Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Epoch Times
Mark Jackson is the senior film critic for The Epoch Times. Mark has 20 years experience as a New York professional actor, working in theater, commercials, and soap operas. He has a classical theater training and a BA in philosophy from Williams College. As a voice actor, he recently narrated the Epoch Times audiobook, “How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World.” Mark's professors suggested he become a professional writer. He became a professional actor instead. Now he writes professionally about acting. In the movies.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/author-mark-jackson
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Champions (2023) |
"Champions" is wholesome and uplifting family fare. You can't go too wrong with it, even though some of it is sort of wrong. Many decent chuckles available here. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Mar 11, 2023
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Creed III (2023) |
Not bad for Michael B. Jordan's freshman directing debut. The fight scenes are good. But if Stallone is out for good, it would seem the RU (Rocky Universe), quality-wise at least, is in danger of imploding. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Mar 05, 2023
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Count Me In (2021) |
A fun doc about rock drumming, especially women drummers. If you'd told me in the 70s that in 2022 there'd be a 19-year-old girl (Madden Klass) who could blow the doors off legendary jazz drummer Max Roach I'd have told you you were taking strong drugs. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Mar 05, 2023
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Heart of a Champion (2023) |
Heart of a Champion's content is very family friendly, but parents will need to sacrifice their own entertainment quality and let this one just be for the kids. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Feb 27, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023) |
It's nice Hollywood's been scouring metaphysical and cosmological texts and translating them into comic book popcorn entertainment (The Quantum Realm!) but the over-usage of CGI as a lazy replacement for the craft of good storytelling is tedious. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Feb 22, 2023
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You People (2023) |
Jonah Hill and Kenya Barris have found a way to navigate a large swath of America’s racial and cultural minefield in a manner that will make you laugh hard, but also stop and think about stuff. And that’s good stuff.
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| Posted Feb 05, 2023
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Alice, Darling (2022) |
The multi-talented Kendrick can't save this well-intended project from being a stultifying bore. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Feb 05, 2023
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Plane (2023) |
Plane, much like 1994's "Speed," 2014's "Non-stop," and last year's "Ambulance," is a one-word-titled thriller-adventure-actioner that mostly takes place in a vehicle. Lots of old-school fun. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Feb 05, 2023
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The Alpinist (2021) |
Ups the ante on 2018's "Free Solo" by quite a bit. Imagine climbing 9,000 feet using crampons and ice axes to hang off 8th-of-an-inch rock ledges and shaky ice pillars... with no rope. Not for the faint of heart. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Feb 05, 2023
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The Pale Blue Eye (2022) |
Bale utilizes the heavily mustachioed beardfulness he employs in all his 1800's roles, and while he can chew the scenery with the best of them, he allows Melling's scary-doll, wide-eyed E.A. Poe to upstage him. A plodding but highly engrossing watch. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Feb 05, 2023
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Stutz (2022) |
Actor/director Jonah Hill honors his psychiatrist. A great introduction to the world of therapy, and an opportunity to see what kinds of things a world-class therapist, who genuinely cares about his patients, can bring to the table of your life. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Feb 05, 2023
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Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) |
If for nothing else, see it to enjoy the stunning smorgasbord of visual marine delights bequeathed by the director who dove 2.3 miles down in the pitch black ocean, all by himself, to the Mariana Trench. Who does that? Talk about your thorough research. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Dec 22, 2022
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The Wonder (2022) |
A staid drama of a nurse examining a case of breatharianism. Similar to "The Good Nurse." Both movies examine worlds where some would prefer people die than admit they’d made mistakes. Also another punch to the face of patriarchal societies. Pugh shines. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Nov 29, 2022
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The Fabelmans (2022) |
Spielberg's hugely entertaining childhood memoir shows how he became who he is, demonstrates the magnetic power that the ability to sprinkle magic dust upon others can confer upon a filmmaker, and sheds light on the complex journey of artists everywhere. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Nov 22, 2022
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Confess, Fletch (2022) |
The multi-talented Hamm demonstrates herewith that he can carry a comedy the way we always suspected he could. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Nov 14, 2022
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Causeway (2022) |
While you can by no means call it a fun film, J-Law is finally back in her "Winter's Bone" wheelhouse, and that alone is a thing of beauty. "Causeway" is more to be savored like a melancholic Erik Satie "Gymnodpédie." - Epoch Times
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| Posted Nov 14, 2022
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The Good Nurse (2022) |
A muted indictment of the U.S. hospital system and a true story, it spotlights how a serial killer murdered around 400 patients at 10 hospitals in the North East. Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne shine. More outrage would have been preferable though. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Nov 05, 2022
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Ticket to Paradise (2022) |
Julia Roberts and George Clooney have worked together so often they've become that married couple we like to have dinner and go camping with. Can all that save this lame rom-com? Not really, but it's making big bucks so clearly that's not a big deal. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Oct 31, 2022
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Wall Street (1987) |
A 1980's update of Goethe's Faust, with Charlie Sheen's Bud Fox as a corporate raider wannabe Faust and Michael Douglas's Gordon Gekko a grinning, ruthless finance Mephisto. In 2022's time of greedflation, a re-watch sheds light on our current condition. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Oct 25, 2022
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Stars at Noon (2022) |
Due to sheer animal magnetism, Qualley makes this yawn-fest almost interesting for 45 minutes. What the titular, visible stars at noon have to do with the story, I can't tell, other than that, possibly, Qualley's personal star will soon be at zenith. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Oct 18, 2022
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Amsterdam (2022) |
Amsterdam would appear to be a veiled warning to America about fascism. Bale is funny and Robbie's star wattage keeps it afloat, but if I hadn't been trapped in a movie theater, I would have hit pause and started looking for something more stimulating. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Oct 12, 2022
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Facing Nolan (2022) |
The fastest pitch in baseball was 105.1 mph, thrown in 2010. MLB's pitching GOAT, Nolan Ryan, threw a blazing 100.8 mph heater for 27 years and set an incredible amount of untouchable records. A heartwarming tale of a modern-day baseball Paul Bunyan. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Oct 09, 2022
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Blonde (2022) |
The gift of art is that it can transform suffering into a form we can tolerate enough to be able to enlighten to something. Like the sad state of our icon worship of the sad life of Marilyn. But if it's pure pain and degradation, is that really a gift? - Epoch Times
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| Posted Oct 06, 2022
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Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) |
Like Napoleon Dynamite years later, "Bueller" depicts deliciously recognizable instances of high school life to be savored. Like the little coke-bottle glasses girl serving Principal Rooney a warm gummi bear from her pocket where it's resided for weeks. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Oct 04, 2022
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Dirty Dancing (1987) |
The recent US Supreme Court developments send us back to the dark side of 1987s Dirty Dancing and make it relevant again in 2022. Jennifer Grey's performance is what truly anchors this classic. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Sep 29, 2022
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Don't Worry Darling (2022) |
A mash-up of The Stepford Wives, The Truman Show, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it's a fairly vacuous (though quite stylish) peculiar cinematic hodge-podge that feels as if director Olivia Wilde was channeling director M. Night Shyamalan. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Sep 29, 2022
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Road House (1989) |
The true heart of Road House taps into that peculiar, romanticized atmosphere of the Wild West: two dangerously violent-yet-soft-spoken, Southern-gentlemanly alphas, trading war stories and showing battle scars in the presence of a beautiful woman. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Sep 29, 2022
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The Swearing Jar (2022) |
The takeaway of "The Swearing Jar" is having a look at how, when they don't have some overarching, spiritual context, people try to reconcile death. How they cope, heal, and find happiness again. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Sep 29, 2022
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Free Puppies! (2022) |
"Free Puppies" could have benefited from adopting social media's "The Dodo's" format, and followed 2 or 3 puppies to their forever homes, instead of showing so many stray dogs it comes close to presenting as a vermin infestation. But kudos regardless! - Epoch Times
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| Posted Sep 29, 2022
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Fall (2022) |
Forced to be atop a sky-high tower for two hours is a white-knuckle, vertiginous anxiety-fest, but you may find yourself in that funny place one gets to in one's head when the roller coaster arrives back at the starting gate: "Can we go again?" - Epoch Times
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| Posted Sep 29, 2022
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Bullet Train (2022) |
It's supposed to Tarantino-esque, and cute, and Antoine Fuqua-riveting-action-y, and hilarious, but it's just none of the above. Miss this train. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Sep 29, 2022
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Emily the Criminal (2022) |
"Emily" is apropos of the record numbers of low-wage employees currently voluntarily quitting jobs that can never pay the bills. Which is one of the planned steps towards a society's workers letting the state take care of them. An excellent example of it. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Sep 29, 2022
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Sheryl (2022) |
Sheryl Crow onstage at Woodstock '94 was the personification of a rock star, although she wasn’t one yet. Her documentary fills in the blanks nicely. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Aug 07, 2022
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Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl (2022) |
Love me some Shania, but this shallow documentary don't impress me much. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Aug 07, 2022
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Purple Hearts (2022) |
"Purple Hearts" succeeds in making America's political left and right equally irritating at first, but you know you’re in a country leaning heavily towards communism when both sides team up and start trying to game the system. Not a bad watch at all. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Jul 31, 2022
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Don't Make Me Go (2022) |
Mia Isaac is most likely a bona fide star in the midst of a breakout moment. She’s got the “It” factor. As good as John Cho is here, it’s Isaac’s movie, but it’s a fun ride because of the outstanding father-daughter chemistry between Cho and Isaac. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Jul 28, 2022
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Not Okay (2022) |
Arriving in the wake of the Depp-Heard defamation trial, “Not Okay” feels immediately familiar, opening with a warning that the movie will feature “an unlikable female protagonist,” and is similarly about internet lying and using others for personal gain. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Jul 25, 2022
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The Gray Man (2022) |
If you love the MCU and loads of cartoonish CGI violence, then you’ll love “The Gray Man." If you’ve read the books, avoid the movie at all costs. If you haven't read the books—read them. It's a whole summer's worth of thoroughly engrossing page-turning. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Jul 22, 2022
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Elvis (2022) |
Anchored by a powerful performance by Austin Butler, "Elvis" casts the The King of Rock and Roll as an unwitting mark in a carnival side show act. Hank's Colonel Parker is annoying, but Butler is a brand new star. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Jun 27, 2022
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Jerry & Marge Go Large (2022) |
Bryan Cranston's Jerry is a version of his "Breaking Bad's" Walter White; bland, unassuming, but up to some sneakiness he intitially doesn't tell his wife about. Only in "Jerry and Marge," his wife and the whole town eventually get to be in on the fun. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Jun 23, 2022
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Jurassic World Dominion (2022) |
The action isn't terrible once this clunker gets rolling, but the underlying Frankenworld message of "can we all get along" with genetically altered dinos and cloned humans is disturbing. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Jun 11, 2022
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Hustle (2022) |
The sports movie formula, done well, is as delicious as that Gruyére cheeseburger with the red onion on the crunchy English muffin bun that you'll drive across town for. Very tasty. Sandler's on a roll reinventing himself as a dramatic actor. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Jun 08, 2022
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How They Got Over (2021) |
A great opportunity to view archival footage and listen to the originators of commercial gospel, but also a treatise on and example of what tends to happen in America at the crossroads of spirituality and commerce. - Epoch Times
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| Posted May 27, 2022
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) |
I yawned myself silly. In my theater row were two guys who'd extended their seats into movie beds, curled up, fast asleep. This boredom is a real shame, because the subject matter is cutting edge. We actually have many selves living in other dimensions. - Epoch Times
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| Posted May 24, 2022
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Top Gun (1986) |
The dogfight scenes are brilliant, the earthbound flyboy shenanigans are lots of fun, and the romance is fairly abysmal. Which is sad, but doesn’t affect the movie in the slightest because “Top Gun” is a Warrior/Magician movie, not a Lover movie. - Epoch Times
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| Posted May 17, 2022
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Top Gun: Maverick (2022) |
Top Gun: Maverick hits all the highlights and then some: Micky-mouse-eared deck-hands doing cat-shot dance moves; warplanes screaming off carrier decks; arrogant stick jockeys; beach volleyball; flat spins; and dogfight mayhem in the skies. Outstanding! - Epoch Times
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| Posted May 13, 2022
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Don Juan DeMarco (1995) |
Ultimately, the inspiration that underlies the whole film is the magic of discovering the sublime in the superficial by dedicating one's life to living perfectly in the moment. - Epoch Times
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| Posted May 03, 2022
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The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) |
How wrong can you go with a comedy about beautiful people making beautiful food in the south of France? And Helen Mirren? The woman can turn 105 and she'll still be alluring, even when she's being haughty. Lots of laughs. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Apr 19, 2022
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Father Stu (2022) |
A biopic about a manly, irreverent, slightly blaspheming Catholic priest with a great sense of humor and a big heart. Enjoy it for Easter. Just maybe don't take kids under 12. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Apr 15, 2022
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The Other Woman (2014) |
A fairly hilarious womance showcasing Leslie Mann, whose comedic forte is wallowing in humiliation. Good stuff. She also plays a mean drunk. It's surprising there wasn't an explosion of movies in the wake of "The Other Woman," featuring her. - Epoch Times
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| Posted Apr 11, 2022
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