Month: September 2017

Kingsman the Golden Circle review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Manners Make it Man

Kingsman the Secret Service was one of my favorite movies of 2015. It has action, humor, swearing, and exploding heads. Kingsman the Golden Circle is the sequel. I do admit the film is a lot more silly and over the top which can be distracting. Considering the first one was a lot more grounded. This movie has robot dogs, a meat grinder, the ability to heal someone from a bullet shot, and Elton John!

Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, and Mark Strong are still fantastic as Eggsy, Harry, and Merlin and still have a lot of heart to there roles. The main villain Poppy does feel like a retread of Valentine and her death felt anti-climatic, but I will admit Poppyland was a really awesome villain lair. While the Statesman are interesting there not really in the movie that much except for Whiskey who was a badass. Ginger was fine, Champagne was just Jeff Bridges in a cowboy hat and Tequila felt like he was just here to build him up for the third one. Elton John was also entertaining and funny. So yeah the new characters were kind of a mix bag.

The action scenes are very fun. Though my main gripes with the action is that there are not a lot of them (I think there are only five of them) and that there similar to the ones in the first one like the bar scene. Still, there very entertaining and violent. There’s also a great variety in the locations where these action scenes take place. The car chase at the beginning helps set up the movie. The climax is also entertaining though I think it goes through different stages. First it’s fighting the henchmen, then Charlie and the dogs, and when Whiskey.

This is where I get into Spoilers. Poppy’s evil plan is that she contaminated the drugs she sells. He holds America hostage saying that she has an antidote and that if the President legalizes drugs and end the drug war she will give the antidote. However the President decides to not go with it so that the drug users would die. There’s a scene where all of the frozen drug users are stored in a stadium and it is chilling.  Agent Whiskey also turns out to be working for the president though he has his own reasons. His wife and unborn child were killed by drug users so he also wants drug users to die. I’m kind of a sucker for gray morality in media.

I don’t think Kingsman the Golden Circle is as good the first one but it is still a fun continuation to a fun movie and I look forward to seeing where the series goes from here.

Verdict:
+Eggsy, Harry, and Merlin
+Gray morality
+/-New characters
+/-Action scenes
-Too silly

Score: A-

Bojack Horseman Season 4 review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Back in the ’90s, I was in a very famous TV show

This review does contain spoilers. Bojack Horseman is considered one of the best cartoons out right now. It makes you laugh, cry, and question life. I binged watched seasons 2 and 3 though out summer to get ready. I even binged watched season 4. While the first three seasons focused on him trying to fix his career, season 4 focuses more on Bojack’s family. We are introduced to Hollyhawk Bojack’s “daughter” and the rest of the season is about them trying to figure out who her mother is. They also have to take care of Bojack’s abusive mother who is suffering from dementia. These characters are important to Bojack’s arc this season and are very entertaining.

I surprisingly compare the first two episodes to the first two episodes of Legend of Korra Season 4. The first episode focuses on Mr. Peanutbutter’s election. Like Legend of Korra season 4 episode 1 it focuses only on the supporting cast while the main character either shows up only at the end or is absent. Episode 2 of both seasons focuses on the main character and flashbacks showing where they have been. Episode 2 is about Bojack fixing up his Grandparents summer house while flashing back to when his mother was young. There are scenes where the present and past are visually shown at the same time. An example is when Bojack tries to steal the windchime from a restaurant while also showing Beatice’s mother singing. It’s visually impressive and helps the story progress.

Bojack is known for their episode 11 which are known to be the darkest of each season and this one is no exception. Episode 11 focuses on Beatice’s life and why she is mental. Every character’s faces except her family are scribbled out making it more uncomfortable. The scene where her father and servants burn her things and her doll while cutting to Beatice’s maid giving birth to Hollyhawk and Beatice taking her away might be the darkest scene of the whole series so far. This episode is very psychotic and messed up, this and episode 2 are probably my favorite episodes of the season.

If I had one problem with this season though very minor is that each season BoJack ruins a relationship with a character and that character ends up saying the f word to him. What happens here, BoJack plans to put on a show for his mother and confess “Fuck You Mom!”. That’s it? That’s are f word of the season? It just seems kind of a letdown because expecting someone like Mr. Peanutbutter to say it. Still very minor flaw.

The season ends with Bojack finding out that he is not Hollyhawk’s father but actually his brother. He manages to find the address of her mother and gives it to Hollyhawk’s 8 dads (it makes sense in context). It’s a bittersweet ending which is normal for Bojack but surprisingly this is probably the happiest bittersweet ending Bojack had. Season 4 delivered comedy and drama and mixed them together perfectly.

Verdict:
+Balance of Comedy and Drama
+Bojack’s family
+Episodes 2 and 11
+Bittersweet ending
-The F word

Score: A

Summer recap

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Movies: 

Captain Underpants: Incredibly fun and funny. A-

Wonder Woman: Ok though best DC movie so far. B-

Cars 3: Probably the best Cars movie though not the best Pixar movie. B-

Despicable Me 3: Entertaining villain though not as much heart as the first. C

Baby Driver: A great story and great editing by Edgar Wright. B+

Spiderman Homecoming: Tom Holland is still the best Spiderman actor. A

War for the Planet of the Apes: Dark and bittersweet ending to a trilogy. B

The Emoji Movie: This movie is meh (ironic since Gene is a meh emoji). I expected this to be enjoyably bad but it was just bad. D

Dunkirk: Short and wonderfully tense, but the way the three stories are edited together makes it confusing. B-

Atomic Blonde: The whole villain twist thing got complicated. C

TV Shows: 

The Battle for Mewni: Good opening to season 3 of Star vs the Forces of Evil. Best episode of the bunch was Toffee.

Ok Ko Let’s be Heroes: A fun new cartoon.

Ducktales 2017: Great update on the characters, animation, and theme song. Gravity Falls with ducks.

Rick and Morty season 3: Great season with great epsidoes. So far my favorite episode of the season and maybe whole series is The Ricklantis Mixup.