ScreenRant
10 Best Fake Movies, Ranked By How Good They Would Be
BY BEN PROTHEROE
January 7, 2024
Movies and TV shows often come up with fake movies to satirize the industry. Most of these phony films look terrible, but some have great potential.
- Fake movies are often used to comment on the film industry and audience reactions, adding extra layers of meaning to real movies and TV shows.
- Some fake movies have the potential to be genuinely brilliant, with impressive casts or unique ideas.
- Action movies are frequently parodied in fake movies, as they serve as a fun distraction for characters and explore zany ideas deemed too absurd for most real movies.
- Movies and TV shows often create fake movies to satirize their own industry, but some of these phony films would actually be amazing if they were genuine. These fake movies are most often used as a way to comment on the film industry, or the ways audiences react to certain kinds of movies. In some cases, fake movies can be self-parodying works of art, used as a meta-commentary to closely examine the relationship between a movie and its audience. Not all fake movies have such specific goals, however. Some are simply a fun distraction for the characters, and this could explain why action movies seem to be parodied more than most other genres.
Plenty of fake movies are deliberately terrible. They’re meant to represent extreme cases of lazy writing and absurd plots, but this doesn’t apply to all fake movies. A select few have the potential to be genuinely brilliant, due to their impressive casts or unique ideas. Fake movies don’t need to be as detailed as real ones, so they have boundless potential. They rarely contain deep themes, since they’re often the punchline of a joke, but this allows them to explore zany ideas that would be deemed too absurd for most real movies. Fake movies are peculiar works of art, adding extra layers of meaning to real movies and TV shows.
10
Terrance & Phillip: Asses Of Fire
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Terrance and Phillip in South Park
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut references its own hype with the characters excited about seeing the Terrance and Phillip movie, Asses of Fire. While Asses of Fire doesn’t act as a direct meta-commentary about the South Park movie, the public’s reaction to Terrance and Phillip’s crass humor reflects how some people see South Park. Asses of Fire is idiotic and deliberately offensive. It is everything that South Park’s detractors think the show is. Almost everyone walks out of the movie theater, but Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny can’t get enough. Asses of Fire is a clever way to comment on people’s overblown reactions to South Park.
9
Stab
Scream 2 (1997)
A packed out movie theatre for Stab in Scream 2
The Scream franchise has been satirizing the bloodthirsty slasher genre since the very beginning, but Scream 2 took this commentary one step further with the creation of the fictional Stab movies. The self-parodying Stab franchise allows Scream to examine the merits of the horror genre and the reactions of its audience. The cast of the Stab movies in Scream includes Tori Spelling, Vince Vaughan, and Rutger Hauer. The timeline of the Stab franchise is complicated by the fact that almost the entire cast is murdered in Scream 3. A real-life Stab movie would need another real-life tragedy to depict. It would almost certainly be incredibly insensitive at the very least.
8
Rochelle, Rochelle
Seinfeld (1989-1998)
Seinfeld has tons of great fake movies, from political thriller Chunnel to family comedy Sack Lunch. Rochelle, Rochelle is the most famous Seinfeld movie, and it appears several times throughout the series. Described as “a young girl’s strange, erotic journey from Milan to Minsk,” Rochelle, Rochelle captures everyone’s attention, even if it turns out to be terrible. Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer would have preferred to see Checkmate instead, and they all walk out of Rochelle, Rochelle. Still, the movie is popular enough to get a Broadway adaptation starring Bette Midler, and George is caught renting a copy by Susan much later, so it must have stuck in his mind.
7
Tropic Thunder
Tropic Thunder (2008)
The movie within a movie in Tropic Thunder never ends up being made, partly because the director explodes, and partly because key members of the cast are kidnapped by terrorists. This is a shame, because the movie did show some potential before the production went south. It’s a war movie, and although it seems derivative of Platoon and Apocalypse Now in particular, it boasts an all-star cast and some impressive practical effects. Kirk Lazarus and Tugg Speedman provide a blend of Oscar-winning prestige and action blockbuster pedigree. If they had the chance to complete the adaptation of Four Leaf Tayback’s phony memoir, it could have been a huge success.
6
Hail, Caesar!
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
George Clooney dressed in Roman armor in Hail, Caesar
The Coen brothers show snippets of a few fake movies in Hail, Caesar, and each one embodies a popular genre from Hollywood in the 1950s. Channing Tatum appears in a lavish tap-dancing musical, Scarlett Johansson performs a synchronized swimming dance number, and Alden Ehrenreich is woefully miscast as a John Wayne-type in a British period drama. The most interesting movie is the biblical epic Hail, Caesar, starring Baird Whitlock (George Clooney). Hail, Caesar echoes classics like Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia with its grand scale. The finished product remains a mystery, but it has all the hallmarks of an extravagant Old Hollywood event.
5
Leap Dave Williams
30 Rock (2006-2013)
Jim Carrey in Leap Dave Williams, the fictional movie from 30 Rock
30 Rock is packed full of ludicrous fake movies and TV shows. Almost all of them would be basically unwatchable.
As a satire of the entertainment industry, 30 Rock is packed full of ludicrous fake movies and TV shows. Almost all of them would be basically unwatchable. Some of the worst ideas include the wildly misogynistic Bitch Hunter and the similarly problematic MILF Island. These terrible projects are universally beloved in the 30 Rock universe, but the show also has one or two fake movies that actually show some potential. Leap Dave Williams stars Jim Carrey in a strange mash-up of Bruce Almighty and The Santa Clause. Carrey plays a man who finds himself morphing into Leap Dave Williams, the half-man, half-fish who embodies the holiday spirit of February 29.
4
Thunder Gun Express
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-)
The gang sit in a movie theatre alone in It’s Always Sunny In Philidelphia
John Thundergun is a time-traveling warrior from a post-apocalyptic society, but the gang are more excited about the fact that he “hangs dong”. The plot sounds like a blatant rip-off of the Terminator franchise, but it’s enough to get everybody on the streets of Philadelphia talking about it. The tagline, “No Hesitation. No Surrender. No Man Left Behind” is a brief glimpse into Thunder Gun Express’ adrenaline-fueled philosophy. Unfortunately, the only footage of Thunder Gun from It’s Always Sunny is from a test screening of Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool. The sequel shows that Thundergun is played by Dolph Lundgren, but it tries to water down the action for younger audiences.
3
McBain
The Simpsons (1989-)
The plots seem to get increasingly bizarre, mocking Hollywood’s tendency to trot out the same franchises long after they have lost their vitality.
Musclebound Austrian action hero Rainier Wolfcastle is a clear parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but his McBain movies have elements of Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Rambo, and many more action classics. There are eight McBain movies in The Simpsons, with some being seen on TV and some just being referenced in passing. The plots seem to get increasingly bizarre, mocking Hollywood’s tendency to trot out the same franchises long after they have lost their vitality. The first McBain still seems like a high-octane romp, though, as McBain seeks revenge on Senator Mendoza after his partner was murdered just before his retirement.
2
The 14 Fists Of McCluskey
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Leonardo DiCaprio wielding a flamethrower in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s ode to the Golden Age of Hollywood blends history with fiction, and it features both real and fake movies. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood depicts Bruce Lee, Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski, and several other icons of cinema, but the protagonist Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) is one of Tarantino’s own creations. Seen in the twilight years of a glittering career, Rick Dalton looks back fondly on his biggest successes, which includes The 14 Fists of McCluskey. There’s only one scene from the movie in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, showing Dalton torching a group of Nazi officers with a flamethrower.
1
Angels With Filthy Souls
Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone Angels With Filthy Souls
One of the most memorable quotes from Home Alone, “Keep the change, ya filthy animal,” comes from the film within a film, Angels with Filthy Souls. The title is based on the popular Humphrey Bogart movie Angels with Dirty Faces, but not much is known about the plot. Kevin plays the same scene in different contexts throughout Home Alone. The scene in question depicts a gangster turning the screw on one of his associates before callously ripping him to shreds with machine gun fire, laughing as he does so. Angels with Filthy Souls gets a festive sequel in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, with just as much violence.
