The Indian My Cousin Vinny
The Hollywood Original: My Cousin Vinny
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Banda Yeh Bindass Hai (2014)
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Whatever the differences are, they weren't big enough to save the filmmakers from being served with a legal notice in 2009 by 20th Century Fox, which has delayed the film's release for several years. Unfortunately, the case was settled out of court, denying the filmmakers a chance to hire Joe Pesci lookalikes as their lawyers and really have some fun.
The Italian Batman
The Hollywood Original: Batman
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Bathman Dal Pianeta Eros (1982)
Biggest Deviation From Canon: So this may be one of those pornographic films we've heard about but, even still, the artistic licence taken here is shocking. Batman is no longer millionaire Bruce Wayne on a personal mission to rid Gotham of crime. No, here he is an alien from the planet Eros, who, along with his now-female sidekick 'Robina' team up to basically have sex with everyone in sight. Oh, and it starts with a really long shot of Batman riding a bicycle through a field. Because SEXY.
The Chinese Popeye
The Hollywood Original: Popeye
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: The Dragon Lives Again (1977)
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Released to cash in on the popularity of Bruce Lee after his death, this film tells the story of Lee in the underworld, where he befriends Caine from TV show Kung Fu and cartoon sailor Popeye. Together they fight Dracula, James Bond, Clint Eastwood and The Godfather among others. Let's be honest, this sounds like the greatest dream of all time.
The Indonesian Rambo
The Hollywood Original: Rambo
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: The Intruder (1986)
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Where Sly Stallone’s John Rambo relies on bowie knives and machine guns to dispatch the enemy, this film’s hero – the coincidentally-named Rambu – does so with a single tennis ball in one scene. Sure, the ball seems to have magical boomerang-type powers, but it’s still more efficient than bullets. Probably.
The Turkish Spiderman
The Hollywood Original: Spider-Man (any of them)
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Örümcek Adam (1966)
Biggest Deviation From Canon: The film bears zero resemblance to our beloved webcrawler. Instead, there’s a candid mix of fights, babes, motorbikes and a bald villain with a wonderful, thick moustache. There’s not even an Aunt May.
The Brazilian Star Wars
The Hollywood Original: Star Wars
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: The title literally translates as "The Tramps And The Planet War" (1978).
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Despite featuring Chewie, Darth Vader and a host of other characters, the central stars of this spoof are three hobos who hit each other and dry-hump props. It sounds like George Lucas saw this and immediately created the character of Jar Jar.
The Turkish Exorcist
The Hollywood Original: The Exorcist
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Seytan (1974), which is perhaps a little on-the-nose.
Biggest Deviation From Canon: It's practically a shot-for-shot remake but, disappointingly, the pea-soup projectile vomit has been replaced here with just a tiny bit of sick. Nothing that a small napkin can't handle.
The Indian Nightmare On Elm Street
The Hollywood Original: A Nightmare On Elm Street
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Mahakaal: The Monster (1993)
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Mahakaal is still a vicious demon killer who slaughters young people in their dreams, but it's all been Bollywoodised, so he's all-singing and all-dancing too. It sounds odd, but imagine Freddy Krueger in a production of Cats. Who doesn't want to see that?
The Turkish Star Wars
The Hollywood Original: Star Wars
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Dünyay Kurtaran Adam (1985) - "The Man Who Saved The World"
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Even though the film uses actual footage from Star Wars space battles, everything else is completely different. There's an evil wizard, some skeletons, some ninjas, some zombies and a gladiatorial arena. The hero ends up defeating the wizard by melting down a golden sword and a golden human brain into a pair of magical gloves and super-jumping boots. Y'know, that old chestnut.
The Turkish E.T.
The Hollywood Original: E.T.
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Badi (1983)
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Where do we begin? First, the Elliot of this film has an abusive father, which is played for laughs . Also, at one point a policeman shoots a dog dead and it looks like this might have been done for real in the film. Oh yeah, and the alien Badi himself is ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING. He looks like a giant condom filled with snakes and then shaped to look like a small child.
