Same Movies, Different Names?

The upcoming movie releases have me excited with their seemingly fresh and original plots. However, some movies make me wonder if I'm watching the same movie with a different title.

The first example is Lakeview Terrace, which stars Samuel Jackson and Patrick Wilson as warring neighbors in the suburbs. Jackson plays an LAPD cop who dislikes his new neighbor because he has an interracial marriage. The war escalates and increases in violence and danger, much like in Jackson's other movie, Changing Lanes. In Changing Lanes, Jackson's character wars with yet another white character (played by Ben Affleck) and also covers the topics of racial tension and prejudice. Sure, there are plot differences, but I can't help but labeling Lakeview Terrace as Changing Lanes without the cars.

I had the same reaction today after watching a commercial for Jim Carrey's new film, Yes Man. In the movie, Carrey's character is known for always saying "No," but starts to say "Yes" to everything after getting hit on the head with a microphone by a guru-looking fellow. Now, this sounds a lot like Liar Liar, the film in which Carrey's character can only tell the truth after being known as a notorious liar.

Having not seen either Lakeview Terrace or Yes Man, I cannot speak definitively about their similarity to the other films I discussed. However, I can tell you that my hunch is enough to turn me away from helping those movies at the box office.

Source1, Source2