Now: 2012 (2009)Then: The Day After Tomorrow 2004)

What exactly does Roland Emmerich have against humanity that he seeks to destroy it in his movies -- over and over again, in increasingly spectacular fashion? Or perhaps the better question is: What do we have against ourselves that we continue to flock to his epics of CGI extinction? Either way, the German Master of Disaster is back at it, wiping out mankind all over again in 2012, in which solar rays overheat the Earth's core and cause it to wreak havoc on the surface. This is technically different from what happened in Emmerich's 2004 opus The Day After Tomorrow, in which environmental pollution suddenly caused a new Ice Age to occur. But, as might be expected, not all that different...

The Scientists Who Saw It Coming
2012: U.S. scientist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Indian researcher Satnam (Jimi Mistry) discover that the Earth's core temperature is rising, and begin to warn that the crust will soon become unstable. Of course, it happens much sooner than expected.
The Day After Tomorrow: After a massive ice shelf breaks off Antarctica, paleo-climatologist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) and climate researcher Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) realize a new Ice Age is headed our way. Of course, it happens much sooner than expected.

Estranged Families, Reunited
2012: Divorced writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a kind but somewhat neglectful father of two who races to save his kids, his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet), and her new boyfriend Gordon (Thomas McCarthy) when he realizes what's happening.
The Day After Tomorrow: After America freezes over, neglectful career man Dr. Jack walks (walks!) from Washington, D.C. to New York City to save the son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) he had with his estranged wife (Sela Ward).

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Now: The Fourth Kind (2009)Then: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Although its use of fake documentary footage represents a pretty obvious attempt to emulate The Blair With Project (as well as, perhaps unexpectedly, the recent horror smash Paranormal Activity) the new scifi flick The Fourth Kind was pretty much asking for comparison when it decided to consciously echo the title of Steven Spielberg's now-classic scifi epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We're more than happy to oblige.

Our Credulous Hero(ine)
The Fourth Kind: Alaska psychiatrist Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovovich) discovers during her research that a number of her traumatized subjects have had violent encounters with UFOs. She's determined to find out more.
Close Encounters: After encountering UFOs in the middle of a dark country road at night, Indiana power station worker Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) becomes obsessed with aliens. He's determined to find out more.

The Action Hits Close to Home
The Fourth Kind: Dr. Tyler is convinced that her husband's ghastly, gory death was secretly caused by aliens.
Close Encounters: Gillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) becomes distraught after her three-year-old son Barry (Cary Guffey) is abducted by aliens, in an intense and iconic scene.

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Now: Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)Then: Shine A Light (2008)

At first it looked like Michael Jackson's This Is It was just a shameless attempt to capitalize on the legendary singer's death. But the end result is actually a lot more complicated than that -- a strange hybrid of rehearsal footage, poignant moments, and pop kitsch. As such, it's a concert film unlike any other -- but it will get you thinking about Martin Scorsese's glossy, high-profile Rolling Stones flick Shine A Light, another strange hybrid. So how do these two high-profile music movies stack up against one another?

Postmodern Concert Flicks
This Is It: Openly acknowledging the fact that it was filmed as rehearsal footage for Michael Jackson's private use, the movie achieves a haunting level of intimacy that simultaneously cuts through and furthers the Jackson mystique.
Shine A Light: With its distracting tracking shots (supposedly shot from Mick Jagger's perspective), the film openly acknowledges its place as a highly-produced tool in the Rolling Stones marketing cosmos.

A Director at the Mercy of His Subject
This Is It: Although Kenny Ortega is the credited director on the film and was Jackson's co-choreographer, more often than not, it's Jackson who seems to be directing whenever he's onstage.
Shine A Light: Scorsese locks horns with Mick Jagger over whether he can have moving cameras at the concert. Later, he is baffled by the Stones' inability to provide him with a set list until the last minute.

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Now: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009)Then: Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Based on the introductory volume of a 12-book series, this week's Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant hopes to be the first installment in a long-running movie franchise. That remains to be seen, but in watching this story about two boys who get taken in by a mysterious supernatural traveling freak show, you can't help but be reminded of Jack Clayton and Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, the underrated 1983 fantasy cult classic about two boys who get sucked into a mysterious supernatural traveling carnival. So how do these films stack up against each other?

Our Nerdy Hero and His Impulsive Best Friend
Cirque du Freak: Darren (Chris Massoglia) is an obedient teen, except when he falls under the influence of his best bud Steve (Josh Hutcherson), who convinces him to check out a freak show that's just arrived in town.
Something Wicked: Will Halloway (Vidal Peterson) is a risk-averse young lad who gets roped by his best friend, the incorrigible Jim Nightshade (Shawn Carson), into sneaking into carnival shows intended for adults.

When the Carnival Comes to Town
Cirque du Freak: The Cirque du Freak is a traveling freak show that includes a Bearded Lady, a man with exposed ribs, and a strangely tall ringmaster. Naturally, it turns out to be connected to an ancient supernatural war.
Something Wicked: Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show's coterie includes a Bearded Lady, a Dust Witch, and a giant. Naturally, it turns out to be connected to an ancient evil.

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Now: Where the Wild Things Are (2009)Then: Monsters, Inc. (2001)

Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic Where the Wild Things Are gives us a young child who drifts into a world of monsters and learns to love the beasts he encounters. But for all its peculiarities, the story isn't new: It calls to mind Pixar's Monsters, Inc., in which a young human child accidentally enters a world of monsters, and learns to...well, you get the picture. The similarities may not be coincidental: One of the first things Monsters, Inc. executive producer John Lasseter did after joining Disney in the '80s was to direct an animation test of Where the Wild Things Are. Coincidence? Read on.

A World Populated By Monsters
Wild Things: The sole inhabitants of this distant island appear to be large, furry creatures who like to throw each other around, smash their own nests, and cause all sorts of havoc.
Monsters, Inc: Monstropolis is a city filled with monsters who have been hired to terrify human children. They spend most of their time perfecting their scare tactics.

A Human Castaway
Wild Things: Max (Max Records) is a nine-year-old who runs away from home and steps into a sailboat that takes him to the land of the wild things.
Monsters, Inc: Boo (Mary Gibbs) is a young human girl who, thinking the monster sent to scare her is a kitty, accidentally steps through a teleportation door into Monstropolis.

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Now: Couples Retreat (2009)Then: Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

Couples Retreat may not be the first film to mix sun, sand, and relationships, but it may be one of the most earnest: despite its billing as a zany comedy set in a tropical paradise, Peter Billingsley's star-studded laugher (scripted by co-stars Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau) is devoted to exploring the ins and outs of married life. Its only real competition is Nicholas Stoller's Judd Apatow-produced Forgetting Sarah Marshall, written by Jason Segel, in which an ostensible gross-out comedy set at a Hawaiian resort becomes a surprisingly intimate look at breakups. So how do they stack up?

Couples in Trouble!
Couples Retreat: A group of married yuppies comes to a beautiful island resort, where Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) want to engage in counseling sessions and the others just want to party. It soon becomes clear that all of them need serious therapy.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Lovesick composer Peter Bretter (Jason Segel), desperate to get over his breakup with Sarah (Kristen Bell, again), comes to a resort to forget his troubles. Alas, Sarah has come to the same resort with her new boyfriend.

Unlikely Couplings
Couples Retreat: Shane (Faizon Love) may be an obese loser whose wife has just left him, but he shows up at the retreat with an excitable 20-year-old girlfriend, Trudy (Kali Hawk), who calls him "Daddy."
Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Darald (Jack McBrayer) and Wyoma (Maria Thayer) are newlyweds on their honeymoon. He's ultrareligious and doesn't understand sex. She, on the other hand, is active, voluptuous -- and might be a bit too much for him.

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Now: Zombieland (2009)Then: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Horror comedies -- and in particular zombie comedies -- have always been a dime a dozen (but still a hard combo to sell). Ruben Fleischer's new flick Zombieland is promising to rise above the rest thanks to its mix of wit, emotional dynamics, and directorial flair... So much so that it is provoking comparisons to yet another recent classic of the genre, Edgar Wright's hilarious and weirdly touching British horror send-up Shaun of the Dead. So, how do these two zom-coms compare to one another? Warning: Major spoilers for both movies abound!

Our Nerdy Hero
Zombieland: Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a romantically challenged, klutzy, yet industrious young college student who is still alive in part thanks to his obsessive list of rules for surviving the zombie apocalypse.
Shaun of the Dead: Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a shlubby young slacker whose girlfriend has just left him. Although initially oblivious to the zombies rising all around him, he eventually discovers his inner zombie killer.

His Distracted Sidekick
Zombieland: Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) is a cowboy hat-wearing tough-guy who picks up Columbus. And although he's a genuine badass, he's also dangerously obsessed with finding a Twinkie.
Shaun of the Dead: Shaun's best friend Ed (Nick Frost) is a portly, easygoing guy who is dangerously obsessed with checking his cellphone, even as the zombies close in on them.

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Now: Surrogates (2009)Then: Blade Runner (1982)

OK, maybe we've stacked the deck a bit this time. On the surface, Jonathan Mostow's new Bruce Willis in-a-world-of-robots scifi flick Surrogates against Ridley Scott's Harrison-Ford-on-the-hunt-for-robots scifi classic Blade Runner have little to do with one another. The new movie is a cautionary scifi thriller set in an orderly, antiseptic future where humans have allowed themselves to be replaced by robots; Blade Runner is an existential neo-noir set in a crowded, rain-soaked future where the robots are actually not allowed on Earth. But in comparing and contrasting these two very different movies, we can see how our attitudes about the future have changed in the intervening decades.

The Trouble With Robots
Surrogates: In the year 2017, the vast majority of humans have "surrogates" -- customizable, life-like robots, through whom schlubby, mostly invalid humans experience the world.
Blade Runner: In the year 2019, "replicants" are used as slaves on Earth's off-world colonies. Although they're androids, the replicants are outfitted with their own memories, which to them seem remarkably real.

The Real Enemy?
Surrogates: A small group of humans who refuse surrogates live in reservations, where they listen to the rantings of The Prophet (Ving Rhames), a cult leader planning a violent human uprising that will do away with the surrogates -- and possibly even their owners. But are humans the problem, or is it the ubiquitous robots that are replacing them?
Blade Runner: A small group of dangerous Nexus-6 replicants have fled to Earth and are hiding in Los Angeles, where their leader Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) wants to find a way to live beyond their brief, pre-determined life-span. But are these robots the problem, or the humans who have enslaved them?

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Now: The Informant! (2009)Then: The Insider (1999)

In some ways, Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! is the flip side of Michael Mann's The Insider. Both movies are about dorky, family-man scientist types working at big agribusiness firms who expose wrongdoings they don't like, while basically destroying their own lives in the process. But whereas (and perhaps because) Mann's fact-based film took a dead serious approach to its tale, Soderbergh & Co. opt for a decidedly more oddball route. So how do these two movies stack up against each other, anyway?

The Actor!
The Informant!: Hunky Matt Damon very publicly gained 30 lbs. and donned a wig to play the average-looking Mark Whitacre.
The Insider: Hunky Russell Crowe very publicly gained 35 lbs. and donned a wig to play the average-looking Jeffrey Wigand. (Being Russell Crowe, however, he also went the extra mile and shaved his head.)

The Whistleblower!
The Informant!: Mark Whitacre is a chemist who helps the Feds bring down an elaborate corporate price-fixing scheme at Archer Daniels Midland Corporation. Alas, he's embezzling millions of dollars from the company at the same time.
The Insider: Jeffrey Wigand is a scientist who helps 60 Minutes expose his former employer's attempts to cover up research about the addictive effects of cigarettes. Alas, he may have lied about being on the US Olympic judo team.

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Now: 9 (2009)Then: Terminator Salvation (2009)

The kids may be back in school, but the Summer of the Giant Killer Robot Movies isn't over yet. Shane Acker's animated scifi flick 9 posits a world devoid of humans where a group of small, potato-sack-like "stitchpunks" do battle against huge scary machines that have taken over the world. Their plucky resistance is not unlike the human resistance in this May's wannabe tentpole Terminator Salvation, the summer's first Giant Killer Robot Movie. Indeed, the similarities between these two particular post-apocalyptic mechanized nightmares are too prominent to ignore. Check it out...

The Beginning of the End
9: B.R.A.I.N. was a sentient entity which, when inserted into The Fabrication Machine, wiped humanity from the earth. It now spends its time creating new machines.
Terminator Salvation: After becoming self-aware, Skynet launched a nuclear attack that wiped much of humanity from the earth. It now spends its time building terminators to get rid of the rest.

The Well-Meaning Mastermind
9: Our hero 9 (Elijah Wood) learns that his late creator was a Scientist whose experiments with artificial intelligence were appropriated by a power-mad Chancellor, whose actions led to the machines revolting and taking over the world. Near the end of the movie, he addresses 9 in a video message.
Terminator Salvation: Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham-Carter) is a scientist whose work on advanced technology is used (and abused) by SkyNet. Near the end of the film, her likeness addresses the cyborg Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) in, yep, a video message.

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