What Makes a Movie Endlessly Rewatchable?

Posted on November 19, 2019 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

When I finish watching great films like The Godfather or The Deer Hunter, I feel like my mind has enjoyed a sumptuous meal. I’m completely satisfied, and I don’t feel the need to return to them and consume any more for a long time.

And then there are other amazing films like The Fugitive, WarGames, and Aliens. The moment the end credits roll on these films, I am both contented and hungry for more. I could watch them again right then and there, and I have on several occasions. Something about them draws me back in so that I’m never completely satisfied, but in a good way.

You probably have a list of films you can never get enough of, and it’s probably different than mine. What makes these movies endlessly rewatchable? I’ll answer this question based on the movies I love, so I won’t claim that it’s true for everyone. Continue reading →

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What Is Phil Connors’ Nature?

Posted on November 12, 2019 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Do you ever take a mental inventory of yourself, thinking about areas where you could improve? I did that this week when I got a text message from my oldest brother. He is probably the greatest man I have ever known, and I’ve always looked up to him as the model for how to be happy and successful in life. Quite spontaneously this week, he texted me to say he’s proud of me. He has witnessed many of my ups and downs in life, and he’s perfectly aware of my immaturity in previous years, so it means a lot to me that he can look past all that to say that what I have become is worthy of praise.

When he told me that, I thanked him and then pondered on two questions: am I a good person, and what is my nature? I was often quick to anger in my youth, and I have offended many people as a result. But I’ve always felt bad about my behavior on those occasions, and I’ve done my best to seek forgiveness and reconciliation with the people I’ve hurt. So I was able to conclude that I’m imperfect and have a lot of room to improve, but the fact that I always want to be better and be kinder to people means that my nature is ultimately good. It’s my nature to be positive and thoughtful, and whenever I go contrary to that I feel bad because I intuitively recognize it’s not what I want to be. Continue reading →

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No One Knows What to Do with James Cameron’s Child Characters

Posted on November 5, 2019 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Terminator: Dark Fate killed the child character from James Cameron’s previous installment in its opening scene. After all of Sarah Connor’s sacrifices to stay alive, give birth to the future savior of mankind, and protect him at all costs in the first two Terminator films, this newest film makes it clear that it was all for naught. Another Terminator came and finished the job the first two failed to do. John Connor is dead.

This reminds me of Alien3. In the opening scene of that film, the child character from James Cameron’s Aliens is killed unceremoniously. After all of Ripley’s efforts to stay alive, rescue Newt, and protect her at all costs in the first two films, Alien3 makes it clear that it was all for naught. Ripley’s triumph at the end of the last film turned into devastation at the start of the next film. Newt is dead. Continue reading →

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Why The Sixth Sense’s Twist Works

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

I once heard someone criticize The Sixth Sense saying that there’s no way Dr. Malcolm Crowe could have gone for a long period of time without noticing that no one ever made eye contact with him or talked to him besides Cole. But I think that criticism misses the point of this film’s twist. It doesn’t work because it’s based on real-world logic; it works because it makes us question our assumptions as we watch a movie.

To me, a movie is basically a short story. Everything in a short story has to convey a lot of information, and there’s not much room for indulgence, as opposed to a novel. A novel can take its time introducing characters, showing how they react to different situations and how they grow over time. It can also spend a lot of time on descriptions of settings and actions. A short story has to get to the point immediately and cram all that character development into a handful of scenes at most. Descriptions of characters, settings, and actions have to mean something more than the obvious. Reading a short story vs. a novel requires a different state of mind. We make different assumptions when reading each one.

It’s the same with movies. There are certain premises we have to accept in order to quickly process what we are watching. Here are some of these premises that The Sixth Sense uses to create its twist ending. Continue reading →

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10 Times Disney Chased Popular Film Trends

Posted on October 22, 2019 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Disney is well known for creating their own film trends. They practically invented the template for feature-length animated movies in the 1930s, released the first movie about video games with 1982’s Tron, and made pirates cool again for a brief time with Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, just to name a few. But they’ve also had their fair share of times they’ve tried to chase others’ success with varying degrees of success.

Long before Disney started gobbling up other film studios and incorporating their film franchises into their own, they took a different approach to profiting off of others. Here are 10 times it happened. Continue reading →

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My Marlin Moment

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

One of my sons recently taught me an important lesson. This is the same son who took many years to tell me that he loves me. During his bedtime routine, he was running around an office chair as he flossed his teeth. I noticed a book on the floor in his path, so I pointed it out to him and asked that he move it so he wouldn’t step on it. To my surprise, his face suddenly soured, and he started huffing at me in anger. That’s his usual precursor to a big tantrum. Sure enough, he soon lashed out, throwing the book across the room in fury and crying loudly with the occasional scream of rage. I had no idea what had set him off. I had simply asked him in a neutral tone to move a book. Continue reading →

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The Mechanic’s Ending Blows Away the Rest of the Film

Posted on October 8, 2019 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

When I was starting to get interested in films as a teenager, my mom stoked the flames by introducing me to a number of great ones like Lifeboat and an edited version of Witness. And then she told me about a 1972 film called The Mechanic. It has a fantastic ending, I was told. It was rated PG, so I didn’t think there would be anything too risqué about it. Little did I know that this is one movie that has an ending so good that it actually blows away everything else that happens in it. Continue reading →

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How My Mom Taught Me Not to Fear Scary Movies

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Halloween season is upon us, so in that spirit I would like to share an experience from my childhood involving scary movies. I was forbidden from watching most scary movies for many years, but my parents were wise enough to know that I would eventually find my way to them and so they needed to prepare me for them. It’s the same reason why we inoculate kids against diseases. I was certainly frightened when I first saw Mr. Boogedy, Poltergeist (1982), and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but thankfully I had the tools I needed to deal with their horrifying aspects because of something simple my mom said to me. Continue reading →

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Can You Imagine Seeing a TV Episode Like This Today?

Posted on September 24, 2019 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

What would you do if you had to choose how you were going to be killed? Imagine living in a nightmarish dystopia in which logic is an enemy and truth is a menace. You’re not being sentenced to death because you’re trying to subvert the authoritarian State you’re living under or even to question its validity. You’re being sentenced to death simply because you hold the wrong thoughts in your head. That makes you a threat.

Would you choose to go quietly, beg and plead for your life, cower in fear, or try to make some sort of heroic last stand? We get to see all of those options play out when a seemingly insignificant librarian named Romney Wordsworth is called upon to choose how he will die in my favorite episode of The Twilight Zone, “The Obsolete Man.” The episode features no action sequences, moments of levity, or anything else that would, at least on the surface, draw the audience in. Instead, it relies on compelling dialogue between two characters who couldn’t be more dissimilar, and complex ideas explored in a subtle and ingenious manner. It came out at the end of the show’s second season on June 2, 1961. Fifty-eight years later, it is just as compelling as ever, and I can’t imagine it getting made today.

You see, Wordsworth is a librarian in a State that has banned books. He is a Christian in a State that denies the existence of God. And he is a free thinker in a State that demands conformity. Therefore, he must die. Those in power can’t logically refute any of his arguments, so they must kill him to silence his hate speech. Continue reading →

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James Cameron’s Many Imitators

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then James Cameron must be one of the most beloved directors in Hollywood. Every one of his films has been aped at least once, sometimes before they even came out. Here are some of the most blatant ripoffs. Continue reading →

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