Many B-Movies seem to have similar plot developments to classic Hollywood movies, right down to following loosely the same script. Each major blockbuster that changes how Hollywood films are shot also seems to spawn an entire genre of B-movie imitations. Which ones do you think are most prolific, and which ones are your favorites?
Star Wars - Changed film forever, and for a period there were dozens of craptacular science fiction films with "wookiees", "light sabers", and "Darth Vaders". Examples include Starcrash, Message From Space, and those Italian films like War of the Planets
Alien - A crew trapped on a ship with a killer alien became something that could be done by the cheapest of film productions, you could even start filming before you finish the monster suit! Just get 8 actors and an abandoned building to be your "spaceship" or "underground research lab" and kill off people one by one. Examples include Hybrid, Alien 3000, and Creature. Of course, Alien itself is very similar to Planet of the Vampires...
Aliens - A whole mess of aliens, but noticeably harder to pull off unless you reused your two or three costumes with camera tricks. Not done as often but this genre can also blur into the Jaws genre with hordes of giant monsters. Examples include Shocking Dark, Caved In - Prehistoric Terror, and Pitch Black.
Jaws - It seems 90% of SciFi Channel's Creature Features that have only one monster just follow Jaws page by page, including the mayor/sheriff who doesn't believe the heroes, the baby monster killed when the real one is still out there, and refusing to shut down the beach/festival. Examples include King Cobra, The Last Shark, Shark Attack 3
Halloween - Started this whole slasher business, which is still going strong today. And yet many of them are terrible. Examples include Devon's Ghost, Freddy/Jason/Chucky/Leprechaun, and Sleepaway Camp.
Matrix - The most recent entry changed the way action films were made (in my opinion for the worse, but I digress) and now we get random films come out with actors always wearing sunglasses, suits, gun fu, crazily choreographed kung fu, and more bullettime than you can shake a stick at. Examples include Equilibrium, Ultraviolet, and Godzilla Final Wars.
Conan - Guy with sword running around date back to Hercules films, but became popular to do again after Conan. Heck, Ator is 99% Conan with a baby bear added. That's why we're using Conan as the archetype name. Examples include Barbarian Queen, Barbarian Queen II, and Barbarian.
Mad Max - Post-apocalyptic films are a fun genre, all you need is a desert, some crappy cars to customize, and actors dressed with whatever stuff you find lying on the side of the road. You can even up the ante by adding Terminator plot elements if you dare. Examples include Equalizor 2000, Wheels on Fire, Omega Cop.
King Kong - Giant monsters (either apes or lizards/other) running around fighting dinosaurs (sometimes) Those Bert I Gordon movies where random animals are blown up to giant size thanks to rear projection/walking on a post card also fall into this vein, and mankind's attempts to stop them thanks to stock footage or whatever military equipment they could rent that day. Examples include King of the Lost World, Beginning of the End, and Mighty Gorga
Night of the Living Dead - I personally am sick of zombie movies, but they are insanely popular now and anything with Zombie in the title will soon be known to legions of fans online.
Werewolf/The Fly - Our hero (or someone) slowly turns into a monster and cannot help himself. Examples include It Lives By Night, Mansquito, and Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy.
I myself love any of the Star Wars-type films, as goofy alien effects always make me laugh. Also, the various ripoffs of Alien can be very fun or very boring depending on how much action they throw in the film. Their main problem is boredom., if they can keep me interested, I will overlook the other flaws I am sick of films following Jaws by the numbers, and find it refreshing when they don't bother to add plot elements that everyone under the sun recognizes when they watch the film.
Any big ones I missed on this list?
As far as Alien ripoffs go, my all time favorite is Roger Corman's Galaxy of Terror.
Mebbe I'm wrong...but...
. FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and DRACULA (1931) started the big time bankability in "Horror" films.
. the WILD ONE-with Marlon Brando invented the rebel biker movie genre.
.Hammer's the CURSE of FRANKENSTEIN and the HORROR of DRACULA-added something we all now take for granted in horror films-BLOOD!!!
.SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAD ASS SONG- An all-black cast movie that got the major studio's to take notice.
.Lotsa people think that FISTS of FURY and the CHINESE CONNECTION were the first big kung Fu hits in the USA. Wrong! It was the 5 FINGERS of DEATH,released in 1972-and it was such a hit that Warner Bros. started importing Kung Fu movie's from the Shaw Bros.-including the two Bruce Lee movies! Warners finally decided to make their own...ENTER the DRAGON!
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDsijqqQBcg
Mine would be "Battle Beyond the Stars," which is a reworking of "The Magnificent Seven," which, of course, was a reworking of "Seven Samurai."
For a Roger Corman film, "Battle Beyond the Stars" has a preety good cast: Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughan, John Saxon, George Peppard, Darlanne Fluegel, Sybil Danning, Sam Jaffee, Jeff Corey, Morgan Woodward, and Marta Kristen.
"The Exorcist "was hugely influential in virtually all corners of the Earth.
Also, I've been getting in to the italian rip offs a little. I liked "ator, the fighting eagle" and "2019: after the fall of new york" which rip off conan and mad max respectively, and respectFUlly!
THE DIRTY DOZEN inspired several group-buddy war/cop pictures. My personal favcrite is MANKILLERS.
Easy rider inspired a wave of existentialist hippie road movies like Vanishing Point and Two Lane Blacktop.
Crime dramas in the Reservior Dogs/Pulp Fiction mode. Blame Tarantino for all the tough talking guys in black suits and shades spouting pop culture references. The big studios still copy these films also, but they also often adopt the storytelling structure, music, dark wit, or visual flare of those films, where the B movies just go for the look with outfits, poses, and gunplay.
I got sick of b-movies copying camera moves and gun poses from John Woo films, but that seems to have run it's course. Blame QT a bit for this as well.
I've seen a few crime films trying to copy Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels/Snatch crime caper/comedies, but nothing with any real style or wit. Guess real talent or originality would find it's own expression. Then again Guy Ritchie has turned out to be something of a one trick pony.
Quote from: Yaddo 42 on August 20, 2007, 11:24:48 PM
I've seen a few crime films trying to copy Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels/Snatch crime caper/comedies, but nothing with any real style or wit. Guess real talent or originality would find it's own expression. Then again Guy Ritchie has turned out to be something of a one trick pony.
Layer Cake was definitely on the level with Guy Ritchie's style but then again, he was adding a pop-culture spin on old Britcrime flicks like The Long Good Friday and Get Carter.
The "Da Vinci Code" is already sparking cheap ripoffs everywhere, on the bookshelves and on the screen - all repeating the same anti-Christian pseudo-historical crap. Don't even get me started!
There's nothing anti-christian about The Da Vinci Code. The book is commentary against those who use Christ name as a means to control and manipulate.
The only copy I can think of is National Treasure.
There is also The Asylum's The Da Vinci Treasure
and what abouth this:
(http://www.theasylum.cc/pictures/moviepics/transmorpherskey.jpg)
:buggedout: :bouncegiggle:
they only changed two letters in the title!!
Quote from: Him on August 22, 2007, 03:10:50 PM
There's nothing anti-christian about The Da Vinci Code. The book is commentary against those who use Christ name as a means to control and manipulate.
The only copy I can think of is National Treasure.
The whole point of the da Vinci Code is that "everything the New Testament tells us about Jesus is a lie." the problems is that virtually every so-called FACT that Teabing cites to Sophie and Langdon about the origins of Christianity, the assembling of the New Testament, the role of women in the early church, and the early testimony about Jesus is complete and utter
crap! Not a scintilla of truth to any of it - the whole idea that there were 80 Gospels and the church censored 76 of them, that the Council of Nicea voted "by a very narrow margin" to proclaim Jesus a God, that the Priory of Sion was an ancient society dedicated to preserving the bloodline of Christ - all of that was complete and total fiction, not to mention the assertion that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, which has no historical evidence whatsoever. The problem is that the average American is so ignorant about the origins of Christianity that he is willing to accept all these statements at face value. And no, I'm not defending some of the abuses of Catholicism (although the movie grossly exaggerated those too). I'm just saying that a "historical thriller" should, at some point, contain some accurate history. It would be like reading a historical novel about the Civil War in which Abe Lincoln is President of the Confederacy and Queen Victoria the President of the Union, and they're having an illicit romance . . . .
Quote from: Caronte on August 23, 2007, 04:51:56 PM
and what abouth this:
(http://www.theasylum.cc/pictures/moviepics/transmorpherskey.jpg)
:buggedout: :bouncegiggle:
they only changed two letters in the title!!
http://tarstarkas.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=451&Itemid=46
Also, here is a list of Aslyum copies I made a while ago: http://www.tarstarkas.net/blog/2007/01/18/the-asylum-megapost/
but it is out of date as they keep pumping them out.
thanks for the link! I'm gonna read it :cheers:
Quote from: indianasmith on August 23, 2007, 10:19:54 PM
Quote from: Him on August 22, 2007, 03:10:50 PM
There's nothing anti-christian about The Da Vinci Code. The book is commentary against those who use Christ name as a means to control and manipulate.
The only copy I can think of is National Treasure.
The whole point of the da Vinci Code is that "everything the New Testament tells us about Jesus is a lie." the problems is that virtually every so-called FACT that Teabing cites to Sophie and Langdon about the origins of Christianity, the assembling of the New Testament, the role of women in the early church, and the early testimony about Jesus is complete and utter crap! Not a scintilla of truth to any of it - the whole idea that there were 80 Gospels and the church censored 76 of them, that the Council of Nicea voted "by a very narrow margin" to proclaim Jesus a God, that the Priory of Sion was an ancient society dedicated to preserving the bloodline of Christ - all of that was complete and total fiction, not to mention the assertion that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, which has no historical evidence whatsoever. The problem is that the average American is so ignorant about the origins of Christianity that he is willing to accept all these statements at face value. And no, I'm not defending some of the abuses of Catholicism (although the movie grossly exaggerated those too). I'm just saying that a "historical thriller" should, at some point, contain some accurate history. It would be like reading a historical novel about the Civil War in which Abe Lincoln is President of the Confederacy and Queen Victoria the President of the Union, and they're having an illicit romance . . . .
You are nit picky unimportant details. Many of which are in dispute anyway. No one knows the exact origins of christ. The basic facts in the book are correct.
The New Testament isn't exactly an accurate source of historical facts either. Christ didn't write the new testament. It was written a century after his death by people who were trying to use his name as a means to control and oppress the the population. The bible has been re-interpreted so many times to suit the needs of whatever ruling party was in power at any given time. And people fall for it.