Wasn’t he the guy who did all the voice-overs for movie trailers?
Most glaring example: Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell both came out during the Jesus rock era.
“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” just barely preceded them, is, like JCS, a Webber/Rice production, and is also a Bible-rock mashup so it might as well be about Jesus even though it isn’t.
Nitpick: Lloyd Webber. There were plenty of songs about Jesus in that era, and one of my many favorite Tom Paxton songs is “Jesus Christ S.R.O.”
Jesus, you’re really the toast of Broadway,
And what a proper Superstar you look.
A golden oldie, a blast from the past.
It’s great to see you’ve come back at last.
And someday I just have to read the book.
There were two books that came out very close together. One was “The Inferno” and the other was “The Glass Tower” Both were about fires in very tall buildings. They were combined into one for the movie “The Towering Inferno”.
Antz (released October 2, 1998) and A Bug’s Life (released November 25, 1998) were similar, even beyond the idea of being animated movies about insects. Of course, they probably both just stole their ideas from Hoppity Goes to Town.
A Bug’s Life was more popular but I feel Antz was the better movie.
Nobody mentioned Dr. Strangelove/Fail Safe yet?
To be fair, that’s probably because Jack Kirby helped to create both teams.
Similarly Capote (2005) and Infamous (2006), both not just about Truman Capote, but specifically about the writing of In Cold Blood.
The Illusionist and The Prestige came out within a couple of months of each other.
Though both theoretically focused on magicians, the story-lines, themes and tone are vastly differently.
How about the two recent exactly the same movies-- Friends With Benefits and No Strings Attached. Surprisingly, the critics seem to like the Timberlake/Kunis vehicle more than the Natalie Portman/Kutcher one.
Monster came out around the same time as a documentary on the same subject.
There was a legal battle in 1951 when two film versions of “Alice in Wonderland” were released, the Disney animated one we all know and a French version that mixed live action and puppetry.
It wasn’t until 1975 that the first sitcoms with divorced female lead characters appeared–“Fay” and “One Day at a Time”. “One Day…” was a huge hit for nine years while “Fay” didn’t even last until Thanksgiving.
Operating under the impression that I’m not being wooshed, no.
Steve Prefontaine was a runner who died in a car wreck at 24.
Don LaFontaine was the voice-over guy who died in 2008.
finding nemo and shark’s tale. the usual dreamworks formula: cram in as many big-name voice talents and into them cram in as many smart one-lines as you can. in marked contrast to the dysney formula which always revolves around a theme about love an family enhanced by graphic artistry. the only common lines were:
“echo! echo!”
and
“curse you aquascum/shark layer!”
I don’t think there’s any ‘probably’ about it…ISTR that Kirby was quite open about trying to recreate the Challengers in the FF.
Kick Ass (2010) and Super (2010) are naturally compared with each other, being about ordinary schmoes who become home-made, lo-fi superheroes in order to combat mundane evil and quickly get in over their heads.
Kick Ass boasts a slicker cast and is a good popcorn flick. Its over-the-top violence is shocking and hilarious.
Super didn’t fair nearly as well with the critics, but is (in my opinion) a much smarter and more interesting movie. Its over-the-top violence makes the over-the-top violence of Kick Ass seem benignly cartoonish in comparison. Perversely, it is a much more cerebral movie. Like Kick-Ass, it contrasts the superhero mythos with our expectations about real life situations. It also features a relatively rich subtext of humanist commentary on the nature and subjective value of religious feeling, without being excessively polemic. (Including some playful and subtle riffs on the idea of a “personal saviour.”) Teenage boys watching it for the gore are probably not going to notice this at all.
They weren’t really direct competitors. Kick-Ass was released on March 26, 2010 (in the UK) and April 16, 2010 (in the US). Super was technically released on September 12, 2010 but it was only at a festival. Its general release was April 1, 2011, a year after Kick-Ass. (Although it wasn’t a rip-off of Kick-Ass. Super was filmed before Kick-Ass was released and James Gunn had already made an earlier superhero movie, The Specials, in 2000.)
If you want a movie that was closer to Kick-Ass’ release date, I’d offer Defendor, which was generally released on February 19, 2010. Like the other two, it was a dark comedy about an ordinary guy trying to fight crime as a superhero.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief vs. Clash of the Titans
On TV recently there was Singing Bee vs. Don’t Forget the Lyrics
Like Father Like Son vs. Vice Versa