9 Movie Reboots That Were Actually Just Ripoffs

2. Scary Movie V

Scary Movie V You probably don't realise that Scary Movie V is essentially a soft reboot of the franchise, likely because they didn't really publicise it, and because you probably didn't pay much attention to the film, but yes, the "V" signifying #5 is kept inside the word "Movie" for a reason. It is the first film in the unlikely franchise not to feature Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) or Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall), and as such was essentially an attempt to retool the series with a bunch of new faces, including Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan and Ashley Tisdale. The first Scary Movie in 7 years is easily the worst of the bunch, such that its attempts at parody more often than not transpired into flat-out ripping off the films they were "mocking". Take the Paranormal Activity spoofs; they just repeat famous scenes from the franchise but without any (successful) attempts at humour. How does this even qualify as a spoof? Regurgitating scenes I've already watched (and even enjoyed) but replaced with terrible actors and crappy production values does not a good comedy make. The goal here has clearly been to coast on the success of vastly superior films, many of which are already out of date for spoof purposes anyway (Black Swan, anyone?)...
 
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Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.