Friday, November 18, 2011

DVD Dopplegangers: Buried vs. Buried Alive

It's time for DVD Doppelgangers, where I call out art directors who deliberately copy DVD covers of classic and popular movies, hoping to fool the public into buying their knock-off version.

On the right is the 2010 movie Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds. On the left is the 2011 movie Buried Alive, starring no one you've ever heard of.

Usually when I find doppelgangers in the video store, it's only the covers that have been copied. The actual content is often only vaguely similar. Not so much this time. Here's the official plot synopsis (synopsises?) of the two films:

Buried:
Paul is a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq. After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap.

Buried Alive:
When a young man wakes up from a drug induced coma, he finds himself in a coffin, buried alive. With very few clues to go on, he must race the clock to solve the mystery and escape from his tomb.

Wow! I think the Doppelganger Bar has just reached a new all-time high! Not only has the cover been faithfully reproduced by Buried Alive, but so has the title and the actual plot!

Nice grammar there on the Buried Alive tagline too.

Also, take a good close look at that Buried Alive cover. Doesn't it look for all the world like a second person is holding the lighter in front of the protagonist's face? It is possible to hold your right hand like that, but it's incredibly awkward (try it and see). I don't understand why he's not just holding the lighter with his palm toward the camera.

Lastly, Buried Alive is apparently a very popular movie title, as I found out during my Google search for images.

1 comment:

  1. man yea it's a rip off but it got you to review it so some thing was done right.

    ReplyDelete

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