By Rob Bricken in
Daily Lists, Movies
Thursday, May. 21 2009 @ 5:00AM
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James Cameron's The Terminator is not only a classic movie but a low-budget filmmaker's wet dream. This is because the recipe that Cameron concocted for Terminator is simple -- evil robot, damsel in distress, some guns, some mildly competent make-up FX, synthesizer music, a beefy European who can't act, and set to boil in an abandoned factory or vacant building and voila -- but with an immense potential for box office success, meaning that countless filmmakers have copied it for their own. Of course, very few people are the cinematic chefs that Cameron is, and thus, their Terminator-inspired usually end up less as "modern sci-fi classics" and more as "horrible, shameless rip-offs." Here are the 10 worst offenders.
10) Nemesis
Nemesis, made in 1993, is the actually most intentionally fun movie of the bunch. The story of a half-cyborg police officer questioning his humanity while chasing down a rogue ex-partner in the bleak future has some fun and inventive action scenes, including one where our hero shoots his way through several floors, Looney Tunes-style. It's not a cinema classic by any stretch but a damn fun couple of hours and let's face it, Tim Thomerson just makes every movie a little classier.
9) Crash and Burn
Directed by Charles "Full Moon" Band, 1990's Crash and Burn should be called Bait and Switch. It's video box and trailer promise tons of giant mecha action, but the majority of the contents feature a predictable game of cat and mouse with a killer cyborg in a futuristic TV station which looks suspiciously like a crappy old factory. You do get to see the giant robot go into action at the end but it leaves you wondering if it was at all worth it. (Answer: it wasn't.)
8) Class of 1999
A sequel in name only to Class of 1984 (although it has the same director) and made in 1992, Class of 1999 takes place in a bleak future America, full of gang-controlled hot zones. The "Department of Education of Defense," led by a scenery eating Stacy Keach, installs a series of cyborg teachers into the classrooms, including one that likes to give spankings (no, seriously). Of course, something goes wrong and the teachers become killing machines. The 1994 sequel Class of 1999: The Substitute is essentially the movie The Substitute with a killer cyborg, which sounds far better than it actually is.
7) TC 2000
"Tae Bo" shill Billy Blanks stars in this futuristic 1994 opus rocking his best "Kid N Play" hairdo. The world has once again gone to shit and everything is settled with martial arts fights in factories and warehouses. Somewhere in between the endless fight scenes, Billy's partner is turned into a cybernetic killing machine. Many of this film's stars are competent martial artists, which explains the incompetency of the acting.
6) Automatic (1994)
Nemesis star Oliver Gruner certainly found a niche playing cyborgs, as he also stars in this 1994 film as "The J Series Automatic." "The Automatic" accidentally kills an executive of his company who was trying to rape a woman, forcing the two of them to flee for their lives. The rest of the film devolves into low-rent chase scenes and action sequences, predictably.
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35 comments
Comments
Merle said:
"A movie that dared to combine kick boxing, terminators and dinosaur puppets into one incredible cinematic masterpiece!"
You forgot lots and lots of empty boxes
Sappy404 said:
"American Cyborg : Steel Warrior (2003)"
"In this '92 flick..."
sorry for pointing this out. I'm as big a pedant as I am a nerd.
Oddly enough, IMDb lists this as being from 1993, with a release date in 1994. I assume all of these discrepancies are as a result of some kind of time-traveling continuity-muddling cyborg, sent back in time to confuse me.
Siskoid said:
Honorable mention to the Robocop trailer's use of the Terminator music.
varrior said:
Robocop vs. Terminator movie? Amirite?
Joel Wyatt said:
What's kind of funny is that a bunch of these straight to video crapfests delivered on what a bunch of people at the time wanted out of T2 - namely, a whole film about the "future war".
Now, every time I see a commercial for McG's "official version", I feel like I'm watching a preview for one of the movies above, just w/ better effects. Like a sci-fi version of "Grindhouse".
Leppy said:
One of my favorite top 10 lists you've made so far although i'm afraid you missed out on one movie.
That movie is R.O.T.O.R.!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbCsKFY7NxM
Sean said:
Good list, but there was one blatant omission.
Abraxas. Jesse Ventura and Sven-Ole Thorson! And Jim Belushi for some reason.
Gareth said:
I came here to say what Leppy said. I was expecting R.O.T.O.R. to be somewhere on this list, and am disappointed it didn't make it.
This movie has to be seen to be believed. It is the Gymkata of Terminator rip-off films.
THE PR0F3550R said:
And now the film/book that Mr. James Cameron ripped off to make his Terminator franchise...
Michael Crichton's Westworld. While the overall concepts are technically different on the surface in that Westworld is a theme park gone wild and the Terminator is a military A.I. gone wild, if you look deeper you will see that Terminator just rips it off on so many levels. First, the A.I.s become smarter and turn against their creators. Secondly, the Gunslinger character giving chase to the main protagonist is an unstoppable force that kills anyone in its way that tried to prevent it from completing its mission of killing Sarah/John Connor, I mean Peter Martin.
Still I like both films a lot.
El Diablo said:
I am surprised Donthedragon Wilson wasn't in all of these 'movies'?
chad said:
nice list. proves that once something is a hit sooner or later others will try to cash in on it. even badly for most of those films i hoped never to remember again till i saw this list. and loved that a mst300 episode made the list.
AlexB said:
Ahh, Future War. I'm happy to see it at the top of this list. "Captain Polaris..."
Toxic said:
The novel Children of Men was based on came out in 92... so American Cyborg is more like the "just different enough so we don't have to pay royalties" version of Children of Men...
ThatCostumeGirl said:
Is '84 the punk kids versus the music teacher movie with M.J.Fox thrown in for good measure? That was one f*ed up movie. It's the reason why I didn't take shop class.
Templar said:
Fun fact: The "cheap photocopy of Van-Damme" later turned up as Agent Johnson in The Matrix Reloaded. Yes, folks, that's Future War's nameless protagonist kicking the crap out of Laurence Fisherbourne atop a speeding semi.
Cmdrfrog said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison#The_Terminator
The terminator was a rip-off of San Diego Native Harlan Ellison's work on The Outer Limits. He even got credits in the films after they settled out of court on it. Ellison if you remember wrote "City on the Edge of Forever", known by many as the best episode of the original star trek series.
lou-bert vs. q-bert said:
Why isn't "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles" on this list?
Jack Burden said:
I normally never do this, but you missed the greatest and best Terminator rip-off ever. It's a little Indonesian film from 1988 called Lady Terminator. It's actally more a remake than a rip-off. The only difference is that, instead of being a cyborg from the future, the Lady Terminator is a hot chick possessed by some evil ancient sea witch that likes to kill everyone. Here's the famous police station scene Lady Terminator style:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdlnpe573pk
If you can find it at your local independent video store, rent the shit out of it, it's amazing.
Mandar3000 said:
Big props to Lady Terminator (AKA Nasty Hunter)! I've watched it many times, and never it never fails to amaze.
Great review here: http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/cult_movies/lady_terminator.htm
Also, thanks to Mondo Macabro, you can purchase it on DVD (two copies currently available on Amazon.com).
From Z. Carlson (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema):
"After a man steals a snake from a sex witch’s vagina, she threatens to exact revenge on his great great granddaughter. 100 years later, a scuba-diving female anthropologist is violated by the same naughty snake, causing her to unleash a wave of shirtless, lazer-eyed homicide in a kill-crazy rampage. And it’s not all white hot bulletry; Lady T’s favorite non-firearm method of execution involves a hearty chomp from her carnivorous vagina. In fact, genital terror is expanded to new dimensions throughout this film. Male crotches are riddled with bullets, mangled, eaten and worse. Would you believe this vicious she-demon even pauses to give a gunned-down corpse a kick in the dingle? What a totally cruel supernatural tramp!!"
supermarioman said:
I once saw American Cyborg on a local tv station.
In Spanish.
(first comment, BTW)
Anonymous said:
I remember R.O.T.O.R. vaguely. The only reason the robot was evil was b/c of a technician short circuited a peice of equipment using his comb. That's right a COMB.
But anyway I think the only reason anyone saw Nemesis was because of Don LaFontaine's voice (R.I.P.)
GreyFox00 said:
I remember R.O.T.O.R. vaguely. The only reason the robot was evil was b/c of a technician short circuited a peice of equipment using his comb. That's right a COMB.
But anyway I think the only reason anyone saw Nemesis was because of Don LaFontaine's voice (R.I.P.)
Jack Burden said:
Thanks for the extra info, Mander3000. I was also going to mention death by vagina, but I wasn't sure if I was remembering the right movie, as I saw a bunch of indonesian exploitation movies at the same time I watched LT.
Teekaa said:
Hell, I thought I was the only one (of two, the other being my dad) that heard of, maybe even watched, "Hands of Steel". Good for you, Topless Robot!
Snoodle said:
@varrior
I'd watch it.
cavs said:
Oh come on how did you miss out ''Solo''
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117688/
''the android soldier that learns to think for himself''
Brion said:
Am I lucky (or cursed) that I've never heard of these films?! Either way, I'm going to have to track them down.
INeverInhale said:
This list is all wrong because it doesn't include 2009's "The Terminators".
robo said:
very superb!! Am not seen this scenes.!
mt006 said:
What a list - childhood memories but for the record Nemesis wasnt a good film in the slightest (but made more sense than its time travelling invisible shape shifting sequel)
But you forgot about Digital Man (also starring Matthius Hues and a small role for Firefly fav Adam Baldwin) which should be on the list.
Or what about Chuck Norris' Silent Rage (insane genetically modified killer) which shares many of the Terminator hallmarks.
Asat said:
Best Terminator rip-off? Duh, it's the shortest one. This one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W9DYangMok
"He's fantastic. It's his best performance ever!"
John Dutty said:
Wow, amazing. I had no idea!
www.whos-watching.se.tc
plaidstallions said:
How the hell did I forget to include R.O.T.O.R?
Wyngarde said:
I saw American Cyborg Steel Warriors in the THEATER and I was the only one. It was a very Ghetto part of town. I'm amazed that the last fetus on earth was not brain damaged after being bashed around in that chick's backpack.
They don't make them like that any more. Now it's just Sci-Fi channel crap.
Don't forget the flick Terminator ripped off: Cyborg 2087!
Bravo said:
"Nemesis" director Albert Pyun made quite a few Terminator b-movie knock-offs (including Nemesis sequels), one of the best was "KNIGHTS" starring Kris Christopherson and Lance Henrikson as cyborgs, along with a female kickboxer turned actress. One of the worst was "OMEGA DOOM" starring Rutger Hauer in what amounted to another Yojimbo remake.
