Lights Camera Jackson

Movie Reviews, Entertainment News and Views from Lights Camera Jackson

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Be in the Know on ‘Jerry O”

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When the folks at “Live” were looking for someone to take over for Regis Philbin after his departure in 2011… (notice I use the words “take over” and “departure”, not “replace” and “retirement”)… a number of people auditioned. The frontrunners included Anderson Cooper, Neil Patrick Harris, Seth Meyers and Jerry O’Connell. Ultimately, Michael Strahan got […]
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That Other Time She Was Mary Poppins

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Julie Andrews famously played the flying nanny Mary Poppins in Disney’s 1964 classic (which turns 55 this month). It’s a performance that earned Andrews her first (and only) Academy Award. Of course, Disney made a long-awaited sequel last year with a “practically perfect” Emily Blunt. Andrews herself didn’t want to make an appearance in “Mary […]
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The Boss and The Movies

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The new movie “Blinded by the Light” is inspired by the music of Bruce Springsteen. With its release next Friday (with early nationwide preview screenings on Monday night), here’s a look at the prior cinematic contributions of The Boss: “PHILADELPHIA” (1993) Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” won him the Best Original Song Academy Award. “This is […]
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Blanchett at Her Best

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Two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett, who turned 50 earlier this year, is regarded as one of the best actresses of our time. She’s won two Oscars (her first for playing Katharine Hepburn in “The Aviator”) and has been nominated five other times, including “I’m Not There”, “Notes on a Scandal”, “Elizabeth” and follow-up “Elizabeth: […]
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Orange You Glad There Are Nick Movies?

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Next weekend’s “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” sees Paramount and Nickelodeon once again putting a spin one of their popular cartoons. This “Dora” is a live-action, CGI adventure – not hand-drawn animation like the TV series. There have been several Nick animated shows that have been adapted into theatrical features. In 1998, the […]
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A Sunny Day for ‘Racing in the Rain’

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“The Art of Racing in the Rain” is a new family drama starring Kevin Costner as the voice of Enzo the dog and Milo Ventimiglia and Amanda Seyfried as his owners. It’s based on a best-selling 2008 novel from author Garth Stein. On my recent trip to LA, I attended an advance screening of “Art […]
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Hollywood is STILL Obsessed with Hollywood

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In early 2016, I wrote a piece about Hollywood being obsessed with Hollywood. The industry released a host of films in the early 2010s chronicling stories of the film and TV industry: “The Artist”, “Hugo”, “Argo”, “Hitchcock”, “Saving Mr. Banks”, “Birdman”, “Trumbo”, “Youth” and “Hail, Caesar!” These added to the already plentiful entries in the […]
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SpongeBob’s Ready to Turn 20

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Happy 20th Birthday to the perky yellow sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea. Nickelodeon is kicking of SpongeBob’s Best Year Ever with a new one-hour Birthday special that features both the animated characters and their live-action alter egos. The cast of “SpongeBob SquarePants” will be discussing the “Big Birthday Blowout” episode next […]
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14 Most Anticipated Second Half of 2019 Films

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These are the 13 films I’m most looking forward to seeing during the second half of 2019: “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” – July 26 DiCaprio. Pitt. Robbie. Pacino. Tarantino. A movie about movies. Let’s Go! “Hustlers” – Sept. 13 The latest film from director Lorene Scafaria (“The Meddler”, “Seeking a Friend for the […]
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10 Best Movies of 2019 So Far

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Believe it or not, we’re already at the halfway mark of 2019. Out of all the new movies I saw that were released (in theaters or online) between January 1st and June 30th, here are my picks for the 10 Best: “AMAZING GRACE” The one-of-a-kind concert documentary re-affirms the fact that Aretha Franklin was an […]
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Spidey by the Numbers

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Just two years after “X-Men” kicked-off the modern age superhero film genre, another Marvel title got its big screen debut. “Spider-Man”, starring Tobey Maguire, was released on May 3, 2002 to, at the time, the biggest domestic opening weekend of all-time: $114.8 million. The Sony/Columbia Sam Raimi-directed film was the highest-grossing movie of ’02, with […]
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The Bookends of ‘Friends’

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Just as I did recently with “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, I decided to watch the Pilot and Series Finale of another iconic sitcom back-to-back. I was too young for “Friends” (though I do remember my mother having spinoff “Joey” on a few times). I don’t think I watched a full episode of the ensemble […]
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Tough to Rank 4 ‘Toy Story’ Films

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Get ready because “Toy Story 4” is about to dominate movie theaters and social media for the next several weeks. The latest film from Disney/Pixar opens this Thursday June 20th at 6pm. Some locations are doing special 5pm “event” screenings, and there are even a few showing all four “Toy Story” movies back to back. […]
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‘Mary Tyler Moore’: From Beginning to End

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I decided to try something a little different. (When has that ever stopped me before?) After only watching a few episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, I wanted to experience the bookends of this iconic sitcom. So I watched the Pilot and the Series Finale back-to-back. You might be thinking: Jackson, we know you […]
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Waiting for Sequel-man is Getting Tougher

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“The Secret Life of Pets 2” is the third major animated feature follow-up so far this year to underperform. Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” is less than two weeks away, and it will likely be a juggernaut. But even that studio has fallen into this financial sequel trap before. The attention span of some families is […]
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