one time there were two magician movies

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)

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

― clemenza, Friday, March 25, 2016 9:11 AM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

speaking of, Strangelove and Fail Safe prob fit

Lambada (1990)
The Forbidden Dance (1990)

Breakin' (1984)
Beat Street (1984)

Like Father Like Son (October 1987)
Vice Versa (March 1988)
Big (June 1988)

18 Again! (April 1988)

Style Wars
Wild Style

if wins the day wasn't an emo combo out of omaha circa 2004 that had a #27 alt rock chart hit with "i'm okay, stop asking" i'll seppuku myself

elaction (1999) was a fillum about a female secondary character that has a scene where she swings on a swing set to
represent the tension between lost youth /coming of age dynamics and i swear there was another contemporary joint that utilized the same device so they're the same movie but i can't remember what the other one was just now, but i randomly watched them in succession so it counts

Lambada (1990)
The Forbidden Dance (1990)

Breakin' (1984)
Beat Street (1984)

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, March 25, 2016 2:22 PM (20 minutes ago)

These are the two cousins who fell out, right? So the two competing films were at least intentional, w/ them trying to outdo each other.

The two Lambada movies actually came out on the same day! (Also, one starred future Mulholland Dr. co-star Laura Harring, and the other starred Melora Hardin of The Office fame.)

the phrase "lambada, the forbidden dance," is indivisible in my memory. which is the wellspring and which is the pretender?

*ahem*

These are the two cousins who fell out, right? So the two competing films were at least intentional, w/ them trying to outdo each other.

Their company split and they both wanted to continue work on the idea for a Lambada film, so they raced each other to the cinemas. (Sorry for not providing loads of detail but the story is slightly fuzzy in my mind.)

Gene Siskel was a fan of Lambada.

also Da Grande (1987). Seems like we couldn't get enough body swap movies in the 80s

No mystery, this pair:

Nineteen eighty-four (1984)
Brazil (1985)

all those stevejobs movies

Body swap films could prob be its own thread. Remember seeing one called switch (man becomes woman) from around that time

Xp weren't there two hawking bios in relatively quick succession?

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
Requiem (2006)

both based on the real life case of Anneliese Michel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anneliese_Michel

Deep Impact / Armageddon is often said to be one the archetypes of this phenomenon BUT Deep Impact involved a comet; in Armageddon it was an asteroid. TOTALLY different things, you guys.

there was this one year when loads of fucking superhero films came out

Lol I was genuinely gonna make a comment along those lines cause istr an instance where that happened and it actually seemed notable

A long time ago obv

There are always two boxing movies coming out

The big one before Deep Impact/Armageddon happened was the two Christopher Columbus movies that both came out (and flopped) in 1992.

within a few years this phenomena will have escalated to 12 fucking immortal twats in daft costumes movies at the same time

xp think you mean three Christopher Columbus movies that came out in 1992

http://www.moviepostercompany.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/P3051671.jpg

(assuming that the two you were referring to are 'Christopher Columbus: The Discovery' and the Ridley Scott film)

yeah--the Carry On movies never really crossed over here, and tbh I didn't even know they were still happening as late as '92.

genuinely thought you were talking about the director of home alone at first

^^ Me too

Not just in "nun" premise but the first half hour of movie too

Two films based on the story of Bernard Jordan, escaping from his care home to attend D-Day anniversary.

The Great Escaper with Michael Caine, 6th October 2023.
The Last Rifleman with Piers Brosnan, 5th November 2023.

I’d seen the cover for The Last Rifleman and with Brosnan in it assumed it was a thriller of some sort.

"Roller Boogie" and "Skatetown U.S.A.", both 1979

This is a pretty loose one, but in the early '70s there were several movies about or involving on on some important level radio personalities/DJs:

WUSA, 1970
Vanishing Point, 1971
Play Misty For Me, 1971
The King of Marvin Gardens, 1972
American Graffiti, 1973

in that vein, i did see Vanishing Point and The Warriors closely together recent and thought the dj aspect was similar (Warriors was a bit later - '79)

I worked for the person who came up with the slogan "soup is good food." Research indicated that mothers had underlying anxiety about feeding children meals that had not been prepared from scratch; Campbell's play was to alleviate this using the simplest, most direct possible language. The underlying lesson, I think, was that sometimes a lack of cleverness is a type of cleverness.

whoa i remember being told that i went to college with the offspring of the person who invented this slogan but i have no recollection who that person was. what a strange intersection!

I think that a lot of that work was done by Molly M. at Porter Novelli.

The Warriors maybe pairs up better with The Fog (1980).

Might be stating the obvious, but I think radio DJs were just a bigger part of life back then, with a stronger presence as individuals, and (correct me if I'm wrong) more actual time of their voice on the air saying stuff. They were surely more prominent as local figures, and the intimacy of them being in everybody's cars and ears can't be discounted. So it makes sense that there'd be a lot of them in movies, just like having a lot of newspaper reporters, or politicians, or local business owners.

This is a pretty loose one, but in the early '70s there were several movies about or involving on on some important level radio personalities/DJs:

WUSA, 1970
Vanishing Point, 1971
Play Misty For Me, 1971
The King of Marvin Gardens, 1972
American Graffiti, 1973

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain

There's also a low-budget Canadian entry in that same vein and timeframe: "Slipstream", starring Luke Askew as the DJ

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream_(1973_film)

And the movie FM, now only remembered because Steely Dan wrote the theme song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316mipUnA-M

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM:_The_Original_Movie_Soundtrack

The Warriors and The Wanderers work together too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBrRbcQuNl8

Dana Gould on "Soup is good food"

FM lines up a little with WKRP on TV (both 1978).

There's certainly an analog in the characters:

Micheal Brandon/Gary Sandy
Martin Mull/Howard Hesseman
Cleavon Little/Tim Reid

I remember seeing some comments about how that was merely coincidental, that radio stations of the era were all like that, with a burnout DJ, a hip Black guy, the frustrated program director etc.

Another one that lines up with FM is American Hot Wax, Floyd Mutrux's 1978 biopic of Alan Freed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLAx5lIqfsg

Not commercially available.

Two junkie movies in 1971: Panic in Needle Park and Born to Win.

― clemenza, Saturday, March 26, 2016 5:07 PM (eight years ago)

Dusty and Sweets McGee as well.

American Hot Wax probably could lineup with The Buddy Holly Story (also 1978).

...and also Dead Man's Curve, a 1978 TV biopic with Richard Hatch & Bruce Davison as Jan & Dean.

Old army buddies plan & execute a major heist in 1960:

Ocean's 11
The League of Gentlemen

Europa Europa (1990, Agnieszka Holland)
Europa (1991, Lars von Trier)

This confused the hell out of me at the time