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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
Ron Jacobsohn Reviews Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

The long-awaited debut of Captain Underpants on the big screen is finally here and although the movie is different from the books, it still manages to keep the spirit and humor of Dav Pilke’s source materials.

Since its debut in 1997, the Captain Underpants series sold fifty million books in the U.S. alone. Dreamworks Animation hopes to cash-in on the success as it helps the series transition onto the screen.

From the get go this movie channeled for me the Peanuts series, so don’t be surprised that once you get over the silly “fart jokes” this movie has a very solid message about friendship.

Our two protagonists, George and Harold, are fourth graders who can’t stop themselves from creating constant havoc at their school. Their latest prank is hypnotizing their principal, with a ring from a cereal box, to believe he is an imaginary super hero called; you guessed it, Captain Underpants. But fear not there is a happy ending…

The production team behind the movie is spearheaded by director, David Soren, who already left his mark on the animation world as the director of the Madagascar movies. In this movie, Soren created a down-to-earth world filled with fantastical happenings that somehow seem logical when you watch it. The perfect casting of Kevin Hart, as George, and Thomas Middleditch, as Harold, help give the movie real heart.

This movie will help you connect with your kids or just let your inner fourth grader burst out into the world.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is sheer entertainment and deserves my THUMBS UP.

Ron Jacobsohn

June 1, 2017