There are many movies out there that try to copy existing material. Here are some truly shameless examples.

5. Mac And Me – E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

“E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” has delighted audiences since its release in 1982, that’s why it’s so funny to watch “Mac And Me”, a blatant rip-off that also serves a big advertisement for McDonalds. Just like “E.T.”, this movie is about a little boy that befriends a little alien but this movie has a whole dance sequence that takes place inside a McDonalds restaurant.

4. Transmorphers – Transformers

There couldn’t be a countdown of rip-off films without mentioning The Asylum. Known for their ‘mockbusters’, “Transmorphers” is a prime example of how the company tries to make money by exploiting the popularity of whatever big films are coming out. Just like “Transformers”, this is about giant robots fighting. However, the special effects here look like an animation test when compared to the Michael Bay “Transformers” films.

3. Forbidden World – Alien

Many films tried to copy the formula of “Alien” such as “Inseminoid”. However, I think “Forbidden World” has to take the prize because the creature here looks so much like the Xenomorph in “Alien”.

2. Cyber Tracker – RoboCop and The Terminator

Copying not one but two major sci-fi franchises, “Cyber Tracker” clearly takes inspiration from both “RoboCop” and “Terminator”. Starring Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson (“Batman Forever”), this movie involves cyborg law enforcement hunting down criminals.

1. The Mighty Peking Man – King Kong

Basically, it’s “King Kong In Hong Kong”. This cheesy 70s film from Shaw Brothers is hilarious as we see possibly the most unconvincing giant ape costume ever seen on film. Lots of fun and ridiculous action but the story unfolds almost exactly like “King Kong”.

With different cultures come different values and different tastes. It’s therefore unsurprising that some countries condemned and even banned some Hollywood films. Here are some movies that caused trouble outside America.

5. Independence Day – Lebanon

“Independence Day” sees military personnel from across the global joining forces in a battle against an extra-terrestrial threat. However, pressure from certain groups in Lebanon led to the film being banned in their country. Due to hostilities between Lebanon and Israel, some groups disliked the brief sequence that shows Israelis working together with troops from other countries including Iraq.

4. The Simpsons Movie – Myanmar

It’s hard to imagine how a film such as “The Simpsons Movie” could possibly offend the people of Myanmar. However, the nation’s ban on the movie had nothing to do with the subject matter of the film. The authorities disliked the prominence of yellow and red colours due to their association with rebel groups in the country.

3. 300 – Iran

Although one could argue that modern Iran is almost unrecognisable when you compare it to ancient Persia, the Iranian government were quick to condemn “300”. The film saw Spartan Greeks battling Persia’s empire. This depiction was seen as American propaganda against Iran by authorities in the country.

2. Wonder Woman – Lebanon

With tensions between Israel and Lebanon continuing, Lebanon decided to ban “Wonder Woman”. This was because the film’s star, Gal Gadot (“Keeping Up With The Joneses”), is an Israeli citizen and outspoke advocate of her home country. The Lebanese authorities were unhappy with the idea of having a major film with an Israeli playing the protagonist getting a proper release in the country.

1. Borat – Kazakhstan

While most people in the world just saw “Borat” as a comedy with lots of gross gags and some political satire, the authorities in Kazakhstan saw it as a disaster for their country’s image around the world. They strongly disliked the way their country was portrayed as backwards. Borat doesn’t even speak their language; he actually speaks Hebrew. While never intended as a serious depiction of Kazakhstan, the film quickly became the thing most people in Europe and America associated with the country. The Kazakh government decided to embrace the publicity for the sequel.

Sequels can offer us more of what we want and take franchises in new and exciting directions. However, they can sometimes take us in ridiculous directions that nobody asked for. Here are several of the most absurd sequels that did a lot of damage to their franchises.

5. Home Alone 3

Seeing a kid foil the schemes some dim-witted burglars in the first two “Home Alone” films was at least vaguely plausible. However, in “Home Alone 3”, Alex (Alex D. Linz “Max Keeble’s Big Move”) is only 8 yet he defeats a group of international spies. It’s like seeing James Bond get bested by a kid.

4. Batman & Robin

While “Batman Forever” undeniably had a more light-hearted tone than the previous entries, “Batman & Robin” was completely absurd. Several scenes and countless lines of dialog feel like they are from a parody of “Batman” rather than a legitimate entry in the franchise. Arnold Schwarzenegger (“Predator”) dishing out endless ice puns is just ridiculous.

3. Superman III

Well, if you thought Batman had it bad, the Man of Steel got just as ridiculous with the later instalments. “Superman III” makes the odd decision of focusing on a computer hacker played by Richard Pryor (“Silver Streak”). It also sees Superman get drunk and he even has sex with the bad guy’s girl after exposure to some synthetic kryptonite.

2. Terminator: Genisys

Everything from the weird spelling in the title to the awkward lines of dialog in “Terminator: Genisys” just smelled of desperation. This movie throws everything at you with even more time travel, more killer robots and John Connor (Jason Clarke “Zero Dark Thirty”) is now the bad guy.

1. Die Hard 4.0

The first “Die Hard” movie was a classic and the action sequences felt somewhat plausible. As the franchise continued, it got more and more ridiculous. By the time “Die Hard 4.0” came out, it felt really cartoonish. John McClane (Bruce Willis “Unbreakable”) felt less like a cop and more like a superhero.

Dishonourable mentions:
The NeverEnding Story III: Return To Fantasia and The Bourne Legacy

While the Nazis are routinely viewed as easily one of the most despicable groups in human history, there is no shortage of films mocking them. Here is a selection of some of the most famous spoofs of Hitler and Nazism.

5. Iron Sky

This rather absurd Nazi spoof sees the fascists living on a secret base on the Moon. After decades in hiding, they decide to launch an offensive against the Earth.

4. Starship Troopers

Easily the most subtle satire on the list. “Starship Troopers” directly lifts a lot of its shots from Nazi propaganda films. Also, the main characters come from Buenos Aires, a nod to the allegations of the presence of Nazis in Argentina after World War II.

3. Jojo Rabbit

Director Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok”) has both Maori and Jewish so it is absolutely hilarious to see him play a young boy’s imaginary friend version of Hitler while retaining his New Zealand accent. The film effectively captures both the horror and absurdity of the Nazi regime through the eyes of a patriotic yet naïve child.

2. The Producers

Mel Brooks (“Young Frankenstein”) caused quite a stir with “The Producers”. The film sees two men try to get rich through some creative accounting by producing a flop Broadway musical. They decide to make “Springtime For Hitler”, a homosexual musical about the Nazis. However, things don’t get according to plan.

1. The Great Dictator

The original Nazi spoof is of course “The Great Dictator”, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin (“The Gold Rush”). Chaplin savages Hitler while still delivering his usual slapstick magic in this classic picture.

There are plenty of great films to watch on a first date but please, stay away from these ones if you want a second date.

10. Knock Knock

Keanu Reeves (“The Matrix”) plays a married man that commits adultery by having sex with two girls that then claim to be underage. Adultery and paedophilia are two things you definitely don’t want to discuss on a first date.

9. Eyes Wide Shut

Tom Cruise (“Mission: Impossible”) plays a man that goes out to commit adultery and finds a disturbing cult that engages in orgies. The whole adultery concept is probably not something you want introduced to a first date.

8. Videodrome

A man watches snuff films on television before he starts mutating and female genitalia appears on his body. It’s pretty insane and unpleasant so stay away from this mad movie from David Cronenberg (“Naked Lunch”).

7. The Babysitter

Various men fantasise about having sex with a teenage babysitter in this rather uncomfortable film. Some of the sexual imagery is also rather aggressive.

6. 8MM

“8MM” sees Nicolas Cage (“Vampire’s Kiss”) delve in the seedy underworld of pornography as he investigates the legitimacy of a snuff film. Your date likely won’t want to watch a young woman being slapped around and killed by a big man in a mask.

5. American Psycho

A film all about a despicable businessman that goes around having rough sex with prostitutes before he then cuts them up with a chainsaw. Not a film that’s going to make anybody feel particularly at ease around somebody they don’t know all that well.

4. The Silence of the Lambs

Many people consider “Silence of the Lambs” to be a great movie and while the quality of the film is not problematic, the subject matter definitely is. Watching a guy try to make a suit out of women’s skin might put your potential girlfriend off. Also, seeing a cannibal serial killer wear a dead man’s face is not a pretty sight.

3. Auschwitz

Learning about the atrocities of the Nazis against the Jews is of course very important but the best time to do is definitely not during a first date. Also, this is a film by the notorious director Uwe Boll (“BloodRayne”) and here, he casts himself as a guy operating the gas chambers.

2. Audition

You hope that your date is not a psychopath that is going to torture you so it’s probably not a good idea to put on a film all about a psychopathic woman torturing her date. In fact, the villainess mutilates multiple men and even makes one consume her vomit.

1. Terror Firmer

A horror/comedy about a transgender serial killer that drugs, rapes and murders people. This film is filled with tons of gore, nudity and urine. I can only imagine somebody putting this on during a first date for a dare.

Dishonourable mentions:
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The Passion of the Christ and Lemon Popsicle

There are so many shark films out there that it’s just quite frankly ridiculous. Most people already know of the “Sharknado” series but here are a handful of other absurd shark films.

5. Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark

A giant shark does battle with a robot shark. The “Mega Shark” series also saw a giant shark fight against other monsters including a giant octopus.

4. 3-Headed Shark Attack

Imagine the sight of seeing Danny Trejo (“Machete”) hacking away at a shark with 3 heads. Well, that’s exactly what you get with “3-Headed Shark Attack”.

3. Sharktopus

What happens when you mix a shark with an octopus? You get ‘Sharktopus’ obviously. A creature so absurd has to be seen.

2. Sand Sharks

We all know that sharks can swim in the water but what if they could swim in sand? That’s exactly what you get with “Sand Sharks”.

1. Shark Exorcist

What could possibly top sharks that can swim in sand? The answer is of course a shark that is possessed by Satan himself. “Shark Exorcist” is arguably the craziest shark film to date.

“Alien” captured the struggle of a group of people surviving against a less-intelligent life form brilliantly. However, I’ve seen endless movies such as “Snakes On A Plane”, “Alien 3”, “Anaconda” and “Night of the Living Dead” that feature the same formula but without any of the brilliant execution. Unfortunately, “Pitch Black” is another one of those movies.

A commercial spaceship crash-lands on a planet with three Suns and the survivors are marooned. At first it seems like a lifeless rock but soon the forgettable bunch find that in the shadows and other places of darkness, horrible creatures (some look like rip-offs of Alien/Xenomorph from “Alien”) lurk but then they must find a way to escape the place as they discover an eclipse is on the horizon.

The group are very forgettable and lack any form of personality. The only crew member that stands out is the criminal Riddick played by Vin Diesel (“xXx”, “Saving Private Ryan”), simply because he’s got lights surgically put in his eyes. Diesel was clearly cast because he’s a bit of an action star but here he does nothing until the last ten minutes or so. The aliens featured are nothing original, some of the small ones are simply bats and the larger ones are just clones of Alien.

“Pitch Black” is a lifeless movie that did absolutely nothing for me as I never felt scared, I never felt thrilled and I never felt intrigued so it fails to be a good horror movie, a good action film and a good sci-fi flick. This is yet another film that is made to showcase some rather unimpressive special effects and make a quick buck by using what must be a template script for this kind of survival picture. I was very disappointed with “Pitch Black” to say the least. However, to the film’s credit, it is just about tolerable.

“Pink Cadillac” features one of the best performances I’ve seen in a while by its star Clint Eastwood (“The Dead Pool”, “Pale Rider”) but unfortunately, nothing else is really done well. This is a shame as the performance is so good.

Have you skipped bail? If you have then watch out for the clever and ruthless skip tracer Tommy Nowak (Eastwood). He’s trying to catch Lou Ann (Bernadette Peters “Annie”, “The Jerk”), a girl who has just run away with a ¼ of a million dollars. Also, there are a group of deranged, racist baddies that want the girl too. Will this turn out to be more than just a normal case for Tommy?

Clint Eastwood is fantastic. He starts off trying to pose a radio DJ and he’s great. Next, he’s the tough guy and that is great. We then move on to see him play the soft guy, which is great. He’s then the rich casino guy that is irresistibly good. Finally, he’s a racist, which is done well. Each part of his performance as he moves in and out of being Tommy and impersonations of various people in an attempt to catch the baddies is so great that it’s a real disappointment everything else is poor. The girl is a real let-down in it. She’s really boring throughout and is given a horrible performance. The bad guys are really dull.

“Pink Cadillac” isn’t a bad film but aside from Eastwood’s performance, the film just falls flat completely. It just fails to capture the hardness of actions films and the lightness of comedies and it falls into an unsure in-between section that just means it doesn’t work. If you happen to watch the film though then look for the brief but relatively funny cameo appearance by Jim Carrey (“Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”).

Glenn Jacobs (known as the wrestler ‘Kane’) is back in “See No Evil 2”, a disastrous sequel to already lousy horror flick. This one is so lame that they resort to frequently showing flashback clips from the first movie. This is one of the laziest slasher movies I’ve ever seen.

In “See No Evil 2”, a city morgue is having a busy night as they deal with the bodies of serial killer Jacob Goodnight (Glenn Jacobs) and his victims. Amy (Danielle Harris “Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers”, “The Last Boy Scout”) has a birthday and her friends decide to surprise her at the morgue. However, Jacob Goodnight is not really dead and he’s about to go on another killing spree.

The characters in this movie are absolutely terrible and the performances are just dreadful. Some of them decide to play it like it’s a comedy while others play it seriously and it just feels so jarring. Poor Danielle Harris seems to be stuck starring in lame slasher sequels. Jacob Goodnight is even less interesting here than he was in the first movie. I can’t believe that is even possible considering how dull he was the first time around.

This is just an awful movie from beginning to end. It of course has one of those horrendously stupid endings only found in slasher movies. You know the drill; the killer is clearly dead but somehow manages to come back. The death scenes here are unremarkable and the morgue here looks so bland. At least the hotel in the first one had some personality. This is a dreary movie and definitely not worth checking out if you value your time. It’s probably the worst film funded by the WWE that I’ve seen. Unless you absolutely loved the first movie, I can’t imagine why anyone would like this.

“Barely Legal” barely feels like a movie. The plot is absolutely barebones and is just an excuse for a series of awkward sexual scenes. This teen sex comedy is interestingly from The Asylum, known more for their ‘mockbusters’ such as “Transmorphers” and whacky shark flicks such as “Sharknado”.

In what feels like a female version of “Lemon Popsicle”, Cheryl (Janeta St. Clair), Lexi (Lisa Younger) and Sue (Melissa Johnston “Casting Couch”) are three friends that decide they will all lose their virginity on their 18th birthday. They throw a house party as they desperately try to have sex with boys. However, losing their virginity proves to be a harder task than they anticipated.

The girls are not particularly interesting. Lexi is the slutty one, Sue is the religiously conservative one and Cheryl is the ‘normal’ one. Lexi has an unbearably irritating voice and she’s also easily the most boring of the three girls. Cheryl is pretty mediocre and I don’t really have much to comment on. Sue is easily the funniest and I think she’s also the most attractive in terms of looks and personality. Unfortunately, she has her sights set on a man that isn’t into ladies. The male characters are really dull.

There is a lot of nudity in this film as well as several sex scenes. The whole movie looks really cheap and nasty. There are a few funny moments involving the Sue character but most of the movie is really unremarkable. This is a teen sex comedy that doesn’t feel it hasn’t to waste time with plot. Virtually every scene involves people talking about sex, trying to have sex or having sex. It’s definitely not the worst film from The Asylum but that’s not saying much at all. If you really like teen sex comedies and you don’t care if it has practically no story, you might enjoy “Barely Legal”.