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Back in 2000, a week after it was out, my roommate and I went to see Road Trip](Road Trip (2000) - Movie | Moviefone). It was to be the funny cap to a long day – she had thrown me a daytime surprise party, and we rushed to the theater once everyone left for a little movie fun. At the time, Tom Green was still pretty popular, and it seemed like the right end to the day. But while everyone else giggled, I grew more and more incensed. I had seen this film before. But the first time around, it didn’t have a weird guy tonguing a mouse – it had a super-cute pair by the names of Ivy Miller and Wyatt Tripps. Road Trip was a barely disguised copy of Overnight Delivery](Overnight Delivery (1998) - Movie | Moviefone), which had come out two years before.
Maybe if it was five or ten years after the other, I would’ve let it slide as some sort of tribute. But even with a slightly different spin, it was too similar – the loyal boyfriend, the fear of cheating, the needing to get back a letter sent to the girlfriend down South, the troubled road trip, the swiping of a vehicle, the violence needed to get the package back … It was like Todd Phillips was given an outline of the first and just filled in the blanks in a different way.
It’s far from the first time a movie mimicked a previous feature without being a remake, and sadly, it won’t be the last. In a world full or remakes and reimaginings, what non-remakes drive you nuts? What blatant movie rip-offs make your head spin?