10 Sci-Fi Rip-Off Movies (That Messed Up What They Copied)
2. Mac & Me
It'd be impossible to write this list without including perhaps the single most infamous sci-fi rip-off in cinema history - the ironically inimitable Mac and Me.
A "boy and his pet alien" movie clearly designed in the vein of E.T., Mac and Me was not merely intended to cash in on E.T.'s success six years prior, but was also a co-production with McDonald's, resulting in the company's wares being featured extensively throughout.
Infamously, the film features an elaborate dance sequence set inside a Macca's, and not simply content to invoke gross product placement just once, later in the film the titular alien creature is shown to be obsessed with... Coca-Cola.
The intent was clearly to make a heart-warming E.T. rip-off while shilling for companies that supported the movie, and yet the film is so tonally ill-considered, and in turn so lacking in genuine warmth, that it's absolutely impossible to take seriously.
Mac and Me has nevertheless endured as a how-did-this-get-made cult classic, in large part thanks to the committed efforts of the film's self-appointed custodian, Paul Rudd.