- Cloverfield
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- The Day the Earth Stood Still
- Transformers
Transmorphers and 20 other awesome sci-fi mockbusters
You know how they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Well, if that's true, then some low-budget filmmakers must sincerely want to flatter Hollywood's blockbusters a LOT!
Even for the movie business, where the film that came out this week is often a direct copy of a hit movie that came out last year, "mockbusters" are special—they're direct-to-video features specifically designed to take advantage of the buzz of a blockbuster. Sometimes the poster art is so close to the original it could almost fool people who want to rent the more famous film into picking up the wrong one by mistake ... or at the very least cause a double take, a groan or a laugh.
It goes without saying that most of them aren't very good, and are in fact usually awful—but that's okay, since some of the movies they rip off are awful, too, and the blurred carbon copies are awful at a much lower budget (often courtesy of the production house known as The Asylum). Here are some of our favorites.
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Transformers/Transmorphers
At least the second film takes place in the future, after the fall of civilization can explain away the loss of the fine art of competent editing.
Avatar/Princess of MarsThe box of the second film, loosely based on the Mars writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs,claims the same of Cameronâs film—which would certainly come as a surprise to him.
The Day the Earth Stood Still/The Day the Earth Stopped
In both, aliens come to Earth and issue edicts about how we have to behave if we want to keep on doing the old civilization thing, though the second adds 666 giant robots.
The Da Vinci Code/The Da Vinci TreasureAccording to both movies, Leonardo wasnât just, you know, painting stuff. He was sending us sneaky clues!
I Am Legend/I Am OmegaFairness decrees that we question the second filmâs status as true mockbuster, since itâs inspiredby the same Richard Matheson novel and must be judged as being an equally legitimate interpretation. If a cheaper one.
Snakes on a Plane/Snakes on a TrainItâs hard to tell which is more unlikely.
10,000 B.C./100 Million BCTheyâre really not all that similar, but they have that B.C. thing going ...
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem/AVH: Alien vs HunterIn both, one alien species stalks another while wide-eyed humans find themselves stuck in the middle. In the second, the alien critters are as close to the originals as the producers could manage without getting sued.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull/Allan Quatermain and the Temple of SkullsThis is not the first time Quatermain has been used as an Indy knockoff, since Richard Chamberlain starredin a couple of remarkably Indy-esque Quatermain adventures back in the 1980s.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose/Exorcism: The Possession of Gail BowersIn both films, supernatural forces act like squatters who have just found a nice, unoccupied apartment.
Cloverfield/MonsterIn both, shaky found footage documents the attack of a really, really big whatchamacallit. One takes place in New York, the other in Tokyo.
King Kong/King of the Lost WorldBoth involve lost lands infested by dinosaurs, giant insects and a grumpy giant ape ⦠which in the second film is destroyed by a handy nuclear bomb.
Pirates of the Caribbean/Pirates of Treasure IslandThe first is the latest adventure involving pirates who spend more time battling supernatural entities than sacking enemy vessels; the second, a prequel to the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, adds fantasy elements to compete, including a giant wasp.
Death Race/Death RacersBoth are car races that include killing the competition. The first takes place within a prison, the second cross-country. Oh, those wacky dystopian futures.
Land of the Lost/The Land That Time ForgotDinosaurs, dinosaurs, dinosaurs. Thatâs pretty much all you need to know in both cases.
Halloween/Halloween NightThe addition of ânightâ in the second movieâs title is helpful, since otherwiseweâd be bound to worry that the movieâs killer would be lurking in bushes at high noon.
Paranormal Activity/Paranormal EntityThe original may be the lowest-budget film ever to rate it own personal mockbuster. Congratulations, I guess.
The Hills Have Eyes/Hillside CannibalsBoth deal with the same supposedly true story of hapless innocents who find themselves stalked in the desert by inbred mutants eager for some human beef jerky, though the second has more to do with the descendants of the legendary cannibal Sawney Bean.
Speed Racer/Street RacerThe second film is a significantly grimmer affair, with prison sentences and illegal street racing, but the neon certainly shows up in time for the DVD box.
Terminator Salvation/The TerminatorsIn both films, plot concerns about machine-driven, soulless duplicates function as accidental film criticism.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen/Transmorphers: Fall of ManâItâs not a mockbuster! Our title makes no reference to revenge whatsoever!â
The Invasion/Invasion of the Pod PeopleWell, the second movie is actually closer to the source material (the various versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers) in that it actually has pods.
