5 words I learned watching movies with Stephen Romney of Romney's Reviews
Between the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, I saw more films than I care to count. Most of those films I saw with Stephen Romney who does movie reviews. We would often talk about the films on the drive home. Here are 5 words that I learned from Romney.
Deus ex machina – I knew that this meant “God in the machine” and was a device used to get the films main characters out of a jam. It also usually resulted in the happy ending, even if said ending was unsatisfactory. Dodgeball made a hilarious reference to deus ex machina at the apex of its climactic ending. However, Romney was the first person, outside of my theater friend David Kyhn, to use the term in a fluid fashion and use it correctly. The first time Romney used it in a sentence, I was caught off guard.
In Ancient Greece, the deus ex machina was the god lowered on a crane at the end of the play to solve all of the problems.
Mary Sue – I still don’t really know what this means other than to say “Wesley Crusher.” I liked Crusher. He couldn’t help it if he was awesome. Apparently, most people find the awesomeness of a Mary Sue annoying because he or she cannot truly exist in the real universe. So a perfect character who bends the universe to his or her will is a Mary Sue. Sue can solve problems easily, rarely faces consequences for his or her actions and only has enemies that are easily defeated.
Mary Sue was originally a character in “A Trekkie’s Tale” by Paula Smith according to Wikipedia.
MacGuffin – I am sure that Romney had to explain this to me a couple of times. A “MacGuffin” is an object that everyone wants. The infinite stones in the Marvel Universe might be the best known examples. The Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is essentially the reason for conflict and movement in the story.
Coined by Alfred Hitchcock in 1939 according to merriam-webster.com.
Trope – Romney typically uses this to mean a movie cliché though wisegeek.com defines it as playing with words but tropes may become cliché. It comes from the Greek “tropos” meaning to “turn or twist.”
Shaky Cam – Romney may not have coined this term, but he until he used it, I never really had a point of reference for the shaking camera that is supposed to create more action on the screen than is already there. A particularly terrible use of shaky cam comes during the fight scene between the zombie ghosts and the humans and themselves in Route 666. Apparently, they couldn’t afford actual special effects or better stuntmen. Shaky cam often gives the viewer a headache, especially when viewed in 3D.
It is likely that the Blair Witch Project brought shaky cam into vogue.
If you want to learn more about the movies and the terms associated with them, you can watch Romney’s Reviews on YouTube or at MoviePilot. Be sure to subscribe and share. My own reviews can be found here.
Deus ex machina – I knew that this meant “God in the machine” and was a device used to get the films main characters out of a jam. It also usually resulted in the happy ending, even if said ending was unsatisfactory. Dodgeball made a hilarious reference to deus ex machina at the apex of its climactic ending. However, Romney was the first person, outside of my theater friend David Kyhn, to use the term in a fluid fashion and use it correctly. The first time Romney used it in a sentence, I was caught off guard.
In Ancient Greece, the deus ex machina was the god lowered on a crane at the end of the play to solve all of the problems.
Mary Sue – I still don’t really know what this means other than to say “Wesley Crusher.” I liked Crusher. He couldn’t help it if he was awesome. Apparently, most people find the awesomeness of a Mary Sue annoying because he or she cannot truly exist in the real universe. So a perfect character who bends the universe to his or her will is a Mary Sue. Sue can solve problems easily, rarely faces consequences for his or her actions and only has enemies that are easily defeated.
Mary Sue was originally a character in “A Trekkie’s Tale” by Paula Smith according to Wikipedia.
MacGuffin – I am sure that Romney had to explain this to me a couple of times. A “MacGuffin” is an object that everyone wants. The infinite stones in the Marvel Universe might be the best known examples. The Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is essentially the reason for conflict and movement in the story.
Coined by Alfred Hitchcock in 1939 according to merriam-webster.com.
Trope – Romney typically uses this to mean a movie cliché though wisegeek.com defines it as playing with words but tropes may become cliché. It comes from the Greek “tropos” meaning to “turn or twist.”
Shaky Cam – Romney may not have coined this term, but he until he used it, I never really had a point of reference for the shaking camera that is supposed to create more action on the screen than is already there. A particularly terrible use of shaky cam comes during the fight scene between the zombie ghosts and the humans and themselves in Route 666. Apparently, they couldn’t afford actual special effects or better stuntmen. Shaky cam often gives the viewer a headache, especially when viewed in 3D.
It is likely that the Blair Witch Project brought shaky cam into vogue.
If you want to learn more about the movies and the terms associated with them, you can watch Romney’s Reviews on YouTube or at MoviePilot. Be sure to subscribe and share. My own reviews can be found here.