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James Jackson
James Jackson's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Times (UK)
Sunday Times (UK)
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas (2023) |
The extravaganza works through good cheer and the sheer force of Waddinghamness, and at 45 minutes it mercifully doesn’t outstay its welcome... though, should be warned: it really is as cheesy as a baked stilton soufflé. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Nov 28, 2023
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Curse of the Demon (1957) |
... 66 years on the demon will still send chills through you. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Oct 30, 2023
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Richard III (1955) |
[Laurence Olivier's] Richard remains one of the most full-blooded movie villains — a performance done with, surely, a nod and a wink. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Oct 19, 2023
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Partygate (2023) |
You couldn’t say this was a drama that didn’t make its point, twisting it firmly with a screwdriver then bashing it home with a sledgehammer. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Oct 06, 2023
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Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) |
[Bridges'] handsome, effortless charisma is on full beam as Preston Tucker, an American car entrepreneur during the 1940s. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Sep 27, 2023
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8 Bar: The Evolution of Grime (2021) |
But this film’s exhaustive, and perhaps a bit exhausting, document of a uniquely British sound — black culture’s answer to punk — was a reminder of just how astonishing it is when youth culture creates a new musical language. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Aug 22, 2023
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Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) |
As souped-up matinee fare this has heaps of bugs, humour and chases, topped by Harrison Ford at his charismatic peak. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Jun 27, 2023
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Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time (2021) |
Vonnegut remains such contradictory company. His harrowing observations of inhumanity, most famously in Slaughterhouse-Five’s first-hand descriptions of the bombing of Dresden, seemed to render him ever more goofy. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Apr 26, 2023
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Stand by Me (1986) |
[The boys] petty bickering and self-revelations unfold convincingly and with great humour, bottling that uncertain moment in life between childhood and adolescence. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Apr 25, 2023
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The Pink Panther (1963) |
It’s chic in an early-1960s kind of way. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Apr 25, 2023
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City Slickers (1991) |
Between gentle one-liners and bucketloads of schmaltzy sentiment, the director Ron Underwood captures some of the rugged beauty of the American southwest. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Apr 25, 2023
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The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker (2023) |
The slight irony with the fable of Kai the hitchhiker is that, while the film seems to be making a valid point about how the reality media is all too vulturine in its race to exploit individuals, here is Kai, still part of the pop-cultural cycle. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Jan 11, 2023
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A Bunch of Amateurs (2022) |
A warm, funny-sad celebration of community and friendship as it followed a group of northern friends chasing their quixotic dreams of making (very cheap) movies. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Dec 14, 2022
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Meatballs (1979) |
Along with the set pieces of comic disaster there’s also a touching (sort of) subplot as Tripper brings the shy boy Rudy (Chris Makepeace) out of his shell and makes him realise his true worth. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Nov 18, 2022
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The Firm (1993) |
Cruise’s toothy heroics are ill-suited to moral complexity, but he is elevated by a stellar supporting cast... - Times (UK)
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| Posted Nov 15, 2022
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Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee (2022) |
... As the story then unspools over several years, McAfee’s behaviour becomes even more wayward, his story even weirder. The fact that this multmillionaire is a madman makes him all the more compelling. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Sep 12, 2022
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Some Like It Hot (1959) |
Nobody’s perfect, as the film’s immortal closing line has it, but some comedies are. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Aug 04, 2022
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) |
Monroe sparkles like the diamonds she worships. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Aug 04, 2022
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Ranveer vs. Wild with Bear Grylls (2022) |
These interactive Bear Grylls shows are good fun to watch as a family, allowing "you the viewer" to make decisions using your remote control to help Grylls to get through some perilous wilderness. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Jul 08, 2022
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Kate Garraway: Caring for Derek (2022) |
Showing the challenges that so many people are facing in caring for the chronically ill at home is something that cannot be shown enough. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Feb 28, 2022
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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend (2020) |
Good, ingenious fun until the sheer endlessness of it all starts to feel like being trapped in a disturbing cheese dream. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Aug 09, 2021
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Black Classical Music: The Forgotten History (2020) |
Lenny Henry, presenting alongside Suzy Klein, was certainly on ebullient form, screaming with laughter when his hat blew off, ruining his take. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Oct 07, 2020
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(undefined) |
Reminded you of mankind's capacity for true evil, it was enough to put even a pandemic in some sort of perspective. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Apr 17, 2020
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(undefined) |
[Sunny] Hundal's regret becomes a valuable lesson to us all about the importance of seeking to understand each other simply through dialogue - it felt an apposite message. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Jan 30, 2020
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(undefined) |
This was the kind of enjoyable, quantum-science-for-dummies programme populated by the species of professor who revels in finding hyper-complex maths equations "beautiful" and "elegant". - Times (UK)
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| Posted Jan 17, 2020
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(undefined) |
The grand unveiling of the ghost, held back until the end (in the classic fashion), was rather less memorable than a fruity performance from the living. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Dec 26, 2019
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(undefined) |
Anna Hall's film had a sense of tact, with something important to say about how a child victim of abuse can be unequipped to speak up. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Dec 09, 2019
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(undefined) |
Takaya is indeed a loveable beast. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Dec 04, 2019
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(undefined) |
The Trouble with Naipaul was a thoughtful hour that essentially boiled down the increasingly ubiquitous question: can you separate the art from the artist? - Times (UK)
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| Posted Nov 27, 2019
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What's My Name: Muhammad Ali (2019) |
It's great entertainment and a reminder that Ali came at just the right time. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Nov 20, 2019
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Alastair Campbell: Depression and Me (2019) |
Campbell was commendably self-exposing throughout, although I found his personal recollections more intriguing than his TV journey through the latest therapies, now the standard form for such documentaries. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Jun 11, 2019
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(undefined) |
Being absurd, inexplicable, even surreal, Berry's mad half-hour made total sense. Unlike Brexit, on the other hand, it was over all too swiftly. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Mar 27, 2019
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(undefined) |
At times felt almost like a live-action version of one of Brigg's stories. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Mar 07, 2019
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The Dead Room (2018) |
While it didn't hold a candle to the masterpiece of the series, The Signalman from 1976, it put Simon Callow's fruity, orotund voice to very fine use as Aubrey Judd. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Dec 27, 2018
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Car Crash: Who's Lying? (2018) |
Particularly striking was the way it pitched you right there on the crash scene through the replaying of police bodycam footage. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Nov 26, 2018
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Becoming Cary Grant (2016) |
A "window into his inner world" that was quietly superb throughout. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Oct 31, 2018
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The Fires that Foretold Grenfell (2018) |
Truly, the descriptions were ghastly in their vividness. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Oct 31, 2018
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The Bank That Almost Broke Britain (2018) |
This crisis cost the British taxpayer 1 trillion - this film should be repeated every month. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Oct 03, 2018
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British Sitcom - 60 Years Of Laughing At Ourselves (2016) |
This retrospective at least gazed a bit harder, reminding you that, at its best, the sitcom can be an even sharper tool than drama. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2018
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Manchester: The Night of the Bomb (2018) |
This film's greatest achievement was in showcasing dignity. - Times (UK)
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| Posted May 24, 2018
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Can You Rebuild My Brain? (2018) |
[Lotje] Sodderland's film was nothing if not (no pun intended) thought-provoking. - Times (UK)
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| Posted Feb 20, 2018
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