Out-of-series movies?
October 30, 2014 8:00 PM   Subscribe

The Rock is a Bond movie. Galaxy Quest is a Star Trek movie. What other movies 'fit' into series, but not on purpose?
posted by the man of twists and turns to Media & Arts (30 answers total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Casino Royale is essentially part of the Bourne series.
posted by mochapickle at 8:28 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]


Best answer: This came up in a thread here very recently...one of the ones mentioned was positing Die Hard With A Vengeance as a Batman movie, with Jeremy Irons as The Riddler.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:32 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


I always considered Romancing The Stone as an Indiana Jones movie.
posted by Sassyfras at 8:39 PM on October 30, 2014 [8 favorites]


Casino Royale is essentially part of the Bourne series.

Huh?

I think November Man and Safe House work really well together.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:39 PM on October 30, 2014


Best answer: The Matador is a Bond movie, and not just because Brosnan's in it.
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:54 PM on October 30, 2014


The current movie John Wick is an exemplary instance of a genre movie, Revenge-action in this case, and I would throw it in with the Death Wish franchise, no question.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:02 PM on October 30, 2014


I've always thought Labyrinth was basically a Nightmare on Elm Street movie, only with Muppets and nobody dies.
posted by darchildre at 9:07 PM on October 30, 2014 [4 favorites]


Best answer: The Frighteners is a Ghostbusters sequel from well outside of NYC.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 9:19 PM on October 30, 2014 [6 favorites]


Not sure that I understand the question. "Not on purpose"? Galaxy Quest was very purposefully and intentionally Star Trek. Maybe you mean "Not officially"?
posted by Flunkie at 9:24 PM on October 30, 2014 [5 favorites]


Never Say Never Again is a non-canonical Bond movie starring Sean Connery. But maybe that's too on the nose?

Uh...how about Young Frankenstein? I think that fits your criteria -- if Galaxy Quest is a comedy/homage to Star Trek, then Young Frankenstein is a similar comedy/homage to Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein.
posted by mosk at 9:52 PM on October 30, 2014




Hmmm...Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead takes place alongside, within, and around Hamlet, with the same characters.
posted by mosk at 10:10 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]


Best answer: TV Tropes' Spiritual Successor page has a lot of candidates. (Many are purposeful homages or follow-ups to their precursors, but there some interesting pairings there. The Hope-Crosby Road to... films and The Nightmare Before Christmas have a lot of pretenders to their respective legacies.)
posted by Iridic at 10:54 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


Jackie Brown, Out of Sight and the new Elmore Leonard movie Life of Crime share a universe (Michael Keaton plays the same cop in both JB and OOS, while Ordell Robbie and Louis are characters in both JB and LOC).
posted by GamblingBlues at 12:05 AM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


This bends the concept a bit, but as they're loosely based on/inspired by the life story of Henry Hill and only overlap in the coverage of his life by about 5 minutes, you can delightfully consider My Blue Heaven the sequel to Goodfellas.
posted by benbenson at 5:16 AM on October 31, 2014 [5 favorites]


One of these is not a film, but you could imagine the aliens in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Royale" being the same ones as in the film Dark City, with the noir elements of the casino in the former informing their design of the city in the latter.
posted by AndrewInDC at 5:33 AM on October 31, 2014


The Commitments (1991), The snapper (1993) and The van (1996) are all adaptations of Roddy Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy. Colm Meaney plays the same character in all the movies, but under different names (due to rights issues). There is no continuity between the movies, though they're all set in the same universe (a working-class quarter of Dublin). The movies are pretty good but I always thought that not adapting the trilogy as a true series was a missed opportunity.
posted by elgilito at 5:50 AM on October 31, 2014


According to John Cusack, War Inc. is a "spiritual cousin to Grosse Pointe Blank." Despite my love for Grosse Pointe Blank, I've never seen War Inc. to confirm.
posted by The Man from Lardfork at 6:05 AM on October 31, 2014


Best answer: Lifted directly from TV Tropes Spiritual Licensee trope -

Frozen is the best X-Men film.
Hercules is the best Superman musical.

And if we can expand more - Crank is a brilliant live adaptation of the GTA series.
posted by eyeofthetiger at 6:15 AM on October 31, 2014


I thought Naomi Watts' character in Birdman could be Betty from Mulholland Drive after thirteen years of show business.
posted by Smallpox at 7:28 AM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Enemy of the State could be a sequel to The Conversation.
posted by sciencejock at 9:25 AM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Raymond Chandler wrote a bunch of stories featuring Philip Marlowe. The best film adaptations are the 1975 Farewell, My Lovely with Robert Mitchum and the Bogart/Bacall Big Sleep but there's several others, most made independent of each other.
posted by Rash at 9:29 AM on October 31, 2014






According to John Cusack, War Inc. is a "spiritual cousin to Grosse Pointe Blank." Despite my love for Grosse Pointe Blank, I've never seen War Inc. to confirm.

I've heard that Number Station fits in there, too. Perhaps after it doesn't work out for Martin and Debbie.

you can delightfully consider My Blue Heaven the sequel to Goodfellas.

OTOH Judgment at Nuremburg isn't the sequel to The Great Dictator.
posted by Marmaduke Hammerhead at 7:26 PM on October 31, 2014


For a silly one: Pixar's Cars is a sequel to Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive.
posted by fings at 7:47 PM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


I didn't see it listed in the Hitchcock-like movies links above, but I'd definitely add Charade to that list.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:01 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


I'd definitely add Charade to that list

Seconded. I had to double-check wikipedia just in case I was falling for a prank.
posted by Marmaduke Hammerhead at 9:35 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ratatouille is the sequel to The Secret of NIMH?
posted by daisystomper at 9:53 PM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


They Might be Giants is a terrific little Doctor Who movie.
posted by mimi at 10:22 AM on November 2, 2014


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