Lights Camera Jackson

Movie Reviews, Entertainment News and Views from Lights Camera Jackson

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‘A Hologram for the King’ Review

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Tom Hanks rarely makes indies. Instead, he usually headlines compelling biopics, gripping action/adventures and animated blockbusters. So the low-budget, German-produced drama “A Hologram for the King”, based on a 2012 novel by Dave Eggers, is definitely a change of pace for one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. But even THE Tom Hanks […]
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‘The Boss’ Review

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Melissa McCarthy has proven she can deliver plenty of laughs, both on TV and the big screen. But a pattern is starting to emerge when it comes to her movie projects: With McCarthy’s most successful films (“Bridesmaids”, “St. Vincent”, “Spy”), she and husband Ben Falcone were NOT the screenwriters, and Falcone wasn’t behind the camera […]
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‘I Saw the Light’ Review

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Recent biopics that dissected the lives of popular musicians and groups, including James Brown, Frankie Valli, Brian Wilson and N.W.A., all had some bold and powerful statements to make. The main problem with “I Saw the Light”, which chronicles the brief but amazing career of Hank Williams, is that it fails to give the country […]
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‘Midnight Special’ Review

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“Midnight Special” comes from “Mud” writer/director Jeff Nichols, who was clearly inspired by the sci-fi movies of his childhood when it came to crafting this script. And for the first hour or so, Nichols really makes you work to try to piece everything together. Normally that’s a good sign of things to come. Instead of […]
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‘The Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films 2016’ Review

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I look forward to checking-out The Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films every year. Normally, within the group of five, there are at least one or two standouts. However, that’s not the case this year. Instead, we have a lineup that is universally weak in story and largely unimpressive. Here are the Nominees: “Bear Story” (Chile, […]
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‘Legend’ Review

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“Legend” is the true story of twin brothers Reggie and Ronald Kray, gangsters who ruled London in the 1950s and 60s. Tom Hardy, who’s established himself as one of the actors of the decade with memorable performances in “Locke”, “Warrior”, “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Mad Max: Fury Road”, plays both brothers – in this […]
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‘The Good Dinosaur’ Review

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Less than an hour into Pixar’s “The Good Dinosaur”, I began thinking about the studio’s 15 other animated movies (never a good thing). Not all of them are outstanding (“WALL-E” being the most overrated), but given the choice, I would watch any of them again in favor of a second viewing of “The Good Dinosaur”, […]
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‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2’ Review

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After a solid first installment and an even stronger sequel, “The Hunger Games” franchise flamed-out with last year’s “Mockingjay – Part 1”. Lionsgate decided to split the third and final book from Suzanne Collins’ phenomenon series into two films based on the financial successes of the “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” series, which utilized this strategy. […]
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‘Spectre’ Review

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2012’s “Skyfall” marked a box office high and critical resurgence for James Bond. However, the 53-year-old franchise has, sadly and surprisingly, taken a downfall with the newest installment – “Spectre”: that’s Bland, James Bland. Returning director Sam Mendes does deserve credit for getting things off to a rousing start, with Daniel Craig’s 007 in Mexico […]
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‘Hotel Transylvania 2’ Review

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Sony Pictures Animation welcomes you back to “Hotel Transylvania” with a sequel to their 2012 all-star “monster” comedy. Unfortunately, you may not want to check-in, as “HT2” suffers from a scattered script and uneven pacing (aka the Adam Sandler Syndrome). Sandler earned high marks for his voice performance of Dracula in the original “Hotel Transylvania”, […]
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