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)

My * for "Robbie Williams is a massive star in the UK" is that most people under 25 are probably much less aware of him. Like my kids are 10 and 13 and I'm pretty sure they have no idea who he is, and not just because I've refused to bring his accursed music into our home.

I did say it was against my instincts!

Even if nobody knows him for his Neptunes stuff, Blurred Lines, Happy, and Get Lucky were massive, massive international hits, likely much more successful than anything Robbie Williams ever did (someone else can Google), so if that's all Pharrell ever did, it would still make him more famous than most people.

I kind of like the idea of Robbie Williams making a movie about himself as a CGI monkey specifically to introduce himself to the tween and under set.

Do we have to explain to you what pop stars are

yes

robbie just discovered snapchat filters, be nice to him

Get Lucky was big but you never heard a literal entire room full of drunk people singing along to Angels in 199whatever while teenage Dog Latin earnestly collected glasses around a provincial pub for his little sixth form job.
This was Mr Brightside on three lines of prang and five pints of Stella and a fight at kicking out time with someone's girlfriend shouting "Leave it Liam, it's not worth it". It was inescapable. It was the soundtrack to that time. I don't think there's another song that epitomises the UK at that particular time in any other way.

Capitol tried and tried, but they just couldn't make Robbie Williams happen over here.

Still, we got this near the end their attempts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF5PTmVMWu0

...and if you're wondering (and I'd totally forgotten about this before looking at that clip), NBC did a promo stunt that day by having Jay Leno & Katie Couric swap places, so she hosted The Tonight Show and he co-hosted The Today Show that morning.

Movies wherein Jimmy Buffett appears as himself and performs "Livingston Saturday Night":

Rancho Deluxe, 1975
FM, 1978

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Yotsuya

The Ghost of Yotsuya may refer to:

The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959 Shintoho film)
The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959 Daiei film)

Movies wherein Jimmy Buffett appears as himself and performs "Livingston Saturday Night":

Talking of artists who were total unknowns on the other side of the Atlantic.

(that yotsuya page links to a 'twin films' page on wikipedia which has a bunch of these, some quite tenuous
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_films)

Not exactly copycats, but I sense something in the air with pop stars as a thriller trope. The TV show "Swarm" was about an obsessive pop star fan. "Smile 2" centered on a pop star. "Trap" took place at a pop concert. The upcoming A24 movie (with Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich) is about a crazy reclusive pop star (or might be another cult movie; those things are trending, too, along with rich crazies on an island movies, though that is more of a perennial trend.)

somewhat comedic dramas where family members visit poland and holocaust sites:

A real pain (2024)
Treasure (2024)

The <Other> Pharrell movie scrapped in post-production: https://www.indiewire.com/news/breaking-news/pharrell-williams-michel-gondry-scrap-musical-golden-post-production-1235093027/

fwiw My kid got really excited by the trailer for the Pharrell Lego movie, and he wanted to know all about Pharrell and his music, which led to him getting really into Daft Punk and electronic music. So cool trailer at least.

Jesus I wonder how bad that movie was for them to totally give up

Golden has a stacked cast for something that got scrapped. Gondry's post Eternal Sunshine/Block Party career has been a bit of a disaster, no?

Circling back to Better Man, Taylor Tomlinson is a fan and wants to share:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXL4zdo289A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaofNC-HLvc

Two films about Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln concert. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/feb/10/koln-concert-keith-jarrett-jazz-masterpiece-piano

Journalists chronicling upheaval in foreign lands:

The Year of Living Dangerously, 1982
Under Fire, 1983
The Killing Fields, 1984
Salvador, 1986

Also (sort of):

Missing, 1982

kind of a political fiction trend? writers getting tired of the paranoid conspiracy theories from the 70s, looking at the rest of the world for actual plots, inserting white characters for the audience to identify with.

Out of Africa (1985)?

I guess that one's in the related genre of westerners going to the third world:

Gorillas in the Mist
The Emerald Forest
The Mosquito Coast

Where the River Runs Black

The Mission

Return to Paradise (8/14/98)
Brokedown Palace (8/13/99)

... in which young Americans on holiday in southeast Asia get hit with drug charges and confront interpersonal and moral dilemmas as they navigate the unfamiliar legal system.

The Beach (2/11/2000) seems in the same vein, even if the plot is a bit different

one time there were three movies that went beyond Beyond Rangoon

Christian Bale and other rebellious teens dance against a historical backdrop:

Newsies (April 1992)
Swing Kids (March 1993)

Was thinking about this yesterday for some reason:

American Fiction (2023)
The Holdovers (2023)

Two movies about curmudgeons disappointed in the world's declining standards. One of them was good.

soref otm 8 years ago about my blue heaven and goodfellas, but look at this banger from 2009, from the keyboard of Myonga Vön Bontee:

Right, since nobody asked:

GoodFellas - Released September 1990
Miller's Crossing - Released September 1990

GF - Italian/Irish/Jewish mobsters
MC - Irish/Italian/Jewish gangsters

GF - Irish protagonist, Jewish wife
MC - Irish protagonist, Jewish paramour

GF - Morrie known for his toupees
MC - Rug Daniels known for his toupee

GF - Henry pukes in the forest while excavating Billy Batts' corpse
MC - Tom pukes in the forest while looking for Bernie's corpse (which he knows isn't there, but never mind)

GF - Tommy shot in face specifically for purposes of disfiguration
MC - Ditto Mink

GF - Morrie sings "Danny Boy" to Henry
MC - Leo listens to "Danny Boy" on his victrola

GF - Karen ineffectually threatens Henry with a gun
MC - Ditto Verna/Tom

GF - Morrie threatened, choked with telephone cord after falling behind on gambling debt
MC - Tom threatened, beaten; same reason

GF - Spider shot in foot, and then shot again, fatally
MC - Anonomous would-be assassin shot in ankle, then shot again, fatally

GF - Lois separated from her lucky hat, sends Henry to retrieve it
MC - Tom separated from his own hat, goes to retrieve it himself

GF - Starring Mike Starr as Frenchy
MC - Starring Mike Starr as Frankie (and "Frankie" = "francophone" = "French-speaking" = Frenchy!)

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 1 April 2009 01:15

Troubled White People Throw Weddings:

Margot At The Wedding, 2007
Rachel Getting Married, 2008

and in a roundabout way...

Up In The Air, 2009

"I guess that one's in the related genre of westerners going to the third world:

Gorillas in the Mist
The Emerald Forest
The Mosquito Coast"

There was also Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. Which predates the others by a year or so, and it's a technically a period drama, but it comes across as one of those quietly influential films that's mostly forgotten nowadays. e.g. a dark and dead serious take on a fundamentally camp original.

I have to say that Ian Holm looks fantastic in that film. He's ripped! And frequently topless. But then again he was a pretty intense actor. I imagine him doing clenching exercises before every take.

Famously Andie MacDowell's voice was dubbed because she wasn't English. Instead the producers hired Glenn Close, who was born in Connecticut. Which raises the question of whether non-English dubs of the film use MacDowell's local voice actor, or Glenn Close's. Or if they just replace her dialogue with ape grunting.

Louder Than You Think (2023)
Pavements (2024)
Range Life (2025)
...
Slow Century (2002)

The Return (2024) (adaptation of The Odyssey)
The Odyssey (forthcoming) (adaptation of The Odyssey)

Ten years in the making and only Matt Damon survived

Pavements (2024)
Range Life (2025)

not sure I agree with you 100% on your police work there iiuc

Troubled White People Throw Weddings

On closer inspection, this is more precisely "Troubled Protagonists Go To Their Sister's Wedding"

Quirky All-Star Comedy/Satires About An Asteroid/Comet Ending Human Life On Earth:

How It Ends, 2021
Don't Look Up, ''

Remember that time there were two zombie movies?

Rodeo/Rancher Movies:

J.W. Coop, 1971
Junior Bonner, l972
Pocket Money, 1973

Actually the latter one is '72 as well.

Also: The Honkers, 1972

...and then a few years later:

Rancho Deluxe, 1975
Mackintosh and TJ, 1976

'60s Rock stars play down & out versions of themselves (but not as themselves!) in the '80s:

One-Trick Pony, 1980 (Paul Simon)
Comeback, 1983 (Eric Burdon)

Simon was mimicking Woody Allen in this regard, I think

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)
The Thing with Two Heads (1972)

American History X (1998)
Apt Pupil (1998)

Both about a teenage boy and the older Nazi in his life.

(I was doing Cinematrix just now and trying to figure out why I thought McKellen was in American History X.)