Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes. When a writer sits down to form a script,
they could get their ideas from any number of sources. If they’re writing an adaptation, the book or
story that they’re basing their script on is the inspiration. There are movies that take their basic
premise from other movies, though, and those are the movies most important to a
discussion about bad movies.
Over the years, there have been many touchstone moments in
the history of cinema that caused studios and writers to think “Oh, that’s a
good idea.” They then put their heads
together and imitated what they thought was good to produce other, usually
lesser, versions of the same thing. They
want to cash in on a popular idea that viewers enjoyed and don’t always pay
attention to their own cheap copy.
That’s how you end up with things like this week’s movie, Screwballs, where you can see the
influence, but the quality just isn’t there.
Screwballs was a
1983 movie released in the popular wave of Porky’s. It took much of its sensibilities from the
Canadian teen sex comedy, and tried to make its own magic. That never really worked, leaving a
lackluster black hole of laughs. Nothing
really landed. There were five teenagers
trying to see the breasts of the school’s most beautiful student. Their antics led to a lot of nudity, and a
lot of detention.
The inspiration that Screwballs
got from the success of Porky’s
wasn’t the only time in history that a movie’s popularity has led to imitators
throughout the business. Ignoring the
practice of mockbuster filmmaking (sorry, The Asylum!), there have been many
times throughout cinema where one movie hit it big and other producers decided
that the time was right to make similar films.
It happened in the early years of Hollywood, when studios would search
for stars similar to other popular stars, in order to cash in on the money that
other studios were making. But, in the
case of Screwballs, it was a specific
movie that became popular that led to its creation. The producers wanted a movie that was nearly
the same because people liked it the first time.
Those trends inspired by the popularity of one movie
inspired the idea of looking at some of the instances where that happened. The Sunday “Bad” Movies haven’t shied away from
trends. Movies have been covered that
fit into the trends, whether as sequels to the popular movies, or as cash-ins
meant to make money off of the success of the first movie. No matter what the situation, the movies were
reactionary products to success as everyone wanted a piece of the pie. Here are some of the most notable.
Jaws
Steven Spielberg has been a major force in film since the
1970s, churning out hit after hit. Even
if the movies weren’t hits, they were almost always notable for what they added
to the cinematic landscape. The film
that made him was 1975’s Jaws, a
movie about a shark attacking the shores of an island during the Fourth of July
celebrations that brought many tourists to their beaches. It seems only fitting that this movie is
brought up now, as we approach that time of year.
Jaws, along with a
movie that will come up soon, helped to usher in the blockbuster era of
Hollywood filmmaking. They proved that
summer could be a profitable season for movies, particularly ones with action
sprinkled in. With the popularity that
it gained, many movies came out with similar stories. Animal attack movies became quite the rage,
with movies like Grizzly being
released. There were even more in the
aquatic vein.
One of the more famous examples of movies that took the Jaws fame and went with it to try and
make money was Piranha. From the direction of Joe Dante and the
production of Roger Corman came a movie about a bunch of piranha killing people
at a resort. It wasn’t on the same big
budget level as Jaws, instead going
for the cheap and easy Roger Corman B-movie style. Universal considered putting out a lawsuit
against it because of how closely it mirrored the concept of Jaws, though they ultimately did not.
Another example, and one that was a part of the Sunday “Bad”
Movies was Orca, from 1977. It was adapted from a novel, meaning it
wasn’t just taking the Jaws story and
fitting it with another creature. It
definitely got made because of Jaws,
though. After seeing Jaws, producer Luciano Vincenzoni wanted
to make a similar movie with a creature that could be seen as tougher than a
shark. An author named Arthur Herzog had
a novel about a killer whale called Orca,
and they settled on that. The movie was
about a killer whale causing destruction in Newfoundland as revenge for the
death of its mate. People didn’t like
it, but it has since gained a cult following and a place in the history of Jaws.
Star Wars
The other movie that helped to bring about the rise of
blockbuster films in Hollywood was Star
Wars, the 1977 George Lucas space opera.
People went back to the theater time and time again to see Luke, Han,
and Leia fight Darth Vader. The two
movies that followed, The Empire Strikes
Back and Return of the Jedi, were
just as popular. There’s a reason that
the franchise is still such a huge force in movies, and it all comes down to
the success of that first film.
No success is without its imitators, though, and there were
many movies that came out in the wake of Star
Wars, capturing whatever audience they could. One of the most notable instances was the James Bond franchise, which frequently
tried to capitalize on what was popular.
That happened with Live and Let
Die, when it took inspiration from the Blaxploitation trend in cinema. When Star
Wars came out, the people behind James
Bond decided to make a space action movie of their own and came out with Moonraker. That wasn’t nearly the only movie to take
from Star Wars.
The Sunday “Bad” Movies began many years ago with a post about
whether a movie could be so bad that it was good. The movie that made that post possible was Starcrash. It took many story elements from Star Wars. There were a pair of smugglers who helped to
overthrow an evil Emperor. There was a
prince, instead of a princess. There was
a robot helping the good guys. There
were lightsabres. It’s hard to deny that
this movie was made to capitalize on the success of Star Wars. It wasn’t the
only movie in the trend to make space operas.
It’s the one most relevant to this blog, though.
Other notable examples of movies made to play off of the
success of Star Wars include Battle Beyond the Stars, a science
fiction version of the Seven Samurai
story, and Turkish Star Wars, which
literally took imagery from Star Wars
and placed it into the movie. There were
many more as people realized that outer space was a viable setting for making
money.
Die Hard
Moving ahead a decade, Die
Hard was released in 1988. Bruce
Willis starred as John McClane, a New York police officer trapped in a Los
Angeles building during a heist on Christmas Eve. While everyone else had been taken hostage,
McClane was moving around the building trying to subdue all of the thieves, one
by one. It became one of the pinnacles
in action film history, causing all kinds of filmmakers to try and recapture
its magic.
The success of Die
Hard spawned a whole subgenre of action movies called “Die Hard in a…” movies where the stories would be similar to Die Hard, except in different
locations. Action stars who weren’t
Bruce Willis tried their own versions of the Die Hard formula. Steven
Seagal had his two Under Siege
movies. One of them involved terrorists
taking over a ship, and the main character had to take them down to save the
other people on the ship. The other did
the same thing on a train. Keanu Reeves
was in Speed, where a terrorist took
control of a city bus, and Keanu Reeves had to save the people in it. There wasn’t the take down all of the
terrorists element, but people still considered it Die Hard on a bus.
We’re now thirty years out from the release of Die Hard and movies still manage to come
out that use similar concepts. A few
years ago, there were two White House based movies where terrorists took over
and took hostages, and one person had to try and save everyone by taking down
the terrorists. White House Down and Olympus
Has Fallen each found an audience, though only one of them got a
sequel. The Marine franchise even took a couple swings at the Die Hard formula, with the second movie
being the closest to Die Hard. Ted DiBiase Jr. was at a vacation resort when
terrorists took over and took hostages.
He fought them one by one to free the hostages. It was WWE’s Die Hard.
Comedic versions keep coming out as well. Two Paul
Blart: Mall Cop movies are out there, which basically put Kevin James into
the John McClane role. In the first
film, he was the security for the West Orange Pavilion Mall. When thieves showed up on Black Friday to
steal credit card information, he took them down and freed the hostages they
took. In the sequel, he went to a
security convention in Las Vegas and prevented an art heist while saving his
daughter. They aren’t the only Die Hard style comedies, though. Earlier this year, Netflix released Game Over, Man!, an action comedy from
the guys behind Workaholics. Adam DeVine, Anders Holm, and Blake Anderson
played three hotel employees who took down terrorists who took over the
hotel. It played on the raunchy side of
things, but still had something in common with the Paul Blart movies: the Die
Hard formula.
Die Hard has been
influencing movies for thirty years.
Since its release in 1988, up until Game
Over, Man! earlier this year, there have been movies coming out with the
same formula as Die Hard. Terrorists or thieves take hostages and one
action hero must take them down to free the people in an action
extravaganza. What will be the next
movie to come out with that concept? Who
knows?
Iron Man
The Marvel Cinematic
Universe was born with the release of Iron
Man in 2008. After watching Robert
Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark fight for his life and his company, audiences were
brought into the credits. Little did
they know that Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury was going to walk out of the
shadows and tell Tony Stark that he was making a team, ushering in the Avengers era of superhero films. This was a big moment for superhero movies,
but an even more important point in Hollywood films as a whole.
Film universes had existed in the past. The Universal monsters crossed over in some
movies. Kevin Smith was also doing his
whole View Askew thing with Jay and Silent Bob in the 90s and 00s. There had been universes before. Even Transformers
had a universe built with the Friday the
13th remake, since there was a character who appeared in both
films. Marvel wasn’t the first universe
in movies. It was the most influential,
though.
Since the release of Iron
Man and the success of every Marvel film after that, studios have looked in
the direction of film universes. Some of
them have not come to fruition, but a few of them have graced the screens with
varied amounts of success. There were a
few superhero universes that were attempted, with the DC film universe going
okay right now. That one is currently
five movies deep. There’s also the X-Men universe, which consists of all of
the X-Men movies and Wolverine movies, as well as the two Deadpool movies. Fant4stic
was supposed to fit in there, but the critical and commercial failure of the
movie, with the luck of it not tying directly into the rest, allowed Fox to
just pretend it wasn’t a thing.
The biggest failure in the film universe world was the Dark Universe. Getting personal here, I kind of liked what
they were going for. Universal was
trying to bring back their monsters of the 1920s – 1950s in a new universe
way. This is the kind of universe that I
would like. It was horror, adventure,
and had some interesting actors. Minus the
whole Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man
thing. I could have done without
that. Only one movie was made in the Dark Universe, 2017’s The Mummy, before everyone on the
creative team jumped ship. The Mummy wasn’t nearly as bad as people
made it out to be. It was a relatively
fun film with some interesting universe building. It didn’t go over well with most though, and
the universe was discontinued.
As for other universes, there are some that have been
rumored to be in development for some time now.
The one that comes to mind first is the Hasbro universe. Hasbro wanted to cross over some of their big
franchises, most notably Transformers
and GI: Joe. This would create some cross-pollination as
Optimus Prime would now be able to fight alongside Duke, Snake Eyes, and the
many other characters in those movies. M.A.S.K., Micronauts, Rom, and Visionaries are rumoured to also be a
part of the Hasbro universe.
Throughout film history, there have been certain properties
that created a ripple effect throughout the industry and caused other, similar
ideas to come to fruition. Jaws, Star Wars, Die Hard, and
the Marvel Cinematic Universe are
only a few of the examples out there.
There are numerous others out there that could be discussed. These were four of the most notable examples,
and four that could tie into the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
Alongside these trends in film themes, there are also the
instances of mockbusters, where companies try to associate their movie as close
as possible to one coming out around the same time. Metal
Man hit the superhero trend, ripping right off of Iron Man. Transmorphers did the same for Transformers. These are a different breed of film
though. Whereas the inspired by movies
are taking a story and using it as a basis to make something new that feels the
same, the mockbusters try to trick people into thinking they are the same. That’s two different mindsets that lead to
similar end points.
Screwballs was the
result of the popularity of Porky’s. It wasn’t a mockbuster. They weren’t trying to confuse people into
seeing it by branding it as Perky’s
or something of that nature. It was
another movie that could be seen alongside Porky’s
as a sort of companion piece. It was
continuing the type of movie that Porky’s
had popularized. Maybe the filmmakers
would get a little bit of money out of it.
That doesn’t matter now. They
were inspired by another movie, and that other movie created a trend. That’s what matters. Trends exist.
What will be the next?
And on that question, let’s get to the notes:
- Movies that were mentioned in this post included Orca (week 144), Starcrash (week 1), The Marine 2 (week 30), Fant4stic (week 172), Metal Man (week 79), and Transmorphers (week 130).
- Have you seen Screwballs? What did you think about it? How do you feel about the trends that happen because of the popularity of one movie? Let me know in the comments.
- Any suggestions about what I should watch for future Sunday “Bad” Movies weeks can be left in the comments or on Twitter. I’m always trying to put some movies that I might not have thought of into the mix so that it’s not just me influencing what gets discussed. Give me suggestions.
- Sometimes, I will watch bad movies and share bits and pieces of them on Snapchat. If you want to share in the bad movie fun, add me on Snapchat (jurassicgriffin). Other things get shared there too.
- I’m going to stick around 1983 for another week of the Sunday “Bad” Movies. That’s right. Two weeks in a row, the blog will be featuring a movie from 1983. Next week, I will be writing something based on the film D.C. Cab. See you next Sunday for that one.
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