Hercules 3D and Hercules: The Thracian Wars
How They Are The Same:
The title and the protagonist are the main similarities here. Thracian Wars i s the tag-team of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and director Brett Ratner, up against Hercules 3D ’s Kellan Lutz and director Renny Harlin.
Johnson plays an older, battle-worn Hercules whereas Lutz plays a younger version that is growing from boy to man.
We imagine there might be some references to Greek mythology in there somewhere too.
Distance Between Release-Dates:
Hercules 3D is due to muscle its way into cinemas in March 2014, with Hercules: The Thracian Wars due 25 July 2014.
So, approximately 150 days.
Iron Eagle and Top Gun
How They Were The Same:
Thematically, they don’t get come much similar than this.
Cocky young pilots performing daring flights full of unauthorised loops and spins, following in the footsteps of their renowned pilot fathers.
Iron Eagle does lack homo-erotic volleyball though.
A much sadder coincidence was that both movies featured the aerial stunt-work of pilot Art Scholl. Top Gun was to be his last film, after he lost control of his Pitts S-2 camera-plane.
Distance Between Release-Dates:
Iron Eagle flew past quite stealthily on 15 August 1986. Top Gun cruised onto our screens with afterburners blazing on 3 October, giving it 48 days head start.
Dredd and The Raid
How They Were The Same:
This pairing didn’t ring comparison alarm bells on release, but there are similarities here.
Dredd and The Raid follow a hero fighting his way through a grimy urban tower-block to get to the arch villain residing at the top.
During this journey a mind-boggling number of henchmen are thrown in their way to try and halt their progress.
But as cinema has proved time and time again, no number of anonymous henchmen will ever stop the hero.
Distance Between Release-Dates:
Audiences were beaten into submission by The Raid on 18 May 2012.
Given just enough time to dust ourselves off, Dredd made sure we knew who the law was 109 days later, on 7 September
K9 and Turner And Hooch
How They Were The Same:
Two idiosyncratic cops who prefer to work alone.
Two clever dogs with a penchant for destroying things.
We smell a late 80s/early 90s buddy comedy!
Distance Between Release-Dates:
K9 bounded into cinemas on 6 October 1989. Turner and Hooch drooled 96 days behind it, on 12 January 1990
The Green Hornet and Green Lantern
How They Were The Same:
The Green Hornet and Green Lantern are both comic-book adaptations about a hero who favours a particular colour (This is not the main narrative thrust).
As comic-book adaptations, both pit good against evil.
They also shared 50 crew members, largely in stunts, visual FX and music.
Distance Between Release-Dates:
The Green Hornet was buzzing about in cinemas by 14 January 2011, but we weren’t illuminated by Green Lantern for another 151 days, on 17 June.
The Illusionist and The Prestige
How They Were The Same:
19th Century European magic is the niche subject choice. Both movies use a blend of fictional and historical characters to tell their story.
And if you think any of the magic tricks looked similar, look no further than American magician and actor Ricky Jay, who was the technical advisor for magic on both sets.
What that job entails is probably a secret known only to members of the magic circle.
Distance Between Release-Dates:
The Prestige appeared in a puff of smoke on 10 November 2006. At least The Illusionist waited for a new calendar year, released on 2 March 2007, but this was still only 112 days.
Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down
How They Are The Same:
The plots are so similar that they could be twins borne of the same embryo. Terrorists attack the White House and attempt to capture the President.
Cue various bits of the presidential HQ being blown to pieces.
The only thing that stands between them and their evil machinations is one-man army Gerard Butler/Channing Tatum.
Distance Between Release-Dates:
Olympus Has Fallen laid siege on 17 April and White House Down is go go go on 6 September 2013, 143 days later.
Dantes Peak and Volcano
How They Were The Same:
In a word – volcanoes. In more words – people running away from volcanoes.
Whereas with the pairing of Armageddon and Deep Impact you can just blow up the impending menace, different rules apply to the volcano.
Both flopped domestically but made it over the break-even line with worldwide box-office, and made use of 38 of the same crew members, including a large number of stuntmen who must have been experts in running away from lava by the end of it.
Distance Between Release-Dates:
Dante’s Peak erupted in the UK on 28 March 1997 and Volcano was hot on its heels 155 days later on 3 October.
Snow White And The Huntsman and Mirror Mirror
How They Were The Same:
Both feature all the mainstays of the pantomime favourite, and critics didn’t look too kindly on either adaptation of the classic Snow White narrative.
Snow White And The Huntsman would have been the adaptation of choice for Twilight fans, being of a darker style and casting Kristen Stewart as Snow White.
Lily Collins was Mirror Mirror ’s maiden fair, in a more comic re-telling of the Brothers Grimm fairytale.
Distance Between Release-Dates:
Mirror Mirror was the fairest of them all on 2 April 2012, until Snow White And The Huntsman waited a mere 58 days for its 30 May release
Antz and A Bugs Life
How They Were The Same:
Pitting Dreamworks and Disney directly against each other, both are animated features whose protagonist is an ant.
Both ants feel under-appreciated by their ant peers and a theme of ant-individuality is common to both films.
Distance Between Release-Dates:
Antz soldiered into the multiplexes on 6 November 1998 and A Bug’s Life came crawling along on 5 February 1999, 71 days later.
Armageddon and Deep Impact
How They Were The Same:
Armageddon and Deep Impact centre on the will-they won’t-they efforts of Astronauts and scientists trying to save the Earth from impending doom at the hands of giant pieces of space rock flying towards us.
Both made enough money at the box office to build a protective wall in space constructed entirely from ten-dollar bills.
And both end with the Earth and its inhabitants being saved by heroic last-minute suicide missions.
Distance Between Release-Dates:
Deep Impact hurtled into cinemas on 15 May 1998 and Armageddon had barely let the dust settle before its 7 August release 82 days later.
