Standalone Movies That Are Similar To Another Franchise

[Roo Returns]

Had this discussion with a friend, you ever see a movie and think it could have basically been written as (insert) Hollywood Franchise or for a particular character.

I'll give some examples:

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors-Basically an X-Men movie with characters that have powers and take on a villain in a dream. This movie was very 80s and the actors actually resembled how some of the X-Men characters were drawn at the time (Rogue, Legion, Dazzler).

Law Abiding Citizen-I always think of this as a Batman movie where Jaime Foxx is Batman and Colm Meaney is Robin.

Master And Command-An underrated movie that one critic called "The Best Star Trek movie of the last 20 years" This movie is based on Horatio Hornblower and the book series and obviously Russell Crowe is Kirk and Paul Bettany is McCoy, but it shares a common lineage to the Nicholas Meyer Star Trek films which are all nautical and Hornblower influenced.

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[Jumptheshark]

Had this discussion with a friend, you ever see a movie and think it could have basically been written as (insert) Hollywood Franchise or for a particular character.

I'll give some examples:

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors-Basically an X-Men movie with characters that have powers and take on a villain in a dream. This movie was very 80s and the actors actually resembled how some of the X-Men characters were drawn at the time (Rogue, Legion, Dazzler).

Law Abiding Citizen-I always think of this as a Batman movie where Jaime Foxx is Batman and Colm Meaney is Robin.

Master And Command-An underrated movie that one critic called "The Best Star Trek movie of the last 20 years" This movie is based on Horatio Hornblower and the book series and obviously Russell Crowe is Kirk and Paul Bettany is McCoy, but it shares a common lineage to the Nicholas Meyer Star Trek films which are all nautical and Hornblower influenced.

the sneak attack by Khan on the Enterprise comes straight from a hornblower book. But it was an English vessel attacking a French Vessel

 

[crump]

Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter" was a lot like the "man with no name" franchise.

Wizard of Oz could be like the Lord of the Rings franchises. Imagine wizards, flying monkeys, talking lions, living scarecrows, mechanical men, munchkins and witches done up in Ring franchise costumes, dark cinematography and Celtic soundtrack

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

big trouble in little china is basically a better mortal kombat

 

[Player big P]

Ip Man 2 is pretty much just Chinese Rocky IV

 

[Jumptheshark]

Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter" was a lot like the "man with no name" franchise.

Wizard of Oz could be like the Lord of the Rings franchises. Imagine wizards, flying monkeys, talking lions, living scarecrows, mechanical men, munchkins and witches done up in Ring franchise costumes, dark cinematography and Celtic soundtrack

if you read the L Frank Baum books you will see JRR stole ideas from him

 

[CalderSchmalder]

lots of game of thrones rip offs these days

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

lots of game of thrones rip offs these days

what do you call a dothraki riding a squid?

khal amari

 

[Roo Returns]

the sneak attack by Khan on the Enterprise comes straight from a hornblower book. But it was an English vessel attacking a French Vessel

What book? Really curious and would love to read this summer. Nicholas Meyer was big on using classical literature themes so it doesn't surprise me. He also basically unofficially created the "What If...?" which Marvel would later make into a comic series; What if Watson and Sigmund Freud teamed up (Seven Percent Solution)? What if HG Wells had to track down Jack The Ripper (Time After Time)? Star Trek IV is actually similar to Time After Time in some ways.

Also yeah, Mortal Kombat basically takes ideas from Enter The Dragon (old man running a corrupt tournament on an island, movie star allied with the protagonist, etc.) and Big Trouble In Little China (old man is immortal using magic, Raiden, etc.)

 

[Osprey]

Out to Sea and The Odd Couple II were pretty much Grumpy Old Men Parts 3 & 4, but with different names given to the Lemmon and Matthau characters. It's particularly the case because The Odd Couple II is more like Grumpy Old Men than it's like the original 'Odd Couple'. In fact, the whole plot of The Odd Couple II involves one's son marrying the other's daughter, which is a significant subplot of Grumpier Old Men. The two made at least eight films together over 30 years, but those four were all hammered out one after the other from '93 to '98 and followed the same blueprint that made Grumpy Old Men a surprise hit in '93.

What book? Really curious and would love to read this summer. Nicholas Meyer was big on using classical literature themes so it doesn't surprise me. He also basically unofficially created the "What If...?" which Marvel would later make into a comic series; What if Watson and Sigmund Freud teamed up (Seven Percent Solution)? What if HG Wells had to track down Jack The Ripper (Time After Time)? Star Trek IV is actually similar to Time After Time in some ways.

Gene Roddenberry was really the one behind the nautical inspiration in Star Trek. He created it to be "Hornblower in space." Meyer probably accepted the job because he could relate to that, even though he'd never seen Star Trek, and took Roddenberry's idea even further by literally borrowing from Hornblower.