10 Rip-Off Movies (That Messed Up What They Copied)

10. Tomcats Failed To Capture American Pie's Heart

When American Pie and Road Trip (directed by future Oscar nominee Todd Philips, trivia fans) graced our screens at the turn of the millennium, it became clear that the trend of gross out comedies begun by brothers Wayans and Farellys had produced a new breed of sweeter, more sensitive teen sex comedies.

The movies weren’t lacking in explicit content, with both flicks packed full of ribald and raunchy scenes of cringeworthy sexual exploits. However, there was a vein of good humour which ran through them that was absent in their predecessors from decades earlier.

Where Bob Clark’s Porky’s and the later Revenge of the Nerds revelled in the misanthropic side of crude humour, Road Trip and American Pie centred around surprisingly tender love stories under the surface-level pools of s**t and, er, other bodily secretions.

So, when Tomcats was released only a year later, it was guaranteed to be a sure-fire success, right? An actual rom com which focused on a love story first and added the R-rated raunch after, it couldn’t help but see the same love from audiences as Road Trip and American Pie - right?

Despite the presence of American Pie starlet Shannon Elizabeth and antics ranging from a dominatrix librarian to a messy semen collection scene, the film had no heart, and failed to connect with critics and audiences.