realistic.  We both really enjoyed it and thought it was worth the price of admission.

John – *** Worth The Trip
Becky – *** Worth The trip

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________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant and owner of CoolCarGuy.com 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 or consign your vehicle – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter@coolcarguy

Becky and I went to see the new movie My All American at the AMC Theater in Highlands Ranch, CO on Friday of last week. The IMDb website at My All American. describes the movie as follows…

“Freddie Steinmark, an underdog on the gridiron, faces the toughest challenge of his life after leading his team to a championship season…”

The Review:  We went to see this movie with our friends Mark and Maria and Mark was complaining that he wanted to go and see the new James Bond flick, which I had already seen twice.  I have to write a review about that movie as well.  This movie My All American was one of those films where I had no idea what to expect.  Becky and I only found out that the guy was from Colorado as we were walking into the movie and Mark told us that the guy was from Westminster.

The film opens up with the coach of the Texas football team being asked about some of his All American’s and he talks about this guy Freddie Steinmark, which doesn’t make any sense to the person doing the interview.  The main character Freddie is in High School as his story begins.  He’s a big time jock, who’s whole life centers around football.  He’s a total planner who has planned his whole life out and even the girl he is going to marry.  The kid was driven!  He ends up getting denied by various schools because of his size as a football player, but lands at Texas playing for the Longhorns.  His story really starts to take off once he is playing for a team that could become National Champions.

This movie has a ton of heart.  It is a tear jerker, which I didn’t expect it to be at all and the story of Freddie Steinmark is pretty amazing.  We all really liked this movie and we highly recommend it.  It was a great flick and I am surprised that it is not getting better reviews because it’s a very good movie.  Definitely put this one on your list, even if you’re not a football fan.

John – **** Don’t Miss It
Becky – **** Don’t Miss It

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________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant and owner of CoolCarGuy.com 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 or consign your vehicle – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter@coolcarguy

Becky and I went to see the new movie Goosebumps at the AMC Theater in Castle Rock, CO last week. The Fandango website at Goosebumps. describes the movie as follows…

“Jack Black stars as acclaimed Goosebumps writer R.L. Stine in this feature-film adaptation of the popular YA book series. A teenager named Zach (Dylan Minnette) reluctantly moves from New York City to the quiet town of Madison, DE, where he quickly realizes that his reclusive new neighbor is in fact the horror author of the Goosebumps series. Zach learns Stine’s identity when he is drawn to the writer’s daughter Hannah (Odeya Rush), but soon discovers the dangerous secret inside their home — the creatures from Stine’s famous stories are real, and are kept locked away inside their original manuscripts…”

The Review:  I didn’t want to see this movie.  I went into it with really low expectations because the previews for the movie looked cheesy and I figured it would be terrible.  However, Becky and Corban met me at the theater on Tuesday night and it was just $4.50 to get into the flick with a AMC Stubs card.  I figured there wasn’t much to lose for under $5 and I was pleasantly surprised the movie was much better than expected.

This is not a great movie by any stretch that is going to win any awards, but it was entertaining.  It’s a fantasy movie about the author of Goosebumps, R.L. Stine, who I believe appears in the film kind of like Alfred Hitchcock used to do in his movies and Stan Lee does in the Marvel films.  He has his manuscripts locked up and if you open them the monsters come to life.  It’s a pretty good story and it’s a great movie for kids.  We all liked it and found it entertaining.

We thought that Goosebumps was Worth The Trip depending on who you are, but some people will find it a waste of time.

John – *** Worth The Trip
Becky – *** Worth The Trip

Sponsored By: SHAREMERCHANT.com:  Get paid to share!  Find out how you can earn $1,500 a month using and recommending products with a low cost business.  Become a Share Merchant!

Click here!

________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant and owner of CoolCarGuy.com 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 or consign your vehicle – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter@coolcarguy

Becky and I went to see the new movie Bridge of Spies at the AMC Theater in Highlands Ranch, CO on Friday night. The Fandango website at Bridge of Spies. describes the movie as follows…

“In this historical drama set during the Cold War, a Brooklyn attorney (Tom Hanks) is tasked with negotiating a prisoner exchange between an American pilot who was shot down over the USSR and a Soviet spy serving a 45-year sentence for espionage against the U.S. Bridge of Spies was directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Matt Charman and Joel and Ethan Coen….”

The Review:  Tom Hanks is an amazing actor and Spielberg is a fantastic Director, so you can expect a great movie when they come together to create a blockbuster.  The biggest challenges with this movie are that it’s very long and at times it is a bit boring, but the acting and the directing are superb.  It’s a great movie, especially if you like history, but it is long.

The movie is extremely well done though and it’s based on a true story, which makes it very interesting.  It was a great movie and most people I have talked to really enjoyed it as we did.  It’s one of the best movies that Spielberg has made in a really long time and definitely a don’t miss it.

Bridge of Spies is worth seeing at the box office and make sure you watch it when it comes out at the rental box.

John – **** Don’t Miss It
Becky – **** Don’t Miss It

Sponsored By: SHAREMERCHANT.com:  Get paid to share!  Find out how you can earn $1,500 a month using and recommending products with a low cost business.  Become a Share Merchant!

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________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant and owner of CoolCarGuy.com 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 or consign your vehicle – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter@coolcarguy