Synchronicity of films

[Halb]

First time I noticed it I think, was when the Robin Hood films came out in 1991.

Always smiled at when we get two films at the same time that are basically the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsMPeEk7AK0

[Halb]

I like both Val and Randy's performances.
It's a great character.

[Halb]

SWoll said:

It was Dennis...

Oops. I knew the actor, but got his name wrong.

[Halb]

SWoll said:

Very disappointed in you Halb. Easy to remember which is which, Randy is the one who's gone batst crazy.

Wow....just wow, never knew!
First page of google is...interesting.

dudleybloke said:

K9 v turner and hooch.

That's a good one not covered by the vid.

[Halb]

This isn't about remakes, watch the video in the OP, it's more about synchronacity or group think, or whatever the heck happens in Hollywood at certain times.

Although I often wondered at the similarities between HPD and Pale Rider, and the latter is also supernatural apparently, only less obvious.

[Halb]

Yeah, good shout.
Also, The Carry on one came out at the samish time too.



Mordecai/Kingsman.

[Halb]

croyde said:

Battle for Terra and Avatar. Both out the same year.

Yeah, that's a pretty good one. Sometimes a major film with similar plot can help bump what would be a DVD film onto the big screen.

[Halb]

Chappy
Ex Machina

[Halb]

Du1point8 said:

How about these?

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) VS. Scream (1996)
Rob Roy (1995) VS. Braveheart (1995)
The Prestige (2006) VS. The Illusionist (2006)
No Strings Attached (2011) VS. Friends With Benefits (2011)
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) VS. Mirror, Mirror (2012)
Tornado! (1996) VS. Twister (1996)

Some good ones there, I had forgotten!

[Halb]

Watched both Mirror Mirror and Snow White recently, Mirror Mirror was by far the more enjoyable film, though I do prefer the dwarves from SW&TH.

[Halb]

300bhp/ton said:

Apart from having a Volcano in, they share nothing though. And one isn't a too bad a film, the other complete tripe.

That's the point of the thread. Synchronacity, films that have the same plot device that come out in the same year.

[Halb]

300bhp/ton said:

Halb said:

300bhp/ton said:

Apart from having a Volcano in, they share nothing though. And one isn't a too bad a film, the other complete tripe.

That's the point of the thread. Synchronacity, films that have the same plot device that come out in the same year.

But they don't.

But they do.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante's_Peak
Dante's Peak is a 1997 American dramatic disaster thriller
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano_%281997_film...
Volcano is a 1997 disaster film

It is a perfect example of what I created the thread about.

[Halb]

300bhp/ton said:

Maybe we'll have to agree to disagree then.

Yes they are both disaster films or sorts. And both have a volcano in them.

But I hardly think that is enough to claim they have the same plot.


Just as Fast and the Furious might have cars in it, doesn't mean it has the same plot as Smoky and the Bandit.


The stories and the plots of Dante's Peak and Volcano are completely different, not even remotely similar.

Never said they have the same plot, they have the same plot device, not the same plot. Look at the other films that occur at the same times, none of them have the same plot, that would be a remake, but many films have the same plot device and are released in the same year. Both films are disaster films, both films have the disaster because of the volcano, that is synchornacity, it isn't anything else!!
The analogy of Smokey and Fast is not at all the same. For many reasons.

[Halb]

Moonhawk said:

The Abyss and Deepstar 6 - both came out in 1989.

Yes, now this is another great example.

[Halb]

Megamind
Despicable Me

[Halb]

ajprice said:

Because there's a character called Minion in Megamind?

No.

[Halb]

I think that the title is more accurate now, although the youtube video to help people has the name 'copycat.'
All films are released within a year of each other, usually much shorter, months or days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsMPeEk7AK0

Deep Impact and Armageddon is a great example.


Ta, mods!

[Halb]

No one has mentioned serendipity

TTmonkey said:

The scripts for deep impact and Armageddon were brought about by the discovery of a large near earth meteor a few years before which ignited the imagination of a number of script writers. There was some fear that this meteor could be deflected towards earth and cause global destruction. Of course it became clear that no such thing was going to happen but it clearly set off some 'what if' stories. Hollywood reacted to something that caught the publics imagination/attention.

Brilliant synchronicity, not rip offs or remakes,

Indeed, brilliant. I think I first noticed it with two Robin Hood films and two Columbus films in 91/92.

[Halb]

tigerkoi said:

Without getting too boringly philosophical, it's not about synchronicity though.
It is simple causal decision theory.
Hollywood, isn't driven by anything other than base economics.
Synchronicity implies some distant parallelism, even, to the unworldy, some sort of happy coincidence (serendipity) and the asteroid films potentially are good implicators of that. But that wouldn't account for the - literally - hundreds of other scripts that bounce around between the studios that only push UA, or Sony, or MGM or whoever to think they need something other to compete.
The Capote story is a case in point. 'Infamous' and 'Capote' came out twenty years after the guy died, but surely Bingham Ray knew why things came to be when he got that phone call

All the many scripts that get made, all the many that don't. Zeitgeists happen, I can see passing and localised Zeitgeists occurring. Although I didn't mean to imply anything special in my original post, it was just an observation of the many different synchronatic/copycat films that get traction and get made. But something catches hold, and takes root.

---

One is usually an outright winner, the nature of the thing and the whole of the thing the two will normally be compared to each other heavily.
I didn't care for Dispicable Me, but I loved Megamind, thought it was funny, creative, different, shame it is consigned to be a single film.

[Halb]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primeval_%28film%29#...

Primeval and Rogue.