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 →

Posted in Pleasant Surprises | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

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 →

Posted in Bad Movies with Great Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

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 →

Posted in Cinematic Chiasmus | Tagged , , , , , , , | 38 Comments

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 →

Posted in Pleasant Surprises | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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 →

Posted in Movie Matchups | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

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 →

Posted in Random Stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Thanks to Days of Future Past, X-Men Is Finally the Series It Always Deserved to Be

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past this weekend, and I can’t help feeling that this is what the X-Men series was always meant to be. All of the series’ strengths are on display here and almost none of its weaknesses.

SPOILER ALERT: Read no further if you haven’t seen the film yet because I touch on some key parts of its story in this article. Continue reading →

Posted in Random Stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

The Empire Strikes Back Is a Perfectly Symmetrical Film

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

Anakin Skywalker was prophesied to bring balance to the Force, and it looks like he did in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. This film, which many hail as the best of the original trilogy, is an example of a cinematic chiasmus. All of the events of the first half of the film are repeated in the second half in the opposite order, creating a beautifully symmetrical film.

The first example of cinematic chiasmus that I shared was the original RoboCop. That film had a single flaw that kept it from being a perfect chiasmus. The Empire Strikes Back has no such flaws. It is perfectly symmetrical, just like the two halves of the Force. Perhaps this is meant to highlight the Light and Dark Sides of the Force, especially when you see the turning point.

Let’s dive in and see the breathtaking symmetry of The Empire Strikes Back. To quote Yoda, if you’re not already in awe of this film, “You will be. You will be.” Continue reading →

Posted in Cinematic Chiasmus | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 57 Comments

1990: The Year of Failed Film Franchises

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

As far as I can tell, 1990 had more series-destroying sequels than any year before or since. And most of these sequels to popular films didn’t exactly go out on a high note, like, say, Return of the King. Most of them deserved their fate.

Of course, not every sequel was poorly received in 1990. Die Hard 2: Die Harder made more than its predecessor and led to other successful sequels. Child’s Play 2 still made a decent amount compared to the original Child’s Play, and it even had a few popular sequels of its own. And, while Back to the Future Part III made significantly less than the first two films in its series, it’s still a fantastic film.

With that said, here are 16 sequels that either outright killed or significantly hobbled their popular film series in 1990. I separated them into six categories. Continue reading →

Posted in Random Stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In Defense of Joel Schumacher’s Batman Movies

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Robert Lockard, the Deja Reviewer

No one can mistake Joel Schumacher’s two Batman films for masterpieces. Nor can they call me a Schumacher fan, especially after I lambasted his atrocious St. Elmo’s Fire, which he took sole credit for both writing and directing. But I have to admit I have soft spot in my heart for Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.

In truth, Batman Forever came the closest of the four original films in the series to accomplishing what Christopher Nolan did in his Dark Knight Trilogy. And Batman & Robin might be one of the worst movies of all time, but it inadvertently led to a lot of positive results.

So here’s my defense of Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies. Continue reading →

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