Yet another Hollywood rip off. This movie was previously called Ruthless People. I understand there are no more original ideas in Hollywood but the least they can do is admit they are just doing remakes.
shareFirst thing I said immediately after reading the plot summary. One of these days Hollywood is going to break down and make an original movie from an original, clever idea. Unfortunately, none of us are going to get to see it, because we'll all be dead from the unsustainable shock it will cause each of us.
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I thought the same thing at first, then I noticed it was based on the Elmore Leonard novel "The Switch" which was written in the late 70s. Also, in the trivia it mentions
This film was previously in development at 20th Century Fox in 1986 with Diane Keaton as Mickey Dawson but the project was shelved after being deemed to similar to Ruthless People (1986).
It's the same plot!
Don't hate on contrarians
LOUD NOISES! ;)
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Yeah, it's the same plot. But Leonard's book came first by ten or fifteen years, so "Ruthless People" is the rip-off, if anything is.
shareOkay, this is where we all become victims of our own respective generations.
Pull up bing.com, type in "Ransom of Red Chief" and "O Henry". All these stories trace back to the greatest short story author in the history of the English language. (He also wrote the legendary Xmas tale "The Gift of the Magi")
Leonard should have given credit to Henry for the idea when he wrote the book, but that's someone else's issue.
Let's just agree that the tale has been told many times, and it's a clever premise, but no one (save, possibly, for the ghost of O Henry) has any business claiming it's an original idea.
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Who the HELL uses Bing?
'Then' and 'than' are different words - stop confusing them.
@Soodinum - I'm sorry. Is Bing just not a cool enough search engine for you and your fellow netizens?
Some of us, by which I mean the millions of Bing users, have gotten tired of being Google patsies and like getting free Amazon gift cards or movie tickets just for doing searches.
To each his/her own.
Bing is great! Last I checked, even Siri uses it.
sharethe problem with dismissing it as another 'Ransom of Red Chief'... (O Henry is the Shizz BTW)
the clear distinction is that RoRC sees the Kidnappers learn the Error of their ways because the Kidnapped person is too much to handle
This Film, the Novel I assume, ( I don't read as much Elmore as I should) along with RP find the scheme sent awry because the person making the Payments would rather be free of the Kidnappee.
So far as I remember RoRC, Dad wished no ill on Red, nor did he fear for his safety... he was simply patient and he knew Red would annoy them into submission, probably faster than he could make the Payment anyway.
-- For this to be a true rip off would require 'Mickey' would have needed to be a shrewish Trophy Wife, demanding Egyption Cotton and Evian Water etc... not to mention the whole Dynamic Shift created by the simple existence of Richard the Nazi (memorabilia collector?)
You're seriously an idiot, OP. Why don't you do your goddamn research before mouthing off. This is based on a book by Elmore Leonard that came long before Ruthless People came out. So if anything, Ruthless People ripped this off.
shareWow! Did mommy not have a snack ready for you when you came home from school today? Like it or not, Ruthless People came out first and so this one will be compared to it. If you don't like it, tough sh ...
shareCompared to it is one thing, but calling something a rip off is an accusation. Not a comparison. Smart ass.
shareThe funny thing is, when Ruthless People came out ("first," as you say), a lot of people pointed out the similarities to Leonard's 10-year-old novel with a near identical premise.
So, yeah ...
Get better.
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a lot of people pointed out the similarities to Leonard's 10-year-old novel with a near identical premise.
I actually DID do research. The writing credits for "Ruthless People" names O. Henry at the author of the work it's based on, "The Ransom of Red Chief". That was published in 1907. I think the abuse you laid on the other guy for failing to do something that you actually failed to do is pretty ironic. You effectively insulted yourself. I don't think anyone could have done a better job of it than you did.
shareI actually DID do research. The writing credits for "Ruthless People" names O. Henry at the author of the work it's based on, "The Ransom of Red Chief".
I've read much of O. Henry's short stories, and while it's not a literal translation of "The Ransom of Red Chief", it certainly is a spiritual one, with Bette Midler playing quite a handful as the bratty kidnap victim. Remember, that the movie is not called "The Ransom of Red Chief", and it's not supposed to be exactly the same. I actually think the film did a great job by putting a new twist on the same general premise.
share@krasnegar - You might have noticed some major differences between "Heart of Darkness" and "Apocalypse Now", between "The Three Musketeers" and "Ghostbusters", between Shaw's "Pygmalion" and "Pretty Woman". A film can be based on the premise of source material without being a direct adaptation of the entire work.
O. Henry is not credited on screen in the movie RUTHLESS PEOPLE. Some IMDb user who doesn't understand what a writing credit is added the erroneous O. Henry story credit on the Ruthless People IMDb page to show off how smart he was that he recognized a similarity in premise. Someone could have just as easily submitted a story credit for Elmore Leonard on the Ruthless People page and it wouldn't make it true. I've met the writer of Ruthless People and he said the O. Henry credit on IMDb was bullsh!t.
http://www.ScripTipps.com/
@ScripTipps - Actually, having just watched RP again for the umpteenth time, I can say definitively that, yes, there is a credit given to O. Henry and "Ransom of Red Chief" in the opening credits to RUTHLESS PEOPLE.
So on goes the three-way battle between those crediting Elmore Leonard as having the original idea, those crediting screenwriter Dale Launer, and those accurately crediting O. Henry.
Does that mean that she'll be "kidnapped by Walmart" now?
Can't sleep, clown will eat me
Okay, this is where we all become victims of our own respective generations.
Pull up bing.com, type in "Ransom of Red Chief" and "O Henry". All these stories trace back to the greatest short story author in the history of the English language. (He also wrote the legendary Xmas tale "The Gift of the Magi")
Leonard should have given credit to Henry for the idea when he wrote the book, but that's someone else's issue.
Let's just agree that the tale has been told many times, and it's a clever premise, but no one (save, possibly, for the ghost of O Henry) has any business claiming it's an original idea.
Share your dreams!
www.somedayi.net
OK.....Ruthless People was a laugh out comedy and NOT based on The Switch by Elmore Leonard. If anything, the writer stole this plot from Leonard's book which came out way before the film Ruthless People. And Life of Crime IS based on Leonard's book The Switch which is a black comedy and not laugh out loud comedy.....compare Bette Midler and Danny DeVito to Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, John Hawkes and Isla Fisher......see the difference?
Doris Day for Honorary Oscar!
As I replied to someone else, Ruthless People was NOT stolen from "The Switch", because it was based on the 1907 short story "The Ransom of Red Chief". The source is right there in the credits. I don't think that "The Switch" had been written yet in 1907, which is the only way your assertion would make sense.
shareEither way, The Switch/Life of Crime was written before Ruthless People and can't be a rip off purely based on chronology. I know most of these idiots are just trolling but yeah.
shareOrdell mentions in Rum Punch (aka Jackie Brown) that Hollywood was ripping off his ideas in reference to Ruthless People. LOL
shareI wonder if Ruthless People credited O. Henry for the original story in order to avoid being sued by Elmore Leonard.
Ruthless People actually has more in common with The Switch than with "Red Chief."
In "Red Chief" the father did not refuse to pay the ransom because he didn't want the son back. He refused, knowing his son would drive his kidnappers to distraction.
In both The Switch and Ruthless People, the husband didn't want the wife back and actually wanted the kidnappers to kill her.
I thought that at first as well when I first saw the trailer a few weeks back. But I didn't know that this was the prequel to Jackie Brown I've been waiting to see. So pretty much a remake of RP with cooler characters.
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You know man? I hate to be the type of brotha who does brotha a favor and then 'BAM' hit the brotha up for a favor in return BUT I gots to be that type of brotha. I need a favor brotha.
Re: the ongoing argument regarding whether "Life of Crime" could be based on "Ruthless People" since it's credited as being based on the Leonard novel, perhaps we can all take a second and think about this chronology. No, "The Switch" was not based on "Ruthless People". It is, however, clearly based on "Ransom of Red Chief", albeit expanded from a two-page short story to a novel. And "Ruthless People" cites its source material as the O. Henry story. Therefore, I think it's safe to say that BOTH films are based on the same original source, even if, in the case of "The Switch", there are two degrees of separation from the original. In the end, the two are definitely similar, and anyone who's seen RP is likely to have it come to mind when learning the plot of LOC.
There's been a lot of bickering here over whether one is and/or could be based on the other, as well as some unnecessary name calling. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to take a breath and think about the debate itself before entering your next post. We all have so many things to fight about -- is there really anything at all to be gained by fighting about this non-issue?
You ppl need to watch the movie and stop saying it's a ripoff of Ruthless ppl..It's not,it's completely different.Watch it and find out for yourselves.
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