There's a countdown of the Top Ten Movie "Spoofs" over at Uber.com today. By "spoof movies" they're referring to the phenomenon of detourning trailers. As is my modus operandi, it's my job to take the piss out of this list with what I feel truly are the best.
10. Mel Gibson's SIGNS
Though Mel Brooks already gave us "Jews in Space," this is another take on the "insidious menace" that threatens the Earth.
9. Lost in Translation
This plays up the creepy October-March romance of LOST IN TRANSLATION and makes for a much more compelling film.
8. Titanic 2: Jack's Back
Breaking away from the "single source with new music" structure, this sequel to TITANIC uses several Leonardo DiCaprio films to tell a "man out of time" story.
7. Office Space: The Horror
Turning up the tension of OFFICE SPACE a little to make the film look like a slasher film. Someone's pushed Milton a little too far...
6. Sleepless in Seattle
Making the two star-crossed lovers into a stalker/stalkee relationship much like LOST IN TRANSLATION (#9) but with more "lovable" characters. It's easy to take Tom Hanks from manic to maniac (#2).
5. 10 Things I Hate About Commandments
Sibling rivalry of Biblical proportions! I'm surprised that this hasn't been made into a real film a la the "updating" of ROMEO + JULIET or O (OTHELLO).
4. Scary Mary
Something is brewing... about to begin... can't put my finger on what lies in store but I feel that what's about to happen... has all happened before.
3. Must Love Jaws
Turning JAWS into a love story between two men and a shark. Brilliant.
2. Forrest Gump
I always found Forrest's blind devotion to Jenny a bit scary, especially when he went on a "tard spasm" against her potential date raper.
1. Shining
This one will always have a place in my heart as it was the first and, quite possibly, best at taking a film of one genre and portraying it as another. Of course, Hollywood does this all the time with trailers re-cut for different movies (notice that some trailers for DEJA VU left out the sci-fi angle completely).
Honorable Mention: Brokeback to the Future
There were countless parodies of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN with different main characters -- usually action buddies -- being recast as lovers. By making the relationship between Doc and Marty a love that dare not speak its name was truly clever and went beyond the norm.
Original Detournment:
I was reading the article on Wikipedia about Situationalists and they seem to overlook René Viénet's CAN DIALECTICS BREAK BRICKS. That's just not right.
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