I realize that the title I wrote for this article could come across as vague. What I’m talking about is the location I am in when I think of my best ideas for Deja Reviewer articles and other things. Some people go into the woods to be alone and think of something creative. Others listen to music in the privacy of their own home. How about me? Continue reading
Independence Day is a bombastic movie with an equally bombastic soundtrack. I love it for its simplicity. The villains have scary music, and the heroes have heroic music. Not much ambiguity there.
But there are about 20 seconds tucked away in between heroic and villainous themes that touch something deep inside me and make me stand in awe. It comes when Captain Steve Hiller pilots an alien spaceship up to the Mother Ship in orbit around the Earth.
The flying theme as he soars higher into the atmosphere is full of excitement and energy. However, something magical happens as soon as he enters outer space. The theme suddenly gets quieter and more melancholy. There’s a masterful feel of longing in it that makes my heart ache each time I listen to it. Continue reading
My Cinematic Chiasmus series began 12 years ago with 1987’s RoboCop, a film directed by Paul Verhoeven, produced by Jon Davison, and co-written by Ed Neumeier. I had noticed that the film seemed to repeat itself quite a bit, and upon closer inspection I realized that it did so in an almost perfectly symmetrical way. That’s how I found the chiasmus, which seemed deliberately set in stone.
To add credence to that initial discovery, I recently discovered another chiasmus in a film that those three filmmakers worked on together 10 years after RoboCop in 1997: Starship Troopers.
I can’t take full credit for this discovery. My friend Jordan recommended it. He’s responsible for suggesting the following films that all turned out to be examples of Cinematic Chiasmus: Escape from New York, Dreamscape, Akira, Conan the Barbarian, Scream, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Goldfinger, Revenge of the Sith, X2: X-Men United, The Running Man, and Forbidden Planet. That’s quite a list, and it’s time to add another to it.
Let’s go ahead and dive right into Starship Troopers to see how symmetrical it is. Continue reading
Stargate is a really good movie. It takes a compelling concept and turns it into a fun adventure that spans the known universe. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today. What I actually want to focus on is the main character: Daniel Jackson.
He’s a wonderfully imperfect man who sees the world in a different way than anyone else. He’s not prideful or conceited, even though he makes bold claims in a very childlike way. In fact, he’s always the least-intimidating member of any group he’s in. Continue reading
I recently talked about one aspect of Ben-Hur (1959), but there’s so much more to say about this masterpiece of a film. One thing that has always stood out to me is the loving father-son relationship that develops between Roman Consul Quintus Arrius and Judah Ben-Hur. Continue reading
Ten years ago, Netflix dedicated a video to my Back to the Future Trilogy chiasmus. That was extraordinary. What a compliment to have my insights into one of the best film trilogies of all time branded as “The Lockard Theory” after my last name.
It appears that that name still stands because I recently found a video by movies explained discussing a whole bunch of Back to the Future theories put forth by fans. And mine appears prominently in it. If you click the video below, it will begin playing right at the part where “The Lockard Theory” begins. Continue reading
An actor’s third outing of James Bond is often remembered as his greatest performance and the best film of his tenure. Sean Connery’s Goldfinger built upon the first two films to perfect the template that future films would follow. Roger Moore’s The Spy Who Loved Me revitalized the formula and was that actor’s favorite film to make. Daniel Craig’s Skyfall added new depth to the character that had been missing before that.
What about Pierce Brosnan’s The World Is Not Enough? That’s remembered for being the last film of Q actor Desmond Llewelyn’s long tenure (stretching from 1963’s From Russia with Love) and the great Bond line, “I never miss.” But I would argue that Brosnan’s third turn as James Bond was more significant than his two previous films for one simple reason.
It hurt 007. Continue reading
Time for some fun. I had a silly thought about Thunk in The Croods, which I then put together into this little graphic. Enjoy! Continue reading
My wife and I recently rewatched Ben-Hur (1959), that classic film that won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and I discovered something amazing about it. This may not come across as groundbreaking, but I realized that the film paints itself as a revenge story for most of its runtime, but it’s actually a story of how empty it is to spend one’s life chasing revenge on those who wrong us. Continue reading
The years 1994 and 1997 were significant for James Cameron. He had two big films that came out those years that went head-to-head with other big blockbusters. And the results are telling because they flipped spectacularly in Cameron’s favor. Continue reading
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