'Serenity'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
All That Heaven Allows and Far From Heaven.
Similarly, The Reckless Moment and The Deep End. Both of them are based on the same novella, by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding, and it's sort of surprising that the same plot can still be effective.
Or, The Big Clock and No Way Out (the Kevin Costner one). Although the former is not at all about spies, the latter is fixated with time, timing, and running away.
The Hidden Fortress and Star Wars.
I watched The Hidden Fortress a few years ago and I was struck by how little there was of Star Wars in it. Other than the two guys who were very R2D2 and C3PO, I didn't see much of a connection at all. Did I miss something?
Whereas, Yojimbo is exactly as much spaghetti western as you might expect, only a little less with the long cut, nihilism, and whistle music.
The Court Jester
Would you believe I have had my TiVo trying to catch this movie for two years now and it's never turned up? Sob! I know it used to show up on AMC, back when AMC ran older movies.
The Hidden Fortress and Star Wars
I've done this. It's fun. I didn't really see a lot of resemblance, to be honest, but I didn't see a lot of resemblance between City on Fire and Reservoir Dogs either.
AMC is running three Marlowe movies back to back this weekend. It's driven all other possible double features from my mind.
The Deep End
Sigh. Such a good film. I haven't come across many people who have watched it. Tilda Swinton! The Hot Doctor Luka! Moral Ambiguity! I have to track down The Reckless Moment. Max Opuls and James Mason! Can't believe I haven't watched it yet.
Picnic at Hanging Rock and A Passage from India always struck me as having the same thematic undertones. The backsdrop of colonialism, sexual hysteria, and the terrible and the beautiful of the unknown. I am betting a film student or two did a paper comparing the works of E.M. Forster an Peter Weir during his Australian period.
Submarine movies! Run Silent, Run Deep and Hunt for Red October.
Another "original/parody" pairing: Airport and Airplane.
Blonde ditzes with sugar daddies: Jean Harlow in Dinner at Eight and Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday.
Lost Boys and The Craft. Yay silly supernatural teen movies!
High Noon and Outland.
The Day After and The Day After Tomorrow.
eta:
Dr. Strangelove and Failsafe.