With the release of another movie called ALONE IN THE DARK, when refering to that title we now have to specify 2005 or 1982 since there was a slasher flick called ALONE IN THE DARK released in 1982 which starred Jack Palance and Martin Landau.
There is now a TV series called BLIND JUSTICE. There is a Western that shares the same name as well an action movie, I believe, which starred Rutger Hauer among probably several others.
I know of three movies titled FAIR GAME that were released in the same decade. The Australian movie was probably the best.
Considering the degree to which titles are recycled, frequently with no relation between the movies, we sometimes are presented with a need to specify the movie to which we are refering in conversation or posts. And now a TV show has entered into the fray.
Are there any particular titles that irk someone because they have been recycled?
Does anybody have any favorite, or least favorite, recycled titles?
There was one point in my life, I was about eight, where I was hating movies that begin with "The". Nowadays it's a film that has copied George Romero's method of putting "Dead" in their title for zombie flicks.
PLEASE NOTE: This excludes the following for movies with "Dead" in the title:
Braindead
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
anything with "Undead" in the title
Yes, I know I'm obsessive compulsive.
"28 Days" and "28 Days Later" can get confusing. If you rent the wrong one, you're in for a surprise either way.
Hey, that aint so bad, Kory. Good one.
"Name's Ash. (Cocks shotgun) Housewares."
The Classic case of Jack Frost and Jack Frost.
Parents renting the wrong one for their young kiddies.
the Rutger Hauer one was Blind Fury.
I couldn't remember exactly. Thank You
Since titles get recycled so often anyway, I don't mind unless the titles are used too close together timewise so you have to explain which film you mean. Plus as any of us who have dug around at the IMDB may know, many titles we associate with films we know have been recycled from films going back decades. Since many films have multiple titles from various releases, foreign markets, TV screenings, video retitlings, etc. you're going to wind up reusing something at some point. Online, I just treat them like writing about remakes and put the year of release in parenthesis to clarify when posting.
As examples of the too close together thing: the two "Jack Frost" movies, or the two "Last Man Standing" films from around 1996. Also didn't Steven Segal release a straight-to-video movie called "The Patriot" about a right wing militia about a year before the Mel Gibson Revoltionary War film?
"Alone in the Dark" doesn't bother, even though I liked the 1982 film. It was 23 years ago, so the title was bound to get reused. Plus outside of b-movie circles, how many people are even aware of the earlier film anway? How many films have been called "Hero" besides the great Jet Li film and that mostly forgotten Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, Andy Garcia attempt at satire from 1992?
"High Risk"- a good Jet Li flick from the 90s or a better than expected 1976 action comedy with James Brolin, James Coburn, Anthony Quinn, and lots of other familiar faces?
Just remembered we have that new film "Boogeyman" film coming out soon. No relation to the 1980 film with Suzanna Love and John Carradine, AFAIK.
"Boiling Point" - a dull Wesley Snipes film from 1993 or the mediocre Takeshi Kitano film?
Forgot about the BOOGEYMAN (2005) film. THE BOOGEY MAN (1980) at least had a few sequels, let's see how well the new one does.
Black Sunday with Barbara Steele and Black Sunday starring, uh, the Goodyear Blimp.
There is also a 50s western called the Naked Gun .
My problem with two or more movies sharing the exact same title is that TV listings (online or printed) often give the description for the wrong movie. This used to happen all the time with TV Guide.
I recall when I first saw the movie Devil in the Flesh listed and I figured I'd finally be able to see the controversial foreign film. Instead I got a lame thriller with Rose McGowan playing a psycho. More recently, I was flipping channels and I came across one that the OSD identified as "Martin". I got all excited to see the George Romero film about a guy who thinks he's a vampire, then when the picture came on (premium channels take several seconds before you get a picture), it was a filmed version of Martin Lawrence's(sp?) stage act. Blech!
I've had similar experiences with the local TV listings for some movies on A&E. The listings will give the name and year of a film only to have it turn out to be usually some British film or TV movie with the same name. They listed "The Claim", and I was looking forward to seeing what was supposed to be a unique western drama similar to "McCabe and Mrs Miller", instead it was a boring Brit thriller about insurance fraud with a twist I saw coming before the first commercial break.
EQUINOX - one is the cool but terrible 1970 B-movie about kids lost in the woods who meet up with all kinds of stop-motion monsters and demons.
Another is a 1992 drama which is the "shocking story of identical twins"...boring.
"Fire Down Below" - the lousy Steven Segal film (filled with goofs) about an asskicking EPA agent (hard to type that with a straight face) or a 1957 cheesy melodrama with Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum, and Jack Lemmon about smugglers in a love triangle. Hayworth and Mitchum look bored the whole time (even when Mitchum beats up Lemmon a couple of times) and Lemmon looks like he's overacting as a result.
FIRE DOWN BELOW? Isn't that also the title of an educational film about VD? (:
NO MAN'S LAND (2001): An Oscar winning (and deservedly so) Bosnian film about two Serbs and a Bosnian Muslim trapped together in a foxhole between their respective sides and the UN's inept attempts to resolve their situation (one Serb is wounded and lying on a live grenade, so he cannot move). Very sad, but also funny and (in my opinion) a very accurate portrayal of that particular war.
NO MAN'S LAND (1980s): God-awful Charlie Sheen movie about a cop who turns to stealing Porsches and romancing billionaire's daughters. Car chases and fart jokes abound.