Becky and I went to see a sneak preview of Atonement at the Esquire theater in Denver last week. The Yahoo website at Atonement describes the movie as follows:

“In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Briony’s vivid imagination. Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the educated son of the family’s housekeeper, carries a torch for Briony’s headstrong older sister…”

The Review
Atonement is a great classic movie with fantastic acting, plenty of emotion and a very interesting story. This movie will drain you emotionally, which is what it’s intended to do, but it will totally suck you in and it’s worth the emotional drain. Atonement is easily one of the best films of the year.

It’s very well done and has a strong message on how the choices we make can lead to disaster and regret. Some things in life that are done cannot be undone. The settings and the situations that transpire are really tragic that will make you appreciate that you didn’t have to go through a World War. It’s just a really good film for a change. With all the terrible movies that Hollywood put out this past year, this is getting our vote as possibly the best movie of the year.

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 with JFR & Associates 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

Tune In The Cool Car Guy Show Every Monday – Thursday 10AM – 11AM MST on CastleRockRadio.com

Becky and I went to see a sneak preview of The Golden Compass at the AMC theaters at Flat Irons Crossing on Friday night. The Yahoo website at The Golden Compass describes the movie as follows:

“Based on author Philip Pullman’s novel, ‘The Golden Compass’ is an exciting fantasy adventure, set in an alternative world where people’s souls manifest themselves as animals, talking bears fight wars, and Gyptians and witches co-exist. At the center of the story is Lyra (played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards), a 12-year-old girl who starts out trying to rescue a friend who’s been kidnapped by a mysterious organization known as the Gobblers – and winds up on an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well. The cast includes Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, and Ian McShane.”

The Review
The Golden Compass is a the controversial children’s film written by the atheist author Phillip Pullman who supposedly has said that his whole intention was to write a book that kills God. The whole notion of that is completely absurd and ridiculous, but even with his goofy religious views aside, and I do mean religious since it takes more faith to believe that God doesn’t exist than that he does. In fact, if you write a book that you’re going to kill God and yet you claim that you don’t believe that God exists, okay, I won’t go there.

However, I will say that I love talking to people who are so foolish that they claim to know everything there is to know in the unknown Universe that they can actually claim that they are convinced that God doesn’t exist. It’s actually laughable. At least the Agnostic is smart enough to say that he or she doesn’t know if there is a God, but someone who claims to be an atheist is a fool.

That’s the problem with this film, it’s rather foolish. There are plenty of great special effects. The characters are interesting, including the beautiful Nicole Kidman, but it reminded me of Harry Potter meets The Davinci Code. Like Harry Potter there is a battle between good and evil with a child that has special wizard skills, but like The Davinci Code there is a great conspiracy with the Church denying the existence of dust and a giant cover up. Keep in mind that this is supposed to be a children’s film, but it’s too adult with an agenda.

That’s really the problem with this film. I didn’t have a problem with the movie’s message, even with the animal spirit guides being called “demons”, which was obviously a ploy to tick some parents off. I just thought it was boring. I think that it over-promised and under-delivered since there was so much hype surrounding the movie.

Our advice is to wait for the Rental or Don’t Bother and if you take your kids they will probably be pretty bored, unless they are older kids. I know my nephew Sterling in Florida liked it.

John – ** Rental
Becky – * Don’t Bother
Barney: Let’s Go on Vacation
_________________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with JFR & Associates 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 Stormbreaker divx

Tune In The Cool Car Guy Show Every Monday – Thursday 10AM – 11AM MST on CastleRockRadio.com

Becky and I went to see Hitman at the AMC theaters in Highlands Ranch, Colorado on Friday night. The Yahoo website at Hitman describes the movie as follows:

“The “Hitman” is a genetically-engineered, elite assassin known only as Agent 47. His hallmarks are lethal grace, unwavering precision, and resolute pride in his work. But even 47 couldn’t anticipate a “random equation” in his life exactitude: the unexpected stirrings of his conscience and the unfamiliar emotions aroused in him by a mysterious Russian woman.”

The Review
Hitman is a movie made from a video game and it is like watching someone playing a video game. If that sounds like something worth paying $9 to do than go see this movie and waste some time and money. Otherwise you would be better off staying home and watching your kids play a video game. It’s non-stop violence with a plot that is far too obvious with really bad acting to go along with it.

For example, the Hitman walks around train stations in Russia with a bald head and a bar code on the back, while the entire Russian government is chasing him, but nobody can find him. The Director could have at least put on a baseball cap as a disguise and I don’t think it would have thrown them over budget. The audience is supposed to believe that nobody can find this suit and tie wearing bald assassin who stands out like Shaquille O’Neal in Chinatown.

A shoot-em up, hand to hand combat movie with double crosses from the Russian government and help from the CIA that is really goofy and has been done too many times before only with new characters. It’s as though they wrote the script while sitting at Starbucks after a Hollywood executive said, “Hey, there are a ton of people who play this video game Hitman, let’s make a movie about it.”

At best wait for the Rental or Don’t Bother.

John – * Don’t Bother

Crime Fiction trailer

Becky – * Don’t Bother

_________________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with JFR & Associates 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

Tune In The Cool Car Guy Show

Every Monday – Thursday 10AM – 11AM MST on CastleRockRadio.com

Becky and I took the kids to see Enchanted at the AMC theaters in Highlands Ranch, Colorado on Saturday. The Fandango website at Enchanted describes the movie as follows:

“The tale follows the beautiful princess Giselle (Amy Adams) as she is banished by an evil queen (Susan Sarandon) from her magical, musical animated land – and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn’t operate on a happily ever after basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) who has come to her aid – even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince (James Marsden) back home – she has to wonder: Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?”

The Review
Enchanted

America the movie

is a classic Disney movie that is a great family film like the old Walt Disney movies. If you’re single or double income with no kids this probably isn’t your movie. If you have little kids like ours, ages 9, 7 and 6 that want to see a clean and funny movie with a princess, prince, wicked witch and a dragon than this is the movie.

Enchanted also beat out all the competition at the box office, so obviously there are plenty of people like The Boyd’s looking for good clean family films to take their kids to the movies. Great job on the part of Disney to deliver a blockbuster for the Thanksgiving holiday.

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

The Kids Review

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

_________________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with JFR & Associates 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

Tune In The Cool Car Guy Show Every Monday – Thursday 10AM – 11AM MST on CastleRockRadio.com

I went to see Beowulf at the AMC theaters in Highlands Ranch, Colorado last night. The Fandango website at Beowulf describes the movie as follows:

“The ninth century Old English epic poem chronicles the exploits of Beowulf (Ray Winstone), a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the indomitable monster Grendel and later, Grendel’s mother, who begins killing out of revenge.”

The Review
Beowulf is an animated epic adventure that is amazingly real to life. After about 10 minutes you forget that you’re watching an animated film. It’s very well done. It’s not a kid’s film though as it’s extremely violent and has a number of sexual situations.

The characters are really cool and if you’re not into fantasy don’t bother seeing this one. Becky didn’t want to see it, but I really like fantasy flicks when they are done well. A buddy of mine called me and told me to go and see it. I was going to pass, but I’m glad I went to it.

If you like fantasy films like Lord of the Rings and other adventure type films you should like Beowulf. Otherwise you will want to wait for the rental or skip it all together.

John – *** Worth The Trip
_________________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with JFR & Associates 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

Tune Into The Cool Car Guy Show Every Monday – Thursday 10AM – 11AM MST on CastleRockRadio.com

Becky and I went to see The Mist at the AMC theaters in Highlands Ranch, Colorado on Thanksgiving night. The Fandango website at The Mist describes the movie as follows:

“Following a violent thunderstorm, artist David Drayton and a small town community come under vicious attack from creatures prowling in a thick and unnatural mist. Local rumors point to an experiment called “The Arrowhead Project” conducted at a nearby top-secret military base, but questions as to the origins of the deadly vapor are secondary to the group’s overall chances for survival. Retreating to a local supermarket, Drayton and the survivors must face-off against each other before taking a united stand against an enemy they cannot even see.”

The Review
The Mistis the latest Stephen King novella turned into a movie and it stinks as bad as so many of his previous films. There are very few Stephen King movies that I’ve ever seen that are worth recommending. The best was probably Salem’s Lot and after that they have all been down hill. I’ve always been up for a good horror movie, like Dracula, Frankenstein or the Werewolf, but this movie is ridiculous and pathetic.

The entire story takes place in a supermarket grocery store after a mist forms bringing with it giant pre-historic bugs that supposedly have come in from a parallel world that has been opened up by the military working with time travel. That in itself was stupid. It would have been more believable that the military was conducting some high-tech laboratory experiment to create the ultimate super weapon that went wrong. However, that still wouldn’t have saved this film. It was terrible. Like a buddy of mine said, “Sounds like a remake of The Fog only with bugs.”

As bad as that movie was, The Fog was actually better than The Mist. The characters in this film are absurd, the events that take place are ridiculous and the movie is disturbing, annoying and boring. The ending really sucks too when the only Hero of the film kills his own son after spending almost two hours trying to save him from being a bug Lunchable. How goofy is that?

This isn’t even a good rental. Our advice would be to skip it. Maybe we’ll get lucky and some Hollywood executive will remake Salem’s Lot one of these days.

John – * Don’t Bother
Becky – * Don’t Bother

_________________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with JFR & Associates 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

Tune Into The Cool Car Guy Show Every Monday – Thursday 10AM – 11AM MST on CastleRockRadio.com

Becky and I went to see August Rush at the AMC theaters in Highlands Ranch, Colorado tonight. The Fandango website at August Rush describes the movie as follows:

“Twelve years ago, on a moonlit rooftop above Washington Square, Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell), a sheltered young cellist, and Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a charismatic Irish singer-songwriter, were drawn together by a street musician’s…”

The Review
August Rushis a great movie! Forget what the critics say about this film, the audience actually applauded at the end. Unlike the other movie we saw last week with a catchy title, No Country for Old Men, August Rush doesn’t have people being shot for no reason that the critics can get excited about. Quite the contrary, this is a heart warming and moving story with music as good as that of a classic film like Mr. Holland’s Opus.

Sure, the story is a bit unrealistic, but it grabs you with awesome characters, fantastic acting and a great story even if it was a bit over the top. It gives the audience everything that we want emotionally and why we go to the movies in the first place.

It stars that cute kid from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Robin Williams in a different role than we are used to seeing him in and Kerri Russell. It’s a great family film for Thanksgiving and although it’s rated PG and fine for kids, our kids that are under 10 would probably have been bored with the movie.

This is one of the few movies this year that we really think you’re not going to want to miss.

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

_________________________________________________________________________

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with JFR & Associates 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

Tune Into The Cool Car Guy Show Every Monday – Thursday 10AM – 11AM MST on CastleRockRadio.com

Becky and I took the kids to see Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium at the AMC theaters in Highlands Ranch, Colorado on Saturday. The Yahoo website at Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium describes the movie as follows:

“Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is the strangest, most fantastic, most wonderful toy store in the world. In fact, it’s a magic toy store and everything in it comes to life–including the store itself. The emporium asks only one thing of its customers–you must believe it to see it.”

The Review
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporiumis a strange kid’s film starring Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman about a magical toy store, its owner and employee. The film is is rated G, but be forewarned that kids under five will probably be bored during many parts of this movie. We noticed man of the little kids were really bored and wanted to leave the movie theater.

The movie is cute, but it’s a bit serious at times since the story itself is about a passing of the guard for the toy store. We all liked it and thought it was worth the trip. It’s definitely silly and at times a bit dull, but overal we all enjoyed it.

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

The Kids Review

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

Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with JFR & Associates 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

Tune Into The Cool Car Guy Show Every Monday – Thursday 10AM – 11AM MST on CastleRockRadio.com

Becky and I went to see No Country for Old Men tonight at the AMC theaters in Highlands Ranch, Colorado after reading the reviews at the Yahoo movie website about how great this movie was supposed to be. The Yahoo website at No Country for Old Men describes the movie as follows:

“Set in West Texas, a man on the run with a suitcase full of money is pursued by a number of individuals.”

The Review
No Country for Old Men is supposed to be a great movie according to the critics and the Yahoo website users, who all apparently have no taste in movies whatsoever. It stars Tommy Lee Jones and some other actors, including Woody Harrelson and it’s non-stop violence like Pulp Fiction or Scarface from start to finish.

You watch this crazy murderer go around killing everyone from start to end. It’s worse than the History of Violence and it’s a total and complete waste of time. By the end of the movie you’re numb to all the killing and the worst part is that the killer gets away and it ends. That’s it. End of story.

Another crummy movie produced by Hollywood whacko’s that is definitely not worth the price of admission. Our advice is to save your money and go see something else. Everyone who saw it in the theater we went to couldn’t believe how bad the ending was and how meaningless the film was, so we were not alone in this opinion. Save your money on this one.

John – * Don’t Bother
Becky – * Don’t Bother
_________________________________________________________________________
Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with JFR & Associates in Denver, Colorado and the host of The Cool Car Guy Show on Castle Rock Radio.com. 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

Becky and I went to see Lions for Lambs last night at the AMC theaters in Highlands Ranch, Colorado with our friends Rod and Kimberly. The Yahoo website at Lions for Lambs describes the movie as follows:

“Two determined students at a West Coast University, Arian and Ernest, follow the inspiration of their idealistic professor, Dr. Malley, and attempt to do something important with their lives. But when the two make the bold decision to join the battle in Afghanistan, Malley is both moved and distraught. Now, as Arian and Ernest fight for survival in the field, they become the string that binds together…”

The Review
Lions for Lambs was worse than the low expectations I had for the film going into it. It started out half interesting with three different characters, a news reporter for a major television network played my Meryl Streep; a politician wanting to gain the White House, played by Tom Cruise; and a University professor of political science trying to have an impact on his students, played by Robert Redford. Each of these people saw the War on Terror in a different way and they were all trying to offer solutions to the problem on an individual level based on their roles in life.

Bring in two bright students from the professor’s class who joined the Special Forces to make a difference, instead of going on to Graduate School. They get shot down over Afghanistan on a covert military operation put in place by the aspiring politician. We learn about their goals in life to change the world and change America from the professor who explains their lives and the mistake they’ve made going into the military to another student in his class.

Fast forward about an hour or so and the audience sees the injuries of the two hero’s in the film and their fight for life with the enemy as they run out of bullets and are eventually killed in battle. The movie ends and the credits role with everyone leaving the theater feeling like they just wasted their time. Yes, that’s how stupid this movie really is. As our friend Rod put it, “It’s like it ended in Chapter 3 of Chapter 10.”

There was nothing to this movie other than some anti-war, anti-American hype. The message is given to us by three actors who can scoot around the world on their private jets, get every amenity in life for self-indulgence that they desire from the profits they make from films like this one and then complain about the problems with materialism and capitalism in America and abroad. It’s an amazing form of modern hypocrisy.

Lions for Lambs pulled in about $7 million over the weekend, so I wonder how much of that profit will go to pay for new schools in the inner city since the actors are so anti-captalism. I think we all know the answer. For all the talk about “action” in this film – there was none.

It’s a ridiculous movie that went nowhere and was a complete waste of time. We all know that politicians lie, journalists no longer report the truth, youth is foolish, but now we can add to that list that good actors don’t know how to pass on a terrible script.

John – * Don’t Bother
Becky – * Don’t Bother
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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with JFR & Associates in Denver, Colorado and the host of The Cool Car Guy Show on Castle Rock Radio.com. 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