Same Theme-Different Mood Movie Pairs
by troyspears | created - 31 Oct 2011 | updated - 10 May 2018 | PublicThese are movie pairings that have similar story lines, but which have been told in very different moods.
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1. High Noon (1952)
PG | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at "high noon" when the gang leader, an outlaw he "sent up" years ago, arrives on the noon train.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 110,230 | Gross: $9.45M
One man against a band of outlaws. Chicken *beep* civilians won't help. Citizens aren't punished.
2. High Plains Drifter (1973)
R | 105 min | Drama, Mystery, Western
A gun-fighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago and is hired to bring the townsfolk together in an attempt to hold off three outlaws who are on their way.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan
Votes: 64,573 | Gross: $15.70M
One man against a band of outlaws. Chicken *beep* civilians won't help. Citizens are punished.
Town unjustly punishes lawman who returns and insinuates himself into town politics and exacts revenge on the entire town.
3. The Dressmaker (I) (2015)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama, Western
A glamorous woman returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sewing machine and haute couture style, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.
Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse | Stars: Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, Hugo Weaving
Votes: 65,469 | Gross: $2.02M
Town unjustly punishes young girl who returns and insinuates herself into town fashion and exacts revenge on the entire town.
4. Equus (1977)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery
A psychiatrist attempts to uncover a troubled stable boy's disturbing obsession with horses.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright
Votes: 8,749
Psychiatrist lured into patient's grotesque delusion.
5. Don Juan DeMarco (1994)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A psychiatrist must cure a young patient who presents himself as Don Juan, the world's greatest lover.
Director: Jeremy Leven | Stars: Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando, Faye Dunaway, Géraldine Pailhas
Votes: 53,329 | Gross: $22.15M
Psychiatrist lured into patient's romantic delusion.
6. Groundhog Day (1993)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.
Director: Harold Ramis | Stars: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky
Votes: 685,418 | Gross: $70.91M
Guy gets to relive and change his life until he gets it right.
7. The Butterfly Effect (2004)
R | 113 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.
Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber | Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Elden Henson
Votes: 521,395 | Gross: $57.94M
Guy gets to relive and change his life until it's irreparable.
8. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
GP | 127 min | Crime, Drama
A laid-back Southern man is sentenced to two years in a rural prison, but refuses to conform.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg | Stars: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, J.D. Cannon
Votes: 188,618 | Gross: $16.22M
Individualist falls into regimented society, inspires fellows, and gets clobbered. But the story is retold over and over.
9. Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
G | 106 min | Drama, History, Musical
Film version of the musical stage play, presenting the last few weeks of Christ's life told in an anachronistic manner.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman, Barry Dennen
Votes: 29,941 | Gross: $24.48M
Individualist falls into regimented society, inspires fellows, and gets clobbered.
10. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
R | 133 min | Drama
In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco
Votes: 1,072,903 | Gross: $112.00M
Individualist falls into regimented society, inspires fellows, and gets clobbered. But one of his inspired gets free.
11. Ink (I) (2009)
Not Rated | 107 min | Action, Drama, Fantasy
A mysterious creature, known as Ink, steals a child's soul in hopes of using it as a bargaining chip to join the Incubi - the group of supernatural beings responsible for creating nightmares.
Director: Jamin Winans | Stars: Christopher Soren Kelly, Quinn Hunchar, Jessica Duffy, Jennifer Batter
Votes: 22,385
Child snatched into spirit world. Father has to save child. Father rescues child and himself.
12. Insidious (I) (2010)
PG-13 | 103 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.
Director: James Wan | Stars: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye
Votes: 339,187 | Gross: $54.01M
Child snatched into spirit world. Father has to save child. Father rescues child and loses himself.
13. Black Snake Moan (2006)
R | 116 min | Drama, Music
A God-fearing bluesman takes to a wild young woman who, as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, looks everywhere for love, never quite finding it.
Director: Craig Brewer | Stars: Christina Ricci, Samuel L. Jackson, Justin Timberlake, S. Epatha Merkerson
Votes: 66,557 | Gross: $9.40M
Guy decides to save a girl from her sexual acting out. Darkly comic.
14. Welcome to the Rileys (2010)
R | 110 min | Drama
On a business trip to New Orleans, a damaged man seeks salvation by caring for a wayward young woman.
Director: Jake Scott | Stars: James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart, Melissa Leo, David Jensen
Votes: 25,273 | Gross: $0.15M
Guy decides to save a girl from her sexual acting out. Dramatic.
15. The Emerald Forest (1985)
R | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After the son of engineer Bill Markham is abducted by an aboriginal tribe on the edge of the rain forest, the engineer spends the next 10 years searching for him.
Director: John Boorman | Stars: Powers Boothe, Meg Foster, Yara Vaneau, William Rodriguez
Votes: 11,006 | Gross: $24.47M
Outsider gets adopted by loving aborigines, falls in love, corporate forces encroach on idyllic primitives.
16. Avatar (2009)
PG-13 | 162 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez
Votes: 1,387,078 | Gross: $760.51M
Outsider gets adopted by loving aborigines, falls in love, corporate forces encroach on idyllic primitives.
17. Magic (1978)
R | 107 min | Drama, Horror
A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, Ed Lauter
Votes: 13,461 | Gross: $25.94M
Introvert and his doll descend into madness.
18. May (2002)
R | 93 min | Drama, Horror
A socially awkward veterinary assistant with a lazy eye and obsession with perfection descends into depravity after developing a crush on a boy with perfect hands.
Director: Lucky McKee | Stars: Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, James Duval
Votes: 40,518 | Gross: $0.15M
Introvert breaks doll and goes mad. Stark raving introvert makes a more hideous doll.
19. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A delusional young man strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet.
Director: Craig Gillespie | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, R.D. Reid
Votes: 155,478 | Gross: $5.97M
Introvert and his doll climb out of madness.
20. Boogie Nights (1997)
R | 155 min | Drama
Back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, an idealistic porn producer aspires to elevate his craft to an art when he discovers a hot young talent.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Luis Guzmán
Votes: 282,193 | Gross: $26.40M
Dramatic treatment of sex industry. No redemption shown.
21. Magic Mike (2012)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A male stripper teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women, and make easy money.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Olivia Munn, Matthew McConaughey
Votes: 147,251 | Gross: $113.72M
Comic treatment of sex industry. A hint of hope.
22. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
PG-13 | 94 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Two 12-year-olds, who live on an island, fall in love with each other and elope into the wilderness. While people set out on a search mission, a violent storm approaching them catches their attention.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray
Votes: 366,838 | Gross: $45.51M
Pair of outcast tweens fall in love and launch into wilderness. Comic.
23. Standing Up (II) (2013)
PG | 93 min | Drama
Two kids befriend each other after being left stripped nude in a lake as the victims of an immature summer camp prank. They run away from camp and for three days learn more about each other than they've ever known before.
Director: D.J. Caruso | Stars: Chandler Canterbury, Annalise Basso, Radha Mitchell, Val Kilmer
Votes: 3,321
Pair of outcast tweens launch into the wilderness and fall in love. Dramatic.
24. Chocolat (2000)
PG-13 | 121 min | Drama, Romance
A French woman and her young daughter open up a chocolate shop in a small remote village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina
Votes: 202,039 | Gross: $71.51M
Aesthetic moves into moralistic community and inspires the locals to enjoy life. Moral leader and jealous husband take aim. Celebration of eating.
25. As It Is in Heaven (2004)
Not Rated | 133 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A famous international conductor returns to his small childhood town in Sweden for early retirement. He's asked to help with the church choir. He affects the lives of all in the choir.
Director: Kay Pollak | Stars: Michael Nyqvist, Frida Hallgren, Helen Sjöholm, Lennart Jähkel
Votes: 18,275 | Gross: $0.01M
Aesthetic moves into moralistic community and inspires the locals to enjoy life. Moral leader and jealous husband take aim. Celebration of music.
26. The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
Not Rated | 86 min | Adventure, Drama
An old Cuban fisherman's dry spell is broken when he hooks a gigantic fish that drags him out to sea.
Directors: John Sturges, Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Felipe Pazos, Harry Bellaver, Richard Alameda
Votes: 8,645
Alone with a gamefish in the ocean.
27. Life of Pi (2012)
PG | 127 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor: a fearsome Bengal tiger.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain, Tabu
Votes: 667,132 | Gross: $124.99M
Alone with a tiger in the ocean.
28. All Is Lost (2013)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After a collision with a shipping container at sea, a resourceful sailor finds himself, despite all efforts to the contrary, staring his mortality in the face.
Director: J.C. Chandor | Star: Robert Redford
Votes: 83,836 | Gross: $6.26M
Alone in the ocean.
29. Gravity (2013)
PG-13 | 91 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first time on a space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris, Orto Ignatiussen
Votes: 863,492 | Gross: $274.09M
Alone in space.
30. That Touch of Mink (1962)
Approved | 99 min | Comedy, Romance
A rich businessman and a young woman are attracted to each other, but he only wants an affair while she wants to save herself for marriage.
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Cary Grant, Doris Day, Gig Young, Audrey Meadows
Votes: 10,879 | Gross: $14.63M
Rich bachelor enlists a working woman purportedly to act as his wife to help him land business deals. Bachelor really wants sex, but woman wants marriage. Romance ensues.
31. Pretty Woman (1990)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Romance
A man in a legal but hurtful business needs an escort for some social events, and hires a beautiful prostitute he meets... only to fall in love.
Director: Garry Marshall | Stars: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Jason Alexander, Laura San Giacomo
Votes: 362,856 | Gross: $178.41M
Rich bachelor enlists prostitute to act as his wife to help him land business deals. Woman falls in love, but man doesn't want romantic entanglement. Romance ensues.
32. Secretary (2002)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual, sadomasochistic one.
Director: Steven Shainberg | Stars: James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeremy Davies, Lesley Ann Warren
Votes: 98,655 | Gross: $4.06M
Sadistic boss explores his secretary's willingness to be his submissive. Romance follows.
33. Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
R | 125 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
Literature student Anastasia Steele's life changes forever when she meets handsome, yet tormented, billionaire Christian Grey.
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson | Stars: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Jennifer Ehle, Eloise Mumford
Votes: 335,900 | Gross: $166.17M
Sadistic boss explores his secretary's willingness to be his submissive.
34. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
M/PG | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An eccentric Scottish schoolteacher's extravagantly romantic ideas about life--and love--overly impress her young pupils and bring her into conflict with her school's conservative headmistress.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Maggie Smith, Gordon Jackson, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin
Votes: 9,864
Headstrong, irreverent teacher leads a gang of students into taking bigger risks, but a tragedy results from a student's misconduct.
35. Cracks (I) (2009)
R | 104 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A look at the lives and relationships among girls at an elite boarding school.
Director: Jordan Scott | Stars: Eva Green, Juno Temple, María Valverde, Imogen Poots
Votes: 21,107 | Gross: $0.02M
Headstrong, irreverent teacher leads a gang of students into taking bigger risks, but a tragedy results from the teacher's misconduct.
36. Addams Family Values (1993)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Fantasy
The Addams Family try to rescue their beloved Uncle Fester from his gold-digging new love, a black widow named Debbie.
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld | Stars: Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Joan Cusack
Votes: 109,673 | Gross: $48.92M
Troubled children sent to camp for rehabilitation, but the kids take matters into their own hands. Comic.
37. Boot Camp (2008)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A group of at-risk teens are sent to a what they think is a rehabilitation program on Fiji, but it's really a prison-like camp where kids are abused and brainwashed.
Director: Christian Duguay | Stars: Mila Kunis, Gregory Smith, Peter Stormare, Regine Nehy
Votes: 9,300
Troubled children sent to camp for rehabilitation, but the kids take matters into their own hands. Dramatic.
38. Under Cover (1987)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A cop goes undercover in a South Carolina high school. With the help of a local narcotics officer, he investigates the drug ring responsible for another cop's death.
Director: John Stockwell | Stars: David Neidorf, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barry Corbin, David Harris
Votes: 418
Young cop goes under cover at high school to catch drugdealers. Dramatic.
39. 21 Jump Street (2012)
R | 109 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A pair of underachieving cops are sent back to a local high school to blend in and bring down a synthetic drug ring.
Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller | Stars: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Brie Larson
Votes: 598,835 | Gross: $138.45M
Young cops go under cover at high school to catch drugdealers. Comic.
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