Kathy Bates made two movies in 2002 about men trying to cope with the unexpected death of their wives: About Schmidt and Love, Liza
Jennifer Connolly has made two movies in which she plays the girlfriend of a genius who sometimes loses control: A Beautiful Mind and The Hulk
Helena Bonham Carter has played three women who breeze into the hero’s life and totally mess it up in Novocain, Fight Club and in Corpse Bride
Nicole Kidman has made two movies in which her nose featured prominently: The Hours and Bewitched
Catherine Keener has been in two “movie within a movie” movies: Living in Oblivion and Adaptation
Julianne Moore has played a 50’s housewife in three movies, The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio, The Hours and Far From Heaven. The last two are about gay people who abandon their marriages.
Greg Kinnear has made two movies in which significant scenes take place in Scottsdale, Arizona: Auto Focus and Little Miss Sunshine
Tom Cruise has made two movies in which he runs through the abandoned streets of the city: Eyes Wide Shut and Vanilla Sky
At least six actors have parodied their own most famous lines (or scenes) in other movies:
Spencer Tracy says “Dr. Livingston, I presume” in Stanley and Livingston as Stanley and in Woman of the Year. Jeremy Irons delivers the line, “You have no idea” in Reversal of Fortune and The Lion King. Robert DeNiro spoofs his “Are you talking to me?” spiel from Taxi Driver in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Don Rickles calls another character a hockey puck in Toy Story. (It’s a real hockey puck.) John Hurt parodies his death in Alien in Spaceballs. Mark Hamill parodies his climactic fight with Darth Vader from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Stephen Spielberg parodies his own opening scene of Jaws in 1941
John Cusack has made two movies in which marionettes simulate sex: Being John Malkovich and Max
Matthew Broderick has made two movies which show him actively humping some woman: Biloxi Blues and Election
Vivien Leigh, an English actress, won two Oscars for playing Southern women: Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche Dubois
Jeff Daniels has made two movies where he plays a fictional character who “breaks out” of his fictional world. He broke out of a movie in The Purple Rose of Cairo, and he broke out of (his role at least) on a TV show in Pleasantville.
Rene Zellwegger has made two movies, one set in the 20’s the other in the 30’s, in which someone else answers for her at a press conference: Chicago and Cinderella Man. In Leatherheads, she plays a 1920's reporter.
Gene Hackman has made three movies in which he has a crush on a much younger woman: The Firm, Mississippi Burning and Welcome to Mooseport
Ben Affleck has made two movies in which he falls in love with a lesbian: Chasing Amy and Gigli
William Holden and Charles Bronson both played WWII POW’s in two movies (Stalag 17, The Bridge on the River Kwai and The Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen)
In Cast Away Tom Hanks splashes water on his face and looks into a bathroom mirror like he did in Big; He wanders along the beach and looks searchingly out to sea like he did in Splash; and he floats on a raft lost at sea like he did in Joe vs. The Volcano.
In the film In Cold Blood Robert Blake asks Scott Wilson if he remembers Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Blake played the street urchin who sold Bogart the winning lottery ticket in that movie.
In Dragnet, Tom Hanks asks Dan Aykroyd if his favorite film is The Sound of Music, and a star of The Sounds of Music, Christopher Plummer, was in Dragnet.
Chris Cooper has played lawmen in four films: Lonesome Dove (tv), A Time To Kill, Lone Star and Capote
Steve Martin has made ten films which can be classified as remakes or retellings: Little Shop of Horrors, Roxanne, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Father of the Bride, Father of the Bride II, A Simple Twist of Fate (Silas Marner), Prince of Egypt, The Out-of-Towners, Cheaper By the Dozen, and The Pink Panther. He made another film, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, which was largely pieced together from old films.
Johnny Depp has made two movies about confectioners: Chocolate and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Paul Newman and Jennifer Jason Leigh have made two movies together and not shared a single scene: The Hudsucker Proxy and The Road to Perdition
Liam Neeson has played master to someone else’s apprentice in three films: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Kingdom of Heaven and Batman Begins (and arguably a fourth: Kinsey)
Michael Caine and Christian Bale have made three films together: two Batmans and The Prestige. Caine’s character in the Batman films is named Alfred. Bale’s character in The Prestige is named Alfred.
Lauren Holly has made two films where she’s received a deep throated, “alien”, tongue kiss: from Andrew Dice Clay in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and from Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber
Michael Caine has made two movies in which he gets sexually aroused while bound to a woman with a rope: in Surrender to Sally Field and in Water to Valerie Perrine
Steve Buscemi has had drunken rants with a microphone in two movies: The Wedding Singer and Imposters
Geoffrey Rush has made two movies in which a character totes around a gun with one bullet in it intended for a specific person: In the The Banger Sisters he is the totee. In Pirates of the Caribbean he is the intended victim.
Josh Brolin made two movies in 2007 in which he shoots a dog: American Gangster and No Country for Old Men
Steve Carell has made two movies (not counting sequels) centering around a local TV newscast: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Bruce Almighty
Nick Nolte played James Earl Jones’s father in Jefferson in Paris and Mercedes Reuhl played Tom Hanks’s mother in Big
Orlando Bloom has made two movies, not counting sequels, in which the dead or the un-dead fight: Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Eddie Murphy has made two movies in which he safely crosses a busy, L.A. highway: Holy Man and Bowfinger
Ben Stiller made two movies in 2004 in which he kills a white horse: Envy and Starsky & Hutch
Jim Carey wore a green suit in Batman Forever; an orange tux in Dumb and Dumber, blue tails in Lemony Snicket, and a yellow zoot suit in The Mask.
Gary Sinise has played an astronaut who gets left off of the big mission in two movies: Apollo 13 and Mission to Mars
Paul Newman fooled Richard Deacon in The Young Philadelphians by substituting gin for water, and he fooled Robert Shaw in The Sting by substituting water for gin.
Laura Dern appeared in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and made a film called We Don’t Live Here Anymore
In 2002, Christopher Lee played traitorous “wizards” in two movies, both of them the second film in a trilogy: Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
In 2004, there were two movies set during the British Restoration in which a man coaches a bad actresses into greatness: Stage Beauty (Billy Crudup and Claire Danes) and The Libertine (Johnny Depp and Samantha Morton).
In 2004, there were two movies about “the 18 year old daughter of the President”: Chasing Liberty and First Daughter (both bombed).
In 2008 there were two major movies in which a character is immobilized by having a finger pinched: Kung Fu Panda and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan
Neve Campbell has made two movies in which someone who was supposed to be dead really wasn’t: Scream and Wild Things
Frank Oz has made two movies which feature the line, “My little green friend.”: The Muppet Movie (delivered to Kermit the Frog) and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (delivered to Yoda)
Harvey Keitel has made two movies where he’s had a kinky relationship with a woman in Australia: with Kate Winslett in Holy Smoke and with Holly Hunter in The Piano
Anthony Hopkins has made three movies in which he plays a doctor or health expert who lectures his colleagues on medicine: The Elephant Man, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Road to Wellville
Dan Aykroyd has made two movies where he’s in a tank that crashes into a warehouse full of liquid product and everything gets soaked. In 1941, it was paint. In Dragnet, it was milk.
Billy Bob Thornton has made two movies in which country music stars play abusive buttheads: Slingblade (Dwight Yoakum) and Friday Night Lights (Tim McGraw)
David Straitharn has made two movies in which he is charged with building or rebuilding a sports program: A League of Their Own and We Are Marshall
F. Murray Abraham has made two movies which enact the final scene of Mozart’s Don Giovanni: Amadeus and Bonfire of the Vanities
James Mason played angels in two movies: Heaven Can Wait and Forever Darling
Bill Murray has made two movies about old bachelors who are faced with the possibility of having a long lost son: Broken Flowers and The Life Aquatic
Aaron Eckhardt has made two movies in which someone has had their cheeks slashed: The Black Dahlia and Batman: The Dark Knight.
Morgan Freeman has been in two movies where someone in the custody of the police is still controlling events: Seven and Batman: The Dark Knight.
Nicholas Cage has made two movies in which he dictates ideas for a screenplay into a hand-held tape recorder: Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation. He has also made two movies in which he did long, rambling, stream-of-consciousness narration: Adaptation and The Weather Man. He has made three “the something man” films: The Weather Man, The Wicker Man, and The Family Man and one film called Matchstick Men. He has also made five “ing” films: Racing With the Moon, Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, Guarding Tess and Bringing Out the Dead
In 2007 there were two films in which human men fell in love with fantasy women: Stardust and Enchanted. There were two films in which animated rats help a human accomplish a task: Enchanted and Ratatouille, and there were two films which featured duets about singing duets: Enchanted and Walk Hard
In 1997 there were three films in which a woman posed nude or semi-nude for an artist: Great Expectations (Gwyneth Paltrow for Ethan Hawke), As Good As It Gets (Helen Hunt for Greg Kinnear) and Titanic (Kate Winslett for Leonardo DiCaprio)
In 1979 Foul Play portrayed an assassination attempt on the pope in San Francisco. Within a year, the pope came to America for the first time. In 1979 Heaven Can Wait portrayed a Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Within a year, the Rams and Steelers met in the Super Bowl. In 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture portrayed a dangerous man-made satellite returning to Earth. Within a year, Skylab fell.
