Today I had a fun conversation with some friends about the film Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and the upcoming biopic Lincoln starring the amazing Daniel Day Lewis. While the two films have different plots (one true to history and one not so much), it can still be confusing as to which one is which. This isn’t the first time two strikingly similar movies have been made and released suspiciously close together. Here are a few you may also have confused.

Year: 2009, Released: 9 weeks apart
Two films about the dangerous lives of mall security guards featuring pretty funny lead actors. While I do love Anna Faris, I think I love Kevin James on a Segway a little bit more.
Winner: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Year: 2006, Released: 8 weeks apart
Two dark films about magicians. Both of these movies were actually pretty good, which isn’t surprising when Edward Norton and Christian Bale are involved. However, I just can’t seem to take Paul Giamatti seriously, in any role ever.
Winner: The Prestige

Year: 2011, Released: 6 months apart
Two films about casual sex between friends. What could possibly go wrong with a friends with benefits situation? Especially when you’re gorgeous like Mila Kunis, Justin Timberlake, Natalie Portman, and Ashton Kutcher.
Winner: Friends with Benefits

Year: 1998, Released: 7 weeks apart
Two films about an asteroid about to hit Earth and destroy all of humanity. I love an epic disaster movie and these two are no exception. Morgan Freeman is definitely the better President, but the cheese factor in Armageddon is just too good to resist.
Winner: Armageddon

Year: 1998, Released: 7 weeks apart
Two computer animated films about ants. And so it begins: where all other animation studios desperately try to outmatch Pixar. In only the rarest occasion do they succeed and this was not one of them.
Winner: A Bug’s Life

Year: 2004, Released: 8 months apart
Two films about the President’s daughter just wanting to have a normal life. If you know me at all, you certainly know about my undying love for the beautiful Mandy Moore and every romantic comedy she’s ever made.
Winner: Chasing Liberty

Year: 2012, Released: 8 weeks apart
Two films about Snow White. I haven’t seen either of these films, but there’s only one I’m excited about. Time will tell on which one is more successful, but I already have my prediction.
Winner: Snow White and the Huntsman

“People want to change everything and, at the same time, want it all to remain the same.”

Today is Earth Day. Let’s take a moment to think about and appreciate this planet we call home. I think we can all agree that planet Earth is pretty freaking awesome.

one, two, three, four, five

This is awesome.

from laughingsquid.com

American Pie was never a promise of great cinema. If you were ever expecting that, then you probably didn’t see it. It was a raunchy coming-of-age film about four high school seniors trying to lose their virginities. And that’s all it was ever trying to be. In the process it created culturally iconic phrases (One time, at band camp… and MILF are two examples) and launched the careers of many young actors. Two theatrical sequels and countless straight-to-DVD spinoffs later, it seemed the American Pie franchise was old news. Then, the producers decided to play off something even more American than apple pie: nostalgia.

I was 14 when the original American Pie hit theaters. Because the movie was rated R, we had to do the whole ticket-to-a-different-movie switcheroo. When you get past all the gross-out stuff and the teenage boy stuff, it was certainly a movie I could relate to. It was the summer before I started high school and many of my friends were headed to different schools around the city. It felt like the last summer we would all be together and things would never be the same afterwards. It is a youth-defining movie, that captures the difficult changes teenagers deal with and how your senior year can be simultaneously the best and worst of your life.

American Reunion follows the boys as they return to their hometown for their 13-year high school reunion. The actors all look noticeably older reinforcing that, no matter how much we deny it, it actually has been a long time since the original American Pie. Reunion delivers even grosser comedy and Seann William Scott again proves this franchise should have been called The Stifler Show.

This time around the boys, ahem, men realize their lives are not what their high school selves envisioned them to be, for better or worse. They encounter temptation, career embarrassment, and “the one that got away.” Reunion cleverly combines the nostalgia of high school with the nostalgia of the 90s. And even better yet, it capitalizes on the “where are they now?” fascination we all have. (That’s what Facebook is for anyway, right?) If not for the nostalgic value, you may want to see it because it’s pretty damn funny.