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• • FBSDeMorgan

    Jul 30th 2012, 9:34

    Why is John Terry in La Regle Du Jeu?

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  • kshannon36

    Jul 30th 2012, 10:19

    The Matrix also ripped off the Deathstalker books. There is the imperial Matrix which is a virtual reality internet within the books. The books are pretty bad and the idea of a virtual reality internet is not original but not sure if the name is original to the books.

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  • kshannon36

    Jul 30th 2012, 10:22

    I would have thought that a film website would know la decima vittima and how it predates The Running Man, Battle Royale and The Hunger Games.

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  • 2Dglasses

    Jul 30th 2012, 11:18

    Good article, even if some are pretty open in their influences (Tarantino), and others celebrate them (chicken run). There are only 7 original stories so many plots are similar. Doesnt airplane have a 'based on Zero Hour' disclaimer in the credits? Seeing as how they bought the rights to the film to get it that close and didnt even change some characters names i dont think that one counts.

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  • andrewjones

    Jul 30th 2012, 12:07

    In the Manga of Battle Royale the events ARE televised...

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  • ANPCooper

    Jul 30th 2012, 12:47

    Good list although my personal pet hate rip off isnt mentioned: Dantes Peak is a direct, almost scene for scene rip off of Jaws - obviously without the shark but think about it. The young person who dies early at the hands of a nature based killer, the lone expert who knows whats going on but cant convince the small sminded locals to shut down the town (because of the tourists), the old sage who dies helping the hero. The eventual bittersweet escape.

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  • JudeM

    Jul 30th 2012, 13:20

    As concerns Bug's Life/Seven Samurai, the performers-as-mistaken-vigilantes theme was done in "Three Amigos" previously.

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  • Themouras

    Jul 30th 2012, 14:39

    "The Matrix" is definitely influenced by "Dark City", me thinks, and as for "The Incredibles" similarities with The Fantastic 4, how about adding "Watchmen" for the plot?

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  • Bhenn

    Jul 30th 2012, 14:52

    The 'Monkey Island' - 'Pirates of the Caribbean' is one I always like to point out but surely you need to mention that the game was inspired by the Disneyland ride. It's rip-off inception! Monkey island has a better sound track though.

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  • jotabonito

    Jul 30th 2012, 15:16

    There's a difference between rip-offs and pastiche. Things like the De Palma's carriage and the Odessa Steps scene are clear pastiche. An entertaining read though.

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  • ME24601

    Jul 30th 2012, 15:22

    Since when is Cars a great film?

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  • Ichi1

    Jul 30th 2012, 16:48

    "The cry of a thousand bloggers earlier this year - it's just Battle Royale!" More like the cry of a thousand wannabe movie hipsters who forget movies like The 10th Victim, The Most Dangerous Game, and (the best of the bunch) Punishment Park. But hey, Tarantino never said he wished he made those movies....he wished he made Battle Royale, so of course that one must be the bestest and most original...the one that started it all.

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  • BlueCallum

    Jul 30th 2012, 17:16

    Battle Royale is a satire of the Japanese System of Education where students always need to be the best among the best to be able to attain a good status in the society. In the original novels, the battle royale are partly televised.

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  • tejovideo

    Jul 30th 2012, 19:03

    "the Dark Knight Rises" steels the plot from "The World is Not Enough": both have the main villain turning out to be the henchman of the girl we thought was on the good side.

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  • upstreamtuna

    Jul 30th 2012, 20:00

    This list is absolute b******t. Half of the time the movies accused had lawsuits against them, the other half you just threw some movies together that 1 or 2 aspects of other movies, or usually Twilight Zone episodes. Of thats so, then I am Legend is a ripoff of the episode where there is only 1 man left on the earth... See how stupid that sounds?

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  • StevePotter

    Jul 30th 2012, 21:25

    Pssh. Everyone knows that "The Dark Knight Rises" ripped off the iconic bomb scene from Adam West's Batman. Boo. Zero Stars.

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  • alexlestark

    Jul 31st 2012, 0:05

    Useless trivia: in one episode of Angel (Buffy spin off) the team is about to be assaulted by a lot of different types of demons who are after Angel´s Newborn baby, when Codelia sees that Wesley and Gunn are pre-warming, she asks what are they doing and Wesley answer " Trying to imagine myself as John Wayne in Rio Bravo" and then Gunn "Austin Stoker. Assault on Precinct 13".

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  • alexlestark

    Jul 31st 2012, 0:07

    I didn´t notice that the comments are global for the entire list, my previous post is about the item 27 in the list (Assault on Precinct 13/Rio Bravo rip off)

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  • willow138

    Jul 31st 2012, 12:48

    the Shinning : it was the bathroom not the bedroom, just saying

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  • acrestare

    Aug 3rd 2012, 15:22

    Could have sworn Inception would be deemed a ripoff of The Matrix, but I guess it's off something else.

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  • allykatharvey

    Aug 3rd 2012, 15:35

    Richard Gere is the king of the American remake. He starred in "Shall We Dance", which is a mere ghost of the Japanese original and "Breathless" which is a classic in the original French. Does impersonation count here such as Captain Hook played as Terry Thomas by Dustin Hoffman in "Hook"?

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  • ansatsuse

    Aug 3rd 2012, 17:51

    Probably is just a coincidence, probably not, but "the spark of originality" of Inception (and the rest of the movie) is not original at all, that came from the anime masterpiece Paprika

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  • Yari9274

    Aug 3rd 2012, 18:19

    The remake goes full circle: Ferngully - The Last Rainforest (1992), Avatar (2009), Epic (2013). Animated Feature Film, CGI/Live-Action, Animated Feature Film.

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  • TinEar85

    Aug 3rd 2012, 18:59

    Intriguiging list. To further prolong the speculation, I'm pretty sure that Inception is a rip off of an old Max von Sydow movie called DreamScape from '84, not Scrooge McDuck, Matrix, or "Paprika." Watch the two back to back and you can't miss the similarity. And speaking of Sydow, I always thought The Shining (originally a Stephen King book, of course) was influenced by Bergman' s Hour of the Wolf.

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  • MadMatt

    Aug 4th 2012, 15:50

    TinEar85, you beat me to it! Unsurprisingly Total Film were very easy on golden boy Nolan here. People often mention, Paprika, Total Recall and The Matrix as 'influences' on Inception, so the decision to highlight a Disney comic strip for kids seems designed to make accusations of plagiarism appear petty. Anyone who likes Inception, please go and watch DREAMSCAPE, directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Dennis Quaid. It pre-dates both Paprika and Inception, and is about a team of people entering people's dreams to manipulate them. Sound familiar? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCrtOAC-wsE

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  • impossiblefunky

    Aug 5th 2012, 12:05

    Wow. I have so many problems with this list, I don't know where to begin. There are certain obvious homages that are given/known where I would think that these supersede any kind of "accusation" of being a rip-off such as Chicken Run and A Bug's Life. Meanwhile, if we're to play strictly by the rules of this article there are dozens of films that were not accredited "remakes" that fit the bill and are missing from the list. To return to A Bug's Life, it's just one of several films that uses the structure of The Seven Samurai including The Magnificent Seven and Battle Beyond the Stars. Also, when someone pays for the rights to remake a film, it shouldn't be "accused" of being a rip-off. I'm thinking specifically of the Zero Hour / Airplane! connection. There are also some more obvious entries and comparisons such as The Terminator stemming not from the Outer Limits episode but from Cyborg 2087. Additionally, there are too many items on the list that are one scene or image rather than the entire plot of the film. The Odessa steps sequence found its way into more films than just The Untouchables -- have you seen Brazil? Let's not forget the innumerable Bollywookd and HK -- ahem -- adaptations of other works. The Bollywood version of Old Boy will probably be far superior to Spike Lee's.. If we're to follow the logic of this article then it glaringly omits 12 Monkeys "ripping-off" La Jetee, Return of Dracula "ripping off" Shadow of a Doubt, Pulp Fiction "ripping off" about a half dozen other films (have you seen You're Still Not Fooling Anybody?), Chocolate "ripping off" Big Top Pee Wee, Tango and Cash "ripping off" Jackie Chan's Police Story, Dune "ripping off" Star Wars (though the Dune books were started a decade before Star Wars' release), and so on. Even the language of the headline -- "accused" -- is so milquetoast. There's no doubt that Reservoir Dogs took from Ringo Lam's City on Fire. There's no "accusation" about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HgbSAL8OKY .

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  • impossiblefunky

    Aug 5th 2012, 14:21

    BTW, it's Robert Bresson, not Besson.

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  • FBJSchjelderu

    Aug 11th 2012, 18:40

    The Wachowskis have been completely open with the fact that they borrowed a LOT from other sources, so I've never understood why The Matrix is accused of being a rip-off. Just look at the bonus material on the DVD. It's a movie that borrows a lot from a lot of other sources, and comes out as a greater product all its own thing.

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  • FeloniousMax

    Sep 10th 2012, 15:26

    Inception has quite a few similarities with Paprika.

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  • theelninokidd

    Sep 11th 2012, 2:58

    You really have to click on 50 different pages to read this list? Not worth the time, totalfilm

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  • pencilpictures

    Sep 19th 2012, 8:43

    Just one pedantic comment: 'jidai-geki' actually means 'period drama' and has nothing to do with samurai (although they often feature in such drama).

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  • pencilpictures

    Sep 19th 2012, 10:10

    Eragon is about a farm boy brought up by his uncle in an outpost of an evil empire. When his uncle is killed he leaves with a wise old wizard who teaches him to use a force of nature called 'the magic'. Whilst trying to join the rebels he gets waylaid trying to rescue a princess (who is incidentally caught trying to transport some secret rebel plans) form the clutches of an evil wizard also with the power of the magic, only the 'dark side'. Needless to sy he has the help fo the wizard and a pirate to do this. Need I go on? Surely this should be No 1!

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  • gregwlocke

    Oct 7th 2012, 22:21

    How about Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing? Or even Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdon and Godard's Pierrot le fou? David Gordon Green's George Washington and Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven? Tony Scott's True Romance and Terrence Malick's Badlands? I could go on!

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