Tag Archives: films

5 Reasons Why Star Trek V Needed to Exist

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is generally considered one of the worst Star Trek films, if not the worst. It certainly has ambitious ideas, but the perfect storm of a writers’ strike, an overburdened Industrial Light & Magic, and a … Continue reading

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Guy Pearce Has Quietly Had a Spectacular Acting Career

I was pleasantly surprised when Guy Pearce showed up in Iron Man 3 because his character fit his career as an actor so oddly well. In that film he plays a nerdy genius named Aldrich Killian who realizes that his … Continue reading

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10 Actors Who Owe Their Careers to Someone Else’s Misfortune

A lot of movie casting decisions have compelling stories attached to them. Sometimes actors get a job at someone else’s expense. I’ve discovered 10 examples of actors who owe a lot of their professional success to someone else’s misfortune. Some … Continue reading

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Everything in Planet of the Apes (1968) Came from These 6 Twilight Zone Episodes

It’s no secret that Rod Serling co-wrote the screenplay to the original Planet of the Apes in 1968. That was four years after his signature TV series, The Twilight Zone, had left the air. I’ve heard people talk about the … Continue reading

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10 Actors Who Played Diametrically Opposed Characters

A great actor can play anyone, even if it means playing two characters that seem similar in some respects but are actually the opposite of each other in big and small ways. I’ve come up with a list of 10 … Continue reading

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Whoa! The Matrix Is a Symmetrical Film

The Wachowskis have made yet another box-office bomb in the form of Jupiter Ascending. But that doesn’t mean that all of their films are terrible. I would like to draw your mind back to a time when they seemed like … Continue reading

Posted in Cinematic Chiasmus | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

Forgotten Film Gems: The Villain

Remember that time when director Hal Needham got really drunk and decided to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cowboy in a western comedy? Yes, that really happened. Maybe not the drunk part, but I assume he had to be out … Continue reading

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Bill and Ted vs. Wayne and Garth

I recently re-watched Wayne’s World and it brought back a lot of fun memories. It got me thinking about another cinematic pair of rockers: Bill and Ted. I was tempted to compare the two duos. After all, Bill and Ted … Continue reading

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Patriot Games Just Got a Whole New Layer of Complexity

While most people were watching the Patriots defeat the Seahawks at the Super Bowl last Sunday, I was watching Patriot Games and discovering something profound about it. What I learned is far more intriguing to me than any football game. … Continue reading

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What an Aborted Cinematic Chiasmus Looks Like

After doing my massive Dark Knight Trilogy cinematic chiasmus, I took a step back and considered how incredible it was that those three films managed to be perfectly ordered to create something beautiful. And then I realized that after doing … Continue reading

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