open/close all folders
#
- 2012 is The Day After Tomorrow meets Left Behind.
- 3 Ninjas "crosses Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Home Alone." And that's not from us.
◊
- Could also be seen as The Karate Kid meets Home Alone.
- 8 Women: The Women meets Clue.
- 13 Going on 30 is the Distaff Counterpart to Big meets Working Girl meets It's a Wonderful Life.
- 13 Assassins is The 47 Ronin meets Seven Samurai mixed with the over-the-top filmmaking style of Quentin Tarantino.
- 17 Again is Hot Tub Time Machine meets Peggy Sue Got Married.
- 21 Jump Street is Superbad meets Hot Fuzz.
- 47 Ronin (2013) is The Last Samurai meets The Lord of the Rings meets Pirates of the Caribbean, with some touches of Hero (2002) and Ninja Scroll for flavor, and a garnish of Elektra.
- 300 is Warhammer 40,000 meets The 300 Spartans meets Gladiator meets Sin City.
- 300: Rise of an Empire is 300 meets Spartacus: Blood and Sand meets Game of Thrones.
- (500) Days of Summer:
- How I Met Your Mother meets Garden State.
- Neil Patrick Harris called it How I Met Your Mother minus Barney.
- 5 Centimeters per Second meets How I Met Your Mother.
- The cancelled Brad Bird film 1906 was described as Titanic meets a city (San Francisco) and an earthquake (not literally, although that'd be pretty cool too).
- Titanic meets Earthquake or even San Andreas.
A
- A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is Pinocchio meets Blade Runner, otherwise it's just simply Pinocchio, but in The Future.
- Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick pitched the film as "Blade Runner meets Field of Dreams".
- The plot to The Abominable Dr. Phibes is Se7en meets A Nightmare on Elm Street meets Saw, only several decades before any of them. Its mood, however, involves eating several bowls of sugar laced with acid.
- Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe: The Terminator meets Jack Kirby's Fourth World.
- Absurd is The Anthropophagus Beast meets Halloween (1978)
- The Accountant: Jason Bourne meets The Usual Suspects meets Rain Man.
- The Adam Project is Looper meets Back to the Future meets Flight of the Navigator.
- Adam Resurrected is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest meets a deconstruction of Life Is Beautiful.
- Adventure in Kigan Castle is Journey to the West meets Samurai Pirate.
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension: Doc Savage meets Star Wars meets Thomas Pynchon.
- The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl is The NeverEnding Story meets Captain Underpants.
- After Last Season: The Room meets The Lawnmower Man.
- Airheads is Dog Day Afternoon meets Wayne's World meets Die Hard.
- The 1980 disaster genre spoof Airplane! was the Airport movies as if Tex Avery had directed them.
- Alice in Wonderland (2010) is American McGee's Alice meets The Chronicles of Narnia meets Hook.
- Alien 2: On Earth is essentially The Descent meets The Thing (1982). Notice how none of those were Alien.
- Alien, Predator, and Alien vs. Predator movies:
- Alien: Resurrection is Alien meets Firefly.
- Alien: Covenant is Alien and Prometheus meet The Island of Doctor Moreau.
- Predator is Rambo: First Blood Part II meets Alien.
- Predator 2 is Predator meets Lethal Weapon.
- Predators is Predator 2 meets Heart of Darkness.
- The Predator is Predators meets Aliens: Colonial Marines.
- Prey is Predator meets Pocahontas meets Alien: Isolation.
- Alita: Battle Angel is Ghost in the Shell meets AKIRA meets Fist of the North Star meets The Matrix meets Avatar meets Gears of War meets Mega Man Zero meets Titanfall.
- Obscure horror film American Nightmare
is Hardcore
meets Friday the 13th (or any Giallo slasher film).
- American Psycho is Wall Street meets Psycho.
- The In Name Only Anarchist Cookbook film is Atlas Shrugged meets The Doom Generation.
- Anna and the Apocalypse is Shaun of the Dead meets La La Land.
- Annihilation is Stalker (1979) meets Thor meets Event Horizon meets a Gender Flipped Predator meets The Colour Out of Space meets The Thing (1982) meets Björk
- In his Cinemassacre Video for Anonymous Rex, James Rolfe called it a mashup of Men in Black and Jurassic Park.
- Anvil! The Story of Anvil is This is Spın̈al Tap meets Real Life. Seriously, it's spooky.
- John Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy":
- The Thing is Alien meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets The Thing from Another World as directed by David Cronenberg.
- Prince of Darkness is The Thing meets The Omen meets The Call of Cthulhu.
- In the Mouth of Madness is Prince of Darkness meets Wes Craven's New Nightmare meets Misery meets The Sandman.
- Apocalypse Now is Aguirre, the Wrath of God meets The Deer Hunter meets Heart of Darkness.
- Arrival is Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets Contact.
- Doug Walker summed up the Artemis Fowl movie as Harry Potter characters in Home Alone.
- Army of the Dead is Dawn of the Dead (2004) meets Dead Rising 2 meets Suicide Squad (2016) meets Peninsula.
- The Artist is Singin' in the Rain meets Modern Times.
- Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) is Rio Bravo (updated to the New Old West) meets Night of the Living Dead (1968) in terms of The Siege by a Multi-ethnic , cult-like gang instead of zombies.
- Atomic Blonde is John le Carré meets John Wick (filtered through New Order).
- Alternatively same as the above with The Man from U.N.C.L.E. instead of Le Carre.
- Avatar is FernGully: The Last Rainforest meets Treasure Planet meets Atlantis: The Lost Empire meets The Lion King meets Warhammer 40,000 meets Dances with Wolves meets Titanic meets Katmandu meets Watership Down meets Final Fantasy VI meets Final Fantasy VII meets Princess Mononoke meets Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
- Alternately, it's Dances with Wolves meets Halo.
- Benzaie calls it Pocahontas + Ferngully + The Matrix in his 5-Second Film.
- Or Pocahontas meets Dances with Wolves meets The Smurfs with a bit of Event Horizon thrown in.
- Or even Pocahontas 40K as one person puts it.
- Or Katmandu meets Warhammer meets Battle Angel Alita meets Ghost in the Shell.
- Avatar: The Way of Water is Avatar meets Aquaman meets Dune (2021) meets The Lion King II: Simba's Pride meets The Matrix Reloaded meets Horizon Forbidden West.
- Avengers Grimm is The Avengers (2012) meets Once Upon a Time if both were directed by Uwe Boll.
B
- Babe: Pig in the City is Babe meets Home Alone 2: Lost in New York if it was directed by The Coen Brothers.
- Baby Driver is Drive (2011) meets Hot Fuzz meets Heat meets Vanishing Point meets Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) meets Point Break (1991) meets Reservoir Dogs.
- Baby's Day Out is Home Alone meets The Three Stooges.
- Babylon (2022) is Singin' in the Rain meets The Wolf of Wall Street.
- Back to the Future:
- Part I is Doctor Who meets Tintin, John Hughes, and Frank Capra.
- Part III is Part I meets The Wild Wild West meets A Fistful of Dollars.
- Bad Moon and the book it's based upon (Thor) are The Adventures Of Rintintin meets The Howling.
- Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever was described by Entertainment Weekly as Bad Boys meets The Professional.
- Bamboozled: Richard Corliss described it as Network meets Bulworth.
- Barb Wire is Casablanca in a Gender Flipped Mad Max costume.
- Or Judge Dredd meets Showgirls.
- Basic Instinct is the love child of Russ Meyer and Alfred Hitchcock.
- The Batman (2022) is Batman: Arkham Origins meets Berserk meets Zodiac meets Sin City.
- Or Batman: Year One meets Se7en.
- Batman Film Series:
- Batman (1989) is Superman: The Movie meets Beetlejuice.
- Batman Returns is Batman (1989) meets Dracula meets Devilman.
- Batman Forever is Batman (1989) meets Batman (1966).
- Batman & Robin is Batman Forever meets the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice" meets The Silver Age of Comic Books.
- Battle Beyond the Stars is The Magnificent Seven (1960) meets Star Wars.
- Battleship is the Transformers Film Series meets Independence Day (by way of Pixels) meets Top Gun meets Pearl Harbor meets Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
- The Transformers Film Series, but merely recycled in the Pacific Ocean.
- Beauty and the Beast (2017) is Cinderella meets the original animated classic.
- Bedazzled (1967) is Faust meets What's New Pussycat?.
- Bedknobs and Broomsticks is Mary Poppins meets Army of Darkness.
- Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is Man Bites Dog meets Scream (1996).
- Belfast is Roma meets Jojo Rabbit meets Forrest Gump.
- The Belko Experiment was outright described on its poster as being "Office Space meets Battle Royale".
- Beowulf (1999) is The Road Warrior meets Mortal Kombat: The Movie meets The Witcher.
- Better Watch Out is Home Alone meets Black Christmas (1974), by way of The Good Son, American Psycho, In the Company of Men, and Misery.
- Beverly Hills Cop: Martin Brest describes the film on the DVD commentary as "this weird hybrid between In the Heat of the Night and The Beverly Hillbillies".
- Big Fish:
- Forrest Gump as written by Roald Dahl.
- Or Forrest Gump meets The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
- "Federico Fellini directing Forrest Gump" was a common description by film critics when it came out.
- Big Man Japan is the Ultra Series meets Fantozzi.
- Big Momma's House was described by Film Brain as Mrs. Doubtfire meets The Nutty Professor.
- Bill & Ted:
- Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure: Stephen Fry once called it "Doctor Who meets Beavis And Butthead".
- Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is Bill & Ted meets The Terminator, The Seventh Seal, and A Matter of Life and Death.
- Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is 8½ but with an arguably happier ending.
- Birdemic is The Birds meets The Room.
- Bite is The Fly (1986) meets Repulsion by way of Contracted.
- Blackhat is Miami Vice meets Ghost in the Shell.
- Black Christmas (2019): Brad Jones described it as God's Not Dead for the left as written by Lisa Simpson, while also ripping off Satans School For Girls. Doug Walker described it as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) with Spider-Man 3 thrown in.
- Black Swan:
- Perfect Blue meets Swan Lake and/or Princess Tutu.
- Suspiria (1977) meets The Machinist.
- The Blob (1988) is The Blob (1958) if written by Stephen King and the gore effects were made by Tom Savini.
- Blood: The Last Vampire (the 2009 film, at least) is Blade meets Kill Bill.
- Blood Red Sky is Die Hard on a plane, But McClane is a female Vampire with a young son.
- Blood: The Last Vampire (the 2009 film, at least) is Blade meets Kill Bill.
- Bloodthirsty is Black Swan meets The Wolfman (2010).
- Bob Roberts is The Candidate meets A Face in the Crowd, as filtered through Don't Look Back and This is Spın̈al Tap.
- Body Double is Rear Window meets Vertigo meets Blow Out meets Miami Vice.
- Bone Tomahawk is The Burrowers meets Blood Meridian.
- Boogie Nights is like the lovechild of Robert Altman, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese.
- It's GoodFellas if it were about porn.
- The Book of Eli, as described in its article, is Fist of the North Star meets Fallout.
- The Book of Henry: is Pay It Forward meets I Spit on Your Grave.
- Bottle Rocket was described as Reservoir Dogs meets Breathless.
- The Boy is Annabelle meets Bad Ronald.
- The Brave One:
- Taxi Driver meets Death Wish, with a woman in the lead.
- Alternatively it's Taxi Driver meets Ms. 45.
- Brazil is Monty Python meets 1984 meets The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
- Breaker! Breaker! is Billy Jack meets White Line Fever, set in a Played for Drama Hazzard County.
- Brick is Fast Times at Ridgemont High cosplaying as The Black Dahlia and talking like The Maltese Falcon.
- If L.A. Confidential went all Saved by the Bell sans Breaking the Fourth Wall.
- "Hardboiled Detective Film Noir High School."
- Brightburn is Man of Steel meets The Omen (1976).
- David Cronenberg has described The Brood as his version of Kramer vs. Kramer.
- Bugsy Malone is Johnny Dangerously starring The Little Rascals.
- Bullet Train is Pulp Fiction meets Snatch. meets John Wick meets Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
- Bumblebee is The Iron Giant meets Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad meets The Love Bug meets E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
- Or The Iron Giant meets the Transformers Film Series by Michael Bay.
- Burlesque was described by Todd in the Shadows as "Cabaret without the tragedy, Moulin Rouge! without the prostitution, Chicago without the murder and Showgirls without the batshit insane - or the coherent screenplay".
- Mark Kermode described it as "Showgirls for twelve-year olds".
C
- The Cable Guy is Fatal Attraction meets Ace Ventura meets Network.
- Jim Carrey described the finished product as "Hitchcock meets Jerry Lewis", and "Rosemary's Baby meets The Odd Couple".
- The Cabin in the Woods is The Evil Dead (1981) meets The Truman Show and the SCP Foundation.
- The climax of this film also mixes in expies of just about (almost) every single classic horror movie monsters and villains you can think of.
- The Caller is The Lakehouse meets Stir of Echos meets Frequency, with a little dusting of The Butterfly Effect.
- Cannibal is Brokeback Mountain meets Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh and Blood.
- Cannibal Holocaust is Heart of Darkness meets The 120 Days of Sodom.
- The Cannonball Run is It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World meets Smokey and the Bandit meets Wacky Races.
- Captain Clegg is Treasure Island meets Heat meets Les Misérables.
- The Car:
- Herk Harvey said he was going for Ingmar Bergman meets Jean Cocteau in Carnival of Souls. There's an obvious Psycho influence in there as well.
- Cats & Dogs is James Bond meets Looney Tunes meets A Boy and His X.
- The Cell:
- Dreamscape meets a Marilyn Manson/Nine Inch Nails music video.
- Inception meets Silence of the Lambs.
- Also, Inception meets Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles). More specifically, the protagonist uses an Inception-like device to enter the dreams of a serial killer, whose psychotic nature matches that of Pinkie Pie as seen in Cupcakes.
- It is also The Matrix meets Se7en.
- The Chain Reaction is Mad Max meets The China Syndrome. It was even described as such in advertisements!
- Chappie is RoboCop (1987) meets District 9 (with touches of Iron Man and Short Circuit).
- This comic convention exchange from Chasing Amy between a Bluntman and Chronic fan and their exasperated creator:Fanboy: I love [Bluntman and Chronic]! They're like... uh... Bill & Ted meet... meet Cheech & Chong!
Holden: [condescendingly] Yeah, I kinda like to think of them as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meet Vladamir and Estragon.
Fanboy: Yeah! Wait... huh? - Chicago is Cabaret meets Chinatown.
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers meets Space Jam: A New Legacy.
- Or Bojack Horseman meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- Chloe is either Nathalie meets Crimes and Misdemeanors or Nathalie meets Fatal Attraction, depending on your point of view.
- Christine is The Love Bug meets Fatal Attraction
- Christine (2016) is The Mary Tyler Moore Show meets Lars von Trier.
- Christopher Robin is Winnie the Pooh meets Hook.
- The Circle is The Social Network meets The Firm.
- Clash of the Titans (1981) is the myth of Perseus and Andromeda meets Star Wars: A New Hope.
- Clash of the Titans (2010) is the original 1981 film meets James Cameron's Avatar meets 300 meets God of War.
- Class of 1999 was pitched as Blackboard Jungle meets Westworld meets Mad Max.
- Clerks was described by Dave Kehr of The New York Daily News as Howard Stern meets David Mamet.
- Click is A Christmas Carol meets It's a Wonderful Life only the Christmas in both is replaced with Adam Sandler.
- Cloverfield is The Blair Witch Project (or Cannibal Holocaust, if you know your film history) meets Godzilla.
- Clue is Murder by Death meets Choose Your Own Adventure.
- Coach Carter is Lean on Me meets Above The Rim.
- Cold Pursuit is Fargo meets Taken.
- Cold War is La La Land as an Ingmar Bergman film. Or alternatively, Ingmar Bergman meets A Star Is Born (1937).
- Colossal is Pacific Rim meets Real Steel meets Heroman meets Godzilla meets Drillbit Taylor (if the bodyguard against The Bully is a Kaiju).
- Commando is Taken meets Shoot 'Em Up but pre-dating both.
- The Concorde... Airport '79 is Airport meets The Love Boat meets Fantasy Island meets The Twilight Zone (1959).
- The Condemned is The Most Dangerous Game meets Battle Royale meets Con Air meets The Truman Show.
- Connie and Carla is Victor/Victoria meets Some Like It Hot.
- Cool Cat Saves the Kids is Barney & Friends meets The Room.
- Cool World is Who Framed Roger Rabbit meets Dark City.
- Roger Rabbit meets Showgirls.
- Cop Land was described in the book Down and Dirty Pictures as Serpico or The Prince of Tides meets Fargo.
- The Core is Armageddon (1998) on a Journey to the Center of the Earth.
- Cosmopolis is David Cronenberg's own Crash meets Wall Street — meets Last Year at Marienbad.
- Cowboys & Aliens is described by its screenwriters as "Unforgiven with aliens landing." This makes some sense because both films feature an ex-outlaw running up against a harsh order-obsessed sheriff. In other words: Unforgiven meets Skyline.
- Crank is Speed meets D.O.A..
- Creed II is Creed meets Rocky IV.
- Crimson Peak is The Devil's Backbone meets Jane Eyre.
- Cruella is 101 Dalmatians (1996) meets Maleficent meets Joker (2019).
- Joker (2019) meets The Devil Wears Prada.
- Curly Sue: Roger Ebert said that the film "could have been written by Damon Runyon, illustrated by Norman Rockwell and filmed by Frank Capra".
- Cut and Run is Apocalypse Now meets Cannibal Holocaust.
- Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life is Reefer Madness meets American Pie.
D
- Daddy Day Camp is Daddy Day Care meets Meatballs.
- The Dark Knight Trilogy:
- The Dark Knight: Batman (1989) meets Heat meets The Killing Joke.
- The Dark Knight Rises is The Dark Knight meets Knightfall meets The Dark Knight Returns meets Batman: No Man's Land meets The Scarlet Pimpernel.
- Dark Phoenix is X-Men: The Last Stand meets Captain Marvel.
- The Dark Tower: According to a Facebook post from Rob Walker, Brad Jones described the film as Last Action Hero meets In the Name of the King.
- Days of Thunder is Top Gun meets Nascar.
- Da 5 Bloods is Apocalypse Now meets BlacKkKlansman meets Blood Diamond meets NieR meets Saving Private Ryan meets Do the Right Thing meets Black Panther meets Glory.
- DC Extended Universe:
- Man of Steel:
- Superman meets Superman II (both sans Lex Luthor) meets Batman Begins.
- Alternatively, it's The Last Temptation of Christ with Superman.
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is Man of Steel meets Batman: The Dark Knight Returns meets Superman: Red Son meets Flashpoint meets The Death of Superman meets Injustice: Gods Among Us, with some of the tone of Batman Returns.
- Suicide Squad (2016):
- John Ostrander's Suicide Squad run meets Batman: Assault on Arkham.
- The Dirty Dozen meets DC Comics.
- The Dirty Dozen meets Escape from New York.
- Wonder Woman
- Captain America: The First Avenger meets Thor meets 300 meets Saving Private Ryan.
- Or Batman Begins meets Superman meets Indiana Jones.
- Aquaman
- The Lord of the Rings meets Star Wars meets Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
- Black Panther meets Thor meets Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
- SHAZAM! (2019) is Big meets Superman.
- Birds of Prey is Deadpool 2 meets John Wick meets Harley Quinn (2019) meets Suicide Squad (2016) meets Joker (2019) meets Goodfellas.
- Wonder Woman 1984 is Wonder Woman meets Captain America: The Winter Soldier meets Thor: Ragnarok meets Birds of Prey meets Batman & Robin.
- Zack Snyder's Justice League is Avengers: Infinity War meets Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice meets Justice League Dark: Apokolips War meets Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) meets Watchmen meets Spec Ops: The Line meets Logan meets Joker (2019).
- The Suicide Squad is Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) meets Deadpool meets Apocalypse Now.
- Or The Dirty Dozen meets Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) as described by one of the producers.
- Black Adam is Shazam meets Jungle Cruise meets God of War meets Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- Man of Steel:
- De Griezelbus is Let the Right One In meets Death Note with a bit of ParaNorman.
- The Dead Pit: Bad Dreams meets Re-Animator.
- Deadpool (2016) is the X-Men Film Series meets Bugs Bunny, Lewis Black, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- Deathgasm is Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny and/or Metalocalypse meets Shaun of the Dead.
- Death Note (2017) is Final Destination meets Twilight, with a slight resemblance to the original Death Note.
- Deep Blue Sea was commonly described in reviews as Jurassic Park meets Alien meets Jaws.
- Deep Impact could be described as Armageddon (1998) failing an astronomy test again and then having a romantic encounter with Neon Genesis Evangelion whilst Mimi Leder films the whole thing.
- Deep Rising is The Poseidon Adventure meets Alien.
- Demolition Man is Judge Dredd meets Brave New World.
- Den of Thieves is Heat with the twist from The Usual Suspects.
- Descendants (A Disney Channel Original TV Movie) is Disney Animated Canon meets Sky High (2005) meets Runaways except the kids know their parents are villains. The sequel movie though, is what many fans would see as The Little Mermaid meets High School Musical 2 minus any appearance of Ariel, Prince Eric and/or their daughter Melody, due to similar themes in the two movies.
- Diary of a Mad Black Woman: The Cinema Snob described it as if A Streetcar Named Desire got drunk and went to bed with Big Momma's House.
- Dick is Nixon meets Dazed and Confused plus The World of Henry Orient, as well as borrowing the Been There, Shaped History motifs of Forrest Gump.
- The Dictator is Coming to America meets Ali G Indahouse.
- Die Hard was once described as The Towering Inferno meets Lethal Weapon (1987).
- The Disaster Artist is The Room meets Ed Wood. Confirming that Tommy Wiseau is the successor to the latter's namesake.
- The film was described by James Franco as "a combination of Boogie Nights and The Master".
- District 9:
- The Office meets Bad Taste plus David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986).
- District 13 (minus Le Parkour) meets Men in Black, The Fly (1986), and The Apartheid Era.
- Django Unchained is Django meets The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Red Dead Redemption, and The Boondocks episode "The Story of Catcher Freeman".
- Dog Soldiers: is Night of the Living Dead (1968) meets The Howling meets Band of Brothers meets The Howling meets The Evil Dead (1981) meets Jaws meets Aliens meets Predator meets Rio Bravo.
- Dolittle is Doctor Dolittle meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets Sherlock Holmes (2009).
- Dollars Trilogy:
- A Fistful of Dollars is Yojimbo meets Gunfight At Red Sands.
- For a Few Dollars More is A Fistful of Dollars meets The New Centurions by way of Goldfinger.
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is A Fistful of Dollars meets Treasure Island by way of Pirates of the Caribbean.
- Don't Breathe is Daredevil meets Home Alone meets Friday the 13th.
- Don't Look Up is Deep Impact colliding with Dr. Strangelove.
- Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead was described by one reviewer as "Home Alone meets Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and then visits Working Girl".
- Doomsday is Escape from New York meets Mad Max.
- Dora and the Lost City of Gold is Dora the Explorer meets The Goonies meets Stranger Things meets Indiana Jones meets Tomb Raider meets Uncharted, with touches of Prince Caspian and Pirates of the Caribbean.
- Dr. Strangelove is 1963's Fail Safe meets No Time For Sergeants.
- Dracula Untold is Bram Stoker's Dracula meets The Lord of the Rings meets Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.
- Drag Me to Hell:
- Night of the Demon meets The Grudge.
- Thinner meets The Grudge.
- Dragonball Evolution
- Dragon Ball meets Smallville.
- Dragon Ball meets the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie.
- Dragon Fighter is Reign of Fire meets Jurassic Park meets Alien.
- Drive (2011) is The Driver meets Thief meets Point Blank meets Two-Lane Blacktop meets Taxi Driver.
- Drive Angry was written as The Terminator by way of Edgar Allan Poe.
- Drumline is essentially Top Gun only with college marching bands instead of U.S. Navy pilots.
- Duma
is Born Free meets Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.
- Dumb and Dumber is The Ren & Stimpy Show meets Beavis and Butt-Head meets The Three Stooges.
- Dumbo (2019), as suggested by Brad Jones in his Midnight Screenings review, is the original animated feature meets Santa Claus: The Movie via Tim Burton's Signature Style.
- Dune (2021) is Warhammer 40,000 meets Blade Runner 2049 meets Mad Max: Fury Road meets Game of Thrones.
- Or Star Wars if it were directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Michael Moorcock.
- The Dybbuk has been described as "Romeo and Juliet meets The Exorcist."
E
- Earth Girls Are Easy is Valley Girl meets Starman by way of MTV and Jerry Lewis.
- Earth to Echo is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial meets Chronicle (minus the latter's Super Power Lottery and declarations of superiority).
- A blurb uses "WALLE (Echo is a little robot with big eyes) meets E.T.". Wall-E + E.T. + Found Footage
- Edge of Tomorrow has many such descriptions:
- Next meets Starship Troopers meets Muv-Luv Alternative.
- Starship Troopers meets Groundhog Day (possibly with a hint of Final Fantasy VII).
- Warhammer 40,000 meets Groundhog Day (as early as immediately after the trailer was released).
- The Americanization of Emily meets Pacific Rim.
- Saving Private Ryan meets Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
- All You Need is Kill (the original story) meets Pacific Rim.
- Edward Scissorhands is The Hunchback of Notre Dame meets Romeo and Juliet meets The Fly (1986) meets Beetlejuice.
- El Topo is the Dollars Trilogy meets Mind Screw.
- Elysium:
- District 9 meets Spartacus and Johnny Mnemonic.
- Or Battle Angel Alita meets The Six Million Dollar Man.
- Embrace of the Vampire: Described by
WhatCulture as Nightmare on Emmanuelle Street
- The Emperor of Paris is Les Misérables meets The Untouchables.
- Enchanted is "Disney meets Reality".
- Disenchanted is Galavant meets WandaVision meets Once Upon a Time.
- Ender's Game is Harry Potter meets Full Metal Jacket IN SPACE!
- Enola Holmes is the original book meets Sherlock Holmes (2009) meets Stranger Things meets Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- Equilibrium is 1984 meets Brave New World meets Fahrenheit 451 meets The Matrix meets Hard Boiled meets Gun Fu, bringing in Bottomless Magazines and the style of the works of John Woo to the mixture.
- Event Horizon is Warhammer 40,000 meets Doom meets Hellraiser.
- Or The Black Hole meets Hellraiser.
- Or what happens when you put watered down versions of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Hellraiser, The Shining, and Berserk in a blender. "Cheers"
- Or Warhammer 40,000 meets Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Or The Beyond meets Hellraiser in space.
- Everything Everywhere All at Once is Turning Red meets Rick and Morty meets Kung Fu Hustle.
- Evil Dead:
- The Evil Dead is Night of the Living Dead meets Massacre at Central High meets The Cthulhu Mythos.
- Evil Dead 2 is The Evil Dead meets Aliens meets Maximum Overdrive.
- Army of Darkness is Evil Dead 2 meets Berserk.
- Evil Dead (2013) is The Evil Dead meets Wrong Turn meets Hostel meets Hatchet meets Apocalypse Zero meets Crossed meets The Devil's Rejects meets Silent Hill: Homecoming.
- Evil Toons is Who Framed Roger Rabbit meets Evil Dead meets the Slasher Film genre.
- The Exorcism of Emily Rose is The Exorcist meets Law & Order.
- The Exterminating Angel is Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock collaborating on a Spanish-language version of Groundhog Day
- Eyes of a Stranger is Rear Window meets Maniac! (1980).
F
- The Faculty is Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets The Breakfast Club.
- The Fall is The Princess Bride meets Axe Cop meets Pan's Labyrinth and also Cinema Paradiso.
- Fallen is The Silence of the Lambs meets The Exorcist meets Shocker.
- Alfred Hitchcock's concept for Family Plot was "Ernst Lubitsch makes a Thriller."
- The Fanatic is The Fan meets Rain Man.
- Mike of Half in the Bag describes it as Forrest Gump meets Taxi Driver.
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is Harry Potter meets Pokémon.
- The Fast and the Furious (2001) is Point Break meets Days of Thunder meets Donnie Brasco. Patrick Willems' friend described it as "Axe bodyspray
Ocean's Eleven. The YouTube Pitch Meeting series describes it as creatine
Ocean's Eleven.
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is Dumb and Dumber meets Trainspotting.
- A popular fan theory suggests Ferris Bueller's Day Off is, essentially, Fight Club only Lighter and Softer, Younger and Hipper, and if it were made by John Hughes.
- The Fifth Element is Blade Runner meets Die Hard meets The Professional meets Captain Planet meets Star Wars meets Valérian meets Heavy Metal.
- Fight Club is The Great Gatsby meets The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde meets American Psycho meets A Clockwork Orange meets the Spear Counterpart of Heathers.
- The Fighter:
- Cinderella Man meets Jerry Springer.
- Rocky meets The Blind Side.
- Filth is Trainspotting meets Bad Lieutenant.
- Firefox is James Bond meets Star Wars.
- The Final Countdown is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court as written by Tom Clancy.
- Final Destination is Scream meets Death Note.
- Scream meets The Omen (only it's the Grim Reaper instead of the Anti-Christ)
- The franchise as a whole could be The Omen meets (in some respects) Saw.
- The Final Girls, according to director Todd Strauss-Schulson"It's Pleasantville in a trashy horror movie from the 80s with a little Back to the Future thrown in, and a spoon full of Terms of Endearment with a dash of Scream and two dollops of The Purple Rose of Cairo for good measure."
- Flesh and Blood: Brad Jones described it as The Wild Bunch meets Excalibur.
- The Fly (1986) is The Metamorphosis meets The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde meets Beauty and the Beast meets Romeo and Juliet with a side dash of Amour (the last suggested by the Next Reel podcast).
- Footloose is Dirty Dancing meets Inherit the Wind.
- The Forbidden Kingdom is The Karate Kid (1984) Meets Warriors of Virtue.
- Forrest Gump is Being There meets Zelig, with a bit of Lifetime Movie of the Week thrown in.
- Four Brothers: The Sons of Katie Elder meets New Jack City
- Four Lions: Paradise Now meets The Three Stooges.
- The Frighteners: One reviewer described the film as Ghostbusters meets Twin Peaks.
- Freaks (2018) is Logan meets Stranger Things, by way of The Girl With All the Gifts.
- Freaky is if The Hot Chick went on a homicidal rampage as a Friday the 13th Copycat Killer.
- Freaky Friday meets Friday the 13th. In fact, the Working Title was
Freaky Friday the 13th.note
- Freaky Friday meets Friday the 13th. In fact, the Working Title was
- Free Guy is The Truman Show meets Ready Player One (2018) meets Doki Doki Literature Club! meets TRON meets They Live! meets Groundhog Day.
- Fresh is Twilight meets Fifty Shades of Grey. And it's still a better love story than Twilight. Go figure.
- Could also be Twilight meets Lilya 4-ever.
- Frozen (2010) is essentially Open Water, and Alive on a chairlift.
G
- Galaxy Quest is ¡Three Amigos! meets Star Trek.
- Gandhi at the Bat is The Pride of the Yankees meets Gandhi, with maybe a pinch of Rookie of the Year.
- Gangster No. 1 is Scarface meets Single White Female.
- Garfield is the original comic meets Toy Story and Toy Story 2.
- Garfield 2: A Tale of Two Kitties is The Prince and the Pauper meets The Aristocats.
- Geostorm: Mark Kermode described it as Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. meets Moonraker.
- Get On Up is Ray meets 42.note
- Get Out is Guess Who's Coming to Dinner meets The Stepford Wives meets Clonus meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.
- Getaway: Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) meets Die Hard with a Vengeance.
- Ghostbusters is The Exorcist meets Dirty Jobs meets The Call of Cthulhu meets Stripes.
- Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is Le Samouraï meets the Hip-Hop and Jidaigeki genres.
- The Ghost and the Darkness: William Goldman pitched it as "Lawrence of Arabia meets Jaws".
- Ghost Ship is Titanic meets Event Horizon.
- Ghost World is Daria meets The Catcher in the Rye.
- The Giallo genre is more or less Mystery Crime Noir meets Erotic thrillers (and or Sexploitation) meets Slasher Films.
- The Girl Next Door:
- Notting Hill meets American Pie.
- Risky Business meets American Pie.
- Girls Trip: Bridesmaids meets Waiting to Exhale.
- Gladiator is Spartacus meets The Count of Monte Cristo.
- Glass Onion is Mamma Mia! meets An Inspector Calls.
- God's Not Dead is Chick Tracts meets Inherit the Wind (except the religious side wins).
- God's Not Dead 2 has even more obvious similarities to Inherit the Wind, with the religious and secular sides switched around.
- The Golden Child is Beverly Hills Cop meets Big Trouble in Little China.
- Good Boys: Superbad meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
- Good Manners is Rosemary's Baby meets Wolf Children.
- The Grand Budapest Hotel is The Great Dictator meets North By Northwest.
- Greaser's Palace looks like what would have happened if Sergio Leone and John Waters made a film together.
- The Great Wall is Attack on Titan meets Edge of Tomorrow meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets The Bourne Series meets Game of Thrones meets Warhammer 40,000 meets Enter the Dragon meets Dragon Ball meets Journey to the West meets Berserk with several strong shades of Mulan, Power Rangers, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Green Book has been likened to Rain Man (a Road Movie Dramedy about two completely different men who end up bonding) meets an inverted Driving Miss Daisy (a black man and his white driver).
- The Green Mile is The Shawshank Redemption meets The Silence of the Lambs.
- The Grey is The Edge meets The Flight of the Phoenix (1965).
- Grudge Match is Jake LaMotta vs. Rocky Balboa as Grumpy Old Men.
- Guest House Paradiso is Bottom meets Fawlty Towers.
- Guum-Gum (film but not book) is Peter Pan meets The Matrix.
H
- Halloween III: Season of the Witch is Halloween (1978) meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets The Wicker Man (1973).
- Hancock is The Incredibles meets Highlander. The hidden title could be called Hancock meets The Terminator.
- The Hangover is simply Dude, Where's My Car? meets The Three Stooges meets Very Bad Things meets The Simpsons episode "Viva Ned Flanders".
- The Happening is 28 Days Later meets Final Destination meets Gaia's Vengeance.
- Happy Death Day
- It's either Groundhog Day meets Scream Queens (2015).
- Or, it's Groundhog Day meets Scary Movie.
- The Happytime Murders is Greg the Bunny meets The Heat.
- Hard Candy is Lolita (the movie, not the novel) meets The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
- A Hard Day's Night is A Night at the Opera meets Rock Around the Clock.
- Hardcore Henry is Captain America meets Jason Bourne meets Call of Duty in Russia.
- The Hateful Eight is Reservoir Dogs meets The Thing (1982) meets The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in a Wyoming blizzard.
- Head is Help! meets 8½, along with whatever drugs happened to be around.
- Heathers is Pretty in Pink meets Badlands.
- The Hebrew Hammer is I'm Gonna Git You Sucka as Mel Brooks might've made it.
- Hellboy (2019) is Guillermo del Toro's original 2004 film meets the works of Garth Ennis, with some dashes of Hellsing and South Park thrown in for good measure.
- Hello Mary-Lou: Prom Night II is Carrie meets A Nightmare on Elm Street.
- Hellraiser is Dracula meets A Nightmare on Elm Street meets The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde meets Doctor Faustus meets The 120 Days of Sodom meets The Omen meets The Thing meets The Twilight Zone.
- Hellraiser: Inferno was described by The Cinema Snob as Hellraiser meets Jacob's Ladder meets Bad Lieutenant as directed by David Lynch.
- The 2022 film is the original meets DEVILMAN crybaby''.
- Hereditary is Rosemary's Baby meets Ordinary People
- Here Comes the Boom is The Wizard meets the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
- Hero (2002) is Rashomon meets The Last Emperor meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
- Hidalgo is Indiana Jones meets The Last Samurai.
- In an odd reversal, High School Musical is Fame minus Skins.
- Grease meets Fast Times at Ridgemont High minus the R-rated content.
- The Hidden Fortress is Northwest Passage meets A Train for Durango.
- Highway to Hell was written by Ate de Jong as a cross between the story of Orpheus, The Wizard of Oz and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.
- Highwaymen is Mad Max meets Changing Lanes, meets The Hitcher.
- The Hills Have Eyes (1977) is The Last House on the Left meets The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) meets Deliverance.
- Hirokin: The Last Samurai is The Hunger Games meets The Phantom Menace, without a happy ending.
- Hold-up is Quick Change meets a Terence Hill and Bud Spencer action comedy.
- The Hollywood Knights is American Graffiti meets Animal House.
- Home Alone is Ferris Bueller meets Saw
- Or Dennis the Menace meets a really family-friendly version of Straw Dogs (1971).
- Holmes & Watson is Sherlock Holmes meets Step Brothers
- The Horde is Rambo: Last Blood meets Wrong Turn''.
- Alternatively it's The Punisher meets The Hills Have Eyes
- Horrible Bosses is The Hangover meets 9 to 5 meets Strangers on a Train.
- Horror Express is Who Goes There? meets Murder on the Orient Express.
- The Host (2006):
- The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms meets Juno meets Michael Moore.
- Alternatively, Alien meets Little Miss Sunshine.
- Gojira meets Jeff, Who Lives at Home.
- Hot Fuzz:
- The Naked Gun meets Shaun of the Dead.
- It has also been described as Midsomer Murders meeting Bad Boys (appropriately enough).
- Hot Shots! is Top Gun meets Full Metal Jacket meets The Naked Gun.
- Hot Tub Time Machine is The Hangover meets Back to the Future.
- House of Gucci is Uncut Gems meets The Irishman.
- The House That Jack Built is American Psycho meets Hannibal.
- Howling V: The Rebirth is essentially Howling meets And Then There Were None.
- Hulk is King Kong meets Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde meets Beauty and the Beast meets God of War.
- The Human Centipede is Hostel meets Saw meets I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream meets The 120 Days of Sodom.
- The Hunger Games is The Running Man meets The Truman Show.
- Or a more kid friendly version of The Handmaid's Tale meets Battle Royale meets The Truman Show.
- Hustlers is Magic Mike meets The Bling Ring meets Goodfellas.
I
- I Am Number Four is Roswell meets the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles meets Escape to Witch Mountain meets Twilight meets Transformers with a healthy dash of Superman.
- I Can Only Imagine is Purple Rain as produced by Pure Flix.
- I'll Be Home for Christmas is Ferris Bueller's Day Off meets Planes, Trains and Automobiles, minus the charm, humour and likeable characters.
- Idiocracy is Sleeper meets Office Space meets Beavis And Butthead.
- I'm Gonna Git You Sucka is Blaxploitation meets The Naked Gun.
- Incarnate is The Exorcist meets Inception
- Inception:
- Paprika meets Ocean's Eleven.
- Fullmetal Alchemist gone live-action meets James Bond with a bottle of sleeping pills.
- Ghost in the Shell meets Ocean's Eleven (not the actual homage GITS episode, though)
- The Italian Job (1969) meets Ocean's Eleven meets Dreamscape, meets The Matrix
- Psychonauts meets Ocean's Eleven.
- "Theme of the Traitor and the Hero" meets Plato's Cave.
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with a dash of Matrix gone Heist film.
- Incest! The Musical is High School Musical meets BrotherSister Incest.
- Independence Day is The War of the Worlds meets a 1970s Disaster Movie, with touches of Top Gun and Star Wars to update the aesthetics for The '90s.
- Indiana Jones is King Solomon's Mines meets Star Wars meets Tintin meets James Bond with several obvious strong shades of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
- Raiders of the Lost Ark is It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World meets A New Hope meets King Solomon's Mines meets Dr. No.
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is Raiders of the Lost Ark meets The Empire Strikes Back meets Heart of Darkness meets From Russia with Love.
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom meets JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency meets Goldfinger.
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade meets JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets The Rock.
- Ingrid Goes West is Single White Female meets Black Mirror
- Interstellar is 2001: A Space Odyssey meets The Black Hole meets Contact.
- Into the Woods is the Disney Animated Canon meets The Brothers Grimm.
- The Invisible Man (2020) is Hollow Man meets Enough.
- The Invitation (2022) is Ready or Not meets Bram Stoker's Dracula.
- The Irishman is GoodFellas meets Hoffa
meets The Godfather meets Gangs of New York meets Casino meets Boardwalk Empire meets Reservoir Dogs meets Heat meets Natural Born Killers meets American Psycho meets The Wolf of Wall Street meets Black Mass.
- The German news station n-tv described Iron Sky as Inglourious Basterds meets Star Wars.
- It (2017) is Stephen King's It meets Stranger Things (with both works even sharing an actor).
- It: Chapter Two is It (2017) meets Avengers: Endgame.
- It Takes Two (1995) is The Parent Trap (1961) meets The Prince and the Pauper.
J
- Jack (1996): Big, starring Patch Adams.
- James Bond:
- Diamonds Are Forever: James Bond meets Diamond Shaft and Ocean's 11.
- Live and Let Die: James Bond meets Blaxploitation.
- The Man with the Golden Gun: James Bond meets The Dukes of Hazzard meets Fantasy Island, with a little Enter the Dragon on the side.
- Moonraker: James Bond meets Star Wars.
- Licence to Kill: James Bond meets Scarface and Miami Vice.
- The Daniel Craig era in general is James Bond meets The Bourne Series.
- Casino Royale (2006) is the original novel meets The Bourne Identity meets Kamen Rider Blade.
- Quantum of Solace is Casino Royale (2006) meets Mission: Impossible III meets The Bourne Supremacy.
- Skyfall is Quantum of Solace meets The Dark Knight meets Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol meets The Bourne Ultimatum.
- Spectre is Skyfall meets Kamen Rider Ghost meets Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation meets The Bourne Legacy.
- No Time to Die is Spectre meets Logan meets Mission: Impossible Fallout meets Jason Bourne meets A Walk to Remember meets The Fault in Our Stars meets Avengers: Endgame meets The Dark Knight Rises meets Your Lie in April.
- Jason X is Friday the 13th meets Star Trek.
- Or, it's Friday the 13th meets Alien: Resurrection due to the latter's mix of Sci-Fi and Camp.
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is The Muppet Movie if it starred Cheech & Chong.
- Jennifer is Carrie (1976) meets Willard, but with snakes instead of rats.
- Jesus, Bro! is God's Not Dead meets The Nostalgia Critic meets Blazing Saddles
- Alternatively, it's God's Not Dead meets War Room meets The Cinema Snob and Mel Brooks.
- Jonah Hex is Wild Wild West meets Pushing Daisies.
- Summed up by Iron Man in I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC:
Seriously, you could have had a gritty, realistic, badass western, and instead you got Constantine, Ghost Rider and Wild Wild West. - John Wick is Kill Bill meets The Matrix meets Drive (2011) meets Hitman meets The Killer meets Le Samouraï meets Point Blank meets Assassin's Creed meets Elfen Lied meets Hotline Miami, with slight garnishes of Grand Theft Auto, Devilman, GoodFellas and The Sopranos.
- Johnny English is James Bond meets Mr. Bean.
- Jojo Rabbit is Moonrise Kingdom meets Inglorious Basterds. It even gained the Fan Nickname of Moonreich Kingdom.
- Alternatively, it's Moonrise Kingdom meets The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
- Or The Death of Stalin meets Moonrise Kingdom.
- Joker (2019) is Taxi Driver meets The King of Comedy meets The Killing Joke meets Gotham.
- Judas and the Black Messiah is The Trial of the Chicago 7 meets Da 5 Bloods meets The Irishman.
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle has been described by some as The Breakfast Club meets Sword Art Online.
- It also meets the animated adaptation of the first movie, Tomb Raider, Tropic Thunder, and Central Intelligence.
- Jumanji: The Next Level is Welcome to the Jungle meets The Matrix meets Zoo.
- Jungle Cruise is The African Queen meets The Mummy Trilogy meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets Indiana Jones.
- From
Cracked: "Jupiter Ascending is apparently what you would get if The Matrix suplexed Snow White & the Huntsman into a hyperbaric chamber and fired it into space."
- Alternatively and more accurately, Tenchi Muyo! meets EVE Online meets Dune.
- Jurassic World is Jurassic Park meets Jaws 3D meets Deep Blue Sea (with whole lot less sharks).
- Just Buried looks like Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street meets Hot Fuzz (or possibly A Lee Martinez, but nobody else knows who that is).
K
- Kelly's Heroes can be thought off as "The Dirty Dozen meets The Italian Job (1969)", but without the Downer Ending of either of films.
- Ken Park: Kids meets American Beauty
- Kick-Ass is Kill Bill meets Superbad.
- Kill Bill is the Dollars Trilogy meets Game of Death that took a hard turn to Battle Royale.
- Alternatively, if Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs went on a drunken night out with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
- The New Old West, but with Samurai swordplay and Kung Fu.
- King Arthur: Legend of the Sword was pitched as The Lord of the Rings meets Snatch..
- King of Thieves: Mathew Buck described it as a mixture of Get Carter and an Ealing comedy.
- KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park was pitched to the band as "A Hard Day's Night meets Star Wars".
- Knight and Day is The Tourist meets Mission: Impossible.
- Knives Out is Murder on the Orient Express meets The Royal Tenenbaums.
- Kung Fu Zohra is Dangerous Intentions
meets The Karate Kid.
- Kung Pow! Enter the Fist is Tiger & Crane Fists meets Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series and The Master of Disguise.
L
- Labyrinth is the Land of Oz meets The Phantom of the Opera starring David Bowie. (Or alternately, The Spiderwick Chronicles meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with David Bowie instead of Tim Curry.)
- Lake Michigan Monster: Schaffrillas describes it as The Lighthouse meets the Patchy the Pirate segments from SpongeBob SquarePants if it was written by Scott The Woz and edited by Caddicarus.
- The Last Castle is The Rock meets The Shawshank Redemption.
- The Last Exorcism is The Exorcism Of Emily Rose meets The Blair Witch Project.
- The Last King of Scotland is Downfall meets Now and Then, Here and There meets King Lear.
- Last Night in Soho is Doctor Who meets Peeping Tom meets Repulsion meets Blow Up meets Performance meets Don't Look Now meets Suspiria.
- The Last Samurai is Dances with Wolves meets Shogun.
- Law Abiding Citizen is Death Wish (or The Punisher) meets Saw.
- La La Land is Singin' in the Rain meets A Star Is Born.
- The Lawnmower Man is Flowers for Algernon meets TRON, and later Elfen Lied.
- Legally Blonde is John Grisham's Genki Girl Distaff Counterpart who went on a shopping spree at Clueless.
- The Legend of Frenchie King is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers meets Bandidas.
- Legion is The Prophecy meets The Terminator.
- Alternatively, The Terminator meets Night of the Living Dead.
- Lemonade Mouth is The Breakfast Club meets High School Musical.
- Life (2017) is equal parts Alien, Splice, The Blob (1988) and Gravity.
- Little Nicky is Devil May Cry meets Wayne's World.
- Little Shop of Horrors (1986) is (much like the play of the same name) basically the original 1960 film meets a Disney musical.
- Local Hero: Bill Forsyth described it as "Brigadoon meets Apocalypse Now".
- The Mockbuster Lockjaw is Anaconda meets Death Note with the plot of Pumpkinhead.
- Logan is X-Men (or to draw from specific comics, Old Man Logan and The Death of Wolverine) meets Unforgiven and Shane (the latter in particular even appears in the movie).
- Alternately and more accurately, it's Old Man Logan meets The Last of Us meets Breaking Bad meets Berserk, with elements of The Death of Superman and a subtle side dash of Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
- When touring the talk show circuit to promote The Lonely Lady, Pia Zadora repeatedly portrayed it as "a cross between Rocky and Emmanuelle".
- Loqueesha: Amos N Andy starring Shirley Q. Liquor
.
- Peter Jackson described his visual style on The Lord of the Rings as David Lean meets Ray Harryhausen.
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park is the first film meets Gorgo.
- Lucy is Black Widow meets Taken meets AKIRA meets The Fifth Element meets Watchmen meets Deathstroke meets H. P. Lovecraft.
- Or in the words of Luc Besson: "one part Leon, one part Inception and one part 2001: A Space Odyssey".
M
- M. Butterfly is Madame Butterfly meets The Crying Game.
- M3GAN is Annabelle meets The Terminator, according to producer James Wan.
- Robert Rodriguez has described the third part of the Machete Trilogy, Machete Kills Again...In Space! as Machete meets Moonraker.
- Magic Kingdom is Disneyland meets Night at the Museum or Zathura since Jon Favreau is directing.
- Mad Max franchise:
- Mad Max is Violence Jack meets Dune.
- Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is Mad Max meets The Silmarillion.
- Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome is Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior meets Flash Gordon meets Riddley Walker.
- Mad Max: Fury Road is Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome meets Warhammer 40,000 meets Now and Then, Here and There meets Fist of the North Star.
- Maleficent is Sleeping Beauty meets Wicked meets Alice in Wonderland (2010) meets The Lord of the Rings meets Berserk.
- Malignant is a Giallo version of Basket Case meets Split.
- Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL are Showgirls meets The Full Monty.
- Man's Best Friend was described by The Cinema Snob as Cujo meets Short Circuit.
- The Man Who Fell to Earth is The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars meets Starman meets Requiem for a Dream.
- Mandy (2018) is Drive Angry meets Conan the Barbarian (1982) meets The Holy Mountain.
- Maniac Cop 2: Director William Lustig pitched the film as Frankenstein meets The French Connection.
- The Mask of Zorro is The Mark of Zorro meets The Count of Monte Cristo with a dash of the Spaghetti Western genre.
- Max Steel is Iron Man meets Dragonball Evolution.
- Mars Attacks! is The War of the Worlds and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers meet Gremlins and Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
- The John Cusack comedy Martian Child is basically About a Boy meets KPAX.
- The Man from Hong Kong: If Bruce Lee ever did a James Bond movie.
- Marriage Story is The Notebook meets La La Land meets Blue Valentine meets Kramer vs. Kramer.
- The Matrix series:
- The Matrix is The Truman Show meets The Terminator meets TRON meets Virtuosity meets Dark City meets Ghost in the Shell meets Neon Genesis Evangelion meets The Invisibles.
- The Matrix Reloaded is The Matrix meets ReBoot.
- The Matrix Revolutions is The Matrix Reloaded meets Devilman.
- The Matrix Resurrections is The Matrix meets Total Recall meets Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
- Matilda is a lighthearted, kid-friendly mashup of Carrie and The Professional of all things.
- Mazes and Monsters is Reefer Madness meets Dungeons & Dragons.
- Mean Streets is of course the quintessential Scorsese film, but it also can be described as I Vitelloni meets John Cassavetes.
- Meet the Feebles: The Muppets Take Manhattan, directed by Sam Peckinpah.
- Memoirs of an Invisible Man: John Carpenter described it as "North By Northwest meets Starman".
- Menace II Society is Boyz n the Hood meets Scarface (1983) meets GoodFellas.
- Men in Black film series:
- Men in Black is the original comic series meets Ghostbusters and Alien Nation. Or as Variety described it, "Ghostbusters meets The Coen Brothers".
- Men in Black 3 is MIB meets Back to the Future in the late 1960s.
- Men in Black: International is commonly described as being MIB meets Thor: Ragnarok, due to the intentional casting of two actors from the latter movie.
- Mercury Rising is Rain Man meets WarGames. Described as such by Miko Hughes on the DVD extras.
- Mickey Blue Eyes is Meet the Parents meets The Godfather.
- Midsommar is Hostel meets The Wicker Man (1973).
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was described by Amy Jo Johnson as "Star Wars meets The Wizard of Oz". Roger Ebert challenged this assessment in his review.
- Milk Money is Pretty Woman meets My Girl.
- Mikey is The Bad Seed meets The Stepfather meets The Good Son.
- Minority Report is Logan's Run meets Blade Runner meets The Fugitive with a subtle trace of 1984.
- Mirror, Mirror is Snow White meets Robin Hood: Men in Tights with lots of Costume Porn.
- The film adaptation of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is Harry Potter and the X-Men
- The Monster Squad is The Goonies meets Universal Horror.
- The MonsterVerse is a literal crossover of Godzilla and King Kong, while figuratively meeting the Marvel Cinematic Universe (even having some of the MCU actors appearing in these films).
- Godzilla (2014) is Gojira meets Pacific Rim meets Attack on Titan.
- Kong: Skull Island is King Kong meets Apocalypse Now.
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) is Godzilla (2014) meets Clash of the Titans (2010) meets 300: Rise of an Empire meets Transformers: Dark of the Moon meets Berserk meets Stranger Things meets 2012 meets DEVILMAN crybaby meets Asura's Wrath meets Mortal Kombat X meets The Divine Comedy meets X-Men: Apocalypse.
- Godzilla vs. Kong is King Kong vs. Godzilla meets Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice meets Transformers: Age of Extinction.
- Moonfall is Gravity meets The Martian meets Melancholia meets 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Sharknado.
- Moonrise Kingdom is Romeo and Juliet meets Peanuts (assuming the adults in the movie are considered kids — which, in the case of Wes Anderson, they are).
- Morbius (2022) is Batman meets Dracula meets Devilman
- Mortal Kombat: The Movie is the cast of Big Trouble in Little China meets the plot of Game of Death.
- The Motorcycle Diaries is Easy Rider meets Germinal.
- Moulin Rouge! is La Traviata meets La Bohème meets Cirque du Soleil with pop music.
- MouseHunt is Tom and Jerry meets Home Alone.
- Mowgli is The Jungle Book (2016) meets The Lord of the Rings meets Heart of Darkness meets Grave of the Fireflies meets Watership Down meets The Dark Knight.
- Mr. Nobody is Donnie Darko meets The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The titular protagonists of all three have Alliterative Names.
- Mrs. Doubtfire is Mary Poppins (minus the magic powers and dancing penguins) meets Tootsie.
- Mulan: Rise of a Warrior is The Ballad of Mulan meets Berserk.
- Mulholland Dr. is Sunset Boulevard meets Persona (1966) with the eerie atmosphere of Lost Highway.
- The Mummy (1999) is The Mummy (1932) meets Indiana Jones meets The Evil Dead.
- Stephen Sommers described his vision as "Indiana Jones meets Jason and the Argonauts."
- The Muppets (2011) is Toy Story 3 meets A Mighty Wind meets Cats Don't Dance.
- Murder by Death is Agatha Christie meets Mel Brooks.
- Depending on when you were born, Murder by Decree is From Hell meets Sherlock Holmes or From Hell is Murder By Decree sans Sherlock Holmes.
- Mystery Team is Encyclopedia Brown meets the real world.