Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

Hello everyone,

several years ago I saw a movie of which I can't remember the title. It's about a succesful, unmarried businessman, who somehow ends up in an alternate reality where he wakes up next to his highschool girlfriend. Turns out in this reality he chose not to dedicate his entire life to his work but to his girl. In the end he decides that he's much happier in this situation and wants to win this girl back in his own reality.

The other movie I just can't seem to remember the title of, I remember less about. I do remember that it was about a town where everyone was always happy. At one point one of the inhabitants thinks it's a lityle fishy that happyness is the only emotion in that town and starts investigating. In the end he finds out that the leader of the town (I think) has some sort of machine that keeps everyone docile and happy.

If anyone knows the titles of these movies I'd be very grateful.

The first film is most likely The Family Man (2000) starring Nicholas Cage and Tea Leoni. Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnouJoQs52c

The second film could be Pleasantville (1998), starring Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, and Jeff Daniels. But the plot isn't exactly like you described. Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-4pnXcqyt0

Re: Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

Thanks for the reply. I can't check the trailers yet, because I'm at work, but I'll look at them as soon as I get home.

Re: Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

Family Man sounds right. Pleasantville does not though.

Re: Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

Ok, I looked at the trailers. The first one is indeed The Family Man. Thanks very much for that.

I'm pretty sure however that the second one isn't Pleasantville. I had already looked at that a while ago. I distinctly remember that at the end of the movie the person confronts the guy with the mindcontrol machine at the top floor of some building. It may have been some sort of antenna that shot a kind of mindcontrol ray that kept everyone in town under his influence.

Re: Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

The second one reminds me of an episode of the twighlight zone or similar tv series. But that's the best I got, and even that may be a fabricated memory.

The second one sounds to me like The Stepford Wives. One was from the 70's and this is the remake with Nicole Kidman. I'm new so I couldn't post the link to the trailer but it's on YouTube

From what I read about it, The Stepford Wives looks like a fun movie to watch. However, in the movie I'm thinking about, it wasn't just the wives, it was the entire town, and they were all sort of disturbingly happy all of the time, no bad emotions anywhere in town.
Also, for some reason, I remember the movie being in black and white, but I may just remember that wrong.

Re: Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

I looked at episode plots from the Twilight Zone, but the only one I can find is about a little boy that can mindcontrol, without help from a device.

And you're sure it's not Pleasantville?

Not 100%, but I don't remember the movie suddenly switching from black and white to color, and from what I've read, in Pleasantville there was no mind control involved.

Then again, maybe my mind is just playing tricks on me and the movie I'm thinking of doesn't even exist. ;-)

Re: Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

There is definitely a switch to color in Pleasantville. It's more gradual, but I think there's a point later in the film where it's a lot quicker.

I don't think there's literal mind control, but people doing things because they're told to do them/that's how it's done is a pretty strong theme that it would be very easy to think of as mind control even while watching it, nevermind having seen it awhile ago. Definitely close enough to be worth a try, I think.

Re: Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

I'll definitely give it a go. If nothing else, it'll be a cool movie to watch.

I havent seen this one but it came to mind. The Giver.

Re: Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

I checked out the trailer. Looks like a nice movie, but it's nothing like the movie I saw years ago, and this is also a very recent movie. The movie I saw, was on tv when I was a teenager I think. (I'm 39 now)

Re: Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

I also remember an old Star Trek (original recipe) about a planet where everyone walked around in an emotionless stupor which passed for peace and contentment (except for periodic "rest breaks" when everybody went crazy); turned out to be a supercomputer controlling everybody. (Of course Kirk came up with yet another rationalization to break the Prime Directive and destroyed the computer, i.e., screwed up the whole works.)

This sounds like the original Star Trek episode "The Return of the Archons". (The "rest breaks" are called "The Festival" which begins at the "Red Hour", and the computer is called Landru.)

Yep, that's the one. I was too lazy to look up the title, but I do remember Landru and the Red Hour. Thanks!

Re: Trying to find the title of two movies I saw years ago
 

Second movie sounds like Virtual Nightmare. According to my brief research.