Becky and I went to see the movie Triple 9 at the AMC Theaters in Castle Rock, CO on Tuesday night. The Fandango website at Triple 9 describes the movie as follows…

“Ex-soldiers Michael Atwood (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Russel Welch (Norman Reedus) lead an Atlanta criminal organization, which also includes Welch’s troubled brother Gabe (Aaron Paul) and dirty cops Marcus Belmont (Anthony Mackie) and Jorge Rodriguez (Clifton Collins Jr.). The five heisters are contracted by the Russian-Israeli mob, headed by matriarch Irina Vlaslov (Kate Winslet), to pull off a dangerous job, and they decide to create the diversion of an “officer down” call as a cover for the robbery….”

The Review:  Triple 9 is a cop movie that is similar to many of the hundreds of other cop movies that have been made over the years.  It’s very violent with murder, drug dealers, bank robberies, the Russian mafia and all the typical evil that is found in other police films.  It just seemed to have much more going on since some of the cops are bad and willing to commit murder for money.  The acting is good with several famous actors, including Kate Winslet and Woody Harrelson.  Several of the characters are not believable.

The story wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either.  It was a bit too predictable for me and Becky too and it’s a pretty long film at just under 2 hours or maybe it just seemed long because it moves pretty slow, even though there is quite a bit of action.  In the end, the movie is done pretty well, but it is somewhere between a rental and being worth the price of admission.

Becky rated it a Rental and I thought it was Worth The Trip, so it’s probably somewhere in between the two of our opinions.

We rated the movie Spotlight as a Don’t Miss It.

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

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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 movie Spotlight at the AMC Theaters in Highlands Ranch, CO when it first came out and I had forgotten to write a review about it and then it ended up winning the Oscar for Best Picture. The Fandango website at Spotlight describes the movie as follows…

“Under the direction of new editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), the Boston Globe’s elite investigative team, known as Spotlight, is tasked with delving into decades’ worth of child-abuse claims against the Catholic Church. Led by Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton), the journalists begin to uncover a massive scandal involving sexual abuse and the willful ignorance perpetrated by the Church within the city of Boston. Facing political opposition and resistance from the far-reaching influence of the Church, the reporters put together an explosive exposé on a corrupt system. Directed by Tom McCarthy and based on the true events of the 2002 investigation by the Globe…”

The Review:  Spotlight was a great movie, but it’s pretty disturbing because it shows how a community can come together to protect its secrets.  It deals with the touchy subject of child-abuse within the Catholic Church and how the church went out of its way to not just deny the allegations, but to cover them up.  I grew up as a Catholic and I have a family with a long history of Irish and Scotch-Irish Catholics, along with many Catholic friends.  This movie is very difficult to watch because you can see how people are willing to believe a lie rather than acknowledge the truth that some people are diabolical and evil.

The movie is very well done because it shows the victims of people in power and authority.  I was surprised that it won the Oscar and I really didn’t expect it to win.  I wasn’t surprised by the quality of this movie since it has a great cast, fantastic acting and directing.  It was a very moving and powerful true story that needed to be shared with the public.  The film doesn’t make an assault on Catholics as believers, but on Priests and the Catholic leadership who were and are willing to cover up their sins rather than to confess them.  That is nothing knew as we know from History that Jesus was killed by similar religious leaders seeking position over people.

Becky and I remember leaving the movie thinking, “That was a great movie, even though the topic is hard to swallow.”  It is definitely one that you will want to put on your list as a Don’t Miss It.

We rated the movie Spotlight as a Don’t Miss It.

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 The Witch at the Alamo theaters in Littleton, CO on Friday with our friends Mark and Maria. The Fandango website at The Witch describes the movie as follows…

“A devoutly Puritan family in 1630s New England is exiled from their village and struggle to survive in their new home situated on the edge of a mysterious wilderness. The sinister, witching forces in the wilderness emerge silently to terrorize the family, first by stealing the youngest of their five children. As their life-sustaining crops fail, the family falls victim to paranoia and fear as they begin to turn on one another, suspecting young teen Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) of witchcraft. With the vast majority of the dialogue culled from primary sources of the time period, Robert Eggers’ shocking debut horror feature is a terrifying glimpse into a family descending into madness…”

The Review:  The Witch is a really bizarre horror movie about a family in the 1600’s that is banished from their village to go find a place of their own with their family.  As the description explains, they situate their family next to a dark forest and strange things start happening to the family.  Initially, a baby is stolen and and the oldest daughter is thought to be the prime suspect.  It goes down hill from there though as the family is torn about by supernatural events.

This movie has been getting great reviews from a number of people, but others felt the same way that we did.  This movie was terrible.  It was not only boring, but it was disturbing with people being murdered, animals abused and characters that were total misfits in a world they didn’t understand.

It was good verses evil, but there wasn’t anything good in this movie or about this film.  Becky said it was quite possibly the worst movie she has ever seen and our friends Mark and Maria felt the same way.  It was a complete waste of time.

We all rated the movie The Witch as a Don’t Bother.

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 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 Jane Got a Gun at the AMC Theater in Castle Rock, CO on opening day. The Fandango website at Jane Got a Gun describes the movie as follows…

“In the Old West, Jane Hammond (Natalie Portman) must recruit the help of gunslinger and former lover Dan Front (Joel Edgerton) to protect her current husband Bill (Noah Emmerich) from an outlaw gang led by the relentless Colin McCann (Ewan McGregor). Directed by Gavin O’Connor…”

The Review:  Jane Got a Gun is a classic Western starring Natalie Portman as a woman who is living in a society where women are clearly second class citizens.  Her character has lived a life of hardship after her true love has gone off to war and left her alone to fend for herself.  She has a daughter and before you know it she is in a world where a beautiful woman can be used and abused by men.  Her character is continually in a desperate situation throughout the film as an outlaw gan is trying to hunt her and her husband down.

It’s a strange flick and it’s hard to watch at times because this woman’s life is pretty miserable as she settles time and again striving for that early American dream.  The movie will definitely make you appreciate living in America today with our modern conveniences, but it didn’t really do much for Becky or me beyond that since it moved pretty slow.

The movie has her character in very challenging situations and at times it is disturbing since you could see where it could be true to life in the Old West.  It made me think that life really sucked back in those days.  It is getting good reviews, but it was just a little too boring for too much of the film.  I guess we had higher expectations than what it delivered, so we are rating this one a rental.

John – ** Rental
Becky – ** Rental

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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 Finest Hours at the AMC Theater in Highlands Ranch, CO last week. The Fandango website at Finest Hours describes the movie as follows…

“This docudrama depicts the incredible true story of a daring Coast Guard rescue operation off of Cape Cod during a ferocious storm in the winter of 1952. When an oil tanker splits in half, trapping its crew aboard the sinking vessel, four brave Guardsmen set out to save them. Craig Gillespie directed this adventure drama, which stars Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Eric Bana..”

The Review:  The Finest Hours is the story of the most daring Coast Guard rescue operation in history during a monster winter storm of 1952 in a small boat in giant waves.  Becky and I had the opportunity to watch a 9News report here in Denver featuring the remaining survivor who was involved in this rescue and this story is really incredible.

The movie is great because the story is great and it shows the true grit of some of our older generations, who would put their lives on the line to save others.  There is a line in the film where Chris Pine’s character basically says that the Coast Guard tells their people that they have to go out, but it doesn’t say that they have to come back in.  That was a pretty amazing statement about the character of the men and women who serve in the United States Coast Guard and our Military because it’s true.

What these men did was exactly that and went into an impossible situation when others would have figured out a way to save their own skin and all the men on that oil tanker would have died.  The survivor interviewed on the 9News story pointed out that many of the men who were saved got married and went on to have families.  Those people wouldn’t have been born and lived had these men not been willing to put their lives on the line.  When you see this movie it will make you wonder how these people could have possibly survived.  It’s a fantastic story of American heroism.

Becky and I both really liked this movie and though it was a Don’t Miss It and Worth The Trip.

John – *** Worth The Trip
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 Hail, Caesar last week with our friends Hope and Chris at the AMC Theater in Castle Rock, CO last week.  The Fandango website at Hail, Caesar describes the movie as follows…

“Slick Hollywood fixer Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is pressed into action when superstar actor Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) is kidnapped and held for ransom by a mysterious group. Mannix races to quietly collect the ransom money without gossip columnists Thessaly and Thora Thacker (Tilda Swinton in a dual role) catching wind of the scandal. Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Jonah Hill, Frances McDormand, and Channing Tatum co-star in this comedy set in Hollywood’s golden age. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.”

The Review:  Hail, Caesar has an all star cast, including Josh Brolin,, George Clooney and a host of others, but that is the problem with this film.  There are so many movie stars that each character only gets about five minutes of time on the screen, so the movie jumps around to fit everyone into a small skit within this quirky movie.

The acting is good in this movie and there are some really good scenes, like a wild dance scene with Channing Tatum that is entertaining, but the overall story of the movie is pretty weak and it’s just way to whacky.  The film is a movie behind the movies with the main character played by Josh Brolin trying to deal with all the craziness of managing Hollywood movie stars and their personal nonsense.  This made the film pretty funny, but it jumped from one character to the next to the next to the next and before you knew it you were watching a boring movie.

I probably liked it the most of the four of us and that isn’t saying much because I am rating this one a rental, so you should just wait until it comes out on video or Netflix.

John – ** Rental
Becky – ** Rental

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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 movie Dirty Grandpa at the AMC Theater in Castle Rock, CO last week. The Fandango website at Dirty Grandpa is describes the movie as follows…

“Straight-laced lawyer Jason (Zac Efron) goes on a road trip to Daytona Beach with his horndog grandfather Dick (Robert De Niro), who was recently widowed and is eager to party hard on spring break now that he’s a single man. Along the way, Dick prods Jason to let loose and have fun, and tries to convince him that he shouldn’t get married to his controlling fiancée (Julianne Hough)…”

The Review:  Dirty Grandpa has to be one of the worst movies we have seen in quite sometime..  It opens up with Robert De Niro watching porn naked and having his own party and then went down from there.  If you can imagine?  We were kind of shocked that he would be willing to play in this role.  Is he really that desperate of an actor now?

The jokes are stupid the movie has a few times that it is funny, but most of the time it was just ridiculous and even disturbing.  It was a boring movie that wasn’t worth the price of admission and several people in our theater got up and left.  There isn’t much more to say other than that you have Zac Efron and Robert De Niro who both are popular actors in a terrible movie that could have been funny.  Instead this movie was really just crude and really stupid.

This is definitely a movie that you don’t want to waste your time seeing.

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 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 movie 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi at the AMC Theater in Castle Rock, CO. The Fandango website at 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is describes the movie as follows…

“13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is an action thriller based on the 2014 non-fiction book written by journalist Mitchell Zuckoff with the Annex Security Team. The film depicts the harrowing true story of the attack on a U.S. embassy outpost in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, which killed four Americans (including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens). After the assault begins, an ex-military security team are tasked with protecting a covert CIA base approximately a mile from the outpost. Directed by Michael Bay, the film stars John Krasinski, James Badge Dale, and Pablo Schreiber…”

The Review:  In the movie, A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson’s character is famous for saying, “The Truth?  You want the truth?  You can’t handle the truth.” to Tom Cruise’s character, while on the witness stand.  In this film, you will discover why the many of the American people can’t handle the truth about what happens in parts of the world to protect America’s interests. There are tremendous risks in parts of the world where America is not welcome and Benghazi, Libya under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was one of them.  I am going to have to get a little political in this review because I remember when this happened and what we were told by the White House.

This film shows how several former Navy Seals and special forces former military men were working to protect the CIA as contractors, when all hell broke loose and the U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens lost his life.  There was no support from the United States for apparently political reasons or because of incompetence that cost American lives.  This movie shows the true story of what really transpired from the people who were actually there, but once again Hollywood took liberties to protect political interests.

The film didn’t discuss how Hillary Clinton was in charge of this fiasco.  It leaves out how her and President Obama sold the American people that it was all about an anti-muslim video that created a Muslim protest in Benghazi on the anniversary of September 11th.  That was really disappointing about the film because you left wondering if Hillary Clinton paid to have the facts about what she did withheld from the film now that she is running for President of the United States.

There is a level of incompetence that is shown in this film with nobody in the United States military responding to the crisis that is unbelievable and will make you angry.  It’s hard to tell your kids to join the military today, knowing that Washington doesn’t support our people anymore other than with lip services, but will leave our citizens to die in order to protect their own political interests.  It is pathetic.  These “secret soldiers” had to hold off a small army to save the lives of others and they really didn’t have to do it as civilians.

There is some very interesting dialogue in the movie, such as when the CIA Chief bashes these military guys and makes a point to tell them how he went to Harvard implying how stupid they are.  Later he thanks them for saving his life and that put things in perspective.  The movie is really well done and what these guys did was nothing short of incredible.  We really enjoyed it and thought it was one of the best films we had seen all year.

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

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Becky and I went to see the movie The Revenant at the Regal Cinema in Lone Tree, CO tonight with our friends Tammy and Bruce. The Fandango website at The Revenant describes the movie as follows…

“In 1820s America, frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) joins a pelt-gathering expedition along with his teenage son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck). When attacks by Arikara Indians claim the lives of many of the men in the party, Glass leads a small group on a new path back to a U.S. fort. While attempting to hunt game on the journey, Glass is mauled by a grizzly bear and horribly wounded. Assumed he’ll be dead soon, Glass is left under the care of roughneck John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), and the young and inexperienced Jim Bridger (Will Poulter) as Hawk watches on in horror. Fitzgerald betrays Glass and leaves him for dead, alone and unarmed. Glass nurses himself back to health and charts a course of revenge. Alejandro González Iñárritu directed this pulse-pounding epic…”

The Review:  Leonardo DiCaprio should win an Oscar for his role in this film.  His acting is amazing, even if for much of the film he doesn’t say anything and a bit like Tom Hanks character in the movie Castaway where he is alone most of the time.  This movie has some of the best cinematography I’ve seen in a film in a long time and speaking of long, this film is really long!  It is not politically correct by any stretch, which is refreshing because early America was not politically correct.  The film shows how the Native American tribes were not all nice guys, like so many want to portray today.  The Sioux killed the Pawnee the same way that the French and Americans killed the Sioux and other tribes, along with one another.  It was everyone against everyone in a fight for survival and territory.  The reality that the Native Americans were not all friendly to one another, but in fact were just as brutal as the American settlers.  Which you definitely do not see very often in movies, unless you are watching a documentary.

I think that is one of the great aspects of this movie is that early American history was worse than an episode of Naked and Afraid. It is easy to forget and just be thankful to have a warm roof over your head.  There is a scene early on where Hugh Glass, played by DiCaprio, is mauled by a grizzly bear and it is incredible and hard to watch.  The movie is just amazing in its realism.  It’s slow at times, but the will to live and survive and what this man endures is amazing.

The Director should win an award for this movie too, along with Tom Hardy who was awesome as well.  This film shows how low the life expectancy actually was for many of the traders living in the wild frontier.  Especially, in places like Colorado where you could freeze to death, be killed by wildlife or murdered by your fellow man.  The movie will really make you appreciate that we do not have to endure the challenges that the first settlers had to go through colonizing America today.  We have other challenges of course, but someone or some animal isn’t trying to kill you when you go out for a run in your neighborhood.

In the Hollywood world of ridiculous special effects and completely unrealistic action films or just plain stupid movies, it was refreshing to have a film that was so realistic and so well done.  The word revenant means “a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead.“, which is a really clever movie title.  We all really liked it and Becky and I thought it was a Don’t Miss It.  I am not sure what Tammy thought, but I think she liked it and I know Bruce really liked it.  It is disturbing at times, but it’s definitely a don’t miss it in our opinion.

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 movie Point Break at the Regal Cinema in Lone Tree, CO tonight with our boys Conroy and Corban. The Fandango website at Point Break describes the movie as follows…

“Undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey) infiltrates a group of extreme athletes who are using their specialized skills to pull off a series of complex crimes. This action thriller is a remake of the 1991 cult hit of the same name, and features a number of real-life extreme athletes performing the stunts, which include free rock climbing, wingsuit flying, and motocross riding…”

The Review:  The original Point Break was a great flick, one of my favorites, so I had high hopes for this new release of the cult classic.  I read a few reviews that were not very good, but we wanted to see it anyway.  We went to see it and I had mixed emotions about if it would be any good compared to the original.  This version was not nearly as good at the original, since it went from a few adrenaline surfers looking for a huge wave and robbing banks to a quest for an environmental corporate retaliation.

The original made the bad guy bank robbers out to be surfers looking for an endless Summer with a surfing break, which is the whole idea of the name point break.  This new version is about a quest to do eight different extreme sport challenges to achieve nirvana or reach your breaking point and taking out corporations in the process, as a way of giving back to the Earth.  The extreme sports are cool, but there isn’t much substance to the film like the original and they almost make the bad guys out to be good guys, which detracted from the film.  Even the FBI agent of Johnny Utah is not officially in the FBI and apparently good at every extreme sport imaginable.  It was a bit ridiculous.  Contrast that with the original where he had to learn how to surf and Bodie and his girlfriend taught him how.

We still liked it, but it wasn’t really much like the original point break, so don’t expect to see anything close to the original other than the names of the characters.  It still thought it was Worth The Trip as a stand alone film because of the cinematography and extreme sports element.

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

Conroy – *** Worth The Trip
Corban – *** 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