The Land of the DVD clone - War of the Worlds

By Jessica Dwyer

You may be asking yourself, “What is a DVD clone?” Well let me explain it to you. A DVD clone is a film with very similar attributes to a theatrical release (sometimes the exact same title) that is released on DVD simultaneously with its bigger budget brother. This happens far more regularly of late, with the independent filmmaker’s piggy backing onto the big studios for a quick buck. And it works apparently since there are MANY of these clones running about at your local Blockbuster.

For this first time out, we’ve chosen War of the Worlds, the many times remade story by HG Wells, but never perhaps with more infamy, than by Tom Cruise. The year was 2005, and Tom Cruise’s career was being overshadowed not by giant alien spaceships, but by his own religion, Scientology. Which…actually…has its own share of alien spaceships, but I digress.
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Dante’s Peak vs. Valcano

We’ve talked about the 90’s before and its need to bring back the disaster movie. That trend didn’t just end with big objects from outer space. We had plenty to worry about that sprang up from below us here on earth.

Volcanoes became hot (pardon the pun) in the year 1997. There hadn’t really been a flick that featured them since…well…I suppose Joe Versus the Volcano? In any event, the lava spewing mountain became a star in two movies that year, and only 3 months apart.

The first to be released was Dante’s Peak, or if you prefer James Bond Versus the Volcano. Directed by the man who gave us not only the epic Species, Roger Donaldson also directed The Bounty which starred Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson. He’s also responsible for Cocktail. Where did you go wrong Roger?
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The Spawn of Freaky Friday: The Triple 80’s Switcheroo films

Back in the 80’s body swapping was a “Big” trend. Be it growing younger or just swapping places with a family member, this was a new format that Hollywood decided to run with till we all got sick of it. Well at least until Lindsey Lohan and Jennifer Garner would lead the charge back to this formula fifteen years later with yet another Freaky Friday remake and the fem version of Big, 13 Going on 30.

But the 80’s were this type of films hey day. In the course of 12 months 3 different movies, all of them nearly the same exact plot, were released. All it seemed to try and hide the fact they had ripped off their plots from Freaky Friday by saying “Look, its guys! We’re not the same at all!” Wow, thanks for showing us just how smart you think we are studio people. In any regard, even with their lack of originality the 3fer of body swap flicks are still pretty entertaining and a nice dose of nostalgia. Let’s recap them shall we?
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Armageddon vs. Deep Impact

Hollywood and the disaster movie have had a long and rocky relationship (hehehe, get it? rocky? Anyone?). Back in the 60’s and 70’s there were a slew of them with such titles as Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, and the myriad Airport movies.

They tapered off a bit but in the 90’s they came back with a big old bang. And it started another trend that would keep going till The Day After Tomorrow. This new batch of disaster added a new element, the big freaking rock hurtling towards Earth. Not an unheard of fear, and these new movies with modern special effects could really milk it for all it was worth.

From this new batch emerged two mega budget epics, Armageddon and Deep Impact.
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Mission to Mars vs The Red Planet

In the year 2000 (cue Conan O’Brien and his floating heads) there was suddenly an interest in being the first studio in a long while to head to our favorite land of little green men, Mars.

Mission To Mars

The first to hit the screens was what I consider the NASCAR of the duo, Mission To Mars. Why you ask? Because I’ve never seen a film shove soooo much advertising down your throat in such an obvious manner (Dr. Pepper actually saves the day at one point.) Mission To Mars was made by Buena Vista…you know, Disney. Yes, they also have a ride at their theme park called that too, surprised? Nah, me neither. Consider this the bigger budget brother to that Steve Guttenberg epic Tower of Terror that came out a while back.

PLOT SHOT: Astronauts go on a mission to save the lone survivor of the first Mars Mission. Things go wrong. Gary Sinise wears too much eye liner and Tim Robbins has one of the most unnecessary deaths on film.

MTM was directed by Brian De Palma of all people (Disney, I’m shocked) and has the dubious honor of being one of the first films I ever laughed out loud at the ending in the theater. If it wasn’t Jerry O’Connell playing with M&M’s in space it was the over acting by Don Cheadle (we’re a long way from that hotel in Rwanda here) and the ending just sort of happens. I’m not sure what Disney and De Palma were trying for in this flick. But with a budget of nearly 100 million dollars you’d think they could have come up with a more convincing alien (which funnily enough wasn’t green).

Red Planet

Released a few months after MTM was Red Planet starring Carrie-Anne Moss in one of her Matrix follow ups. Along with Trinity we had Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, and Benjamin Bratt.

PLOT SHOT: Astronauts go on a mission to see if we can colonize Mars since the Earth is dying. Thing’s go wrong, plus they have a homicidal robot to deal with.

The film is pretty messy in terms of plot. You’ve got a pseudo love story between Moss and Kilmer, in-fighting amongst the crew, and then you’ve got the added bonus of the crazy robot who becomes a stalker. It sort of becomes a mishmash of Armageddon with a dose of Saturn 3. Another fun fact about this is the director, Antony Hoffman, basically quit the film industry after making it. It was his first and only movie, coming from a career as a commercials director. With the budget being 75 million and the return not coming close, that might be a clue as to why.

Neither is a masterpiece, but if you want to spend a night exploring the big red, these two will get you there. And who could hate on seeing Tim Sizemore blowing himself up?

-Jessica Dwyer

Hollywood isn’t exactly original. And sometimes, a couple flicks are released months apart that are eerily similar. Good things come in two’s, if you go by what Hollywood thinks, so hence this column.

It’s happened more than once where studios will piggyback film releases to capitalize on each other. Or maybe it’s just a lack of imagination…who can really say. Be it where the film takes place, the vibe of the movie, and sometimes the entire plot itself…films who are connected enough to be considered siblings spring forth from Hollywood’s womb with astounding regularity.

Movie Pairs will spotlight those occurrences where the dream factory churned out a nearly matching set. We’ll compare their plots and we’ll critique their content. And we’ll most likely make fun of them just because we can. Let’s face it, most times they deserve it.