The Brilliance of Clue’s 3 Endings

Posted on July 11, 2023 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

There's no one single villain in the board game Clue.Clue is a remarkable movie. It managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of turning a simple board game into a richly dark comedy. The brilliance of the filmmakers is that they realized this isn’t an Agatha Christie whodunnit where there is just one murderer with a clear motive. In this case, everyone has a motive and opportunity to murder. And since this is a board game put to screen, the bad guy is a matter of pure chance.

That’s certainly true of the source material. Whenever you pick the murderer, weapon, and location of the murder at the start of a game, it changes. So there’s no way to know the who, what, or where that is involved until you untangle all the clues. Continue reading →

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All 6 Terminator Films Summed Up in a Few Words

Posted on July 4, 2023 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Each Terminator movie can be summed up in just a few words.We’re going to use a little clever wordplay to boil down each movie in the Terminator series to its essence. Okay, most of these descriptions are more than one word, but I’m including them in the One-Word Film Reviews section because they’re along those lines. I hope you enjoy. Continue reading →

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The Biggest Problem with Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead

Posted on June 27, 2023 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

I remember somehow watching Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead as a kid and actually enjoying it. I’m not sure if my mom even knew I saw it. It must have been the film’s final part that won me over because that’s when things finally start going right, and I like seeing goodness prevail.

However, I feel differently about the film now. I checked it out at the library last week to show my wife because I was oddly in the mood for it. I thought it would be a fun feel-good kind of experience to revisit. At least I hoped it would.

Now I owe my wife an apology because it turned out to be not a diamond in the rough but a polished turd. Continue reading →

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10 Examples of Hypnotic Movie Music

Posted on June 20, 2023 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Some music sounds like circles – spirals of sound that send your consciousness down an engrossing path. Here are 10 examples of absolutely hypnotizing movie music that draw me in every time I hear them, and I have to listen to them to the end. Continue reading →

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I Wish I Had Seen This Ventriloquist Special as a Kid

Posted on June 13, 2023 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

My wife recently introduced our kids and me to a TV special from 1988 starring a ventriloquist named Ronn Lucas. Actually, it’s starring a dummy named Buffalo Billy, while Lucas just kind of bumbles his way through the show. Of course, I’m being facetious. The man is a genius! His special is called Who’s in Charge Here? and it is on par with the best children’s entertainment I ever saw as a child. Continue reading →

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Raiders of the Lost Ark Is a Symmetrical Masterpiece

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

I know I said that I have three more Cinematic Chiasmus articles to write, which were submitted by a reader of mine named Jay. I promise I’ll get to those. But I had such a powerful impression that I needed to write this one right now that I simply couldn’t ignore it.

While writing last week’s article about Indiana Jones, I suddenly felt sure that Raiders of the Lost Ark was a chiasmus. I rewatched that movie and found it to be true! Just in case you needed another reason to love this cinematic masterpiece, here you go. Continue reading →

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Indiana Jones and the Victims of Their Own Success

Posted on May 30, 2023 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Last December, I talked about Final Destination being a rarity among film franchises for ending on a high note. Now it’s time to talk about its antithesis. Continue reading →

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10 Things I Appreciate About Airport 1975

Posted on May 23, 2023 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

I like Airport. There hadn’t been anything quite like it until it came out in 1970, and it won the Best Picture Academy Award, kickstarting the disaster-movie craze for the rest of the decade. I have a soft spot for big spectacles like The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. But I had never watched any of the sequels to Airport until recently.

I watched Airport 1975 expecting to be underwhelmed. Which I was, in many ways. It falls short of the original by failing to be about anything more than landing a badly damaged airplane. The original has all kinds of plotlines interweaving a group of interesting characters. The second lacks any kind of nuance or deeper meaning. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to like about it. Here are 10 things I appreciate about Airport 1975. Continue reading →

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Is Caleb Hammer Actually Helping People?

Posted on May 16, 2023 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

A few months ago, I discovered a YouTuber named Caleb Hammer. He’s kind of like Dave Ramsey, showcasing mostly young people’s dire financial situations and striving to help them reach prosperity. While Ramsey has a proven track record stretching back about three decades, Caleb is more of an unknown quantity.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt as I watched his unorthodox method of berating people over their poor spending habits and lack of discipline. Ramsey does the same thing, after all. 

However, I started to wonder if there’s some fundamental flaw in Caleb’s approach. He puts together nice budgets for people, but I don’t know if the people he’s talking to are being helped to change according to what he sets up for them. Let’s examine why that is and what Caleb should do differently to be more of a benefit to people drowning in debt. Continue reading →

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Why Data Is the Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Character

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

I remember years ago on Reddit visiting the Star Trek subreddit and finding a post entitled, “I just finished watching TNG for the first time. Who is your favorite character, and why is it Data?” That made me laugh. It’s funny because it’s true. The ensemble characters in Star Trek: The Next Generation are each defined by a single trait. Picard is aloof, Riker is strong, Worf is noble, Geordi is tenacious, Crusher is incisive, Deanna is empathic, and Data? He’s different. Data is relatable.

He’s an android who wants to understand human emotions and perhaps even experience them one day. Unfortunately, he lacks the capacity to feel anything, so he has to watch his crewmates suffer, celebrate, and struggle with no common frame of reference with which to understand them. For some reason, this makes him remarkably likable and interesting.

When we first meet Data, he’s childlike and curious, sometimes even arrogant and annoying. But something interesting happens over the course of the show’s seven seasons. He becomes more in tune with people’s emotions, and he fights back against his own limitations.

Episodes like “The Most Toys,” “Brothers,” and even “A Matter of Perspective” give him ample opportunities for growth. I’d like to share parts of them as a means of explaining why I agree that Data is the best one of the main characters in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Continue reading →

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