Originality is overrated
by karlee1981 | created - 15 Jul 2014 | updated - 02 Nov 2016 | PublicThese homages/ripoffs are (in my opinion) nearly as good as, as good as, or better than the originals.
If you don't see the connections, watch the movies back to back. Have a theme night.
Twelve Monkeys does acknowledge Le Jetee in the opening credits.
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1. Persona (1966)
Not Rated | 83 min | Drama, Thriller
A nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand
Votes: 130,733
2. 3 Women (1977)
PG | 124 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Two roommates/physical therapists, one a vain woman and the other an awkward teenager, share an increasingly bizarre relationship.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Janice Rule, Robert Fortier
Votes: 17,254
I like it better. There, I said it.
3. Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
TV-PG | 283 min | Drama
Ten years within the marriage of Marianne and Johan.
Stars: Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Bibi Andersson, Gunnel Lindblom
Votes: 17,259
I admit that much of this list is about Woody Allen being in love with Ingmar Bergman.
4. Husbands and Wives (1992)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When their best friends announce that they're separating, a professor and his wife discover the faults in their own marriage.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Sydney Pollack, Judy Davis
Votes: 31,187 | Gross: $10.56M
5. Wild Strawberries (1957)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Romance
After living a life marked by coldness, an aging professor is forced to confront the emptiness of his existence.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand
Votes: 114,852
6. Another Woman (1988)
PG | 81 min | Drama
Facing a mid-life crisis, a woman rents an apartment next to a psychiatrist's office to write a new book, only to become drawn to the plight of a pregnant woman seeking that doctor's help.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Gena Rowlands, Mia Farrow, Ian Holm, Blythe Danner
Votes: 15,034 | Gross: $1.56M
Woody loves Wild Strawberries.
7. Deconstructing Harry (1997)
R | 96 min | Comedy
Suffering from writer's block and eagerly awaiting his writing award, Harry Block remembers events from his past and scenes from his best-selling books as characters, real and fictional, come back to haunt him.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Judy Davis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Stephanie Roth Haberle
Votes: 47,775 | Gross: $10.69M
Woody loves other aspects of Wild Strawberries.
8. Autumn Sonata (1978)
PG | 99 min | Drama, Music
A devoted wife is visited by her mother, a successful concert pianist who had little time for her when she was young.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman, Halvar Björk
Votes: 37,725
9. September (1987)
PG | 83 min | Drama
At a summer house in Vermont, neighbor Howard falls in love with Lane, who's in a relationship with Peter, who's falling for Stephanie, who's married with children.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Elaine Stritch, Denholm Elliott, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest
Votes: 10,403 | Gross: $0.49M
10. Cries & Whispers (1972)
R | 91 min | Drama
When a woman dying of cancer in early twentieth-century Sweden is visited by her two sisters, long-repressed feelings between the siblings rise to the surface.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Harriet Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin
Votes: 36,934 | Gross: $1.74M
11. Interiors (1978)
PG | 92 min | Drama
Three sisters find their lives spinning out of control in the wake of their parents' sudden, unexpected divorce.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Diane Keaton, Geraldine Page, Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt
Votes: 20,918
12. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
PG | 122 min | Drama
Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden
Votes: 114,244 | Gross: $8.00M
13. Blue Jasmine (2013)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A New York socialite, deeply troubled and in denial, arrives in San Francisco to impose upon her sister. She looks like a million dollars but isn't bringing money, peace or love.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard, Sally Hawkins
Votes: 212,437 | Gross: $33.41M
14. La Dolce Vita (1960)
Not Rated | 174 min | Comedy, Drama
A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux
Votes: 78,112 | Gross: $19.52M
I didn't like La Dolce Vita
15. Celebrity (1998)
R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama
The fortunes of a husband and wife differ drastically after they divorce.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Judy Davis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Greg Mottola
Votes: 28,394 | Gross: $5.03M
I also didn't like Celebrity. Woody really nailed it.
16. Chinatown (1974)
R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez
Votes: 349,439
17. Superman (1978)
PG | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
An alien orphan is sent from his dying planet to Earth, where he grows up to become his adoptive home's first and greatest superhero.
Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando
Votes: 187,343 | Gross: $134.22M
Admittedly, Lex Luthor's evil plot was only a small part of the movie. Still, that small part was pretty much a big, actioney, comic-bookey ripoff of the villains' plan in Chinatown. They could've even had Lex say that he got the idea from watching Chinatown. Or if he was too proud to admit it, Miss Teschmacher could've pointed it out.
18. The Ref (1994)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A cat burglar is forced to take a bickering, dysfunctional family hostage on Christmas Eve.
Director: Ted Demme | Stars: Denis Leary, Judy Davis, Kevin Spacey, Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.
Votes: 26,536 | Gross: $11.44M
19. American Beauty (1999)
R | 122 min | Drama
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley
Votes: 1,209,735 | Gross: $130.10M
Obviously American Beauty is about twenty times better, but the seed of the movie is obviously there in The Ref.
20. Gunga Din (1939)
Approved | 117 min | Adventure, Comedy, War
In 19th century India, three British soldiers and a native waterbearer must stop a secret mass revival of the murderous Thuggee cult before it can rampage across the land.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Votes: 12,791
21. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
PG | 118 min | Action, Adventure
In 1935, Indiana Jones is tasked by Indian villagers with reclaiming a rock stolen from them by a secret cult beneath the catacombs of an ancient palace.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri
Votes: 534,801 | Gross: $179.87M
22. Burnt Offerings (1976)
PG | 116 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A family moves into a large old mansion in the countryside which seems to have a mysterious and sinister power over its new residents.
Director: Dan Curtis | Stars: Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, Eileen Heckart
Votes: 13,589
23. The Shining (1980)
R | 146 min | Drama, Horror
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
Votes: 1,104,927 | Gross: $44.02M
King and Kubrick probably never even saw Burnt Offerings. And if they did, they only improved on the ideas.
24. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 498,678
25. Back to the Future Part II (1989)
PG | 108 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
After visiting 2015, Marty McFly must repeat his visit to 1955 to prevent disastrous changes to 1985...without interfering with his first trip.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Tom Wilson
Votes: 571,864 | Gross: $118.50M
26. Planet of the Vampires (1965)
Not Rated | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
After landing on a mysterious planet, a team of astronauts begin to turn on each other, swayed by the uncertain influence of the planet and its strange inhabitants.
Director: Mario Bava | Stars: Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, Ángel Aranda, Evi Marandi
Votes: 6,986 | Gross: $0.25M
27. Prometheus (I) (2012)
R | 124 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Following clues to the origin of mankind, a team finds a structure on a distant moon, but they soon realize they are not alone.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron
Votes: 643,587 | Gross: $126.48M
28. Pennies from Heaven (1981)
R | 108 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
During the Great Depression, a sheet-music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent schoolteacher.
Director: Herbert Ross | Stars: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Harper, Vernel Bagneris
Votes: 6,165 | Gross: $9.18M
29. Dancer in the Dark (2000)
R | 140 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
An Eastern European US immigrant with a love for musicals has to cope with the gradual loss of her vision.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare
Votes: 116,697 | Gross: $4.18M
30. The Dark Knight (2008)
PG-13 | 152 min | Action, Crime, Drama
When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine
Votes: 2,866,824 | Gross: $534.86M
31. Skyfall (2012)
PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Judi Dench
Votes: 730,612 | Gross: $304.36M
32. The Big Sleep (1946)
Passed | 114 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail and what might be love.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers
Votes: 90,449 | Gross: $6.54M
33. The Big Lebowski (1998)
R | 117 min | Comedy, Crime
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi
Votes: 859,408 | Gross: $17.50M
34. The Naked Prey (1965)
Approved | 96 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
During the 1800s, a safari guide, two elephant hunters and their crew run into trouble with the natives in the South African veld when they refuse to offer gifts to the tribesmen.
Director: Cornel Wilde | Stars: Cornel Wilde, Gert van den Bergh, Ken Gampu, Patrick Mynhardt
Votes: 5,870
35. Apocalypto (2006)
R | 139 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, a young man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Max Trujillo, Dalia Hernández, Rudy Youngblood
Votes: 330,913 | Gross: $50.87M
36. Blind Chance (1987)
Not Rated | 114 min | Drama, Romance
Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski | Stars: Boguslaw Linda, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Boguslawa Pawelec
Votes: 11,185
37. Run Lola Run (1998)
R | 80 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
After a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks.
Director: Tom Tykwer | Stars: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri
Votes: 206,818 | Gross: $7.27M
It's really only the alternate realities premise that they use.
...It's also used in Sliding Doors, but f~(< that movie.
38. Blow-Up (1966)
Not Rated | 111 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A fashion photographer unknowingly captures a death on film after following two lovers in a park.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle
Votes: 67,581
39. Blow Out (1981)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz
Votes: 63,090 | Gross: $13.75M
While Blow-Up is an artsy tour of swinging 60's London in which the plot doesn't really matter, Blow Out is more of a straight-forward Hitchcockian thriller.
40. Dressed to Kill (1980)
R | 104 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A mysterious blonde woman kills one of a psychiatrist's patients, and then goes after the high-class call girl who witnessed the murder.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon
Votes: 48,134 | Gross: $31.90M
A Ripoff of a Hitchcock movie. I won't say which one because it would ruin the big twist at the end of Dressed to Kill, or even (God forbid) the Hitchcock film if you've only seen Dressed to Kill. It also steals a memorable sequence from De Palma's earlier film, Carrie.
41. Body Double (1984)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A young actor's obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby leads to a baffling series of events with drastic consequences.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Gregg Henry, Deborah Shelton
Votes: 38,053 | Gross: $8.80M
Body Double is actually a sleazy, hyper-sexed mash-up of two Hitchcock films. Again, I won't say which ones. While some aspects of the movie don't hold up and some plot points are easy to see through, I think it adds enough of it's own unique touches that it becomes worth a viewing. I think Hitchcock would be amused, if not proud.
42. Nosferatu (1922)
Not Rated | 94 min | Fantasy, Horror
Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder
Votes: 105,301
Nearly a century later, filmdom's first unauthorized rip-off is still better than any movie with 'Dracula' in the title.
43. Stranger Things (2016–2025)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl.
Stars: Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, David Harbour
Votes: 1,333,012
E.T., Poltergeist, Stephen King (especially IT, Firestarter, and The Mist), A Nightmare on Elm Street, Goonies; Stranger Things is a gloriously unoriginal Hodge Podge. So why do I love Stranger Things when hodge podges like Black Swan and Crimson Peak drive me mad with rage? It's because Stranger Things isn't trying to get away with anything. You know going in that it's an 80's homage, the show is stealing from well known movies, and they sprinkle direct nods to the originals throughout the series. They're not just stitching together the best bits from older, less-known movies and waiting for clueless kids to lap it up.
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