Category: Reviews

Ron Jacobsohn Reviews Only the Brave

We are in one of the fiercest battles for control of the box office (and the TV ratings) between the superheroes and the real-life heroes. On TV the battle has not been won yet by either side, however, at the box office, the superheroes are clearly ahead in the race. Only the Brave is now trying to change the tide towards the real-life heroes.

Not really sure why, but real-life heroes flicks tend to generate less interest with audiences in recent years, yet with a stellar cast that includes Josh Brolin, Jeff Bridges, and Jennifer Connelly, Only the Brave just might wow audiences over.

This is the true-life story of the heroic unit of local firefighters in Arizona, who have overcome all odds to become one of the most brutal fires in modern-day history.

Similar to Michael Bay, director Joseph Kosinski, is very much influenced by his earlier career in the world of commercials when directing this flick, which at times felt like one big commercial.

Only the Brave is a very fitting tribute to the 19 firefighters of the Prescott Fire Department who perished in the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire and Sony Pictures, who produced the movie, surely hopes the flick will resonate with Oscar voters once they decide who they want to see in the running for this coming awards season. I liked the movie a lot and give it a Thumbs Up.

October 19, 2017
Ron Jacobsohn Reviews Dunkirk

This Jonathan Nolan directed pic is nothing short from breathtaking.

Nolan was extremely tedious in portraying the story of the evacuation of the British Forces in World War II from the shores of the French harbor, Dunkirk, in a very historically accurate way. He shot the scenes with no less than six-thousand real life background actors at the actual place where the evacuation happened in early June of 1940.

The amazing thing about this movie is not the high paying actors that star in it but, for a refreshing change, the story and how a genius director immortalized it. In this non-linear narrative, the story is told in three perspectives with overlapping time periods: one week on land, one day at sea, and one hour in the air, all told in masterful visual storytelling, which keeps the audience gasping.

If you are looking for your standard Hollywood war movie, Dunkirk is definitely not it. Nonetheless, this is a spellbinding awe taking war movie, which will definitely set a new glass ceiling for the genre.

Although the story seems fairly uncomplicated at first, Dunkirk becomes a tour de force of what modern-day cinema is able to achieve… an instant classic… yet not without the help of a very big budget from a Hollywood studio. I happily give it a thumbs up.

July 17, 2017
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