Becky and I took the kids to see the movie Hoot this Weekend. The Fandango website at Hoot describes the movie as follows:

“After moving from Montana to Florida, a youth becomes aware of a threat to a local population of endangered owls. Together with his new friends, he takes on corrupt politicians, greedy land developers and ignorant lawmen in a fight to protect the birds.”

The Review
Hoot was a cute movie that lived up to the movie trailer, but was not a great film by any stretch. Our older son Conroy, who is now 8, liked it more than Bianca and Corban did. It had a few laughs and kept your interest with a story about saving owls from the evil land developers trying to build their 100th pancake house. Unfortunately, every character in the story was stupid except for the three main characters and Jimmy Buffet the school teacher. It wasn’t really believable on any level.

For example, there is a part in the film where a diliquent kid, the hero of the film, gets bitten by a Rottweiler dog. His friends take him to the hospital the next day with a minor bite on his arm. Once at the hospital, the kids lie, so that the boy can get health insurance coverage by using the main character’s name. He flees the hospital after about 10 minutes like a super hero. It was not believable that the doctors, the parents and everyone other than the three kids are ding dongs.

I don’t want to wreck the movie because it’s a nice and fun kids film for the right age group. It was a cute movie, if you look past the fact that it was not realistic and simply a feel good film.

Becky and Conroy liked it more than our other two kids and myself.

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

The Kids Review
Corban – ** Rental
Bianca – ** Rental
Conroy – *** Worth The Trip
_________________________________________________________________________
Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with Centennial Leasing & Sales 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

Becky and I went to see “American Dreamz” this evening. The Yahoo Movie website at American Dreamz describes the movie as follows:

On the morning of his re-election, the President decides to read the newspaper for the first time in four years. This starts him down a slippery slope. He begins reading obsessively, reexamining his black and white view of the world, holing up in his bedroom in his pajamas. Frightened by the President’s apparent nervous breakdown, his Chief of Staff pushes him back into the spotlight, booking him as…

The Review
Becky and I have yet to watch the popular television show American Idol, so this movie gave us a glimpse into the zany world of this pop-culture phenomenon. The movie had a few good laughs, if you have a sick sense of humor, but only because it was so completely ridiculous.

The portrayal of the President, who was supposed be President Bush, played by Dennis Quaid, was downright offensive even if you’re not a fan of Bush. It was just ridiculous how stupid they made him out to be with a crazy Dick Cheney calling all the shots through a microphone in his ear. Every character in this film is nuts. However, the situations and personalities in the film are pretty funny, but overall the movie stinks. The ending was very disturbing and downright mean spirited that wrecked whatever laughs that we sat through.

Our advice for you on this one is to skip it all together.

John – * Don’t Bother
Becky – * Don’t Bother _________________________________________________________________________
Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with Centennial Leasing & Sales 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

Becky and I went to see “Mission Impossible: III” on Friday. The MovieFone website at Mission” Impossible III describes the movie as follows:

Tom Cruise is back as Special Agent Ethan Hunt in the latest installment of this billion-dollar franchise. Ving Rhames also returns as Hunt’s wisecracking partner in anti-crime Luther Stickell, and a bevy of all-star actors — including Michelle Monaghan, Laurence Fishburne, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Keri Russell and Billy Crudup — round out the cast. With ‘Lost’ dynamo J.J. Abrams at the helm, bringing his unique cocktail of action, drama and mystery to the table, this mission promises to be a whole lot more impossible than the first two.

The Review
The new “Mission Impossible III” opens up with Ethan Hunt in a high stress, life or death, impossible situation. The tension is pretty disturbing and you soon discover that this is something that will happen later in the movie and you’re getting a glimpse into the future of the main character. From that point on, it is pretty much non-stop action and thrills. It’s much more than Mission Impossible though, it’s more like Mission(s) Impossible. There are so many impossible scenarios that Ethan Hunt finds himself in it’s crazy.

Even though the situations are completely unbelievable, the movie is a blast. If you liked either of the first two, you will definitely like MI-III. It’s a fast paced action film that definitely delivers. I thought it was better than the last one and the best of the three. As you will recall, Mission Impossible is always about the cool gadgets and there are a ton of them in this film, including some pretty spooky technology that will make you think.

Most of the people we spoke with after the film gave it a “B” rating and we would have to agree. It was a really fun thrill ride with great characters, good acting and loads of excitement. Becky and I both thought it was Worth The Trip.

John – *** Worth The Trip
Becky – *** Worth The Trip
_________________________________________________________________________
Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with Centennial Leasing & Sales 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

Becky and I took the kids to see the movie Akeelah and the Bee this past Weekend. The Fandango website at Akeelah and the Bee describes the movie as follows:

“An inspirational drama, Akeelah and the Bee is the story of Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), a precocious eleven-year-old girl from south Los Angeles with a gift for words. Despite the objections of her mother Tanya (Angela Bassett), Akeelah enters various spelling contests, for which she is tutored by the forthright Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne); her principal Mr. Welch (Curtis Armstrong) and the proud residents of her neighborhood. Akeelah’s aptitude earns her an opportunity to compete for a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and in turn unites her neighborhood who witness the courage and inspiration of one amazing little girl. A Lionsgate Films and 2929 Entertainment production, Akeelah and the Bee was written and directed by Doug Atchison. The film’s producers are Sid Ganis, Nancy Hult Ganis, Michael Romersa, Danny Llewelyn and Laurence Fishburne; executive producers are Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban, Marc Butan and Helen Sugland.”

The Review
This was a great movie on many levels. It may have been more suited for our 8 year old Conroy than Corban who is now 6 and Bianca who is turning 5, but all of our kids seemed to enjoy the movie.

There are a few language issues, which were unexpected for a PG movie, but it went over our kids heads as they focused on the story instead of the few instances of harsh language. The movie focused on the importance of having a solid education, the power of words in conversation and print to gain the respect of your audience and to avoiding “trash” talking.

On the way home, our kids were competing to spell words, which was a fun time for all of us. It was like getting to enter a bonus round for watching a good movie. We were all surprised, as we are sure most people seeing this movie will be, that so much hard work and dedication goes into competing in the National Spelling Bee. It was a real eye opener. It made me appreciate the power of the English language, especially in today’s heated political climate where the English language is so often under attack.

Akeelah and the Bee is a great movie for the entire family and a very inspirational film. It deals with the struggles of life, the challenges young people face regardless of where they live, class and prejudice issues in society, and how people can rise above stereotypes and obstacles to become the person they were meant to be. In one part of the film, the entire community comes together to support Akeelah on her quest and they realize they are a part of something much bigger than just themselves.

It’s also not just a kids film, but is a great movie for people of all ages with fantastic acting and a wonderful story.

We definitely thought it was a movie that you Don’t Want To Miss.

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

The Kids Review
Corban – *** Worth The Trip
Bianca – *** Worth The Trip
Conroy – **** Don’t Miss It
_________________________________________________________________________
Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with Centennial Leasing & Sales 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

Becky and I went to see “The Sentinel” last week. The Fandango website at The Sentinel describes the movie as follows:

Pete Garrison is the most decorated agent in the history of the Secret Service – the President’s last line of defense. But now, wrongly suspected of targeting the president for assassination, Garrison has become the Service’s worst nightmare. As he uses his formidable skills to try and prove his innocence and find the real assassin, Garrison is tracked by his equally adept former protegee.

The Review
Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Kim Basinger and Eva Longoria star in this film about the Secret Service and The White House. The acting is very good, but the story is really far fetched. Supposedly the man in charge of protecting the world’s most protected woman is having an affair with her. I had flashbacks to the movie “Bodyguard” with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. While he’s deep in his affair, he suddenly becomes the key suspect in a plot to assisinate her husband, while his primary job is protecting him.

The movie has a great deal of action and a bit of suspense, but I didn’t find it as good as some of the television episodes of “CSI” or “24”. The situational problems with the film didn’t bother Becky as much as they did me and she liked it more than I did. There are times in the film when you can’t decide if he’s a good agent or a bad agent and we could have used the good witch from the Wizard of Oz to sort it out for us. We may have found out that he wasn’t a Secret Sevice agent at all or he could have retired earlier than the end of the movie.

It wasn’t a really bad thriller, but it wasn’t very good either. I don’t think it was as good as “Inside Man”, which would be my recommendation over this one. Becky would agree.

John – ** Rental
Becky – *** Worth The Trip
_________________________________________________________________________
Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with Centennial Leasing & Sales 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

Becky and I went to see “Thank You For Smoking” this Weekend at the AMC theater in Highlands Ranch. The Fandango website at Thank You For Smoking describes the movie as follows:

Writer-director Jason Reitman skewers the smoking industry with this satirical take on Big Tobacco’s politics. Aaron Eckhart stars as Nick Naylor, the chief spokesman for the business. While doing his best to make smoking ‘cool’ for the masses, Nick also attempts to be a role model for his 12-year-old son.

The Review
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a totally original comedy and “Thank You For Smoking” definitely hit the mark. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, you should find this flick to be witty and fun.

The hero of the film is a self serving lobbyist for the tobacco industry. Becky pointed out there there isn’t one person who lights up a cigarette during the entire movie, which was ironic given the title of the film and what it was about.

The acting was very good with a quality cast of stars and the personalities are hilarious, including the Hollywood agent played by Rob Lowe. The dialogue in the movie is fantastic, even if it’s cynical and dark most of the time. You can’t help but laugh at the cast of characters and how self-centered, coniving and ruthless they are. We don’t want to give away much of the film. It’s rated R for language and some sexual content, so be forwarned that some people may find a few parts offensive.

I liked it enough that I don’t think you should miss it because the overall message of the movie is very good given all the spin that takes place on both sides of the political fence. Becky liked it too and thought it was Worth The Trip.

John – **** Don’t Miss It
Becky – *** Worth The Trip
_________________________________________________________________________
Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with Centennial Leasing & Sales 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

Becky and I took the kids to see the new animated movie, The Wild on Saturday. The MovieFone website at The Wild describes the movie as follows:

In this wild and outrageous computer-animated comedy-adventure, an odd assortment of animals from the New York Zoo -– including a lion (Keifer Sutherland), a giraffe (Janeane Garofalo), an anaconda (Richard Kind), a koala (Eddie Izzard) and a squirrel(Jim Belushi) -– discover what a jungle the city can be when one of their own is mistakenly shipped to the wild and they embark on a dangerous mission to rescue him.

The Review
Hollywood has found that parents will take their kids to just about any animated movie and kids just like cartoons. Becky and I didn’t think there was anything original about this film. It was like “The Lion King” meets “Madagascar” and it was about half as good as either one of them.

The animation was good, but the story was pretty weak and so much of it made very little sense. Of course, our kids liked it because kids love cartoons regardless of the content, as every parent has discovered with Pokemon. However, our four-year old daughter Bianca absolutely loved this movie and it was rated G. It’s definitely a kid’s movie and there wasn’t much for parents or older children.

If you’re going to take your kids to the movies, go to Ice Age: The Meltdown before this one. There are more animated films on the horizon for families to take their kids too. We’ll keep you posted.

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

The Kids Review
Corban – *** Worth The Trip
Bianca – **** Don’t Miss It
Conroy – *** Worth The Trip
_________________________________________________________________________
Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with Centennial Leasing & Sales 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

Becky and I went to see “Stay Alive” this Weekend at the AMC theater in Highlands Ranch. The Fandango website at Stay Alive describes the movie as follows:

After the mysterious brutal death of an old friend, a group of teenagers find themselves in possession of Stay Alive, a next generation horror survival videogame based on the spine-chilling true story of a 17th century noblewoman known as “The Blood Countess.” The gamers don’t know anything about the game other than they’re not supposed to have it…and they’re dying to play it. Not able to resist temptation, the group begins to play the grisly game and soon a chilling connection is made – they are each being murdered one-by-one in the same method as the character they played in the game. As the line between the game world and the real world disappears, the group must find a way to defeat the vicious and merciless Blood Countess, all the while trying to stay alive.

The Review
Stay Alive is rated PG-13 and is similar to the movie’s “Scream” and “The Ring” in that it has a spooky storyline and a number of frightening situations that the characters find themselves. It’s not a super gruesome film, which we both appreciated, but parts of it are hard to follow and made little sense. I jumped a couple of times.

The story was kind of cool, except that you never find out how the original video game came into being in the first place to start wiping out its players. There are a few hints toward the end, but it might have helped had they made an attempt to show how it all started.

The ending was lame in that they knocked off the movie The Ring with a continuation of new people playing the game. However, there wasn’t any room for the story to continue based on a series of events that took place throughout the film.

There are very few horror films that are really good and this is no exception. It was better than some of them that we’ve both seen, but certainly not worth the price of admission.

Our advice is to wait for the Rental.

John – ** Rental
Becky – ** Rental
_________________________________________________________________________
Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with Centennial Leasing & Sales 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

Becky and I decided to watch the new ABC and Hallmark Entertainment presentation of The Ten Commandments over the past two nights with our kids.

It’s extremely rare for me to take the time to rate a made for television movie, but since there was so much fanfare surrounding how great this remake was going to be, and how it would be better than Cecil B Demille’s original motion picture, with superstars Charton Heston, Yul Brynner, Edward G. Robinson, Vincent Price and John Carradine, I had to give my two cents.

The ABC website at The Ten Commandments describes the movie as follows:

“This is the story of Moses — one of the most revered figures in our world’s religions — the man who rose in power to defend a people, to free them and to live in history like no other…”

The Review
As a Christian, I couldn’t believe how pathetic this new make believe rendition of the supernatural story of Moses was. If I were a Orthodox Jew I would be ticked off and offended. This film was so filled with errors of what happened according to the Bible that it was absurd.

The first night’s showing, of this two part “epic” special, was better than the second night, but not by much. I called a Pastor friend of mine and asked if he was watching it. He said that when he saw the Nile River turn to what looked like “KoolAid” he turned it off.

The special effects didn’t bother me as much as the liberties that were taken with God’s Word. They actually had Moses tell a famous joke as part of his lesson plan to Joshua to help define the character of God to the viewing audience. Get real! How incredibly stupid can you get? I just sat there stunned in disbelief. It was as though someone had tuned into a late night televangelist, “trying to learn about them Christian folk”, and heard him tell a joke and decided to add it to the script of the television special as a teaching of Moses. I was amazed.

The whole message of the Hebrews being miraculously delivered from the Egyptians according to God’s design and going into the Promised Land was pretty much lost in this latest film. After all the miracles that God performed for the Hebrews, Moses ended up with a message that “God helps those who helps themselves”. Which by the way, you won’t find anywhere in the Bible. A good website to visit for some additional information on God’s plan for Moses and his people is GraceThruFaith.com.

Now back to the review of this movie: It was so bad at times that our eight year old son kept saying, “Dad, that didn’t happen and that didn’t happen, did it?” It was embarrasing how many liberties they took with this remake. Several times I wanted to shut it off, but our kids wanted to watch it and I figured I would let them since they were at least learning something about the story. Maybe we should lend our eight year old as a historical consultant for these filmmakers who keep trying to reach the Christian demographic. Ever since the success of powerful movies like “The Passion of the Christ” and “Narnia”, Hollywood has been jumping on the Bible bandwagon.

As hokey as the special effects are in the original “Ten Commandments” with Charlton Heston, the famous Director at least made God out to be the powerful and wise God of the Hebrews. Even in 1956, they had enough sense to read the parts of the Bible where God was involved in delivering, protecting and judging His people and tried to give a more accurate Biblical account of the story.

In the original film Moses is portrayed as a man of God with power and authority. In this new version you would swear that Moses needed to see a pyschiatrist as God came in and out of his head. In this movie, Moses went around lost in the desert hoping to hear from the disappearing God that delivered His people from the Egyptians only to leave them to their own devises. This is hardly the reality.

According to the Bible, God never left or forsook Moses or the children of Israel, nor does He ever forsake His people. The fact is that He guided their every step in the wilderness and into the Promised Land even when they complained and rebelled against Him. In Exodus 33:11 we are told the kind of relationship that God had with Moses “And Jehovah spoke with Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. “That is hardly a relationship, like this movie presented, where Moses walked around like a drunk on the street wondering if he would ever hear God’s voice again. You may also want to read Numbers 12 and see how God protected Moses from anyone who spoke against him. When you spoke against Moses you might as well have been speaking against God Himself.

In conclusion, we’ll be introducing our kids to the “original” Ten Commandments on Saturday Night as we celebrate The Passover together. Our advice is to skip ABC’s rewriting of God’s word, read the story for yourself, you can find it in the book of Exodus and don’t be easily influenced by Hollywood’s versions.

Of course, you’ll also want to add to your reading of the Old Testament the Gospels to discover how Jesus became the Passover “Lamb of God” who took away the sins of the world. You’ll learn how He was crucified, died and rose again from the dead on the third day according to the Old Testament scriptures and is seated at the right hand of Almighty God. What a great way to celebrate The Passover and the Resurrection.

As far as The Hallmark Entertainment / ABC Ten Commandments remake goes…

John – * Don’t Bother
Becky – * Don’t Bother
_________________________________________________________________________
Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with Centennial Leasing & Sales 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

Becky and I went to see “Lucky Number Slevin” on Friday night at the Regal Cinema theater by Park Meadows Mall. The Fandango website at Lucky Number Slevin describes the movie as follows:

A case of mistaken identity puts a man named Slevin (Josh Hartnett) in the middle of a war between two rival New York crime lords: The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley) and the Boss (Morgan Freeman). While under the watchful eyes of Detective Brikowski (Stanley Tucci) and well-known assassin Goodkat (Bruce Willis), Slevin must quickly devise a plan to save his skin before his luck runs out.

The Review
A friend of mine John and his wife happened to be at the same showing on Friday night. After the movie, I asked them what they thought about the film. John’s comment pretty much summed up this movie when he said, “It wasn’t worth the $9 I paid to see it.” Becky and I totally agreed with him.

I liked it more than Becky did, but not by much. The way the story all tied together was pretty cool, but beyond that it was just another overly violent trip into the crazy world of Hollywood make believe. For as many great actors as they had in the film, all of which did a fine job in their roles, you would think it would have been a better movie. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the previews.

Our advice on this one is to wait for the Rental and save your money for a better movie at the box office. Becky doesn’t think you should waste your money on either.

John – ** Rental
Becky – * Don’t Bother
_________________________________________________________________________
Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with Centennial Leasing & Sales 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