Been there. Done that. Seen it before. Bought the T-shirt. Whether it’s fashion, music, or interior decor, it seems that everything old is new again. This cycle of things going in and out of style is called “The 20-Year Rule.” There was a 60s revival in the 80s, then a 70’s revival in the 90’s. Guess what I saw in Marshall’s the other day? An entire shelf of leg warmers–hello, 80s revival!
We think of film and television as being less cyclical and more progressive, a sign of our modern evolution. In the 80s we had The Cosby Show, Golden Girls and Family Ties. Today, it’s Orange is the New Black, Sons of Anarchy, and American Horror Story. Talk about wildly different programming from what we used to watch!
But, reduce a movie plot down to a single-sentence synopsis (as some folks did on askreddit), and you may be very amused to discover that even the people who make movie magic rarely seem to have original ideas. Check out these seemingly unrelated movies that turn out to be the same story:
You might be surprised to learn that the king of the “same movie in a single sentence” is Johnny Depp. Take the sentence: “Lead Actor, directed by Tim Burton, plays a pale-faced weirdo” and you’ve got: Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, Dark Shadows, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland and Corpse Bride.
Then again, consider this phrase: “Tom Hank’s travel plans never turn out well”: Terminal, Apollo 13, Cast Away, Cloud Atlas, Captain Philips, Joe vs the Volcano, Catch Me If You Can, and Toy Story 1, 2 and 3….
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Happy Monday,
Mary
