one time there were two magician movies

what's up with that

http://i2.irishmirror.ie/incoming/article6732294.ece/ALTERNATES/s1023/Hugh-Grant-MAIN.jpg

is that randall flagg? shit

Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)
Observe & Report (2009)

There is I think a particular term for simultaneous but separate invention/conception, but I can't think of what it is. Anyone?

A Bug's Life (1998)
Antz (1998)

im pretty sure the generic Blart was probably more enjoyable than O&R

Deep Impact
Armaggedon

both 1998

Mirror Mirror (2012)
Snow White and The Huntsman (2012)

does dantes peak (1996) volcano (1997) count?

plausible deniability maybe

or wait the opposite of that

Turner & Hooch (1989)
K-9 (1989)

haha my summer camp took us to see K-9 on a field trip taht year.

^yes indeed that is the paradigmatic example

The end of the 80s also had a lot Vietnam movies come out in rapid succession, but that doesn't really fit squarely into what we're going for here.

Capote (2005)
Infamous (2006)

An American Werewolf In London and The Howling and Wolfen (1981)

My Dinner With Andre and Bustin' Loose (1981)

hercules
the legend of hercules

!!

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/61/72/1f/61721fabca5666be7051ae77eab44f43.jpg

First Daughter (2004)
Chasing Liberty (2004)

Hoop Dreams
Poop Dreams

i always mix those up

Tombstone (1993)
Wyatt Earp (1994)

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DuelingWorks/Film

i seen one of the magician movies it was fucken stupid i can only imagine how fucken stupid the other magician movie is with alfie zulu in it

They're both okay, but the twist in the Edward Norton one is easy to guess, and since half of the movie rests on that "shocking" revelation, it kinda diminishes it. Whereas the the two major twists in the Christian Bale/Hugh Jackman one genuinely come out of the left field, which makes it more fun to watch, if not super memorable.

Can't remember the Norton one, but I guessed the Prestige twist and it didn't affect my enjoyment of it. Also I didn't know a certain cameo was going to be in it so that really made my day.

the prestige was so good.

There was even a third magician movie around the same time, by the peep show guys

Another borderline case:

The Truman Show (1998)
EDTV (1999)

Probably much too far apart to count but...
Porridge (1979)
Escape to Victory (1981)

Robin hoods

Famously there was a British Robin Hood film that ended up being completely eclipsed by prince of thieves

Xpost!

Feels weird to include that because there have probably been years when there have been like 7 Robin Hood films produced

War of the Worlds (2005) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407304/
The War of the Worlds (2005) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425638/
War of the Worlds (2005) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449040/

the first one is the Tom Cruise one, the second is the english version set at the same time as the book, the third is a knock-off rushed out on video ahead of the Cruise version to confuse people into buying it.

The General (1998)
Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000)

Both based on Irish gangster Martin Cahill

I thought it was normal to have certain themes be popular in certain years. Not sure what determines it , unless it is just competition within the industry. Or industries, do publishing houses do similar?

a second time there were two magician movies

the incredible burt wonderstone (2013)
now you see me (2013)

Because they were such anomalies at the time (two psycho-killer movies today wouldn't be notable), and because of the stature of the two directors, Psycho and Peeping Tom, both 1960.

I watched the British Robin Hood movie a few years ago, and it was really quite good, certainly better than Prince of Thieves. Possibly even the best Robin Hood feature film since the Errol Flynn era?

i kind of feel like

things to do in denver when you're dead (1995)
the usual suspects (1995)

should qualify but there were so many, so many tarantino knockoffs produced in the 90s that at least two of them would necessarily (emphasis) had to have bryan ferry, with his floppy, insouciant hair and sharply, elegantly disarrayed suits, as a former gangster trying to go straight but he's dragged back into the crimeworld for one last job to save his flailing enterprise but it goes disastrously wrong with an ensemble cast and interpersonal quibbling and banter that i'm not really sure if it does.

Another one that's maybe a bit of a stretch but I think fits: the two grand-diva movies of 1950, Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve.

California Split and The Gambler, 1974.

Catch-22 and MASH, 1970--not just war films, but a very specific kind of Strangelove absurdist black comedy.

Also both given a "not Vietnam, but we're really talking about Vietnam" gloss by their directors.

The Prestige has Bowie-as-Tesla in it
The Illusionist is a bad movie but has Philip Glass' best score ever

bridget jones' diary (2001)
legally blonde (200))

a blonde zaftig protagonist shows up at a party dressed in a bunny costume because they thought it was a costume party but it wasn't, but she wins the day despite things

The Illusionist wasn't even the best movie named The Illusionist in recent times

legally blonde also 2001, not 200)

Oh yeah, thanks, that's another in that conceptual cluster.

Well the Waltons, the Eight Is Enough kids, the Partridge Family, and the family in Cheaper by the Dozen weren't actually blended families, were they? Messy, perhaps.

Yeah, I guess I mean messy and/or blended

not sure if this one has been posted yet...

Mi Familia (1995)
The Perez Family (1995)

Musicals of 1936:
Oh, Susanna
Banjo on my Knee

Body Horror movies about aging female celebrities undergoing mysterious procedures with unintended negative consequences ending in a user of the procedure turning into a monster and going on a bloody rampage:
The Substance
Shell

Both movies also had their North American premieres at TIFF 2024.

Oscar-bait Biopics of Athletes in Violent Sports (that bombed at the box office):

The Smashing Machine, 2025
Christy, ''

and Unstoppable, 2024

https://clip.cafe/1x1/i-will-destroy-him.jpg

NASCAR Movies:

Red Line 7000, 1965
Fireball 500, 1966
Thunder Alley, 1967
Speedway, 1968

Is Grand Prix (1966) a different kind of racing?

Yeah, the stuff in Grand Prix is Formula 1 (driver-centered, open-wheel race cars), while NASCAR (then known as Grand National) as presented in the cited films is American stock car racing (cars based on factory designs).

There were a lot of general race car/race driver movies in the mid/late-'60s. In addition to those just mentioned there was also Winning; LeMans; A Man and A Woman; and a couple other Elvis movies (Spinout and Viva Las Vegas).

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: debuted Sept. 16, 2006

30 Rock: debuted Oct. 11, 2006

i actually didn't watch 30 Rock initially because of that, big mistake considering how much worse the Sorkin show was

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXs0M4eb6OQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTm48IWgXEA

More Stock Cars:

Jump/Fury On Wheels, 1971
The Last American Hero, 1973

and then later:

Six Pack, 1982
Stroker Ace, 1983

This came out three years after ALW's POTO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_%28musical%29?wprov=sfla1

Jay Kelly
Ella McCay
Marty Supreme

Ilana Glazer starred in two pregnancy movies (False Positive, 2021 & Babes, 2024) which were separated by an irl pregnancy.

Hollywood Tales of 1969 featuring Margaret Qualley in a supporting role:

Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood, 2019
Seberg, ''

'cannot be overstated'
'cannot be understated'

they seem interchangeable

NASCAR Movies:

Red Line 7000, 1965
Fireball 500, 1966
Thunder Alley, 1967
Speedway, 1968

Also:

Track of Thunder, 1967

The Penguin Lessons (2024) - Steve Coogan and a penguin
My Penguin Friend (2024) - Jean Reno and a penguin

They Drive by Night (1938, UK), based on the 1938 novel They Drive by Night by James Curtis
They Drive by Night (1940, US), based on A. I. Bezzerides' 1938 novel Long Haul, which for maximum confusion was later reprinted under the title They Drive by Night to capitalize on the success of the film

Talking pig movies:

Gordy (1994)
Babe (1995)

Pizza Movie (2026)
Pizza Movies (2026)

Cool, that's an interesting case where the title is virtually identical, but their premises are wildly different.

Frankenstein (late 2025)
The Bride! (early 2026)

Nosferatu (Robert Eggers; 2024)
Dracula (Luc Besson; 2025)
Dracula (Radu Jude; 2025)

Street Fighter is a 1994 martial arts action film based on the video game series developed and published by Capcom. It was one of two films released in 1994 specifically adapting Street Fighter II, following Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.

Was any of this entirely necessary?

And what exactly is a street fighter?

All I know is they don't belong in London

Wasn't there a Sonny Chiba character with that name who had a series of films in the seventies, when there were also Osmonds, lots of little Osmonds.

The animated SFII movie completely rules, so I’d say it was necessary, yeah. Especially with KMFDM playing over the Chun Li/Vega fight in the English dub

the live-action Street Fighter is colorful silly fun, total trash but enthusiastic to the point of giving some kind of story to every face on the character-select screen, with predictably rushed and jumpy results.

also a solidly hammy final performance by Raul Julia as the villainous M. Bison.

With one all-time line (to Ming-Na Wen!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb7kMxpJhc4

They made a game based on the anime and called it Street Fighter II: The Interactive Movie.

They made a game based on the live action movie and called it Street Fighter: The Movie. It featured the first playable version of Akuma, a character who is not in the movie.

Both games were released in 1995.

everyone wants to make a project about Tony Kiritsis, the guy who took a mortgage broker hostage after he refused to give Kiritsis more time to repay a loan.

Gus Van Sant directed the 2025 movie Dead Man's Line, with Kiritsis played by Bill Skarsgård. and now there's an 8 episode limited series called American Hostage, with Giovanni Ribisi as Kiritsis and Jon Hamm as newscaster Fred Heckman.

came on here to check if we'd had this, which we have:

came on here to post this but emil.y beat me to it 8 years ago lol

emil.y at 3:42 26 Mar 16
The Double (2013, adapted from Dostoevsky's The Double)
Enemy (2013, adapted from Saramago's The Double)
Both deal with doppelgängers and identity.

― kinder, Saturday, 3 February 2024 20:56 (two years ago)

Prick Up Your Ears (1987)
Withnail & I (1987)

otm

2026 has two huge movies made by Youtubers (Obsession, Backrooms) but that may not be such a novelty in a few years.

maybe a stretch, but Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) and Godspell (1973)

Nosferatu (Robert Eggers; 2024)
Dracula (Luc Besson; 2025)
Dracula (Radu Jude; 2025)

― jaymc, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 14:09 (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink

and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosferatu_(2023_film)

I cannot help but hear "Nosferatu" to the tune of the Eagles' "Desperado."

Nosferatu, why don't you come to your senses?
You been out drainin' wenches for so long now

1994 - Street Fighter
1995 - Mortal Kombat

2026 - Mortal Kombat 2
2026 - Street Fighter

xxp I snort laughed