Do you think that Life on Mars ripped this movie off?

No, you must have been watching a different film to me also called Frequency.

I thought of "Life On Mars" immediately. I loved the series and wish it hadn't ended. Certainly it's a different premise of time travel, but a lot of similarities. I love this stuff.

No, to answer the subject question, I don't think Life on Mars "ripped" off, but maybe borrowed heavily. Who cares? Bring it on!

No, because "Life On Mars" was based on a British show of the same name. Plus, on that show, we started out thinking Sam was supposed to reconcile with his father, then we found out that wasn't worth the effort, and finally he was never actually in the past and he DOES reconcile with his father.

The biggest similarities between the two is that the "past" of both is in the John Lindsay mayoralty when New York was becoming, in the title of a biography of Lindsay, "The Ungovernable City," a serial killer was pursued both in the film and in the TV show's pilot, and the Mets won the Pennant in both 1969 (beat Baltimore in the World Series) and 1973 (lost to Oakland). The Mets won Pennants? Wow, these things really were science fiction.

Actually, my big concern about "Life On Mars" was that the pilot would have been a fantastic movie if they could've stretched it to an hour and a half/two hours, then sent Sam back to 2008, but that it wouldn't work as an ongoing series because, let's face it, how many jokes can you make about Nixon? About 1970s fashion? About the policing methods of Gene Hunt and Ray Carling? (In each case, lots, as it turned out.)

The big question is: Elizabeth Mitchell (as she appeared in the 1969 scenes), or Gretchen Mol (as she appeared in the 1973 scenes)? The former can burn my spaghetti sauce anytime, the latter was, truly, an arresting officer. I wouldn't mind making some history with either one of them. (Sadly, both are married and unavailable in real life.)

Nope, but I think this movie ripped of the 'Darkroom' episode where the main character builds a crystal radio and is faced with the possibility of intercepting a message to a German U-Boat in 1942 that would mean his father hadn't died and his son has a grandfather. i.e - same plot as Frequency, but with a war death instead of fireman.

"It's better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it"

ive never seen it, only heard of it but it seems like they just share a genre of time travel. the details of both are extremeley different.

I am re-watching frequency right now because I was watching Life on Mars and got reminded of this film. So... yes. But they are both good in their own way.