The Greatest Movie Rip-Offs

My nomination, although I adore the film, but "Short Circuit" rips off "E.T. The Exterrestrial" so badly at times. The scenes with Ali Sheedy and Number Five are practically carbon copies. Ali Sheedy even sounds like Eliot! But I love both movies.

 

You like the derivitive-ness of Short Circuit? Then pick up those dice, and roll yourself right on to Short Circuit II. Also I haven't been able to take Sheedy since Wargames (saw Breakfast Club first, 'tho...).

 

Star Wars:The Force Awakens ripoff of Star Wars: A New Hope.
Star Trek: Into Darkness rips off Star Trek:The Wrath Of Khan.
Shameful.

 

She's cute, but that little boy voice starts to get to you. Like dating a chipmunk.

 

Actually the quintessential E.T. ripoff was "Mac and Me". Essentially the same theme, and oversaturated with product placements... it doesn't get any cheesier.

 

The House by the Cemetary is veeeery much like The Amityville Horror combined with elements from The Shining. Only that it's a bad movie.

 

reminds me of this...every time Paul Rudd was on Conan O Brien's old show he'd bring a clip of his new movie, which always turned out to be a scene from "Mac and Me".

 

Rear Window and Disturbia (2007)

Not that I would call Disturbia great...

 

Interstellar borrows the basic plot structure of 2001: A Space Odyssey and replaces the latter’s stark minimalism with developed characters and sentimental themes. They’re both great movies that do totally different things with a similar premise, but there definitely seems to be some borrowing on the part of the Nolan brothers.

 

Vertigo and Obsession

 

Yes, absolutely shameful...the lowest points in two of my all time most-beloved series.

 

Eragon was a less obvious rip-off of Star Wars.

 

Spaceballs rips off Star Wars:.

 

In the late '70s and early '80s there were many sci-fi/fantasy movies that were ripoffs of Star Wars. Some were blatant.

 

Also, in the '80s, after the success of Platoon, we had a lot of Vietnam War movies that would be considered ripoffs or at least an obvious attempt to cash in on its success, with just different characters and battle locations. Though, to be fair, some of those movies were actually good movies and stories too.

 

What about the movie Paul?

 

Never Say Never Again was a rip-off of Thunderball.

jerol

 

Did Space Balls rip off Star Wars, or just pet it the wrong direction?

 

Your first example is definitely apt. I'm not sure about your second example. Into Darkness certainly rehashes elements from both Space Seed and Wrath of Khan, and there are callbacks, but overall, the stories are dissimilar.

If films within same franchise count, there are a multitude of sequels that rehash films in the same franchise. Just to name a few:

Escape from New York and Escape from L.A.

Home Alone and Home Alone 2

The Hangover and The Hangover Part II

Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part III

The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Some of these sequels are better than others, in my opinion. Structurally, T2 is a near-remake of the first film, but it is still a very good action film.

 

Body Double manages to rip off both Rear Window and Vertigo. Some would say it is an homage, but I don't think so.

 

While the stories overall may be dissimilar, I was very put off by the re-tooling of iconic scenes, dialog, etc., particularly the scene where Kirk dies instead of Spock.

There were more examples that I can't remember now (I've only seen Into Darkness once) but recall thinking "is this the best they can do? I've seen this before..." many times while watching it.

I thought it was lazy writing which lacked any sort of creativity to simply clone iconic moments/scenes with 'a twist'. The results were disappointing IMO.

 

I was working in downtown Toronto when they filmed "Short Circuit II" and remember seeing several models of the main robot stuffed haphazardly in the back of a beat up pickup truck which I thought was kind of ironic.

 

lol

 

Blow Up.....Blow Out, homage
ps maybe my fav depalma flick