What are your favorite "shameless rip-off" movie titles? Some of mine are:
* EVIL DEAD TRAP
* ALIEN CONTAMINATION
* EXORCISM AT MIDNIGHT
* HOUSE OF EXORCISM
* DAWN OF THE MUMMY
* SECOND HOUSE FROM THE LEFT
* NEW HOUSE ON THE LEFT
* LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET
* ANY MOVIE TITLE WITH "BRUCE LEE" IN IT, EXCEPT FOR THE MOVIES THAT HE WAS ACTUALLY IN
The straight-to-video shelf is usually full of movies with similar titles or similar box art to better-known movies. I just can't think of any at the moment.
What gets me is when companies cash in on movies depicting historic events with names that can't be copyrighted. When a movie like Titanic or Pearl Harbor or Sea Bisquit comes out, it is inevitable that someone will toss together a cheap documentary with the same title and market it in similar packaging. Shameless.
Then there is:
* Alien Predator
* Alien Teminator
* The Last Jaws (Apparently the West German title for L' ultimo squalo (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0081677); I had thought it was released over here with that name.)
* Garden of the Dead
* Dawn of the Mummy
* Return of the Aliens: the Deadly Spawn
* Zombi 2 (Better known as Zombie. In Italy it was presented as a sequel to Dawn of the Dead, which was called Zombi when released in that country. This is not an uncommon practice, apparently, as it happened to Alien (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0078749), too.)
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Don't forget all the erotic direct-to-video thrillers that came out in the wake of BASIC INSTINCT. I'm thinking specifically of ANIMAL INSTINCT and its sequels, but there were dozens of others.
Sergio Martino's Terminator-inspired film HANDS OF STEEL (1986) was released in some Asian markets as THE RETURN OF THE TERMINATOR! Talk about a title!
There's one video at my local store whose title eludes me, but the font is a direct ripoff of Raiders of the Lost Ark (I think it's called Robbers of the Lost Tomb or something like that).
Along the lines of Chris' contribution, MST3K favorite "Pod People" was also released as "Return of ET."
Bruno Mattei's NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES/HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD. Both titles are rip-offs of a better-known (and better-made) zombie film.
At a local store I saw a DVD with a collection of fantasy characters (elves and such) looking out from the cover and the title was Legend of the Rings.
"Evil Ed"
.... I think.
Not to mention "Dumb and Dumberer" which had nothing more than the title and lead character names in common with the first movie.... >.>
although the title isn't the same, the movie fast and the furious is a complete rip off of a great hong kong film legend of speed
god how i wish the writers would come up with something original
few days ago I saw a pretty bad Indian film called "Lady Terminator" on the shelves at the movie store.
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god how i wish the writers would come up with something original>>
Kind of like Reservior Dogs is a ripoff of the last part of City on Fire.
(sorry if someone already posted this)
ALIEN TERMINATOR (corman flick)
On the other hand, there are a lot of porno films with relatively clever ripoff titles -- like the Sopornos (never seen it but the title cracks me up). Plus many years ago one of the first porns I ever saw was a ripoff both in title & plot of 9 to 5 -- it was called 8 to 4!
Bernie wrote:
> On the other hand, there are a lot of porno films with
> relatively clever ripoff titles -- like the Sopornos (never
> seen it but the title cracks me up). Plus many years ago one
> of the first porns I ever saw was a ripoff both in title & plot
> of 9 to 5 -- it was called 8 to 4!
Exactly! This is so good, I'm starting another thread devoted to it!
My favorite: "Claws," which was a ripoff of "Grizzly," which was a ripoff of "Jaws." Gotta love those ripoffs.
Bruno Mattei's ALIEN/TERMINATOR rip-off SHOCKING DARK (1989) was released on Italian video as TERMINATOR II, way before the real sequel was made by James Cameron.
jgfj
Talking about dumb porno-titles how about these:
Plan 69 from outer space
Shaving Ryan's Privates
Mortal Cumbat
Womb Raider-Haven't seen this but the titel cracks me up everytime I spot it in the video store.
Do pornos really count?
then there were the ever lovin' classics:
Hannah Does her Sisters
Backside to the future
Wet dream on elm street
and many more....
I've seen one movie at the store called, "Warnings" and its about mysterious crop circles in some guys field. Guess which movie they ripped off. Not surprisingly it stars one of the baldwin brothers.
Well, since we were talking about porn titles that rip off the titles of better films, here's my (Ahem! Cough! Cough!) laundry list of them.
My Bare Lady
Sex Family Robinson
One Million A.C./D.C.
Pray for Rosemary's Beaver
Flesh Gordon
Lust Horizons
The Sexorist
Naughty Network
Pink Lagoon
Every Which Way She Can
The French Lieutenant's Boys
Beyond the Valley of the Ultra Milk Maids
On Golden Blonde
Fleshdance
Flashpants
First Times at Cherry High
Sperms of Endearment
E.T.: the Extra . . . .
Romancing the Bone
I must admit these are from "Song of Golden Turkey Awards" by Harry and Michael Medved. One would think they would award their award to "Pray for Rosemary's Beaver" or E.T.: the Extra . . ." as the T no longer stands for terrestrial, but something that rhymes with terrestrial, but, they award it to "Beyond the Valley of the Ultra Milk Maids."
We've got the upcoming pseudo-prequel to "Ginger Snaps" called ...
"Ginger Snaps Back."
I keep thinking of Chris Rock from "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (another contender) saying "George Lucas is gonna SUE somebody's ass!"
Take it and run.
Man, some of the titles I've seen are sooooo poor! I mean, how about these for porno ripoffs...
The Erotic Witch Project
Fister of the North Star
Driving Miss Daisy Crazy
The worst i've seen didn't even try...Erotic tomb Raider...lazy sods!
Some of the mainstream ripoffs suck just as much...
Spiders - Ripoff of Eight-legged Freaks. Except there are only 2 spiders in the film.
The Ring - Watered down, made-easier-to-digest, can-only-understand-it-if-wide-screen rip from the Japanese "Ring" trilogy, except without as much atmosphere.
Halloween 3 The Season Of The Witch - Nothing to do with the previous Halloween films.
Psycho Cop - Ripoff of Maniac Cop
House of the Evil Dead - For shame!
Live action version of Fist of the North Star - Poor, with most of the main characters missing, including Ray and Ken's own brother and arch villain Roah!
The Blair Witch Project - VERY similar plot line to Cannibal Holocaust, especially the finding of the tape that explains what happened to the original explorers, making for an UNoriginal film.
Return of Spinal Tap - spotted on the crap shelf in a video store.
I'll keep my eyes open for more of these atrocities!