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Blatant Ripoff/Cash-In Movies

post #1 of 207
8/27/07 at 3:27am
Thread Starter 
So, I was at Suncoast yesterday (Saturday) when I spied this little gem:

http://www.amazon.com/Ratatoing/dp/B000PWRBSM

Quote:
WOW.

I've seen alot of ripoff movies in my time, but this takes the cake.

What are the most insultingly obvious ripoff movies you've seen? Have you ever watched any? What'd you think?

P.S. Examples like "Urban Legend TOTALLY rips off Scream" need not apply. I'm talking about REALLY ripoff. Ratatoing-levels. Movie By The Guy Who Helped Devin Move-levels.
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post #2 of 207
8/27/07 at 3:37am
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post #3 of 207
8/27/07 at 3:37am
Have you been to Blockbuster lately?
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post #4 of 207
8/27/07 at 3:39am
Snakes On A TRAIN.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0843873/
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post #5 of 207
8/27/07 at 3:44am
Not sure if they count, but pretty much anything from the folks at Seduction Cinema. (The makers of The Erotic Witch Project, Mummy Raider, The Sexy Adventures Of Van Helsing (?!!), Spider-Babe and Kinky Kong.)
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post #6 of 207
8/27/07 at 4:42am
Back when CON AIR was out (either on video or in theaters, I can't remember), I remember seeing a VHS case for a movie starring Robert Davi that pretty much had the same box cover. 3 floating heads above a plane engulfed in hellfire. I think it's this movie here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0147868/

Also, when American Pie and American Beauty became big hits, I remember seeing a case for a movie featuring Mena Suvari called American Virgin. I guess it was released in 2000. I'm sure the movie itself wasn't a cash-in, but I'm fairly certain the video release was. The box cover features Suvari prominently though the IMDB page lists her credit near the bottom.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0143422/
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post #7 of 207
8/27/07 at 7:27am
Speaking of American Pie...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377116/
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post #8 of 207
8/27/07 at 7:35am
That crappy War of the Worlds with C Thomas Howel
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post #9 of 207
8/27/07 at 8:20am
Released at the same time Peter Jackson's remake came out:
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post #10 of 207
8/27/07 at 9:18am


Fully half of what you see on the shelves at Blockbuster is bullshit like this. Who rents these? Is the general public that fucking stupid and undiscriminating?


SPOILER: Yes.
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post #11 of 207
8/27/07 at 9:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashxking2001
That crappy War of the Worlds with C Thomas Howel
How about the even crappier War of the Worlds, directed by Timothy Hines?
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post #12 of 207
8/27/07 at 9:51am
A couple of titles have been mentioned from this company already, but most of the stuff that Asylum makes is totally for cash-in purposes. Movies mentioned are Snakes on a Plane, Pirates of Treasure Island, and King of the Lost World. They are a pretty shameless company and put out other obvious rips/cash-ins like "When a Killer Calls" and "Exorcism: The Possession of Gail Bowers".

They even had the balls to put out stuff like "The Da Vinci Treasure".
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post #13 of 207
8/27/07 at 10:15am
Have any chewers watched these? Are they as cringe-worthy as their covers convey?
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post #14 of 207
8/27/07 at 11:05am
Thread Starter 
Transmorphers actually piqued my interest a little bit. Not, like, legitimately, but in a "how bad is it" way.
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post #15 of 207
8/27/07 at 11:15am
Anything by Asylum Studios is a rip off. They make their money because of people who don't speak the language and because of people who do speak the language, but are stupid.
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post #16 of 207
8/27/07 at 11:27am
I worked at Suncoast for two years in the late 80s, and all you need to do is hit their budget section to find some of the cheesiest rip offs on earth. We had tons of unhappy customers trying to return videos that they thought were the actual movie they wanted for the miraculous price of $9.99.
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post #17 of 207
8/27/07 at 12:17pm
I don't know what you're talking about. Ratatoing is a great addition to Brad Bird's oeuvre.
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post #18 of 207
8/27/07 at 12:25pm
This thread sounds like something that would be once again right up Moltisanti's alley.
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post #19 of 207
8/27/07 at 12:26pm
I saw a guy furiously arguing with a big store dept. employee because he thought this he had just bought...



...Was the DVD release of Pirates of the Caribbean. At World's End. And I swear to Caviezel it was around early May or something!!


(not that it was a ripoff obviously, but tell me where the fuck do you see multi-million dollar-grossing, worldwide ultra-popular Johnny Depp here)
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post #20 of 207
8/27/07 at 12:30pm
Asylum is the biggest offender (Invasion of the Pod People???). Roger Corman's various production companies attempted these type of things back in the day, but ended up with some entertaining flicks despite (Piranha, Carnosaur, etc). Asylum has yet to end up with anything worthwhile really.

Because of Alien's genre-defining success, the scifi/horror "killer-alien" category exploded with clones like Creature, Inseminoid, Contamination, Creepozoids, Xtro, etc.
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post #21 of 207
8/27/07 at 1:59pm
Films called Flight 93 and The Zodiac Killer were all over the place a little while ago.
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post #22 of 207
8/27/07 at 2:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xagarath Ankor
Films called Flight 93 and The Zodiac Killer were all over the place a little while ago.
And Black Dhalia had some imitators.

But yeah, I recently saw Curse of the Zodiac and Zodiak perusing the video store as well.
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post #23 of 207
8/27/07 at 2:31pm
Bruce Campbell's TORNADO

and

Y2K: THE MOVIE
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post #24 of 207
8/27/07 at 2:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8
Asylum is the biggest offender (Invasion of the Pod People???). Roger Corman's various production companies attempted these type of things back in the day, but ended up with some entertaining flicks despite (Piranha, Carnosaur, etc). Asylum has yet to end up with anything worthwhile really.

Because of Alien's genre-defining success, the scifi/horror "killer-alien" category exploded with clones like Creature, Inseminoid, Contamination, Creepozoids, Xtro, etc.
I completely agree with Darkmite. I can't go into a rental store without seeing the new movie that they put out that is a rip off of something just released, or about to be released.
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post #25 of 207
8/27/07 at 2:59pm
HAHAHAHAHAHA.


Transmorphers trailer:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2-6XdiR1iI


HAHAHAHAHAHA.
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post #26 of 207
8/27/07 at 3:11pm
Also:

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post #27 of 207
8/27/07 at 3:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xagarath Ankor
Films called Flight 93 and The Zodiac Killer were all over the place a little while ago.
In fairness, I don't think the FLIGHT 93 movie was a rip-off, as such. It was a TV movie that was produced at virtually the same time as UNITED 93, and it actually premiered in the US several months before the latter hit cinemas. I don't think the producers were looking to cash in on the box-office clout of Paul Greengrass.
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post #28 of 207
8/27/07 at 3:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neal
*snicker*
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post #29 of 207
8/27/07 at 3:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Detonathor
*snicker*
I've actually seen it. More boring than I expected. Too many scenes of people standing around and talking (eating up the running time, because robots are expensive).

I wanted a "so bad it's good" ironic viewing experience, and didn't even get that enjoyment. Roger Corman, where are you?
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post #30 of 207
8/27/07 at 3:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LinusUK
How about the even crappier War of the Worlds, directed by Timothy Hines?
Possibly the worst film of the New Millinium..so far.
Yes,the Howell WOTW was a bad,ripoff movie,but Hines WOTW is bad beyond belief. It has to be seen to be believed.
Bad amateur actors with Phony British Accents,hopelessly inept special effects, and scene after scene of actors just walking around the Washington State countryside (very badly standing in for the English Country side) are just a few of the factors that make this amateur level atrocity a true horror.
And to make it worse,this fiasco guaranteed that no one else will attempt a version of WOTW that retains the original Victorian England setting for a long,long,time to come.
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post #31 of 207
8/27/07 at 4:10pm
Disturbia. I'm baffled as to why anyone went to see this awful waste of time.
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post #32 of 207
8/27/07 at 4:21pm
Disturbia is a blantant modern day update/rip-off of Rear Window, sure, but hardly falls into the catagory being discussed here.
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post #33 of 207
8/27/07 at 4:24pm
I loathed Disturbia. It was a piece of crap masquerading as a homage. At least the films being discussed in this thread know they're pieces of crap.
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post #34 of 207
8/27/07 at 6:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Minsky
I loathed Disturbia. It was a piece of crap masquerading as a homage. At least the films being discussed in this thread know they're pieces of crap.
Not really sure how something that comes out 53 years after the movie it's a semi-remake of can be considered a cash-in.
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post #35 of 207
8/27/07 at 6:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cow Puncher
Not really sure how something that comes out 53 years after the movie it's a semi-remake of can be considered a cash-in.
Are you a big fan of Disturbia? Did I hit a nerve there?
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post #36 of 207
8/27/07 at 6:53pm
Not many people know this but "HEAT" is actually a blatant rip-off of a much superior movie called "Manhunter" from the 80s.

I swear it even has some of the same dialogue and character names.

I can't believe that Michael Mann managed to get away with this, but I guess not everyone is as sharp as myself when it comes to these things!
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post #37 of 207
8/27/07 at 7:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Minsky
Are you a big fan of Disturbia? Did I hit a nerve there?
Nope. Afraid you'll have to go somewhere else to find someone who gives a shit about Disturbia. I was just pointing out that it didn't really meet the criteria of the thread.

I do like that Disturbia seems to have driven you to Howard Hughesian levels of insanity, though.
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post #38 of 207
8/27/07 at 7:04pm
I threw my urine jar at the screen.
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post #39 of 207
8/27/07 at 7:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian Challis
In fairness, I don't think the FLIGHT 93 movie was a rip-off, as such. It was a TV movie that was produced at virtually the same time as UNITED 93, and it actually premiered in the US several months before the latter hit cinemas. I don't think the producers were looking to cash in on the box-office clout of Paul Greengrass.
Rather unfortunate coincidence in that case, no?
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post #40 of 207
8/27/07 at 8:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xagarath Ankor
Rather unfortunate coincidence in that case, no?
Possibly, but I remember there being pretty prominent ads for the Flight 93 version right before United 93 was about to come out on DVD, despite the fact that the Flight 93 version had been out for quite a while.

That's probably the store trying to take advantage rather than the production company, though.
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post #41 of 207
8/27/07 at 8:20pm
What the hell was that giant lizard movie Fox put out when the '98 Godzilla was released? Now that was some high quality rip-off material.
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post #42 of 207
8/27/07 at 8:54pm
I remeber there being a rash of one word titled cheapie movies bassed on serial killers floating around. Like there would be on Ted Bundy, Richard Speck, The Hillside Stranglers and the like.
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post #43 of 207
8/27/07 at 9:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken
I remeber there being a rash of one word titled cheapie movies bassed on serial killers floating around. Like there would be on Ted Bundy, Richard Speck, The Hillside Stranglers and the like.
One of those Ed Gein movies was one of the worst things I've ever seen.

I say "one of" because I can't remember which one it was. Just that it was about Ed Gein and really, really terrible.

And while I can't speak to the film being a ripoff as I haven't seen it, I remember years ago seeing a movie called "Ratz!" at Blockbuster and the cover on the VHS box was pretty much a ripoff of the Mallrats VHS box.

It was sort of surreal and odd and terrible all that once.
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post #44 of 207
8/27/07 at 10:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bitches Leave
Not many people know this but "HEAT" is actually a blatant rip-off of a much superior movie called "Manhunter" from the 80s.

I swear it even has some of the same dialogue and character names.

I can't believe that Michael Mann managed to get away with this, but I guess not everyone is as sharp as myself when it comes to these things!
I don't even know where to begin.
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post #45 of 207
8/27/07 at 10:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Myers


Is it directed by Bay's non-union Mexican equivalent, Miguel Bae?
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post #46 of 207
8/27/07 at 10:58pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ari!
What the hell was that giant lizard movie Fox put out when the '98 Godzilla was released? Now that was some high quality rip-off material.
Ohhhhh... Giganticus? Gigantosaurus? Gigantor?

I know what it is, I just don't remember! Gah!
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post #47 of 207
8/28/07 at 11:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti
I don't even know where to begin.
Yeah I know! I was shocked when I found out too!
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post #48 of 207
8/28/07 at 6:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ari!
What the hell was that giant lizard movie Fox put out when the '98 Godzilla was released? Now that was some high quality rip-off material.
Gargantua. I can't remember if I actually watched any of it, but I remember laughing at the commercials. Not long before that, I also remember enjoying the commercials for the terribly original Tornado!
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post #49 of 207
8/30/07 at 6:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Resurrection Bob
Gargantua. I can't remember if I actually watched any of it, but I remember laughing at the commercials.
Ya beat me to it, and it's yet to hit DVD (sad that I know that...).
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post #50 of 207
8/30/07 at 7:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bitches Leave
Not many people know this but "HEAT" is actually a blatant rip-off of a much superior movie called "Manhunter" from the 80s.

I swear it even has some of the same dialogue and character names.

I can't believe that Michael Mann managed to get away with this, but I guess not everyone is as sharp as myself when it comes to these things!
I think what Bitches was trying to say was that HEAT was the remake of a T.V. movie Mann did in the late 80s called L.A. Takedown which featured the same characters and plot.
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