10 Sci-Fi Rip-Off Movies (That Messed Up What They Copied)
1. The Day The Earth Stopped
One more contribution from The Asylum to close this list out now, then, with The Day the Earth Stopped - a rip-off of sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.
The film was released on DVD just three days before 2008's Keanu Reeves-starring remake hit cinemas, prompting Fox to threaten a lawsuit. Yet given that The Asylum is precisely aware of how far they can push the whole ripoff gambit, the legal threats ultimately went nowhere.
Bizarrely directed by actor C. Thomas Howell of all people - who also stars in the film - The Day the Earth Stopped is a painfully unimaginative "we have it at home" alien invasion flick that can't even settle for being the most basically lazy, competent rip-off of its inspiration.
The leaden dialogue, horrible performances, and of course the garbage VFX ensure this lacks all the intelligence, thought-provoking content, and even simple thrills of the films that inspired it. It's not merely bad - it's oppressively dull.