I give up! Clearly this thread isn't for me.

Oh ok. I think I get it now.

Cabin Boy
Amadeus
Metropolis

Well, at least I get it.
Two movies, released within months of each other, that have the same plot contrivance. Maybe it would help if you put the two movies, the year they were released, and the similarity in your post -- people will eventually catch on.

Independence Day & Mars Attacks!

Year: 1996

Similarity: unfriendly aliens attempt to take over the earth

(In retrospect it seems very possible this was a coincidence, but at the time there was a lot of press about the similarity...)

At one point, didn't two Selena movies come out simultaneously, and there were two lambada movies that came out right about the same time. Can't remember the names of the films though...

I remember that! One was Lambada, the other was The Forbidden Dance starring Mulholland Dr's Laura Elena Harring ...both released in 1990.

Rob Roy and Braveheart in 1995

Ghosts of Mars - Resident Evil. About 7 months apart. Same basic movie, pretty much.

Oooh! I know! Jaws III and The Remains of the Day.

Matrix and Terminator

Now I can't tell if people are joking or not

It's really sad that you guys don't understand why "The Ring - Poltergeist - Stephen King's Dolores Claiborn" wouldn't fit in this topic. I am assuming you haven't even seen "Poltergeist" and "Dolores Claiborn".

Since "The Ring" has a story where you watch a video on TV and something happens, it's pretty similar to "Poltergeist" when Carol Anne sits in front of a static TV. "The Ring" also has a similar story to "Dolores Claiborn" when they find a dead body in the wishing well with the eclipse of the moon.

Did I clear this up for you now? Maybe I should've cleared it up beforehand so I wouldn't get attacked.

That is most likely the case. I mean, it certainly can't be that that we understand that the point of the thread was to cite films that seemed strikingly similar in plot or subject released within a relatively short period of time between each other. It's gotta be that we don't get it because we don't watch movies released prior to 2000.

While the specifics are different, The Sixth Sense and Stir of Echoes came out a month apart, and both had similar tones and a "I see dead people" theme. I've read that the reason this happens so often is because one studio will buy a script and sit on it, and as soon as a rival studio announces they're making a similar movie, the first studio says, "Hey! Don't we have a *** script, too? Let's beat 'em!"

And I"ve heard that in Hollywood, hey managed to reduce it to 8 different story possibilities. Talk about efficience!

The possibilities are as follow (with really simplified definitions):

1 - the buddy movie : two persons with almost nothing in common have got to work together to solve a problem they would not be able to overcome by themselve. They ususally go through one of those phase where they can't tolerate each other before getting a stronger bound than before between them.(48 hours, Toy Story, )

2 - The romance movie : A man and a woman meet, they first despise each other but slowly romance gets inbetween them in what seems to be just a variant of the Buddy movie with extra sex. (You've got mail, When Harry met Sally, Beauty and the beast)

3 - the self-improving underdog movie : a loser (or team of losers) who lacks self-confidence must overcome his fears to become the best in his category. He finally wins at the last minute of a tournament against the bad guy who used to intimidate him. (Rocky, 8 mile, the Mighty Ducks)

4 - the catastrophe movie : A terrible event forces an ensemble of stereotypical characters to fight for survival. Those of them with the strongest flaws won't survive (the Posseidon adventure, Volcano, Jurrasic Park)

5 - The mistaken identity movie : A person is taken for something he isn't and must play along for a while before someone sees through his game. He then discovers that he had what it takes all along inside of him but didn't know it. (Bananas, Mrs. Doubtfire, Tootsie)

6 - The man against the world movie : A solitary hero has to work alone against a powerful organized force when he is the only one who can save a life, his family, his nation or simply mankind. (Die Hard, Schindler's list, Dr. No)

7 - the diminutive list of suspects movie : When things go bad, a group of people who should normally act like friends start suspecting each other like they're playing a game of Clue. (Reservoir dogs, Scream, Gosford Park)

8 - the we're thru/we're coming back together movie : A group of people working togheter are thorn apart for bad reasons (women, money, booze, etc.) but reunited at the end when they learn the true value of their friendship. (Wayne's world, Batman and Robin, This is Spinal Tap)

Most Hollywood movies will enter into one of these categories. They just switch the locales and the characters a bit and serve us the same movies year after year.

How about adding Wolfen? Three werewolf movies, all released in 1981.

12:01 (TV movie) (1993)
Groundhog Day (1993)

Is this guy serious or just really sarcastic?

To hopefully get this thread back on track....

Another one is Friday the 13th and Halloween series. Two mass murderers who can't be killed. And the sequels were released within 7 months of each other, which is the WHOLE point of this thread.

Halloween 2: 10/30/81
Friday the 13th part 2: 1/1/1981

Halloween 3: 10/22/82
Friday the 13th, Part 3: 8/13/1982

Halloween 4: 12/21/88
Friday the 13th VII - The New Blood: 5/13/1988

And more but I'm too lazy to post the rest of the sequels.

You guys are really lame and take posts too damn seriously sometimes. Yes, I was being serious. All three of those movies has similar stories and it had something to do with this topic. He asked the question, I answered, stop your bitching. This is just a damn discussion board, and I can answer a thread any how I wish. If you don't like what I say, ignore it.

AAaaah, so you haven't seen these movies, ok. So if you haven't even seen those movies, then don't attack someone for no reason just because I answered a simple question. If you have seen those movies you would know why I would pick those.

Main Entry: sar·casm
Pronunciation: 'sär-"ka-z&m
Function: noun
Etymology: French or Late Latin; French sarcasme, from Late Latin sarcasmos, from Greek sarkasmos, from sarkazein to tear flesh, bite the lips in rage, sneer, from sark-, sarx flesh; probably akin to Avestan thwar&s- to cut
Date: 1550

1 : a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2 a : a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual b : the use or language of sarcasm <this is no time to indulge in sarcasm>

synonym see WIT

I've seen the movies. You missed the point of the thread. I hope this makes it clearer for you.

A better comparison for The Ring, in the spirit of this thread, would be fear dot com.

Just Visiting/Kate and Leopold?

Thank you for being more mature and staying on topic instead of attacking one person just for the sake of attention.

I haven't seen feardotcom yet, but I will check it out.

It's just that it's my opinion when I say the Dolores Claiborn and Poltergeist both are very similar to the ring, and if you attention maniacs don't like my opinion, then screw you.

I think the main problem with that example was that those movies weren't all released around the same time...indeed those three films were spaced out by several years.