jacobarch Reviews

A Murder at the End of the World (2023)

There's slow, then there's sloooow

[5/10 · 13 December 2023]

I'm on the 6th episode of this show and the suspense is pretty well done by twisting and turning the story to keep you guessing. But honestly I'm tired of guessing. The real messages of the movie hit home and started preaching about global warming. I had several eye rolling moments that made me chuckle but all and all it's a decent story. Darby is probably one worst characters and obviously suffers from some type of learning disability or mental illness. She's not a great main character because I often get more annoyed by her antics rather than cheer her on. She's annoying. When will directors and writers realize the women they cast as main characters come across as arrogant and lame rather than someone we want to root for. By the end of the 6th episode I was rooting for the main character to die. That shouldn't be my main objective. Lol. I love myself some Clive Owen, I only wish he was the main character in the show because he can actually act and not come across as a spoiled man child with aspergers. This show suffers from it's own agenda, and not being able to get out of it's own way with writing that at times doesn't make much sense. Please stop making women annoying. Thanks.

The Creator (2023)

Another potential masterpiece undone by lazy writing

[6/10 · 27 November 2023]

I really did like enjoy movie, no matter what my title states this was a movie I really liked but I felt it fell flat with character attachment and the overall arc of the main story line. It seemed to jump around a little and while I don't usually mind that style of story telling, it's something that has to be done correctly or you're forced to catchup mentally thus taking away from my attention to the actual movie. The AI characters also fell flat to me. I didn't care about them whatsoever. You can turn them off like a computer but you can't figure out how to rid yourself of them? Were their emotions real or was it just programing? In our actually lives things like Chat GPT amongst other AI software programs can also "express" emotion, or at least it can "act" like it. So me caring that they crushed up a bunch of robots in a trash compactor didn't do anything for me. Madeleine Yuna Voyels is a great little actress, she's gonna do big things. It's too bad her story wasn't a bit more in depth so we could have felt something for her. It's really a shame. The one thing I do want to touch on is the massive scale of this movie, and doing so with a minimal budget. The CGI and effects were top notch. Makes you wonder about all these bloated marvel movies with garbage CGI.

The Continental (2023)

Felt like a cheap version but still entertaining

[6/10 · 26 September 2023]

Yeah, I know most wont agree with me here but I guess that's why we all have opinions right? CWJW felt cheap, not in the sense that it didn't feel like the world of John Wick but I felt the fight scenes weren't brutal or fun enough to compare them to the original. They felt like TV stunt men trying to do their best. While it wasn't bad by any means, it just didn't feel the same or expanded upon. Nothing new and nothing we haven't seen before. The writing was decent, and the overall plot is a good one. I do love myself an origin story. However, the acting, cinematography, some set designs and sequences felt...small. It looked like a set, or it looked like something out of a CW show and I hate that. The car chase scene, what the heck was that? It almost felt like they ran out of money three quarters through the episode and said well here you go. The show feels a lot like The Boys on amazon, pretty good but relies too much on splatter and shock value rather than core writing, visuals and character building.

No Hard Feelings (2023)

Not a very funny movie

[4/10 · 23 August 2023]

I feel this movie missed the mark on a variety of things throughout the film. Facial expressions, whit, timing, and the overall character progressions. The pacing of the movie is ok, but it never really dove into the main characters story arc, and really rushed through the first 20 minutes of the "setup". Jennifer Lawrence was a decent choice but I felt she's just too stiff to be the I don't care about anything girl that has just scooted through life. Percy Becker, just felt all wrong. He has zero acting chops, didn't play a nerd well and just felt forced from the beginning. His character didn't feel like it belonged even in the sense of him being out of his element. Just seemed off.

The Bear (2022– )

One of the best shows on TV

[9/10 · 14 August 2023]

Absolutely love this show. The writing, cinematography, and acting are all top notch. I believe this show is probably one best shows on TV right now. Not only because of all the qualities mentioned above but because it doesn't preach, play victims, or have a message attached to the story that has zero barring on the actual plot. It's a great fictional success story about the ups and downs of owning a restaurant and showing that in America if you want to make it, you have to take the long shot. It pulls no punches, its raw, and most importantly, authentic. I feel so many shows nowadays fail on that one simple front.

Barbie (I) (2023)

Did I watch the same movie as everyone else lol

[3/10 · 23 July 2023]

While the production value, cinematography and acting were what you would expect from Margo Robbie and the supporting cast. I felt the movie fell short of not preaching to me and spreading a message of division rather than unity. Men and women cannot survive without each other but you'd never know it watching this movie. And me having my 13 year old daughter with me almost caused me to walk out of the theater. I kept on waiting for the writers to hit the direction of unity but it never came. After the movie my daughter brought up the message to me saying how she even noticed the weird agenda they're trying to push and said that is not a movie for the easily impressionable. Come to find out my daughter is better suited to take on the world that I thought she was. Proud day for me as a father.

Sisu (2022)

A mixed bag of bargain nuts.

[5/10 · 11 June 2023]

The score, sound mix, and cinematography are all top notch. The film is violent, very violent and very gritty. And honestly I love that. But the story... Lord the story seems to be written by a 15 year old prepubescent boy who's parts haven't fully dropped yet. This film doesn't know what it wants to be. It's so so so over the top I had to kind of start ignoring it because without any meat how can I enjoy my potatoes? At a certain point I asked myself why don't they just give him magical powers at this point. Why even have bullets? Why isn't the German commander turning into Thanos for the final battle? Point is the movie is just too over the top. I get it, killing Nazis is fun and hip. But you know what's even more hip? A good story to go along with all the visuals. Just some food for thought.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Frank Shoots Every Member of the Gang (2023) Season 16, Episode 2

Classic always sunny

[9/10 · 11 June 2023]

It's nice to see theyre going back to their roots. Just silly over the top comedy that doesn't care about anything other than making you laugh. Good stuff guys. Can't wait to see more.

Getting to the episode I thought it was a great frank episode. Reminded me of his classic schemes that he would concoct or over the top antics. Charlie and macs moms were on point and I felt like we've kind of missed them the last couple of seasons, so it was nice to see they're still going strong. Charlie's sisters I thought were the only weak part of the episode. Overall the episode felt like they never missed a beat. Can't wait for next week.

Beef (2023– )

Fan-freakin-tastic

[9/10 · 16 May 2023]

I absolutely loved this show from the first to last episode. Really well acted, produced and directed. Completely sucked me in and left me wanting more. So many shows today are complete duds with preachy writing, bad acting and even worse directing. This show brings me back to the good ol days or when actors acted and directors directed. One of the greatest attributes of Beef is it's ability to hit all the emotional notes. I love the dark comedy vibes it pulls off effortlessly, and suddenly shifts into a drama without skipping a beat. I hope they continue to come up with gold, and don't get sucked into the hollyweird vortex of death. Greed.

Renfield (2023)

Felt like two movies

[5/10 · 11 May 2023]

Admittedly Nick Cage was the only saving grace this film had to offer. Sure there were some funny over the top scenes, and Mr. Cage made a great comedic adaptation of Dracula. However, this movie felt like it was not only shot in two different time periods but also felt like two different people wrote it. Awkwafina was an absolute terrible choice for a police officer for her role. Not only is she a terrible actor her role served zero purpose other than filler to round out the 93 minute runtime. Her FBI agent sister was even worse. Actually the whole police dept script was just garbage and felt like it was written/directed by a CW writer on his/her break. Just bad. The rest of the movie was pretty good. Renfield's AA meetings were a blast and were well written, witty, and surprisingly well acted by no name actors. My hope is Nick Cage doesn't fall back into the same trap as he was in previously before his reemergence back into film. Signing up for terrible movies written by terrible writers and acted by terrible actors. Read the scripts Nick!

The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die (2023)

It's ooooook

[6/10 · 25 April 2023]

I loved The Last Kingdom series. I thought Season 2-3 were the best seasons and then unfortunately when you constantly kill off characters, new characters have to live up to their predecessors and more often than not they don't hold up. I felt the series kind of dragged on a little with too much filler episodes and eventually got bored of the show. Seven Kings Must die suffers from the opposite effect. I felt like they jumped around too often and skipped some very important events leading up to the final battle. While I don't mind how they ended it, I do mind that the last episode so to speak seemed to jump timelines without notifying the audience. I wish Netflix would have had a limited series for the last episode where they could have wrapped things up nicely without it feeling rushed.

Creed III (2023)

The Tommy Gun of the Creed franchise.

[5/10 · 4 March 2023]

The performances of this movie is what saves it from being a complete flop. The Creed franchise suffers from trying to live up to what Stallone accomplished with rocky 1-4. And this is the problem with films today. The first two creeds had that same grit feel of the rocky franchise and this movie did not have that. The scenes were anticlimactic and generic. The story seemed to suffer from not having enough source material and first time director Michael B Jordan made the mistake of thinking this script was good enough without even mentioning rocky. Ok they mentioned him once. Yeah that's it, once. Which is ironic because the whole story is based on what got him here to this point. I also didn't like that they went thr MCU route, CGI should not exist in this world. Sorry had to say it.

You (2018–2024)

Officially Jumped the Shark

[5/10 · 20 February 2023]

Let me start by saying that I used to like this show. Almost loved it. I loved the early Dexter meets Mr Rodgers vibe this show put off the first 3 Seasons. But getting to season 4 was a bit of a reach for me. I would have loved to have seen how he escaped America and ended up in England. I think that was a big miss by the writing team. I also liked that the show seemingly changed scenery by ending up in London. The cinematography was fantastic as they really captured London's beautiful sites and cityscapes. This is where it loses me... The writing has a ton of holes in, and I mean a ton. Joe standing outside the building surrounded by police but conveniently and easily snuck past them and investigated the murder scene. There are a ton of scenes like this... Hiding bodies from authorities even though London has one of the biggest CCTV nets in the world. Not to mention the over the top Rich elitist just being more annoying than anything. Like literally zero substance, all while I have a Murderer narrating to the audience on life lessons and values. Stick to your game Netflix, the audience doesn't want to be preached to by a fictional psychopath. But the real kicker for me was when they were pheasant hunting. First off, No one especially the rich use side by side shotguns to hunt pheasants. Nor do they make a pump shotgun sound as they're reloading them. While there are in fact some great directions the show has gone, they seem to have gotten a little lazy when it comes to details. Common guys, you're better than that.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

A great movie for the whole family!!!

[9/10 · 23 January 2023]

What can I say? I'm a sucker for movies that don't take themselves too seriously. I grew up watching movies like Shrek and I still enjoy them today with my little ones. It's a shame that it took so long to come up with another version of Puss n boots but I'm glad they waited because this was very well done. The movie doesn't pull any punches with making fun of pretty much everyone at some point of the movie. It has simple life lessons that can be looked at not through a spectrum but as a whole, thus applying to everyone. I love that. There were several moments through the movie that I laughed out loud and I have to say it's been awhile since I've been able to do that during a kids movie. Usually I cringe and change the channel. I hope Dream Works continues to push that envelope and comes up with some new movies for my kids. We'll be first in line. Thanks Dream works for knowing exactly what we needed.

Pressure Cooker (2023– )

Final episode BS

[4/10 · 20 January 2023]

I'll say this, The Pressure Cooker had me hooked within the first two episodes. The merge between reality TV and a cooking show where the contestants hold some of the power by who they form their alliances with really made this show unique. Of course some peoples personalities can get in the way of a good show but it definitely has it's own niche and I can say there is no other show like it. Hence, why I gave it 4 stars. But that's where it stops. The Final episode where they had all the voted off contestants vote on who will win the $100k? What a mistake!!! Clearly the chef who won was not only outclassed in every aspect but he was also invited there by the person who won the challenge before. In theory the chef who had invited him to cook against himself picked the weakest guy left in the comp because he thought it would give him an advantage. Which it did, but that didn't matter because in the end they voted for the person who they liked more as a friend, rather than voting for the better food and presentation. You got me once Netflix, but I'll definitely pass next season if the voting stays the same. What a sham.

The White Lotus (2021–2025)

I loved season 1, but...

[5/10 · 5 January 2023]

Just finished season 2 and I feel this show in a sense jumped the shark. Instead of actual writing they went the sex and nudity route. While I don't mine all the sex and nudity it seems like filler at times. I'm a believer that shock value is just that, shock value, it brings nothing to the table unless you're easily entertained. Which apparently I am not because it seems like every "adult" dark comedy seems to go this route at some point during the series. Which leads me into the acting portion of this show. I think season 1 also had stronger female leads. Maybe I'm just not a fan of Aubrey Plaza, and her faces she makes...i dunno. But I hope this show can learn from their mistakes and they don't keep on trying to push the shock envelope and just concentrate on good writing.

Beast (I) (2022)

Ever watch a movie that was so bad it's good?

[4/10 · 26 November 2022]

Do I have the movie for you. Disclaimer, I suggest seeing this movie high AF. Once I took about 4 rips this movie instantly turned into a comedy classic.

Funny enough the movie has some decent acting, Elba did he best not to commit entertainment suicide and gave it his all in this one and I can't say I blame him. This is one of those movies that could instantly subdue your career. In reality the movie is a huge disaster, nothing makes sense, what's up is down, and I found myself actually rooting for the lion to win. This movie could have been great if it had some grit and some element of scare. But it fails on all those fronts and it ends up just being cheesy.

Intervention: Tina Featuring Amber Rose (2022) Season 24, Episode 6

Officially Jumped the Shark

[2/10 · 7 October 2022]

We love intervention. But this show has officially jumped the shark. The latest episode featuring Amber Rose was nothing more than an instaho getting airtime to feed her insane narcissism. Amber the bounty hunter was featured for more than half the episode, and I kept asking. Who is the interventionist in this episode? Who's the addict? Not until the mid-end of the episode did they introduce Tina the addict and it somewhat went back to the original format. Truth be told it should have been amber that went to rehab. The Porn star insta wannabe was a grab to try to increase ratings, and it's sad that shows often go this route to just churn a profit.

Samaritan (I) (2022)

It's really not bad.

[7/10 · 27 August 2022]

I believe you're seeing a low rating because you're seeing the woke getting upset at this film because of the parallels between how they portray the criminal element. But in all honesty it's better than any recent marvel movie. I think there are the definite cheesey moments but I can say every superhero film has them and it's to be expected when you're watching a Stallone movie. The plot is lacking in some areas. I thought it was going to be more of an adult film but it's definitely for teens. I think this movie would have been way better if it were more gnarly. Maybe a little more batman and less family oriented.

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

The Matrix Retreaded

[4/10 · 24 December 2021]

The Wachowskis fooled us again. Not only did they take my money, they took time out of my life to watch this hot utopian garbage. I mean really, i paid someone to basically torture my intelligence for over two hours.

This movie is a mess. I appreciate the idea behind it, I understand what they were trying to do. But the follow thru and writing just weren't there. Save your money and go see spiderman.

Rick and Morty: Rickdependence Spray (2021) Season 5, Episode 4

Definitely the worst RM show to date

[3/10 · 16 July 2021]

Like the title says one of the episodes ive seen so far. I would say it's as bad as the dragon ep but that one has actually grown on me. But this one takes the cake. You can tell this ep had a different writer on board. Yuck.

The Tax Collector (2020)

Had potential but turned out awful

[3/10 · 20 August 2020]

Who writes this crap? I mean, the thought process of these writers couldn't come up with anything better than this? It's so painfully stupid, it makes me a little upset. If gangsters were actually this dumb there would be zero crime because they would have gone the way of the dodo bird. It's almost like a 15 year old child wrote dumpster fire for their acting class in high school. ugh, the movie had a lot of potential and could have been a great gangster film but the writing, the lines, and production was piss poor. I feel bad for the boof, he got all these tattoos for a movie he was hardly in it. looool. I'd actually like to see a movie about the boof and how he got to where he was as the lead assassin. That would make for a much better story, just don't let this director or writer near it.

Brave New World (2020)

Pretty Brave

[7/10 · 4 August 2020]

Overall I liked this show. I like how it hit on a lot of political ideals and ideologies that we're seeing today without even trying. I honestly think a lot of people do not like this show because it directly points out hypocrisies that we see everyday in society, and points directly at them and their ideologies. We tell ourselves it will never be like that, it's too far out there. Example, This book was written in 1931 and while it's still not truly real life because our scientific technology isn't there....yet. But, you can bet if it was you'd see a society a lot like this one. It's scary / crazy to think that it is a possibility in the near future and it's even crazier to think that people can't see it coming like a freight train. Either way the show was pretty great. Good acting followed by some not so good directing and producing. Meaning it still felt like a TV show at times. cutting corners on certain things like character development, or simply just trying to hard to be edgy. I do appreciate the fact that they didn't go overboard with the sex and nudity. Not that I don't like those things but at a certain point I just want to watch a good show, not soft core. Hope they make a season 2!

Space Force (2020–2022)

Hit and miss

[5/10 · 22 June 2020]

At times this show was hilarious and somewhat heartwarming. Other times it was written like a slapstick comedy routine done on SNL. I wish the show would have been taken a bit more seriously with some dark comedy behind it. It had real potential that ultimately failed because it could never really find it's stride. The last episode completely lost me due to the terrible writing.

Gangs of London (2020– )

Utter carnage!

[8/10 · 3 June 2020]

If you like John Wick and Mafia thrillers this show is for you! It's quite brutal in almost every episode. But if you like raw action and good writing you'll love this show. It's not without it's flaws but every show experiences those. Definitely not a show for the weak stomach.