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Ron Jacobsohn Reviews Despicable Me 3

Despicable Me 3 is one sequel this summer which will not let you down. It is colorful, imaginative sometimes silly but eventually just plain enjoyable. However, the Minions, who still steal every scene they are in, have kind of lost their way in the storyline to the point that even in the movie they declare a strike until a new devious plot for them will be created.

Eight years after the Minions burst into our lives, they still go what it takes. Those movies are clever in subconsciously installing very important ideas about family values. In the first one Gru gave up evil. In the second he got married. Now in the third one, he rekindles his relationship with his long-lost twin, Dru (both voiced by Steve Carrell). Yet it wouldn’t be a Despicable Me movie without a juicy villain, so say hello to Balthazar (voiced by Trey Parker) who is plotting to steal the world’s largest diamond.

In our day and age, no animated feature can live without a great soundtrack and Despicable Me 3 is no different adding at least five new Pharrell Williams tracks that surely will bring some hits to be nominated for Best Song…

It rarely is the case with sequels, yet the third movie in the Despicable Me series might end up becoming the best one. It was action-filled and exciting and deserves my thumbs Up.

June 28, 2017
Ron Jacobsohn Reviews Transformers: The Last Knight

Hasbro’s Transformers are back for their fifth outing on the big screen. I won’t try to explain the storyline because truly it is almost impossible to formulate, the scenes pass by so fast you almost have a hard time grasping whatever is happened in them, yet you kinda feel guilty that at the end of the day you can’t really hate this flick.

Mark Wahlberg is back, creating a bizarre hostile sexual chemistry with his British co-star, Laura Haddock, and yes, Josh Duhamel is back too, if you were worried he would sit this one out.

Director, Michael Bay, is unique in that he has not given up on Transformers, most directors we know directing franchises are done after two or three flicks the most, but not Bay. He is back directing yet another scenario of how our planet was almost a goner yet it was saved again heroically and what’s unique to Bay, always with a bit of a sense of humor.

So should this franchise be done after this fifth installment? Bay and Wahlberg sounded very fatalistic when talking to the press, so it probably will all come down to how much the movie will make at the box office…

Although I should’ve probably hated Transformers: The Last Knight, it’s such a visual thrill ride you just can’t stop watching therefore it still gets a Thumbs Up from me.

June 19, 2017
Ron Jacobsohn reviews Disney’s Cars 3

This is the most polished and kid friendly Cars movie of all the trilogy and it also feels like it is tapping a bit more into something deeper than just a corporate bottom line.

Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is now past his prime and although he might still be able to bluff his way around the new kid on the block, Jackson Storm (voiced by Armie Hammer), deep inside he knows he is old.
Lightning, not one to give up, looks up his old mentor, Doc Hudson, who has passed, but his repair truck, Smokey (voiced by Chris Cooper), will help Lightning to find out that retired racers never give up… sort of…

The third Cars movie is much more of a generational story, which packs some essential life’s lessons in mentorship, when to give up and… girl power. First time director, Brian Fee, can probably relate to those traits being he himself was a protege of director John Lasseter in the first two Cars movies.

Almost a decade after the first Cars was released, it is also fascinating to compare how much CG Animation has progressed. Cars 3 is so much slicker you almost are able to forget you’re watching an animated feature and not a live-action one.

Cars 3 has definitely earned my checkered flag, I give it a thumbs up.

June 15, 2017
Ron Jacobsohn Reviews The Mummy

This third reboot of The Mummy for Universal Pictures and a lot is riding on this big money-making machine for the studios being the franchise has already earned over a billion and a half dollars.

The star of the new The Mummy is Tom Cruise, who gets to fight an ancient Egyptian princess awoken from her tomb and now angry enough to want to take over the world, with the help of Mr. Cruise, if he wants it or not.

This 125-million-dollars budgeted movie is so heavy on the special effects it has almost but forgotten it wants to tell a story too. For Alex Kurtzman, big-budgeted effects-filled flicks are very new as a director, so maybe it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise he got lost between all the effects and the narrative. The one thing you can’t mistake is that this is a Tom Cruise driven vehicle. If you are a Tom Cruise fan, this shouldn’t bother you too much, as you should be used to it. Rumor has it that, Cruise had final approval on everything in this flick.

Universal is hoping to create a trilogy of this reboot, which it entitled Dark Universe, yet it will all depend on how well it will fair at the box office if the studio will keep pouring money into it. The studio needs a new blockbuster franchise but it remains to be seen if the rebooted The Mummy will fill that void.

I was somewhat entertained but not enough, so I heavy-heatedly have to give it a Thumbs Down.

June 8, 2017
Ron Jacobsohn Reviews Wonder Woman

With so many flops in recent years, with their DC Comics movies, it is refreshing to see Warner Bros. finally getting it right.

Patty Jenkins was the perfect choice to direct the re-imaging of this superhero icon. Hiring Israeli-born actress, Gal Gadot, gave the writers the freedom to reinvent Diana Prince as the mythological creature she was in the comics and less of the all-American hero she was in the 70’s television show.

In this movie, Prince is portrayed as an Amazonian who fights for America, so Gadot’s accent is a big asset, not a handicap.

The movie is a blast of fresh air, a superhero tailored exactly to what we need this summer. Gadot is powerful, empowering, compassionate, driven by purpose while not forgetting to be entertaining.

This movie is not about the superhero beating up the villains, but rather about the humanity and the characteristics that made Diana Prince into Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman has undoubtedly raised the bar for superhero movies, and I am curious to see how the guys in the DC universe will live up to those standards.

Director Patty Jenkins with Gal Gadot and Chris Pine gives the audience a full return on their investment and a certain sequel order from the studios.

I loved almost every minute of this one hundred and forty-one-minute thrill ride; I give it a THUMBS UP!

June 2, 2017