I like that movie, but it's a ripoff of a better one

[mjbethancourt]

Originally Posted by kelvin555

I am Legend, in my opinion Omega Man was better.

Yeah. Both campy, but 'Omega Man' has more charm and better direction, and of course, the incomparable Charlton Heston.
Did you ever see Yul Brynner's post-apocalyptic vehicle 'The Ultimate Warrior'? It's the origin of a lot of post-apocalyptic cliches, and is the source of a lot of elements of the video game "Fallout 3", (can't speak for the other fallout games, as I haven't played them).

Tommyboy81
Throw Mother from a Train was a rip on Strangers on a Train

I thought that was really cute the way they played the internal reference to 'Strangers on a Train'. Both movies are great, and it shows how the same basic story can play to completely different genres. I think 'Throw Momma from the Train' is a hilarious film. Me and my friends and family still quote that movie all the time.

And now Inception will be a Dark City/Matrix rip. Yep I'll hear it.

Is it too late to start laying friendly wagers on that? Hahaha, I'm sure you're probably right.

[P@t_Mtl]

A lot of stories, books, movies will be rip-off to something else at one point or another. We are greatly influence by the things we read and see as we grow up. These days I find most of Hollywood to be a bit lazy however with all these re-make/reboot/re-start or whatever you wish to call them.

The main thing is how original you can make look something that was already done once in your own way. An example of Magnificient Seven. Moving the setting from 17th century Japan to 19th century western america. If you manage to make it look fresh and gave it a new twist, sure the audience will still know that it was done before (well most of the time) but they will still go on the ride with you. That being said, I have to add the following. Seriously most of the kids these days are so clueless and are so taken by rip-off that I doubt they can realise that it was done before. Just in music, how many times have I heard some of the young guys at work "WOW! This song is so cool this rapper is great" only for me to go "you do know that this song was written by Supertramp back in 1974 right?" and have them go "who is Supertramp?". So I find now that they get taken to quickly by certain things that are remake because they have a total lack of knowledge about what happen before they were born. We live in a society of "15 minutes attention span".

[mjbethancourt]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

The main thing is how original you can make look something that was already done once in your own way...

...An example of Magnificient Seven. Moving the setting from 17th century Japan to 19th century western america. If you manage to make it look fresh and gave it a new twist, sure the audience will still know that it was done before (well most of the time) but they will still go on the ride with you.

Oh, I absolutely agree. All of the basic stories have already been told, what is truly important is what you are using that story to say. Salvador Dali made a lot of paintings with the story of William Tell as the theme. Was it because he ran short of original ideas? No, he revisited the theme many times, because he was comfortable using it to tell a story about himself. That's what I meant about art being autobiographical: even in telling somebody else's story, an artist is really using it to share something about himself.

So, there are good imitations, and there are vulgar and exploitative ones. Sadly, the crass often outnumber the gems.