Merry Christmas to all of you, my friends! I would like to offer you a Christmas present by walking you through the various categories of my website and my thoughts on why I created them and how they have turned out.

I started the Deja Reviewer website in June 2011, and as part of its launch I had already come up with seven categories of articles that I intended to explore over the years. I added a few more in later years, but here are the ones I started off with:

Movie Matchups

I figured this would be my signature type of article, hence the name of my website. I wanted a chance to compare movies with very little in common on the surface to really blow people’s minds. I’ve done dozens and dozens of movie matchups, and they’re still a lot of fun to do, although I have changed the format quite a bit since the start. And the focus of the website has changed from what I originally planned.

Forgotten Film Gems

I’ve played fast and loose with the term “forgotten,” but I always have a logical reason for lumping films like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in with films like National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1.

Movies That Improve on Multiple Viewings

These are all films that I either failed to appreciate on my initial viewing or they are already beloved films that I have come to understand on an even deeper level as time passes and my tastes mature.

Movies That Get Worse on Multiple Viewings

I thought this would be a fun section, but it got a bit depressing harping on films I used to love, so I haven’t written too many of these articles.

Bad Movies with Great Music

This section was sure to be controversial when I came up with it, but I just had several films in mind that I wanted to explore. I still haven’t gotten to The Jazz Singer (1980), but I’m getting there.

Battle of the Message Movies

I had one big hit early on in this section with my battle between How to Train Your Dragon and Avatar, but since then I’ve been pretty quiet in this category. I guess there hasn’t been much to fight about.

Random Stuff

This category is a catchall for any wild idea I have that doesn’t fit in any of the other categories I have established. This is by far the busiest part of my website. I’m constantly returning to it when I think of more fun ideas that I have no other place for.

Joke of the Week

I thought it would be fun to share some of the hundreds of jokes I have come up with under this category. I never got much response from it, so I discontinued it in 2012. I return to it periodically for fun ideas that are too outlandish to belong even in the Random Stuff section.

Late Additions

I wasn’t done once I had established these categories. Every one of them was an experiment, and some worked better than others. As I discovered what I was more interested in writing about, I came up with two more categories.

Pleasant Surprises

In April 2012, a little under a year after I created all of the categories above, I published my first article in this category. I wanted a place to express that rare pleasure of being delighted by the unexpected. There some films and TV shows that I expect to be disappointed by, but they actually have the opposite effect on me. It’s such a treat, and I always enjoy giving them my compliments.

Cinematic Chiasmus

The crown jewel of the Deja Reviewer came in April 2014 when I published my article, “RoboCop (1987) Is an Almost Perfectly Symmetrical Film.” It’s still my most popular article on the site. And I’ve got 15 more of these articles under my belt. I’ve slowed down since 2014, but these are always special when I sit down and write them.

Let’s wrap this up and get back to Christmas! I hope you have the very best time with your friends and family this Christmas unwrapping presents and enjoying all of your new toys. And I hope you enjoy all of the gifts above from the Deja Reviewer.

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.