Lights Camera Jackson

Movie Reviews, Entertainment News and Views from Lights Camera Jackson

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MCU Movies Ranked by Grade

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“Avengers: Endgame” is almost here, with its sights set on a record-breaking, $300 million opening weekend. Entertainment Weekly recently put out a piece ranking the 21 Marvel Cinematic Universe installments by grade. And in reading it, I noticed something interesting. Their critics never gave one of these movies a grade higher than an A-. But […]
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Thursday Showings Keep Starting Earlier

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I’ve written about it, posted about it and talked about it numerous times over the past seven years. But it’s worth reinforcing: one of the only positive things to come out of the horrific “Dark Knight Rises” movie theater shooting in Aurora, CO in 2012 was the elimination of Midnight showings. (This went hand-in-hand with […]
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A Decade of Disneynature

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10 years ago, Disney began an offshoot brand devoted to nature documentaries. When Disneynature released “Earth” on Earth Day, April 22nd, 2009, the film was an instant target. With the success of BBC America’s “Planet Earth”, and the Oscar winning “March of the Penguins” a few years earlier, was another worldly animal doc necessary? For […]
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Awards Season 2020: Is Shorter Better?

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The 2020 Awards Season Calendar is already set. And it’s gonna be the craziest one yet. Why? Remember when The Academy announced several major changes last summer, including that whole “Best Popular Film” thing? Well, one of them was a date change for the 2020 Oscars. The ceremony will be Sunday February 9th. That’s two […]
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STX Cheering On Moms and ‘Poms’

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STX Films, the studio behind “Bad Moms” and “A Bad Moms Christmas”, announced at CinemaCon in Vegas that they’re spinning off that franchise. Susan Sarandon, Cheryl Hines and Christine Baranski, who prominently appeared in the holiday installment, will headline “Bad Moms’ Moms”. It’ll be interesting to see if the “Bad Moms” concept is still popular […]
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Laika goes for 5th win in a row with ‘Missing Link’

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Laika has been one of the leading forces in modern animation. This stop-motion studio based in Oregon has produced four critically acclaimed and financially successful pictures. Laika did do contractual work on 2005’s “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride”, but they did not do the animation for the film. They’re listed as part of the making of […]
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Rockwell Keeps Rockin’ It

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2019 has been good to Sam Rockwell. He received another Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for his work as former President George W. Bush in Adam McKay’s “Vice”. But whether he got the nom or not – Rockwell knew he would be back on the Oscar stage to present an acting award… because he […]
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‘Abby’s’ Makes TV History

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A new phrase has entered the television history books: “Abby’s” was recorded in front of a live outdoor audience. That’s right. NBC’s new sitcom, premiering this Thursday at 9:30pmET, is shot entirely outside. And that’s easily the hook of the show. Yes, it’s a 21st century version of “Cheers”. It features the talents of Natalie […]
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Burton Needs ‘Dumbo’ to Soar

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Tim Burton’s last movie, 2016’s “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”, opened at No. 1 at the weekend box office. But it only totaled $87 million. His three prior films all underwhelmed. Golden Globe winning “Big Eyes” with Amy Adams – just $14.5 million. Disney’s stop-motion animated, Oscar nominated “Frankenweenie”: $35M. And Burton’s take on […]
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August will be Biggest Movie Month of Summer

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Sure, May has “Aladdin”, “Rocketman”, “Godzilla 2”, “John Wick: Chapter 3” and “Detective Pikachu”. June includes “Toy Story 4”, “The Secret Life of Pets 2”, “Late Night”, “Dark Phoenix” and “Yesterday”. And “Spider-Man: Homecoming 2”, “The Lion King” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” grace the silver screen in July. But August may actually […]
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Aaron Sorkin ‘Down’ for ‘Social Network’ Sequel

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Oscar winning writer Aaron Sorkin recently told the Associated Press that “there should be a sequel” to “The Social Network”. Sorkin penned the screenplay to David Fincher’s 2010 drama about the birth of Facebook and rise of its founder Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg. A lot has happened in the nine years since that […]
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Most Expensive Comedy Movies

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Sometimes you’re just searching on the Internet and strike gold. I came across a WatchMojo.com video highlighting some of the most expensive comedy movies ever made. Some of their choices are fascinating to learn and dissect – mostly based on paying the cast. I’ve also added a few more recent entries to this list, that […]
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Cameos Already Plentiful in 2019

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Two months into 2019, and the cinematic year has already provided several great surprise cameos and extended appearances. SPOILERS AHEAD: Bruce Willis appeared briefly at the end of 2017’s “Split”. M. Night Shyamalan intentionally connected Willis’s “Unbreakable” character David Dunn to the saga of James McAvoy’s Kevin Wendell Crumb – setting this up for “Glass”. […]
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Steven Spielberg and the Oscar Crusade

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Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest filmmakers of all-time. Some of his movies are pure classics. Where would the world be without “Jaws”, “ET” or “Raiders of the Lost Ark”? And he’s still got it all these years later, with triumphs such as “Lincoln”, “The Post” and “Ready Player One”. But he’s not going […]
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Ranking Recent Oscar Winning Performances

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Several Twitter users have now been asking fellow Twitter users to rank their favorite Oscar winning acting performances of this decade. The 2010s. Or is it just the 10s? No one really talks about the 1910s. They just say, “The early 1900s.” The decade numbers really begin with the 1920s – a.k.a. “The Roaring Twenties”. […]
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Host-less Oscars a Tense Telecast

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For the first time in 30 years, the Oscars had no host. And it definitely offered a different vibe. Without someone to go back to every once in a while, this viewer simply had to hang on for the ride. It’s like when a teacher calls in sick and gives a substitute a lesson plan […]
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LCJ’s 2019 Oscar Predictions

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So much has been discussed about this year’s Oscars that it’s not worth re-iterating. The host-less show will be what it is. Surprise wins are key for making a memorable three-ish hour telecast. Maybe Richard E. Grant or six-time nominee Amy Adams will shake-up the Supporting races. The Screenplay categories are anyone’s game. Rami Malek […]
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‘Poppins’ Tops 2019 LCJ Movie Awards

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Heading into the 2019 LCJ Movie Awards, Disney musical “Mary Poppins Returns” led the nominations with a record 15. The results are in – and the film has won a record-tying 8 honors at this year’s LCJ Awards ceremony, including Best Picture, Best Director (Rob Marshall) and Best Actress (Emily Blunt). Oscar favorite Rami Malek […]
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Benefiting from Oscar Noms at the Box Office

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It’s the second awards season without The Weinstein Company – a studio that often dominated awards shows. TWC was also very strategic in how they distributed their Oscar contenders. And now, Universal is stepping in and taking a move right out of Weinstein’s “playbook” (you’ll get the pun in a minute). “Green Book” opened in […]
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Kelsey Grammer Returns to FOX

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This Friday at 9pmET, FOX debuts its new legal drama series, “Proven Innocent”. It stars six-time Emmy winner Kelsey Grammer, who returns to FOX a little over a decade after his short-lived sitcom, “Back to You”. “Back to You” was a casualty of the 2007-2008 Writer’s Strike. Just 17 episodes were produced, and only 14 […]
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