Unless you have been hiding under a rock for a while, then you have no doubt heard of the “Mockbuster” and in case you have in fact been using a hallowed out chunk of granite as your abode, allow me to explain.
The “Mockbuster” is basically a B-grade movie that cashes in, by riding the coat-tails of bigger blockbusters! These Mockbusters, often “Borrow” plot elements and a similar name to their source material. So, in essence, they just rip off good movies, and try to trick you into watching it, by making you think you are about to watch the “Good one”, only to find that instead of watching transformers, yer watching freedom fighters hiding under a bridge battling badly rendered robots(So badly rendered that one could be forgiven if they thought these models were originally ran on a PSOne game console) that turn into, pretty much anything imaginable.
Ok, now that Mockbusters are explained, I want to state that normally I don’t have an issue with Mockbusters. In fact, I find most of them to be quite enjoyable, but in all fairness, I am a huge fan of B-rated movies, and consider Plan 9 From Outer Space to be one of the best movies ever created! Though, a few Mockbuster titles do come close to beating it for the number one position.
Let’s be honest here folks, most people aren’t going to be fooled by a Mockbuster title. If you can’t tell the difference between AVH: Aliens Vs Hunter, and AVP: Aliens Vs Predator, then you probably shouldn’t be watching the real one, since those iconic characters apparently don’t mean shit to you. Same applies to Transmorphers and Transformers.
Now, I’m not saying that anyone who gets suckered by a Mockbuster is a dumb shit. In fact, some Mockbusters are titled quite sneakily! For instance The Terminators and Universal Soldiers. One would be forgiven for mistaking them for their source material. The names are quite similar, so it’s a given that probably more than one person has fallen victim to this particular switch and bait.
I am also not saying that I am so perfect, that I haven’t been tricked into watching one, because I have! Now, While I enjoy Mockbusters and B-Rated movies, I don’t enjoy them so much when I am sitting down, expecting one thing, and instead getting something completely different, which has happened to me exactly twice.
The first time, I waltzed into Blockbuster video and picked up H.G. Wells: War of the Worlds, when what I meant to get was the Tom Cruise movie “War of the Worlds”. However, I ended up with a C. Thomas Howell rip-off version, which oddly enough turned out to be better than the Tom Cruise version. If you haven’t seen it, I totally recommend it.
By the way, I firmly believe that C. Thomas Howell has been in more Mockbusters than any other actor. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.
As I mentioned before, I have been suckered by a Mockbuster twice, the second and most recent time, and by recent I mean this afternoon, I went out to get my Mail, and saw Netflix had delivered my newest batch of must see movies. I popped them open, and found myself holding a Mockbuster! Apparently, instead of adding BATTLE: Los Angeles to my queue, I ended up adding Battle for Los Angeles!
Obviously, I hopped onto the computer, logged into Netflix and quickly added the right movie to my queue.
So, yeah, anyway, remember to double-check what movies you rent or you might get suckered.
