Tag Archives: history

Forgotten Film Gems: Frequency

There are two kinds of people: those who love Frequency and those who haven’t seen it yet. Those are the words of my younger brother Kevin. He has been asking me to review Frequency almost since I created the Deja … Continue reading

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5 Films About Forcing the British to Leave

How about this for a topical article? A lot of people wanted Britain to stay in the European Union, but the Brexit vote last week dashed their hopes. However, through the centuries not everyone has been too keen on having … Continue reading

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10 Timely Lessons from A Man for All Seasons (1966)

A Man for All Seasons has suddenly become a movie for all seasons. The lessons it teaches about the corruption of power and the need for good people to stand against tyranny still ring true today. Continue reading

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10 Ways American Sniper Missed the Mark

I wanted to love American Sniper. I finally saw it for the first time a few days ago, and I was excited. This is an R-rated movie that attracted bigger audiences in the U.S. than any other blockbuster in 2014. … Continue reading

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Braveheart Is a Perfectly Executed Example of Cinematic Chiasmus

Sons of Scotland! I am the Deja Reviewer. And I see a whole army of moviegoers who are here in defiance of casual movie viewing. You’ve come here to dig below the surface of a great film, and dig we … Continue reading

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10 Movies Whose Hero and Villain Never Actually Meet

Some movies are so well-constructed, they don’t even need their hero and villain to be anywhere close to each other to create lots of suspense and conflict. They might talk with each other over the phone, but they never have … Continue reading

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The 10 Most Obscure Movies That Earned More Than $300 Million (Adjusted for Inflation)

This summer’s crop of big-budget movies struggled to get into true blockbuster territory in the U.S. and Canada. Domestically, only one film has managed to gross more than $300 million in 2014 – Guardians of the Galaxy, a film that … Continue reading

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Bill and Ted’s Symmetrical Adventure

In my last Cinematic Chiasmus, I demonstrated how the entire Back to the Future Trilogy follows the same pattern backwards and forwards. This time I’ll delve into another classic ‘80s time-travel movie: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Wait. A seemingly … Continue reading

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RoboCop (1987) Is an Almost Perfectly Symmetrical Film

The Old Testament is full of examples of chiasmus, which is a figure of speech used in ancient times to emphasize balance. It lists a bunch of ideas or things and then repeats each of them in reverse order. It’s … Continue reading

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Movies That Get Worse on Multiple Viewings: Field of Dreams

I used to think Field of Dreams was a deep movie. Then I grew up and realized there’s more to life than baseball and the 1960s. Today I’m going to explain why 1989’s Field of Dreams gets worse on multiple … Continue reading

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