Movie Matchups: The Ninth Gate vs. In the Mouth of Madness

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Someone named Daniel recently begged me to do an article on Roman Polanski’s 1999 film The Ninth Gate. I’m always happy to oblige my readers, so I promised him I would work it into my schedule. It just so happened that I had a slot open close to Halloween, so everything worked out perfectly. Daniel, this one’s for you!

I felt like I was having déjà vu as I watched The Ninth Gate. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but a lot of it reminded me of another unconventional horror film I had seen years ago. It wasn’t until I talked to my wife about it after the fact that I finally realized what it reminded me of: John Carpenter’s 1994 film In the Mouth of Madness.

I want to make it clear I’m not saying these films are copies of each other or essentially the same in their plots, the way I’ve striven to do with other Movie Matchups. I’m just saying that they have some surprisingly similar setups and characters, which they do different things with, and both films gave me the same feeling of dread the whole way through. With that in mind, let’s find the devil in the details of The Ninth Gate and In the Mouth of Madness! Continue reading →

Posted in Movie Matchups | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Death of a Family Member

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

My heart is heavy. I had intended to publish another fun, thought-provoking film analysis today, but something happened this week that made me change my mind. Right now would not be an appropriate time for levity.

Alan Blood and his young son react to discovering Alan's breast cancer had returned.My brother-in-law, Alan Blood, died on the morning of Saturday, October 15, 2016. He was only 43 years old. He leaves behind his wife (my sister) of 20 years, as well as his three daughters and one son, aged 8, 12, 14, and 17. Continue reading →

Posted in Updates | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

The Problem with Lethal Weapon 2

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Lethal Weapon 2 has not aged terribly well.For years, I heard that Lethal Weapon 2 was an excellent sequel that stacks up nicely to the original film. I put off watching it for a long time so as to savor the anticipation of seeing it. When I finally got around to seeing it, I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed by the experience. The weird thing is that I didn’t find the film to be terribly boring or bad. I just felt like I had seen it many times before.

Lethal Weapon 2 did such a good job being sleek, paying off everything it sets up, and being an all-around solid sequel that it wound up being parodied, copied, and recycled in numerous ways. It’s so ubiquitous that I have trouble thinking of clear examples of other films that follow its formula, but it just seems like so many other action films have borrowed heavily from this film. The following things didn’t necessarily originate with this film, but their presence in this film makes it feel like other films got some of their ideas from it:

  • The love interest works for the villain and gets killed (Tomorrow Never Dies)
  • Someone uses a nail gun (or something like it) in an action sequence (Casino Royale (2006), Arachnophobia, Darkman)
  • An overbearing, annoying, yet endearing sidekick shows up to provide comic relief (The Fifth Element, Another Stakeout, Judge Dredd, Shrek)
  • A villain claims diplomatic immunity after killing police officers (U.S. Marshals)
  • The villain puts a bomb on an everyday object that the heroes manage to circumvent (Speed)
  • During a chase, a car speeds onto a sidewalk, endangering pedestrians (The Bourne Identity)

There are a lot of other things, but you hopefully get the idea. I had already seen Lethal Weapon 2 many times over by the time I finally sat down and watched it. I’m sure that me saying this sounds like I might as well be criticizing William Shakespeare’s works for being clichéd. I realize that this is the source of the clichés, much like other trendsetters like Star Wars, Rocky, and Psycho (1960). But while those movies still hold up well today and are just as effective at evoking emotions, Lethal Weapon 2 has lost a lot of its luster since it debuted in 1989.

In addition to its overall sense of “been there, done that,” here are a few other things that keep Lethal Weapon 2 from being a great film in my eyes. Continue reading →

Posted in Movies That Get Worse | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Lethal Weapon and the Fearless Action Hero

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

We like fearless action heroes. Arnold Schwarzenegger epitomizes the image of the action hero who rarely shows a hint of weakness and kills without remorse. In 1987’s Predator, he does have a few moments where he looks like he could actually die, but for the most part he’s in complete control of his emotions.

That same year another action film debuted, which deconstructed the ‘80s action hero and gave us a completely new take on the idea of fearlessness – Lethal Weapon. I admit I didn’t like Lethal Weapon the first time I saw it. In fact, I included it in a list of movies I regretted watching a few years ago. I’ve changed my mind about several films on that list since I wrote it, especially Lethal Weapon.

I recently rewatched Lethal Weapon, and I found a lot to love about it. Most of all, I found Martin Riggs to be an incredibly compelling character and one that I can definitely empathize with. Let’s deconstruct this deconstruction of action heroes as we discuss Lethal Weapon’s unique take on the fearless action hero. Continue reading →

Posted in Movies That Improve | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Star Trek’s Insights Into the Campus Rape Hysteria

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Season 3 of Star Trek: The Next Generation is probably my favorite season of that show. It introduced us to the awkward yet lovable character of Reginald Barclay, offered a proper sendoff to Tasha Yar after her embarrassing departure from the show in season 1, added a new dimension to the previously one-note Q, and, of course, gave us the greatest TV cliffhanger of all time in the form of “The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1.”

Sandwiched in the middle of “Deja Q” and “Yesterday’s Enterprise” is a little episode entitled “A Matter of Perspective.” Star Trek is at its best when it takes a moral dilemma and shows us multiple sides of the issue so we can make our own value judgments on it. And “A Matter of Perspective” takes that concept literally by showing us multiple people’s takes on events leading up to a murder.

It’s never clear exactly what happened leading up to the murder itself, and that’s part of the brilliance of this episode. We want to believe one character’s side of the story because he’s a main cast member, but we can’t be absolutely certain he didn’t embellish to make himself look just a little more stalwart than he actually acted.

While this episode aired more than two decades ago, it has a lot to say about the supposed rape culture taking place on college campuses. Some people claim that between 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted while attending college – numbers that are insanely high and easy to debunk. But this supposed crisis has led to a lot of injustice, and I’d like to talk about it by walking through “A Matter of Perspective” and likening it to current events. Continue reading →

Posted in Random Stuff | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Netflix Dedicated a Video to My Back to the Future Chiasmus!

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

It’s not every day that you can say a big name like Netflix took notice of you. Well, last Wednesday (coincidentally right after I published another Back to the Future article) Netflix posted a video on their YouTube account depicting my giant article detailing the Cinematic Chiasmus of the entire Back to the Future Trilogy! Seriously, check it out above.

That’s pretty amazing. This isn’t the first time someone has noticed how awesome that particular article is, but I’m not gonna lie – it’s pretty cool to be noticed by Netflix and to have my name forever etched into the popular pantheon of film fandom.

I’m just going to briefly share what I love about the video and offer a little constructive criticism about what I wish they had done a little better. Continue reading →

Posted in Cinematic Chiasmus, Videos | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

5 Ways Marty McFly Could Get Rich Without the Sports Almanac

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

In Back to the Future Part II, when Doc Brown discovered that Marty McFly was going to take lucrative information about the future back to the past (in the form of a Sports Almanac), he was furious. He didn’t want anyone to use the time machine for financial gain. But he didn’t realize that just by walking around the 2015 version of Hill Valley Marty had already soaked up so much valuable information that he could make a fortune by remembering what he saw and heard. No Almanac required.

Here are five ways Marty could still get fabulously wealthy from his experience in 2015, even after Doc threw his Almanac in the trash. Continue reading →

Posted in Random Stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Lighthearted Side of Braveheart

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

You might accuse me of having a morbid sense of humor, but I can’t help chuckling a little at the funeral scene at the start of Braveheart. And I think you might just do the same thing after you see the meme I have created.

Young William Wallace has just seen his father and brother killed, and he thinks he is all alone in the world. And then after the ceremony is over, a little girl tugs on his shirt and silently hands him a thistle. It’s a touching exchange, and the characters do all the talking with their eyes. But I decided to add a few words of dialogue for her character during this dramatic moment. Continue reading →

Posted in Joke of the Week | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Tevye and Mr. Bennet Demonstrate Why Envying the Rich Is Foolish

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

I compared Fiddler on the Roof and Pride and Prejudice a little while back, and I found them to be surprisingly similar in their stories and characters. Two characters, in particular, kept coming to my mind and I decided that they deserve special attention. The characters are the fathers of their respective families: Tevye and Mr. Bennet.

Tevye wishes he was rich. He spends so much time yearning for what he doesn’t have that he misses the fact that he is so happy simply being a poor milkman. Mr. Bennet has everything that Tevye dreams of. He is fabulously wealthy, he never has to work for his money, and he can live in comfort all his days. And yet he is hopelessly miserable. It turns out that Tevye would be better off where he is and he shouldn’t bother envying the rich because money wouldn’t solve his problems.

There’s a whole song dedicated to Tevye’s wish to be wealthy, “If I Were a Rich Man.” And I’m going to go through it basically line by line and show how everything Tevye wants, Mr. Bennet has received and it hasn’t made him happy at all. At the start, Tevye asks “What would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?” I’m here to explain exactly how terrible it would have been.

And there might just be a lesson in this for all of us.

I’ll share the lyrics of the song in italics and then give my commentary on each verse beneath them. Continue reading →

Posted in Random Stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

10 Reasons to Love Marc McClure in 1977’s The Phone Call

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Did you know that one year before playing Jimmy Olsen in 1978’s Superman: The Movie, Marc McClure appeared in a little short film called The Phone Call? It was produced by my alma mater, Brigham Young University, so it has a special place in my heart.

The Phone Call tells the story of an awkward teenager who has to work hard to overcome his insecurities and ask a cute girl out on a date. There are a lot of reasons to love this little 24-minute film – and Marc McClure’s lovable Scott character, in particular. And I’m going to share 10 of them. Continue reading →

Posted in Forgotten Film Gems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment