Month: August 2019

Summer 2019 recap

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Big summer!

Movies:
Rocketman: Taron Egerton pulled it off as Elton John even though most of the people around him are assholes. B-

Godzilla: King of the Monsters: Basic giant monsters fights and characters making stupid decisions. C

Men in Black: International: Enjoyable performances from the leads do not help this mediocre film. C-

Toy Story 4: Not necessary but still a lot of effort put into this. A-

Dark Phoenix: Too dull and Too edgy. D

Spider-Man: Far From Home: Great hero and Great villain. Hope Peter’s story continues. A

The Lion King: A complete shot for shot remake that felt so unnecessary. D

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Despite the excellent performances of (Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt the movie felt too quick even with the long running time. B-

Hobbs and Shaw: Stupid fun. B-

Dora and the Lost City of Gold: Stupid but not the worst thing ever. C-

The Angry Birds Movie 2: Though still a movie for kids this sequel is better than the first one in every way. B-….. also the short Hair Love was fantastic. A

Shows:

The Loud House with the Casagrandes: A really nice set up for a promising spinoff. Ronnie Anne’s new best friend Sid Chang is the highlight of these episodes. She’s probably one of my favorite if not my favorite character of the show now.

Final Space season 2: Still has a great balance between drama and comedy. I’ll talk more about it when season 2 is over.

Amphibia season 1: Likable characters and fun location. Can’t wait to see season 2.

The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants season 3: Still fun though does anyone notice that a bunch of Netflix show’s season 3s take place during summer? Examples being F is for Family and Stranger Things.

Twelve Forever: Cute but not my cup of tea.

Infinity Train: A great miniseries full of creativity, emotion and mystery.

Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling: A great lesson on looking on to the future.

Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus: You could see this as a satisfying conclusion to this series though you may have to watch the show in order to get some of the references.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Hi I’m JacobsonCinema, what’s your name?

Blue’s Clues is the best Nick Jr show FYI! When I first saw the trailer for Dora and the Lost city of Gold I thought I looked so stupid. It felt nothing like the original source material and just seemed like another generic kid’s movie. Still I planned to see it just to see how enjoyably stupid it was. To my surprise it’s not the worst thing I’ve seen this year.

Dora is played by Isabela Moner is pretty much the heart of the movie and I do like how she seems capable in the jungle but not in suburban life. It’s not Oscar worthy but it’s not bad. When I said this felt like a generic kid’s movie I wasn’t wrong. The first half of the movie has Dora going to high school and having trouble fitting in. While it doesn’t last that long it’s still a drag to get through those boring story beats. Heck another Nickelodeon movie The Wild Thornberrys Movie (great movie btw) did this much better. There’s also some toilet humor which the original source DID NOT HAVE! For example there’s a scene where one of the characters has to use “the john” and Dora sings about digging a poop hole.

The best part of the movie in my opinion is the poison flower scene. Dora accidently gets a riff from the flowers and everything starts to turn into the same style of the show. It’s a cute and a funny way to show some call backs to the show. To be honest the movie did have a bunch of references to the show then I thought there were going to be. The movie makes fun of the fact that Dora sings, and talks to “the audience” which shows that there was more effort put into the movie then there could have been.

It’s not the worse Nickelodeon movie (The Last Airbender), it’s not the most unfaithful adaptation (Dragon Ball Evolution), heck it’s not even the worse movie of 2019 (The Lion King). It’s mostly just for kids or for people that grew up with the Nick Jr show. For me I’ll just be exploring for another movie.

Verdict:
+ Isabela Moner as Dora
+ The flower scene
– Basic plot
– Fish out of water/high school portion
– Toilet humor

Score: C-

Infinity Train review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

I Like Trains

I remember watching the pilot for Infinity Train back in 2016 and thought that it would make for a great show. Three years later the train has finally reached the station and fortunately it was no train wreck. There’s such a mystery to this series that makes want to know what’s going to happen next and the payoff it handled very well.

Infinity Train is like a video game but I don’t mean that the show takes place in a video game but more that it feels like a video game. Think of it as a point and click adventure game mixed with Earthbound. Each episode has Tulip go through a different cars kind of like levels in a video game which seems fitting since Tulip (also my brother) wants to be a game designer. The cars are really creative and feel unique from each other. The episode with the ball pit car is great because it starts with a lighthearted adventure thru a place area similar to the ones at McDonalds but then takes a dark turn when the conductor shows up.

Tulip played wonderfully by Ashley Johnson is a really good main character. Sure she does start off as a jerk but I think the idea of character development is to turn an unlikable character into a likable character and Tulip’s arc about dealing with her parents divorced brings. One-One is a very likable ally to Tulip. I really like his split personality and how they work off each other. He’s kind of like a non-evil Wheatley. Another character that stood out to me was the villain. The conductor could have just been some generic evil robot but instead was a very tragic villain who just wants to recreate the life she had before her love died. She works as a perfect evil counterpart to Tulip because she’s basically her if she didn’t deal with her trauma.

While I am glad that Infinity Train will return someday I do think this felt like an already complete story, you could just end it here and I’d be satisfied with its conclusion. Infinity Train is the best Cartoon Network miniseries since Over the Garden Wall. It’s got comedy, drama, great characters, great animation and it’s just one heck of a fun train ride.