Mondo Bizarro's Top 12 Most Ripped-Off Films of All-Time!
Who needs new ideas when you can just steal the ones from other people? Certain films became very popular amongst lazy filmmakers and/or film studios looking to make a quick buck. The fact is that certain films struck a certain chord with people and thus were popular targets. Let's take a look at those films. You should know all of these movies, but you may not really just how exploited they really were. * Just to note- I'm sure that there are some I missed. Feel free to tell me, of course, but just know that...well, I know too. * 12. Conan: The only thing more exploited than Cimmeria was this film! After the film became a surprise hit, a lot of companies made their own films. Some of them- like Beastmaster- were actually good. A lot of them were not. I present to you Ator, Yor and Deathstalker. All of these films- save for Yor, which is actually a show condensed into film form- are very transparent rip-offs. The scariest part- Ator and Deathstalker have three sequels, while Conan only has one! 11. Evil Dead: This is a more subtle one, but here me out. Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films did not inspire as many transparent copies, but the tonal change it brought to horror is unmistakable. After Evil Dead II, a ton of horror films suddenly tried to be 'funny' and 'campy.' The awkward part is that a lot of these films- i.e. Prom Night II, C.H.U.D. II- were sequels! Whatever floats your boat. 10. The Exorcist: Satan is not amused! In the wake of the monstrous hit that was The Exorcist, many films copied the film's plot. Where to begin? We have Turkish Exorcist aka Seytan, Abby, Beyond the Door, Exorcismo (with Paul Naschy) and Exorcisme (by Jesus Franco). On top of that, we have the more recent wave of 'Exorcism' films like The Last Exorcism, Legion: The Final Exorcism (The Asylum's rip-off) and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. We get it- it's a good movie! 9. Airplane: I am serious and don't call me 'Shirley.' After the Zuckers made this classic, a lot of films tried to copy it. Do I even need to give examples to you? Fine. Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie. As a bonus, I can even mention an early rip-off: The Big Bus. It's like Airplane, but it's on a bus and not as funny. The fact that only I remember this film should tell you something. 8. Gremlins: Puppets can only be scary so many times. In the wake of Gremlins, a lot of films copied the formula. That gave us such classics as Critters (all four of them), Hobgoblins (two of them), Ghoulies (also four) and, of course, Munchies. Do I even need to explain how bad this is? No? Good. 7. Night/Dawn of the Living Dead: Possibly the most famous rip-offs come from this movie. In fact, I did a whole Top 12 on these films in the past. Basically, Lucio Fulci was hired to make a film like Dawn of the Dead. This was followed by a number of generic films that did not relate, but did involve zombies. Well, except for Zombi 5: Killing Birds, which only had one. 6. Die Hard: You're welcome, every action movie from the last 20 years. What makes Die Hard so great is the simple scenario: a lone hero trapped in a location trapped with the enemy. As such, a lot of films ripped this premise off. We've had it on a train (Under Siege 2), on a boat (Speed 2) and even on a submarine (Under Siege). Hell, I'm almost surprised that it hasn't been done a flying building! 5. Halloween: Don't look now- that kid is planning to be ripped off! It's pretty safe to argue that we wouldn't have slasher films as they presently are without this film. Yes, a lot of the concepts are stolen from Giallo films, but this film stole it and made it popular here. Films like Prom Night, Friday the 13th and The Prowler copied a lot of this movie's formula. With a fourth Scream film out now, it's easy to see how long-lasting this film's legacy is. 4. Jaws: There's a rip-off in the water! Poor Peter Benchley lived long enough to see the film adaptation of his book ripped off a million ways to Sunday. There's Great White (sued into oblivion by Universal), Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws and Tintorera. On top of that, we have all of the non-shark rip-offs like Tentacles, Alligator (although this is good on its own), Crocodile and Grizzly. You're popular! 3. Alien/Aliens: Is anyone surprised to see this here? Both films have a ton of rip-offs, which is actually kind of funny. Yes, the two films are related, but they are also different genres (horror vs. action). For Alien, you have films like 1984's Creature, Forbidden World (fun nonetheless) and Unknown Origin (which also rips off The Thing). For Aliens, you have Xtro II, Leviathan, Deepstar Six and Bruno Mattei's Terminator II. Yeah, he was going to show up somewhere... 2. Star Wars: Remember when this series was good enough to rip off? In the ensuing years after Star Wars: Episode 4's release, a lot of films were 'inspired' by it. The famous ones include Starcrash, Battle Beyond the Stars and Message from Space aka Japanese Star Wars. If you want a more obscure one, check out Star Odyssey...or watch The Cinema Snob's review. It's better than watching the actual film, I assure you! 1. Mad Max/The Road Warrior: The 1980s tossed you around like the chick from The Accused. Italy exploited the hell out of the Aussie classic and made a laundry list of films ripping it off. They gave us films like Atlantis Interceptors, New Barbarians and Wheels of Fire. That's not to say that America didn't get in on the act. We get Spacehunter in the Forbidden Zone, Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared Syn and Steel Dawn. The future is coming on, it's coming on, it's coming on... For more film talk, go to my blog. Who else is going to review silent films about robots next month? Up next, with the release of Thor on the horizon, inspiration struck me. Which superheroes are likely to never get their own film? Stay tuned...
Comments
I'd take out Airplane, which is ITSELF the rip off of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. That whole style was first formed by Mel Brooks. Airplane brought a LOT to the table, but what it didn't bring was being the "first one". It basically rips off Blazing Saddles' style, and the majority of spoof movies do too.
Also, there are some I think you should have included but didn't - 2001, for example, has been ripped off from Alien to Star Wars to The Matrix to The Terminator to Blade Runner.
HOWEVER, it's mainly Alien and The Matrix, which directly ripped off 2001's "HAL9000" segment - a machine controls everything in the self contained area (Alien's ship, Matrix's Matrix), and is out to get them.
Although not direct, there are many, many spiritual rip offs of 2001. Oh, and Portal's plot is also ripping off 2001.
You just can't get enough of Kubrick can you?
2001 and Star Wars are nothing alike. Unless you think the rip off is that they are both in space. Plus Blade Runner was based on the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which came out before 2001.
Matrix's matrix was a fake world for humans when the machines used them for power when the Humans had no knowledge of it. HAL9000 was nothing like that.
There is a difference between a blatant rip off (like the ones for Star Wars) and similar ones.
You're so obsessed with Kubrick that I think if you ever heard Ric Flair's entrance theme you'd have an orgasm.
I could be wrong about this but the apocalyptic formula for movies probably began with A Boy and his Dog, So maybe the Road Warrior took inspiration from that movie, at least to a degree.
Great list, but I might as well point out my mom actually OWNS the Big Bus on DVD (and even she admits it's dumb).
Bulk reply time!
1. Feel free, Pharmmajor. I don't exactly own the rights to making lists. :-)
2. 'Airplane' was included because it is a parody of a direct film (Zero Hour), while 'Blazing Saddles' was a parody of a genre. You'd make a better case with 'Young Frankenstein,' although that movie's humor was based on it's overall plot, as opposed to lots of one-shot gags.
I do think it's a bit of a jump to say that all of those films ripped off '2001' myself. There's no need for that kind of arguing here. I think we can all agree that Kubrick made some good movies.
3. 'A Boy and His Dog' (as well as the original story) are notable for this, but 'Mad Max' here is because the other films ripped off not only the setting, but the action level, the vehicles, the outfits and the overall look.
For the record, I have seen 'A Boy and His Dog' and it is good. Weird, but good.
4. I guess statistically someone had to, Alexthed. I'm kidding, of course. I know it's on DVD, since that's how I saw it. :-)
If the pattern holds true, my comment will probably be the last one here. If so, I'll see you next week and thanks for reading.
I agree that alot of these films are complete ripoffs. Skyline is also a complete ripoff of better films, like ID4, District 9, Cloverfield, Spielberg's War of the Worlds, and a few others, and THAT movie suck more than a black hole.
Quick correction: 'The Big Bus' came out before 'Airplane'
TBB (1976)
AP! (1980)
A fine testament to unoriginality. If it's okay with you, would you mind if I did a companion piece on the most ripped-off video games?
Also, a few suggestions for heroes that will probably never get their own film: Moondragon, Zatanna, and Ant Man.