Same Movie

A couple of weeks ago I saw Invincible (2006) with Mark Walbergh. It was nice simple feel-good movie. Aging loser bartend tries out for the Philadelphia Eagles and gets in. Hometown boy turned NFL hero. Cue inspiring background music and training montage.

I thought to myself, "I've seen this movie before." And I had. The movie was called "The Rookie" (2002) with Dennis Quaid. Aging father little league coach turned Major League hero.

Here are other "same movies" that have come to mind.

88 Minutes(2007)/Nick of Time(1995)

In 88 Minutes, Al Pacino plays a college professor who, while moonlighting as a forensic psychiatrist for the FBI, receives a death threat telling him that he has only 88 minutes to live. The movie is shot in real time.

In Nick of Time, Johnny Depp plays a guy whose daughter is kidnapped. He is given a gun, and the picture and itinerary of a person, and told that if he hasn't killed that person in one hour and fifteen minutes, his daughter will be killed. The movie is shot in real time.

Armageddon(1998)/Deep Impact(1998)

In Armageddon, a giant, global-killing asteriod, like the one that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago is 18 days away from hitting the Earth. In Deep Impact, giant, global-killing asteriod, like the one that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago is 18 days away from hitting the Earth.

What was shocking (at least to me) was that these two movies came out almost simultaneously. I can imagine executives at the Paramount saying, "Let's make a big budget movie about a comet crashing to the earth!" The guys at Universal hear about it and they say, "Yeah! We'll make one too."

Capote(2005)/Infamous(2006)

In Capote, moviegoers follow eccentric Truman Capote travel to the small town of Holcomb, Kansas to write about the murders of the Cutter family. Capote makes friends with the convicts and is conflicted between helping them and finding an ending for his book, which can only rightfully end with an execution. In Infamous, moviegoers watch the exact same thing.

SPOILER ALERT: the killers are hanged. Boo-hoo.

Sleepless in Seattle/You've Got Mail

Cue cheesey dialogue, cue romantic soundtrack, cue Meg Ryan making pa-cute, cue a thin Tom Hanks (although he was sort of chunky na in YGM).

Nora Ephron is a genius. She managed to massage one movie into 3 (she was behind When Harry Met Sally too) , make tons of money, and re-invent the "romantic comedy" into anything she puts her name on.

Big (1988)/13 Going on 30(2004)

Apart from the genders of the main characters, these moviews are identical. 13 year old girl/boy wants to grow up, wishes hard enough, and then KABOOM! he/she is magically propelled into the future.

There's the cool job, your own apartment, the best friend, the awkward love scene, the complexities of adult life, wanting to be a kid again, lessons learned, The End.

I thought both movies were enjoyable. Note that both are (partly) set in New York.

Trivia: I was still living in NY when 13 Going on 30 was shot. From across a street, a friend and I watched them film that scene in the beginning of the movie when Jennifer Garner's character gets into a limo while still in her nighty. At that time I had no idea who Jennifer Garner was. I thought they were shooting a porn movie.