Great Scott! The Entire Back to the Future Trilogy Is One Big Chiasmus

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

I’ve discovered that some films follow a chiasmus formula in the way their stories are set up. What is a chiasmus? It’s an ancient writing structure in which ideas are listed in one order and then repeated in the opposite order to form a complete idea.

The nursery rhyme “Hickory Dickory Dock” is a perfect example of a chiasmus. Every verse follows the same pattern:

A. Hickory dickory dock

 B. The mouse ran up the clock

  C. The clock struck one

 B. The mouse ran down

A. Hickory dickory dock

Up ‘til now I’ve limited my focus to individual films to find their cinematic chiasmus. But I am happy to report that the entire Back to the Future Trilogy is almost perfectly symmetrical. This took some incredible planning to pull off, and I’ll discuss its implications at the end.

But now, let’s make history as we explore the chiasmus of all three Back to the Future films. Continue reading →

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10 Amazing ’80s Directors Who Lost Their Mojo in the ’90s

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

It’s not always easy for directors to make the transition from one decade to the next. For every Steven Spielberg there are several Francis Ford Coppolas. Filmgoers’ expectations change, technology improves, and the industry moves in a new direction. If a director can’t keep up with the times or makes one or two bad movies, they can be forgotten or pushed aside for fresh new talent.

I’d like to talk about 10 talented directors from the ‘80s who didn’t make the cut in the ‘90s for one reason or another. That doesn’t diminish their early work. It just shows how hard it is to stay on top once you reach such a tall pinnacle. Continue reading →

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The Duality of The Dark Knight (2008)

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Batman and the Joker represent the two sides of Harvey Dent's two-faced coin.The presence of Two-Face in The Dark Knight is no coincidence. Christopher Nolan stuffed that film full of duality to show how Batman and the Joker are opposite sides of the same coin. Order and chaos, light and darkness – they are perfectly represented by Harvey Dent’s half-burned coin, which he uses to mete out “justice.”

Here are 10 intriguing examples of scenes and ideas that are repeated to demonstrate what polar opposites Batman and the Joker are. Harvey got caught in the middle of an epic power struggle between good and evil. Continue reading →

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9 Iconic Performances That Weren’t Even Nominated But Should Have Won Oscars

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

The Academy Awards seem so arbitrary to me. Sometimes they completely forget to acknowledge performances that turn out to be iconic genre changers in retrospect. Here are nine particularly egregious examples of actors who should have not only been nominated for an Oscar, but they should have beaten that year’s winner. They’re listed by year from oldest to newest. Continue reading →

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Pleasant Surprises: High School Musical 2

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

I’m fascinated by High School Musical 2, not because it’s a particularly deep movie but because I absolutely love it. By all rights, I should hate it. It’s a TV movie that bridges the gap between two utterly forgettable (if not terrible) films: High School Musical 1 and 3. And yet, even though I would never willingly watch the other two movies in this series, I actively seek out High School Musical 2 to watch for the sheer enjoyment of it.

I touched on this briefly in my tongue-in-cheek article, “10 Movies I Wish I Didn’t Like.” Now it’s time to go in depth on what makes High School Musical 2 such a pleasant surprise. Continue reading →

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Bad Movies with Great Music: Explorers

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

What were the makers of Explorers thinking? Few movies have such lofty aspirations and yet such disastrous outcomes as this one. Explorers feels sort of like E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial or Super 8 except without the compelling stories of those films.

I wanted to love this movie as a kid. It had everything I wanted to see: kids having strange visions, building a spacecraft, going on a fantastic voyage through space, and meeting aliens. Sadly, all of these things are ultimately wasted on a movie that completely falls apart in the end.

Oddly enough, even though this film is mostly forgettable, it has one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard. The late Jerry Goldsmith poured a lot of talent into this film’s score. It’s too bad the film’s writer didn’t do the same. Continue reading →

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The Remarkable Symmetry of the Original Superman: The Movie

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

This is my third cinematic chiasmus. The first time, I noticed 17 parallel scenes in the first and second halves of 1987’s RoboCop. The second time, I pointed out 26 parallel scenes in The Empire Strikes Back. This time, I’m going to keep things nice and simple with just eight parallels that cover the entirety of Superman: The Movie. Hopefully that will make it easy to follow.

Chiasmus is an ancient means of expressing a symmetrical idea. It begins with a bunch of ideas that are then repeated in reverse order so that the first thing stated is also the last.

Superman: The Movie is one of my favorite films. So I don’t mean any slight by saying that its two halves are virtually identical. Continue reading →

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Pleasant Surprises: Ernest Goes to Camp

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Ernest Goes to Camp perfectly captures childhood in a way I’ve never seen another film pull off. I loved this movie as a kid because it spoke to me on a very personal level. That might sound strange because it’s a screwball comedy that doesn’t seem to have any depth at first glance. But I am pleasantly surprised every time I watch it to find myself loving it even more and finding something new that it teaches me. Continue reading →

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Every Mel Brooks Movie Follows the Same Formula

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Mel Brooks was really good at telling one kind of story. In fact he was so good at it that he just kept telling it throughout his career. The Producers served as a template for every other movie Brooks wrote and directed over the course of his film career, from 1967 to 1995.

I know Brooks has appeared in some other movies, like 1983’s To Be or Not to Be, but I’m only going to focus on the films he wrote and directed.

Without further ado, here’s the formula for every Mel Brooks movie:

  • The main character is out of his element
  • Someone has a scheme to take advantage of the hero
  • The main character meets a bunch of zany characters one by one
  • The love interest is fairly stupid
  • A song-and-dance number comes in the second half of the film
  • The main character loses everything
  • There’s a big fight at the climax
  • There’s a happy ending

Now I’ll show how each of these things plays out in each of Brooks’ movies. Continue reading →

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8 Timeless Yet Dated Classic Films

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Some movies, such as Star Wars, try to be as timeless as possible in their music, costumes, and sets. That way, they can be enjoyed by audiences for generation after generation and never get old.

Other films aim for a more contemporary approach. They embrace the culture of the moment and yet even after a few decades they still have a huge appeal because their stories are universally accessible and their dated qualities offer a snapshot of what life was like back then. They transcend their outmoded qualities and become something more than the sum of their parts.

Let’s take a look at eight of these timeless yet dated classics: Continue reading →

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