Posted on October 26, 2013 at 3:59 pm
Dan Kois has a funny piece in Slate about the use of the word “bad” in so many recent movie titles. I love the movie posters Slate created for retitled classics. Would you see “Jaws” if it was renamed “Bad Fish?”
Posted on September 21, 2013 at 8:00 am
In movie world, ideas seem to percolate in different places at the same time. A while back, the number nine showed up in four titles at once. And right now, the always-popular word “paradise” seems to be having a particular moment.
I’m looking forward to the first movie directed by “Juno” screenwriter Diablo Cody. It’s called “Paradise” and stars Julianne Hough, Russell Brand, and Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer.
“Beyond Paradise” is the story of a young woman in an arranged marriage who falls in love with another man.
“Paradise Faith” is the story of a Christian missionary unhappily married to a Muslim.
And “The Paradise” is a BBC costume drama coming to PBS next month, about the employees in a department store.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT0ZO1cbdOMGot it?
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 8:00 am
Last time, it was a bunch of Nine movies. Now for some reason we have a bunch of movies with “tree” in the title. Here’s a quick guide to help keep them all straight.
Tree of Life is the impressionistic, sometimes mystifying Terrence Malick movie starring Brad Pitt as a powerful and sometimes abusive father of three boys in 1950’s Waco, Texas.
“The Tree” is a mystical Australian story of loss and rebirth.
“The Family Tree” is an offbeat comedy about a dysfunctional family with a mother who has lost her memory, staring Rachel Leigh Cook and Hope Davis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygqdGNQDV50“If a Tree Falls” is a documentary about the environmental activist group, the Earth Liberation Front.
Oh, and there’s also another movie called “The Family Tree,” but that won’t be out until next year. It’s the story of an estranged father and son and it stars Gabrielle Union and “Mad Men’s” John Slattery.
Posted on February 18, 2011 at 8:00 am
Salon has a fascinating interview with Matthew Cohen, an expert in movie titles.
Four letters can tell you everything you need to know: “Jaws”
Some other memorable one-word titles: “Titanic,” “Grease,” “Fargo,” “Elf,” “Blow,” “Amadeus,” “Goldfinger”
Some movie titles use what we already know to capture our attention: “Pretty Woman,” “‘
Some titles explain what we’re going to see: “The King and I,” “The Great Train Robbery,” “I Was a Male War Bride”
Some have to be explained: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” Some we have to figure out for ourselves: “Gone With the Wind,” “Chariots of Fire”
Some don’t seem to mean anything at all, or maybe everything: Anthony Hopkins has starred in “Fracture,” “Instinct,” and “The Edge” any of which could apply equally well to the other two.
And be sure to check out this hilarious article in Slate about what happens to American movie titles when they get translated overseas.
