Infamous Jaws Rip-Off "The Last Shark" might be coming to Blu. (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

Excellent post. I have to be honest, being huge fan of E.T. to this day (almost 50) I've never been able to stomach M&M all the way thru to see the above big fat lying moment! That's terrific..!

To be fair, they do change some things. Elliott didn't have spina bifida, and Mac and his whole family stay at the end and become naturalized American citizens while wearing someone's old church clothes, which E.T. of course did not. And there's an even bigger ripoff of E.T. than this: Badi, the Turkish E.T. They didn't even wait six years; they struck while the iron was hot.

Talking about this movie makes me hungry.

 

[JoHud]

While I'm first in line to side with The Little Guy over the Big Studios, even I have to admit this was pretty egregious. Most shamless Jaws ripoffs only steal the high level concept: giant monster eats people. Great White, on the other hand, stole some pretty spcific plot points from Jaws and Jaws 2: helecopter being eaten, regatta, red buoy marker instead of yellow barrels marking the shark's position, mayor keeps the beaches open - and that's just what I could remember off the top of my head from the last time I watched. It's a very sue-worthy flick.

Also, some of the overseas posters gave it the title "The Last Jaws" which might have at least attracted Universal's attention.

 

[bgart13]

Not that I'm an expert or anything, but the guy selling the disc seems to be on the up-and-up. He was even nice enough to refund my preordered-a-year-in-advance purchase and set me up with an invoice for later. While I wont say that I've never been taken, this seems like the actions of a square dealer instead of someone selling shady bootlegs off the back of a truck.

On the up-and-up? What?! Ha! This is a high school kid who says he's only distributing a Japanese release. He backed off his plans a little when I mentioned discussing this release with someone I know that works at Universal. He got scared, even started to say his other couple of dvds were obtained from a distributor who claimed they were PD titles -- he never bothered to investigate this himself. I'm calling it a scam.

 

[Jari K]

Well, "The Last Shark" LE BD release is now indeed cancelled ("Due the problems with the licensor and our 3rd party from Japan"). All the pre-order invoices are cancelled and money returned.

 

[Radioman970]

buuuummer! Let us have it ding dang it!!

Well... I'm going to watch Mac & Me in protest. That'll show em~!

 

[Radioman970]

,,, even bigger ripoff of E.T. than this: Badi, the Turkish E.T. ,,,,.

that's like a wishy washy nightmare i had as a kid when mom mixed the wrong cold meds on me.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I guess we could say the shark bit off more than he could chew this time around.

 

[Tony J Case]

On the up-and-up? What?! Ha! This is a high school kid who says he's only distributing a Japanese release. He backed off his plans a little when I mentioned discussing this release with someone I know that works at Universal. He got scared, even started to say his other couple of dvds were obtained from a distributor who claimed they were PD titles -- he never bothered to investigate this himself. I'm calling it a scam.

The thing is, this doesn't have the typical benchmarks of a scam, The guy communicates and was pretty prompt with a refund. If this was a scam, I would have expected the conversation would have gone like this:

"I feel uncomfortable giving you money a year and a half in advance. Can I have it back?"
"Fuck off, loser! No refunds!" (and then some evil laughter and mustache twirling on his end)

If this is an attempt to steal my money, he's doing a poor job of it.

Well, "The Last Shark" LE BD release is now indeed cancelled ("Due the problems with the licensor and our 3rd party from Japan"). All the pre-order invoices are cancelled and money returned.

Really? No mention of the status one way or the other on face book or his page. Where did you see that?

 

[TravisR]

The thing is, this doesn't have the typical benchmarks of a scam, The guy communicates and was pretty prompt with a refund. If this was a scam, I would have expected the conversation would have gone like this:

"I feel uncomfortable giving you money a year and a half in advance. Can I have it back?"
"Fuck off, loser! No refunds!" (and then some evil laughter and mustache twirling on his end)

If this is an attempt to steal my money, he's doing a poor job of it.

Yeah. Not to promote bootlegging but if the guy has refunded people's money, he's certainly a more decent bootlegger than most.

 

[Jari K]

"Really?"It was from the e-mail I got. I pre-ordered this (invoice).

 

[bgart13]

He's a poor bootlegger because he's an 18yo HS kid that doesn't understand how movie rights really work. He might've meant well, but he's pretty clueless, I'd say.

 

[Jari K]

Does this mean that the Japanese release is also cancelled? I mean they could add English audio/subs.