Double Feature: 10 Movie Pairs That Should Always Be Shown Together
Planning a weekend double feature with your honey but unsure of where to start? Oh sure, you could always go the route where you pick one and your sweetie picks the other, but where’s the fun and imagination in that?
No, if you really want to give your weekend the double feature experience, you need to coordinate, so that you don’t end up with a double bill of RoboCop and Nights in Rodanthe.
Here to help, The Inquisitr has 10 recommendations for movie pairs that go together like shamalamalamalamalamalamadingdong.
(NOTE: Grease and Grease 2 — not on the list, though they probably should be.)
Alien / Aliens
These are two distinct genres of film with Ridley Scott’s 1979 original being a horror movie set in space and James Cameron’s 1986 follow-up an action-thriller that greatly advanced women actors as mainstream action heroes. To this day, fans come to blows over which is the superior film. When asked for my opinion, I like to take the chicken way out and say, “It depends on what you’re in the mood for.” I would be a GREAT politician.
Black Swan / The Wrestler
In 2008 and 2010, director Darren Aronofsky had a couple of spectacular years, first rejuvenating Mickey Rourke’s career with The Wrestler and next, unsettling us with the dark thriller Black Swan, featuring a completely unhinged performance from Natalie Portman. Portman’s turn as ballerina Nina Sayers served as an unusual but fitting companion piece to Rourke’s washed-up grappler.
Terminator / Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Continuing the theme of female empowerment that Cameron started with Aliens, the director’s T2: Judgment Day features a buffer and tougher Linda Hamilton holding her own alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger as they work together to stop a deadly evolution in the Terminator line. In the first film, she was essentially a victim, but in T2, her character growth is believable, and the action scenes still hold up. And really, you can’t appreciate the tension between the two until you see them butt heads in the first.
The Exorcist / The Exorcist III
When The Exorcist hit theaters in 1973, audiences had never seen anything like it. That film set the bar so high for the (terrible) second movie that by the time The Exorcist III rolled around, moviegoers had zero expectations. Time has taught us what a terrible mistake we made in dismissing The Exorcist III the first time around. While nowhere as influential and groundbreaking as the first, it’s still a completely unsettling experience. Queue it up this Halloween (along with the original). You won’t be disappointed.
Pirates of Silicon Valley / The Social Network
Before there was Zuckerberg, there was Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. If you want to see a dramatized version of their early bond and rivalry, then get your hands on Pirates of Silicon Valley starring Noah Wyle as Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Gates. Underrated flick. Follow that up with The Social Network, and you should be caught up on the last 30 or so years of technology.
Schindler’s List / Inglourious Basterds
Schindler’s List is one of the most graphic and moving depictions of the atrocities committed against the Jewish people by Nazi Germany during World War II. Watch it once, and you’ll see scenes that will stick in your memory for the rest of your life even if you never watch it again. Now, you’re likely going to be ticked off at the end of Steven Spielberg’s film, so what better time to pop in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds? QT’s war movie rewrites significant portions of history in telling the story of a ruthless band of American “Natzy” killers. If you were furious with the true actions depicted in Schindler’s List, well, this will quench your thirst for blood.
Taxi Driver / Rolling Thunder
Taxi Driver‘s Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is disturbed by nature. Rolling Thunder‘s Major Charles Rane (William Devane) is disturbed by a senseless tragedy perpetrated on his young son by a gang of white trash gobs of spit. Both films uncomfortably examine violence as a solution to injustice, and reveal that the answers to wrongdoing aren’t so simple. You could watch either of these films and walk away thinking, “Violence is the only way.” Both also leave a seedy, greasy residue that’ll have you jumping in the shower once the end credits roll.
Planet Terror / Death Proof
On paper, Planet Terror and Death Proof don’t seem like they could be related, but if you’re familiar with the Grindhouse films of the ’70s, you’ll totally get this. They were even released as a weekend double feature by filmmakers Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. If you can, get ahold of the Blu-ray with the faux trailers in between. You’ll love it.
Psycho / Dressed To Kill
(SPOILER ALERT FOLLOWS FOR BOTH OF THESE FILMS, THOUGH WE’RE PRETTY SURE YOU KNOW PSYCHO INSIDE AND OUT)
Alfred Hitchcock student Brian De Palma can swear up and down that his Dressed to Kill isn’t a remake of the original Psycho, but there are far too many similarities to ignore. The “main star” in both are of questionable morality. Both are women. Both meet their end in a confined space by way of a shiny blade early in the film. From there, secondary characters step into the lead roles, consisting of unlikely guy-girl partnerships. Both killers are psychotic transvestites. And there is even the Hitchcock denouement of explaining the ending inside a police station. Yes, of course, they’re the same movie. Still, both are masterful works of suspense and worth checking out together.
Titanic / Revolutionary Road
Both of these films have Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in doomed relationships, though each has something quite different to say about love and romance. They’re interesting complements indeed. While Titanic wins in the summer movie department, Revolutionary Road is a darker, more independent study of human nature, showing what might have happened had Rose and Jack survived the Titanic and settled in to mind-numbing domesticity.
Which weekend double feature movie pairs did we miss? Sound off in the comments section below.
