July 07, 2005

• well, enemy mine (collected here as 'the enemy papers') and the eponymous fillum by wolfgang petersen...
• Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed in Rocky III.
• D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers -- it's not until they confront Richelieu's guards together that Aramis, Athos, and Porthos accept D'Artagnan as a swordsman rather than a country bumpkin. An old and still popular motif. In Mallory's Morte d'Arthur this seems to happoen to people every few pages.
• Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neil in Little Darlings
• Buffy and Spike /geek
• Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.
• I see your Skywalker/Vader and raise you a Pharisees and Herodians.
• I fold.
• That 'Meteor' movie from the 70s where the USA and the USSR's armies join forces and use their 'weather satellites' to destroy the incoming chunk of rock. Yes, the movie sucked. The pinball was much better, in fact.
• [accent type=japanese] Macross Plusu! [/accent] It also has insanely dope music courtesy of Yoko Kanno.
• Mmmmm, the music of Yoko Kanno. Insanely dope, indeed.
• Gilgamesh and Inkidu. Robin Hood and Little John. Frodo and Gollum; Legolas and Gimli. Several "Star Trek" episodes, notably "Day of the Dove" (TOS) ("only fools fight in a burning house") and the recently discussed "Darmok" (TNG).
• "Heroes fight due to a misunderstanding and then join forces" is a major trope of comic books. Almost every time a new hero shows up, it's time for a battle.
• Enemy Mine is effectively a sci-fi remake of the 1968 John Boorman film 'Hell in the Pacific', set in WWII.
• The remake (NOT the original) of Dawn of the Dead.
• I love Hell in the Pacific. "MY LOG!!!!"
• HelLO!? X-Men 2?
• Not all of these are probably hits for you, but here's some ideas: Ryan O'Neal and Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey in Reign of Fire Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in 48 Hours Nicolas Cage and Shirley MacLaine in Guarding Tess Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Far And Away Tom Cruise and [pick a character] in The Last Samurai Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally John Cusack and Minnie Driver in Grosse Pointe Blank Madonna and Adriano Giannini in Swept Away Michael Douglas and Val KilmerThe Ghost and the Darkness Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins in Silence Of The Lambs Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington in Philadelphia Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell in Overboard Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin in The Edge The Rock and Seann William Scott in The Rundown Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson in The Chase Or in reverse, James Caan and Kathy Bates in Misery
• Comic: during Crisis, the series of comics that tied up everything, all of the villains formed their own league to help the league of heroes. Cartoon: Tom and Jerry
• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster! Godzilla and Rodan in heavy battle. King Ghidorah emerges and starts to wreak havoc. Mothra is summoned to save the day. Mothra wisely realizes that help is needed to defeat the mighty Ghidorah. Mothra attempts to persuade Godzilla and Rodan to join forces in order successfully battle Ghidorah. They decline and continue to beat each other mercilessly. Mothra decides to go it alone (what balls!), but soon becomes a ragdoll to Ghidorah. In a moment of realization, Godzilla and Rodan realize that they need to join forces in order to nullify this new monster that has invaded their turf. Godzill, Rodan and Mothra combine powers and manage to save the day from the wretch-of-a-monster, King Ghidorah! Well, that's the one that came to my mind
• I'm looking more for the enemy mine/hell in the pacific type stories where the thrust of the plot is that sworn enemies eventually work together. The examples that techsmith and many others have cited are more "two opposites getting together" buddy films. Silence of the Lambs gets close to what I want, but not quite. I want stories about absolute, sworn, dyed in the wool enemies who are forced by circumstances to work against a uber/super enemy. I can't put Driving Miss Daisy, Overboard, Paper Moon or 48hrs in the same catagory. I'll take a look at the Meteor film and see if it is close to what I want.
• Ghidorah, O Ghidorah, have you seen Ghidorah? Ghidorah, the three headed monstah. He beats on Mothra, Rodan and Zilliah O Ghidorah, the three headed monstah!
• There's a wide range of Bond films where he and the Bond girl are enemies, then he gets her in a weak position, kisses her, and then she fights on his side before she inevitably gets killed. Misogynist? Not at ALL. Becaush it'sh Shean.
• Diana Wynne Jones' The Magicians of Caprona, though written for a teenage audience, has the sort of plotline you mention-- two families in a generations-old feud whose various members find ways of working together against a greater threat to their city. I'm still thinking of other examples.
• Ving Rhames and Bruce Willis. Bring out the gimp... (Not through the whole of Pulp Fiction, but a short but powerful segment nonetheless).
• Thanks you guys. I think I have some ideas. If you have anymore, keep them coming.
• Loi McMaster Bujold's Cordelia's Honor, which is made of two shorter novels, Shards of Honor and Barrayar. Two soldiers on opposing sides end up helping each other on an uninhabitated planet. Cordelia Naismith also ends up saving her enemy's life from her own soldiers and his mutinous ones. Reviews will make this sound either like soppy romance, or some weak military story, but it's very, very good. So are Bujold's other books, especially Curse of Chalion, and Paladin of Souls. The latter makes me cry like a baby at a certain section every time.