Monday 22 November 2010

Source Code: Exactly Like Groundhog Day, Apparently



If you're incapable of understanding the basic premise of a film without tediously referring to it as "some other film with a vaguely similar plot element meets some other film with another vaguely similar plot element", despite the fact that the film you're talking about is clearly nothing like either of those other films, then you're in luck! The internets are here to tell you what to expect from Source Code.

"Groundhog Day meets Déjà Vu"
- cinemablend.com

"A mix of Inception and Groundhog Day"
- wired.com

"An intriguing Groundhog Day-style premise"
- digitalspy.co.uk

"Groundhog Day meets Twelve Monkeys sprinkled with a bit of Deja Vu"
- obsessedwithfilm.com

"Like a cross between Groundhog Day and Assassin’s Creed"
- filmonic.com

"Unstoppable meets Groundhog Day"
- upandcomers.net

"Groundhog Day-style"
-slashfilm.com

"A strange cross between Groundhog Day and Speed"
- io9.com

"Takes a bit from 12 Monkeys, a bit from Deja Vu,
a bit from Groundhog Day"
- aintitcool.com

"Groundhog Day comparisons are inevitable, but there's also something of the Twelve Monkeys about this, with just a dash of
Quantum Leap thrown in"
- totalfilm.com

I don't know about you but I feel like I'm experiencing déjà vu on Groundhog Day.

Here's a promise. If Source Code turns out to be even remotely like Groundhog Day I will literally go out, buy the biggest hat I can find, roast it in beef stock and red wine for six hours at gas mark 5, sprinkle with herbs, add a little salt and pepper and ram it up my arse.

9 comments :

  1. I used to work in blockbuster and all the straight to dvd clag that we used to get would have taglines like "The Matrix meets Mrs. Doubtfire" or summat. I think maybe people can't imagine what a film is like unless you give them a familiar frame of reference? The general public are incapable of abstract thought, right?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Where's The Incredible Suit description of Source Code then? Doesn't the fact that everyone is comparing the film to Groundhog Day already fulfil the criteria that it's "remotely" like Groundhog Day? Enjoy the seasoned hat-arse combo. Unless you are about to move the goalposts...

    ReplyDelete
  3. 'Ben Hur meets The Italian Job' is a classic way of selling a film project in the so called 'Elevator Test'. The premise is that you have a film idea to sell and happen to find yourself in a lift with a film producer who says he will listen to you until he gets to his floor. You are trying to sell the film to him in a few words, as he in turn will have to sell it to the public to get them to see it. In fact The Incredible Suit uses the form he says he despises. He has already provided a further advance to the technique to be used if the executive in the elevator is only going up one floor. Forget the 'meets' and just say 'Cowboys and Aliens'. Sold.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous (don't be shy), there's no point in me describing Source Code. That's what the trailer's for. Comparing it to two other films won't make it any clearer.

    The fact that everyone is comparing it to Groundhog Day doesn't mean it's remotely like that film, it just reflects that peculiar and quite irritating habit some people have of picking on disparate plot devices and using them to pointlessly compare one film to another. If Source Code was a romantic comedy about a man who betters himself in order to get the woman he loves and escape the time-loop in which he's inexplicably stuck, I'd let it pass. But it isn't and I'm too cynical to let it go.

    The goalposts remain stationary.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Really more like Quantum Leap, surely. And that's AWESOME.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's Timecrimes meets Unstoppable!

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's total recall meets timecrimes meets minority report meets groundhog day meets unstoppable!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Aren't you the same guy who said "Animal Kingdom is essentially The Godfather with Aussie chavs"? or was that someone else posting on your website?

    ReplyDelete