Ant Timpson { Filmhead }
Posted by Ant on 18 November 2008 at 15:25
RETREADS
Who doesn't like shark movies? Ever since I saw BLUE WATER WHITE DEATH at the Ambassador in Pt Chevalier in the 70s I've been obsessed shark movies. JAWS is in my top 10 films of all time, but it was BWWD that really scared the bejeebers out of me.
GREAT WHITE was a legendary film on the underground tape trading circuit. I remember getting a 4 or 5th generation copy on VHS in the late 80s and being pretty impressed by it. Moreso for its unintentional hilarity than anything else. This is the film that provoked Universal to a court injunction to stop its release in the US - saying it was an infringement on JAWS.
Well hell yeah it was an infringement.. .. it infringed nearly every scene. They had a good case so GREAT WHITE only got a very limited release in the US and then was never released on video. The case basically killed Film Ventures who were a pretty cool exploitation company.
Grab a poster if you see it too - one of the very best exploitation rip-off sells around. This is a great reminder of how one area of exploitation really delivers to the audience - and that is the out-and-out complete wholesale theft of someone elses ideas.
Hollywood these days makes competing movies of similar themes and then races to the finish line (Deep Impact vs Armageddon) but back in the day some just reshot the same script!
The only company that comes close to this kind of carny hucksterism these days is THE ASYLUM ... they're the company responsible for those imitations that hit DVD just before their big hollywood brother does.. ie SNAKES ON A PLANE, DA VINCI TREASURE, 100 MILLION BC !!
So who's keen to see a rip off of any recent kiwi flicks? Maybe we could beat the upcoming DEAN SPANLEY to DVD with DEANO SPANIEL - and make it about canine reincarnation except with a rabid edge to it?
I'm off to call THE ASYLUM quick fast.
