<\/p>\n
Like Father, Like Son\/Vice Versa\/18 Again!\/Big\/Dream A Little Dream<\/h2>\n
Ah, the body swap comedies. Perhaps the most famous of all the Cinematic Copycats. Between 1987 and 1989 there were five tales of adults and kids\/teens switching bodies. I know the 80s were the height of the VCR boom, but you’d think that Hollywood executives would rent something other than Freaky Friday<\/strong>, wouldn’t you?<\/p>\n Here is the rundown:<\/p>\n The Winner: <\/strong>Well, only one of these films received two Oscar nominations, jump started Tom Hanks’ career, and, frankly, is still remembered fondly today. That would be Big<\/strong>.-William Gatevackes<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Seven years after the Tom Hanks comedy Joe Versus The Volcano<\/strong> failed to erupt at the box office, Hollywood tried again. This time movie goers were given the choice between Federal Marshall Samuel Gerard versus a volcano or James Bond versus a volcano as both Tommy Lee Jones and Pierce Brosnan squared off against magma-spewing geological events.<\/p>\n Each are fairly entertaining films, and manage to offer something a different for their audiences. Tommy Lee Jones\u2019 Volcano<\/strong> features an eruption that emanates from the famous LeBrea Tar pits and sends a wave of lava across Los Angeles, incinerating everything in its path, including Jones\u2019s attempts to stop it. It is big on spectacle, making it somewhat akin to the Irwin Allen disaster pics of the 1970s.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Dante\u2019s Peak<\/strong> is a little more intimate and a lot more scientifically accurate. Once Brosnan has managed to get a small Pacific northwest town in danger of being wiped out by a pending eruption evacuated, he and Linda Hamilton race against time to save her character\u2019s children and mother who are still trapped on the mountain. Dante\u2019s Peak<\/strong> takes a little more time with its characters and concentrates on their attempts to survive, recalling older Hollywood fare like 5 Came Back<\/strong> or Flight Of The Phoenix<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Winner<\/strong>: Dante\u2019s Peak<\/strong> comes out on top if you\u2019re looking to invest in characters, while Volcano<\/strong> is the one for big goofy fun. – Rich Drees<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stories about police detectives being saddled with partners they don’t want? They are a dime a dozen. Having that unwanted partner be a dog? That was practically unheard of until 1989, then we got two within months of each each other.<\/p>\n K-9 <\/strong>got the jump as it was released on April 28th of that year. It starred Jim Belushi as a gruff detective marked for death who is given a drug-sniffing dog as a partner. Turner & Hooch<\/strong>, which was released on July 28th of the year, applied an Odd Couple<\/strong>-esque spin on the concept as the Felix Unger-like Turner (Tom Hanks) must work with the Oscar Madison dog-surrogate Hooch in order to solve the murder of the dog’s owner.<\/p>\n The Winner: <\/strong>Both films were box office successes and both had spinoffs (K-9 <\/strong>two made-for-video sequels, Turner & Hooch<\/strong> a TV series adaptation), but Turner & Hooch, <\/strong>with its downer ending and all, was the better film in my opinion.-WG<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Oh, the joys of the public domain. Since there is no rights to pay for the centuries old tale of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, it has been adapted into just about every media at one time or another. And in 1991, we almost had two Robin Hood films in our local cineplexes.<\/p>\n Both these films were intended to be shown in theaters in the United States. But Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves<\/strong> had a bigger budget ($48 million to Robin Hood’s <\/strong>$15 million), bigger stars (Kevin Costner, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Morgan Freeman, and Alan Rickman to Patrick Bergin, Uma Thurman, and Jurgen Prochnow) and more of a media push behind it. Robin Hood <\/strong>lost the game of chicken, and only received a theatrical release in Europe. It did however air on the FOX network for free a month before Prince of Thieves <\/strong>hit theaters. Can’t help but think that was a bit of thumb the nose at its competition.<\/p>\n The Winner: <\/strong>The winner in this contest comes down to what you consider “winning.” Some might say that Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves <\/strong>won simply on the fact that it got a theatrical release in the US (and made a bu8nch of money in the process). But Robin Hood <\/strong>did get better reviews overall and was viewed as being the more authentic of the two, especially when it came to the British accent of its lead actor. -WG<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And speaking of public domain, last year saw the release of two different tellings of the classic Grimm\u2019s Fairy Tale \u201cSnow White.\u201d Both versions had some things that looked good on paper. Mirror, Mirror<\/strong> had the great stylist director Tarsem Singh (The Cell<\/strong>, The Fall<\/strong>) on its plus column while Snow White And The Huntsman<\/strong> had a screenplay that had landed on the 2010 Black List going for it.<\/p>\n So what happened, as both films faceplanted with critics while doing respectable business at the box office?<\/p>\n Mirror, Mirror<\/strong> did come out looking great. Perhaps not as visually sumptuous as Singh\u2019s other films, but still much better than a film that was ostentatiously aimed at family audiences usually is. Unfortunately, it is in part torpedoed by a performance from Julia Roberts that wavers from shrill to archly silly, eclipsing the more subtle work of Lilly Collins.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Snow White And The Huntsman<\/strong> script was rewritten a number of times, blunting whatever edge the original drafts may have had. Equally dull was Kristen Stewart\u2019s performance, with the actress being upstaged by most of the action as well as the sets and costuming. Meanwhile, Chris Hemsworth, in the film\u2019s other titular role, delivers something only slightly different than we\u2019ve seen him do as Thor over in the Marvel Studios\u2019 movies.<\/p>\n The Winner:<\/strong> Mirror, Mirror<\/strong> by a hair but only because Snow White And The Huntsman<\/strong> is just a tad too grim (no pun intended) for its own good. – RD<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you had to pick a true life story spectacular enough that it would warrant two separate film adaptations, let alone two a year apart, I’d doubt anyone would pick the years\u00a0 that Truman Capote spent researching his landmark “non-fiction novel,” In Cold Blood<\/strong>. But in 2005 and 2006, that’s exactly what we got.<\/p>\n Both films had spectacular casts. Both were well received by critics. And both told the exact same story, with the only difference that\u00a0Capote\u00a0<\/strong>focused more on the author’s process and Infamous <\/strong>devoted more time to the social circles Capote traveled in.<\/p>\n However, Capote <\/strong>was nominated for a boatload of Oscars, winning one for Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal of the title character and made about 25 times as much at the box office as Infamous <\/strong><\/strong>did. That’s a pretty big difference.<\/p>\n The Winner<\/strong>: It has to be Capote. <\/strong>It came first, it made more money, it received better reviews and it garnered more nominations. -WG<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Released just two months of each other in the summer of 1998, apocalypse dramas Armageddon<\/strong> and Deep Impact<\/strong> served for a brief time as a symbol for creative bankruptcy in Hollywood, at least until the next thing came along for pundits to latch onto. Michael Bay\u2019s Armageddon<\/strong> is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, throwing its cinematic weight around in the form of testosterone-fueled, bombastic spectacle. With Deep Impact<\/strong>, director Mimi Leder instead chooses to focus more on the characters who find themselves in the path of an Earth-smashing asteroid and scrambling to figure out a way to survive. When Bay takes a moment with his characters we get an embarrassing scene involving Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler and a box of animal crackers. Leder gives us something as moving as the embrace between Maximillian Schell and Tea Leoni as a tsunami comes crashing down on them.<\/p>\n The Winner:<\/strong> Bay\u2019s Armageddon<\/strong> is loud, brash and ultimately a bit boring, so Leder and Deep Impact<\/strong> gets the win for making us care about its characters before wiping them out. Also, Deep Impact<\/strong> has Morgan Freeman as the President of the United States. – RD<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Big18AgainViceVersa\"](\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Big18AgainViceVersa.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Dante’s Peak\/ Volcano<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nK-9\/Turner & Hooch<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nRobin Hood: Prince of Thieves\/Robin Hood<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMirror, Mirror\/ Snow White And The Huntsman<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nCapote\/Infamous<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nArmageddon\/ Deep Impact<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nAntz\/ A Bug’s Life<\/h2>\n