Tag Archives: romance

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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Pleasant Surprises: High School Musical 2

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 … Continue reading →

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Every Mel Brooks Movie Follows the Same Formula

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 … Continue reading →

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Movie Matchups: Frozen (2013) vs. Enchanted

Disney’s animation studio has been on a roll for the last few years with great films like Wreck-It Ralph, Tangled, and The Princess and the Frog. But Frozen is the best film to come from the studio since Beauty and … Continue reading →

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Movie Matchups: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang vs. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Christmas is coming early this year. I usually save my Christmas article for later in the month of December, but the good folks at Rifftrax preempted me by scheduling their riff of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians to come to movie … Continue reading →

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Forgotten Film Gems: Untamed Heart

Long before Twilight romanticized the notion of a mysterious boy sneaking into a girl’s bedroom at night to watch her sleep, Untamed Heart did it without being creepy. And long before Moulin Rouge overused the line, “The greatest thing you’ll … Continue reading →

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Movie Matchups: Wreck-It Ralph vs. Tron

Disney cemented its role as the king of video-game movies with the debut of Wreck-It Ralph in 2012. It might be a coincidence, but Wreck-It Ralph debuted 30 years after another famous Disney movie, Tron, and the characters celebrate the … Continue reading →

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Forgotten Film Gems: The Boy Who Could Fly

The Boy Who Could Fly deserves to be recognized alongside E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Stand By Me as one of the best coming-of-age films of the 1980s. It’s that good. I gave director Nick Castle some grief in my last … Continue reading →

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Pleasant Surprises: Pride and Prejudice (1995)

As a man who likes Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice, I feel like I’m in on a huge secret. By that I mean that the book is a gem that is hiding in plain sight, and it requires … Continue reading →

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Movie Matchups: X-Men Origins: Wolverine vs. Rambo: First Blood Part II

Why does X-Men Origins: Wolverine get such a bad rap? Maybe it’s because people were expecting it to be a full-blown origin story of Wolverine (hence the title), but instead what they got was simply a solid action film. It … Continue reading →

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