Lights Camera Jackson

Movie Reviews, Entertainment News and Views from Lights Camera Jackson

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10 Years a Critic

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I am approaching the end of my 10th year as a film critic. The goal here is to sum-up a decade of (as it’s stated on my website) movie news, reviews and views. I could go through lots of movie industry statistics and break down the quality of films by genre, but that would be […]
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The Comic Actor of the Decade

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One of the first films I ever reviewed was the animated adaptation of “Curious George”, starring Will Ferrell as the voice of The Man in the Yellow Hat. One of the last films I will be reviewing in my first 10 years as a film critic is “Daddy’s Home”, with Ferrell re-teaming with his “Other […]
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The Finest Final Scenes of 2015

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Endings can make or break a movie. 2015 featured 10 final scenes ranging from memorable and funny to genuinely emotional and completely unexpected. (SPOILER-FREE – I PROMISE!): 1. “THE PEANUTS MOVIE” – Like the entire CGI feature adaptation of the beloved comic strip and holiday specials, the last scene is sweet, heartwarming and surprisingly moving. […]
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The Critics’ Choices

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Here are my thoughts on this year’s movie category nominees for The 21st Annual Critics’ Choice Awards: BIGGEST SNUBS: Each of the acting categories has six nominees, but four Hollywood heavyweights still weren’t able to secure slots. Will Smith is not up for Best Actor for his performance in “Concussion”, though I think he still […]
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The Golden Globes Embrace the Golden Years

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My thoughts on the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards Movie Nominations: No one can ever accuse the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of ageism. With nominations for Jane Fonda (77), Lily Tomlin (76), Al Pacino (75), Helen Mirren (70), Maggie Smith (80), even Sylvester Stallone (69), the HFPA definitely went “Old School” this year. Unfortunately, with […]
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10 Biggest Surprises with SAG Awards Nominations

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Today’s SAG Awards nominations announcement was filled with more surprises than any I can remember. Here are the biggest stunners, snubs and pleasant surprises: 1 – Sylvester Stallone, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Jason Segel, Tom Hardy all left-out of the Actor in Supporting Role category. 2 – Every year one unexpected film seems to emerge […]
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“Big Short” Writer on “Risky” Dramedy

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Charles Randolph is the co-writer of Paramount’s new financial crisis dramedy “The Big Short”, based on Michael Lewis’ best-selling book on the 2007 big banks subprime mortgage scandal, which led to the stock market crash and the Recession/housing market collapse. Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt lead the all-star cast. I recently […]
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I’m Not Laughing

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By definition, a comedy is “intended to make an audience laugh”. “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig goes by a very similar standard, tweeting, “A comedy’s a film whose #1 goal is to make people laugh. If that wasn’t the filmmakers’ top goal, it’s not a comedy.” 2015 didn’t supply many pure comedies. The video game adventure […]
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Do the Legends Have It?

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Each of the four acting categories this Awards Season has their share of veteran candidates who could be honored, not only for their 2015 performance, but for their entire careers. In the Best Actor race, there’s Michael Caine as a retired orchestra conductor in the drama “Youth”. He’s a two-time Oscar winner, as is Tom […]
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The Year in Sequels – Parts 1 & 2

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“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2”, the fourth and final installment in the novel to screen franchise, had the weakest opening weekend of the series making a tad over $100 million in the U.S. Lionsgate’s theory of splitting the final book into two movies, based on the previous successes of the “Harry Potter” and […]
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