Do You Confuse These Movies, Too?

Have you ever had some actor in a movie you were watching remind you of another movie s/he was in, but you can’t remember the title of that other movie, so you do some research and when you finally track down the movie in question, you realize that the actor wasn’t in it after all? So then you realize there must another, similar(?) movie, featuring the actor you had in mind (maybe), and off you go on another search…?

Or, maybe there are a couple movies that came out close together and with very similar titles and/or plots, and you know this, but you can never remember which is which?

Yeah… same here.

Sometimes it’s something about the plot or setting, sometimes it’s something about the main star. Or, maybe it’s a combination. But, there are certain movies that I just have trouble keeping straight. Sure, if I look them up on IMDB, I realize the differences. But, ask me again a few weeks later, and chances are 50/50 that I’ll confuse them again.

So, I have spent some time recently dredging up from the part of my mind where I store “movie trivia” those that tend to confuse me. I figure, if I share them with you, maybe some of you can identify with the same problem, and we can commiserate….

Chinatown (1974) and The China Syndrome (1979)

The first is a 1930s period piece starring Jack Nicholson (as a P.I.) and Faye Dunaway “caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.” The second stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, and Michael Douglas and involves a cover-up at a nuclear power plant. Near as I can tell, the only reason I confuse them is because they are both drama/thrillers that came out in the ’70s and have the word “China” in the title. (Btw, I don’t think I have watched either one.)

Blazing Saddles (1974) and Silverado (1985)

These two are both Westerns, but the first is a comedy starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, whereas the second is a crime/thriller starring a host of big names — e.g., Kevin Kline, Brian Dennehy, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, Linda Hunt, et al. Other than the “Western” connection, I’m not sure why I often confuse them. Maybe my first viewings of the films were not that far apart — say, some time in the late-’80s or early-’90s?

Like Normal People (1979) and No Other Love (1979)

I think my confusion about these two is understandable. They were TV movies that came out the same year and are both about a mentally-challenged man and woman who meet, fall in love, and want to get married. The first starred Shaun Cassidy and Linda Purl, while the second starred Richard Thomas and Julie Kavner. I saw them both as a kid and enjoyed them.

Time After Time (1979) and Somewhere in Time (1980)

In the first one, Malcolm McDowell plays H.G. Wells; Mary Steenburgen and David Warner also star. There is time-travel involved. In the second, Christopher Reeve is a Chicago playwright who — you guessed it — travels back in time to meet an actress (Jane Seymour). Christopher Plummer also stars.

The Final Countdown (1980) and The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)

Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen star in the former film, as “a modern aircraft carrier is thrown back in time to 1941 near Hawaii, just hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.” In the latter, Michael Paré, Bobby Di Cicco, and Nancy Allen star, as a U.S. Navy destroyer escort participates in a Navy “invisibility” experiment in 1943 that inadvertently sends two sailors forty years into the future. So,… more time-travel, each involving a large naval vessel, one going backward to WWII and one forward from WWII.

Blow Out (1981) and 8MM (1999)

First, we have John Travolta as “a movie sound recordist [who] accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder”. (John Lithgow and Nancy Allen co-star.) Second, Nicholas Cage plays “a private investigator… hired to discover if a ‘snuff film’ is authentic or not.” (Joaquin Phoenix and James Gandolfini co-star.) Some similarity, of course, though the latter film is much darker.

Why Me? (1984) and Second Sight: A Love Story (1984)

Two more TV movies, also released in the same year. Glynnis O’Connor plays a military nurse who is horribly disfigured in a car accident. She falls into depression, her husband (Craig Wasson) can’t cope, but things look up when a talented surgeon (Armand Assante) thinks he can reconstruct her face. For comparison, Elizabeth Montgomery plays a woman who lost her sight 20 years earlier and stays isolated, because she doesn’t trust people. Then a romance develops with a man she meets (Barry Newman), and she must decide if she wants to go through with an operation to restore her sight. For many years, I thought I remembered Montgomery starring in Why Me?

The Last Starfighter (1984) and Flight of the Navigator (1986)

“Starfighter”… “Navigator”… Earth boy flies in alien spaceship… etc.

Night of the Creeps (1986) and Slither (2006)

I know I saw the first one many years ago, probably on VHS. I think it was while at college, ‘cuz I used to freak out one of my roommates (or, maybe it was my brother?) by making the noise that the slithery, leach-like “creeps” made. I don’t remember if I ever saw Slither, but I may have seen the trailer years ago. It shows a swarm of critters similar to the “creeps”… thus the confusion.

Stand and Deliver (1988) and Lean on Me (1989)

I saw both of these movies way back when. They are not “genre” movies, but I highly recommend them. The first stars Edward James Olmos as a high school math teach who patiently works with and inspires students in his inner-city school to learn calculus. The second stars Morgan Freeman as a “dedicated but tyrannical” principal of an inner-city high school who clashes with students, the school board, and city officials, yet he inspires students to respect themselves and others and to put in the work to better themselves academically. (Both films are based on true stories.)

Double Impact (1991) and Maximum Risk (1996) and Replicant (2001)

In the first of these films, Jean-Claude Van Damme plays twin brothers who are separated but re-united to avenge their parents’ deaths 25 years later. In the second, JCVD plays a French cop investigating the death of the twin brother he never knew he had. In the third, JCVD plays a serial killer and the genetic clone created to help track and stop him. (Actually, that third title should be a clue that it’s the one with the clone.)

Falling Down (1993) and Breakdown (1997) and Changing Lanes (2002)

First: “An ordinary man [Michael Douglas] frustrated with the various flaws he sees in society begins to psychotically and violently lash out against them.” (I think I remember that his car breaks down early on.) Second: “A man [Kurt Russell] searches for his missing wife after his car breaks down in the middle of the desert.” Third: “A young lawyer [Ben Affleck] and a businessman [Samuel L. Jackson] share a small automobile accident, and their mutual road rage escalates into a feud.”

Ransom (1996) and Payback (1999)

These two both star Mel Gibson. In the first, he plays a multi-millionaire whose son is kidnapped, but then he uses the ransom money he gathered as a bounty instead. (Gary Sinise and Rene Russo co-star.) In the second, he plays a man out for revenge, not to mention his share of the money, after he is left for dead following a successful heist. (Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, and Lucy Liu co-star.) Not that similar a plot, but they are near enough in release and possibly look & “mood”, have the same actor as the central character, plus it has been awhile since I watched either one, so maybe that’s enough for my mind to sort of lump them together?

Volcano (1997) and Dante’s Peak (1997)

I actually remember a bit of hubbub when these two were both announced to be releasing the same year. We have a city official and a seismologist (Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche, respectively) dealing with a volcanic eruption in downtown Los Angeles. Or, we have a volcanologist (Pierce Brosnan) and friend (Linda Hamilton) dealing with a volcanic eruption next to a popular, countryside town. Details may be different, of course, but still very similar.

Impostor (2001) and Surrogates (2009)

Gary Sinise stars in the first one, alongside Madeleine Stowe, Vincent D’Onofrio and Mekhi Phifer. “In the future, an alien race uses androids as bombs to attack Earth. A government weapons specialist is accused of being one such android and sets out to prove his innocence.” Bruce Willis stars in the second one, alongside Radha Mitchell and Ving Rhames. “Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.” Obviously, the “android duplicates” thing is what occasionally confuses me about these two.

Insomnia (2002) and One Hour Photo (2002)

Anyone who only thinks of Robin Williams as doing comedy really needs to watch these — but with some time in between. The first one has two L.A. detectives (Al Pacino and Hilary Swank) investigating a murder in a small northern town. The second one is about a mentally unstable photo developer who makes a local, upper-middle class family the target of his obsession. Williams plays a creepy bad guy in each one, and they were released the same year, so my confusion is somewhat justified.

Phone Booth (2002) and Cellular (2004)

In the first one, Colin Farrell plays a publicist who is trapped in a phone booth by a hidden extortionist (Kiefer Sutherland) who will shoot him with a sniper rifle if he tries to leave. Forest Whitaker and Radha Mitchell are in it, too. Chris Evans stars in the second one as a young man who receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from a woman (Kim Basinger) who claims to have been kidnapped and whose husband and child have been targeted next. (William H. Macy is in it, and Jason Statham does a rare turn as a villain.) These two came out pretty close together, but it’s probably just the similarly-themed titles that confuse me a bit.

Whew! Any of those confuse you, too? There are probably a few more that occasionally throw me, but those are the ones I managed to come up with. Any you want to share that you sometimes get confused about? If so, please do below.