20 Great Movies That Were Accused Of Being Rip-Offs

13. Pirates Of The Caribbean (2003-)

When Disney started to run out of ideas for live-action movies, they remembered that they still had a bunch of rides that they could probably turn into motion pictures or something, and opted for Pirates of the Caribbean, presumably because it had the most potential for an actual narrative. What emerged surprised everyone; a hilarious, exciting swashbuckling adventure, made great by a brilliant Johnny Depp performance. But ask the creator of the Monkey Island video game series what he thinks, and he'd probably mumble something along the lines of "rip-off." How Much Of A Rip-Off Are We Talking? Ron Gilbert, who created The Secret of Monkey Island, expressed his annoyance over the fact that so many elements from his cult video game series were rehashed for Disney's trilogy of pirate-based movies - with particular irritations directed at the second in the series, Dead Man's Chest. Aside from some of the characters, the general plot of the game is the general plot of the first movie, Curse of the Black Pearl, what with its damsel in distress and supernatural curse. That's not all: Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbossa is very similar to Monkey Island's LeChuck, whilst Keira Knightley's character, Elizabeth Swann, is pretty much Elaine Marley. And there are dozens more. Overall Rip-Off Rating: 3.5/5