# Great movies that need better titles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2020, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751 "2020-04-28T17:12:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/21 "2020-04-28T19:53:37Z")
Most bad titles I know of already go with bad movies, and the good movies have pretty good titles (I _Like_ **North by Northwest** , myself). One candidate is the James Bond movie **On Her Majesty’s Secret Service**. There’s a definite “Bond Style” to book and movie titles. They’re short and punchy and suggest things – _Thunderball, Moonraker, Live and Let Die_. Even the newer, post-Fleming books and movies fit the style – _Tomorrow Never Dies, Forever and a Day, Brokenclaw, Carte Blanche_. But _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_? Too damned long. It’s not sexy. And you can’t put a tune to it. OHMSS (You _have_ to abbreviate it. Nobody wants to write it out in full all the time) is the first movie since the first one, _Dr. No_, to lack a song, probably because you couldn’t really work the title into it.\* \*_From Russia with Love_ did have a song with the title in it – they just didn’t use it over the opening credits. They sing it at the end. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/22 "2020-04-28T20:00:02Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I hear it’s a good movie, but I’ve never watched it because the title is so bad. > > _Being John Malkovich_ It describes the movie pretty well ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/23 "2020-04-28T20:02:34Z")
“The Day After Tomorrow”. So…two days from now? I guess it’s better than naming it after the book it was based on " The Coming Global Superstorm". And just calling it “Superstorm” sounds like a made for TV movie. > [@hogarth](#): > > “Edge of Tomorrow” is probably the poster child for bad titles. It sounds like a cross-over between “Edge of Night” and “Search for Tomorrow”. I think it’s a better title than the original “Die, Rinse, Repeat” or whatever it was called. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/24 "2020-04-28T20:04:27Z")
_Attack of the Clones_. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/25 "2020-04-28T20:06:08Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > It describes the movie pretty well It’s hard to think of a better title for the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/26 "2020-04-28T20:10:23Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I think it’s a better title than the original “Die, Rinse, Repeat” or whatever it was called. The original was a Japanese novel with an English title, “All You Need is Kill”. Obviously, the… cavalier approach to grammar made the original title a hard sell. Edge Of Tomorrow is pretty generic as titles go, but I do think it got unfairly blamed for what actually was a marketing department unable to sell a pretty good movie with a superstar lead actor. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/27 "2020-04-28T20:16:17Z")
_A New Hope_ is a terrible name for The Movie Formerly Known As _Star Wars_. I mean, if a new movie came out with that title, no one would want to see it; it would bomb. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/28 "2020-04-28T20:24:54Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly\*. What the hell does it even mean? It isn’t a particularly accurate description of the three leads. The names are intended to be somewhat humorous. The three leads are each introduced at the beginning of the movie with their epithets. Tuco is first seen grasping a huge greasy hunk of meat as he escapes from the men who tried to kill him. He’s over-the-top scuzzy. Angel Eyes is shown betraying both of the two men who hired him to kill one another. He’s over-the-top evil. And Blondie betrays Tuco, indicating that calling him “the Good” is intended ironically. He’s only good in comparison with the other two. It’s an extremely memorable title as well, and has entered English as an idiomatic expression for the positives, negatives, and screwed-up features of any situation. You can hardly have a better title than that. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/29 "2020-04-28T21:37:33Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I think it’s a better title than the original “Die, Rinse, Repeat” or whatever it was called. “Live. Die. Repeat.” was never the title, just the tagline. The problem is they made the tagline so prominent in the marketing that people started to think it was the title. So then when it came out on DVD they started calling it “Live. Die. Repeat.: Edge of Tomorrow” which is just terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/30 "2020-04-28T21:38:16Z")
I get annoyed with all of those series which try to include both the name of the overall series along with the name of the particular movie that you’re seeing. Avengers: Infinity War The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones I’ll concede that some of these weren’t all that great as movies. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/31 "2020-04-28T21:55:16Z")
Stolen, I think, from Roger Ebert, the 1997 movie Volcano has “The Coast is Toast” as one of the marketing taglines. That might have made a better title. Sorry but I forgot about the “great movies” requirement in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/32 "2020-04-28T21:59:47Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I get annoyed with all of those series which try to include both the name of the overall series along with the name of the particular movie that you’re seeing. > > Avengers: Infinity War > The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King > Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country > Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones > > I’ll concede that some of these weren’t all that great as movies. Are you saying you don’t think “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” is an elegant title? ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/33 "2020-04-28T22:28:43Z")
The Jimmy Stewart drama _Call Northside 777_ would probably have done better with a name like _Presumed Innocent_. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/34 "2020-04-29T10:46:55Z")
An old Bette Davis movie, _Mr. Skeffington._ The problem is that the movie is about _Mrs._ Skeffington. Her husband has a supporting role. ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/35 "2020-04-29T11:26:24Z")
**Deer Hunter** - too nondescript **Shawshank Redemption** - too hokey. Andy was innocent of the charges, so he didn’t need redemption. I suppose Shawshank Penitentiary is a real place, but the word “Shawshank” is meaningless outside of the state of Maine, and doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. **Silence of the Lambs** - “Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?” The backstory of her childhood trauma is, IMHO, too silly to name the movie after. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/36 "2020-04-29T12:38:28Z")
_The Departed_. It sounds like it refers to a specific dead person(s). Sure, we see a lot of people \*become \*departed but duh, it’s a gangster movie. We don’t need to be told there will be a lot of dead folks. It just feels feeble. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/37 "2020-04-29T13:10:20Z")
**The Revenant** – Not a common word. It means someone who was thought to have been dead who comes back. This may literally be true for this film, but it doesn’t help that a.) the word and its definition isn’t well known; and b.) its most common use is as a synonym for “vampire”, so it makes it sound like a horror flick. > **[The Revenant (2015 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revenant_(2015_film))** > > The Revenant is a 2015 American action drama film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The screenplay by Mark L. Smith and Iñárritu is based in part on Michael Punke's 2002 novel The Revenant, which describes frontiersman Hugh Glass's experiences in 1823, and which is based on the 1915 poem The Song of Hugh Glass. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. The film is also considered a remake of the film Man in the Wilderness (1971). > In August 2001, Akiva Goldsman purchased Punke's manusc... > **[Revenant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenant)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > In folklore, a revenant is an animated corpse that is believed to have been revived from death to haunt the living. The word revenant is derived from the Old French word, revenant, the "returning" (see also the related French verb revenir, meaning "to come back"). > Revenants are part of the legend of various cultures, including Old Irish Celtic and Norse mythology, and stories of supposed revenant visitations were documented by English historians in... It’s like the 1987 movie **The Dead**. Honestly, when you hear the title, your first thought is probably not James Joyce, but zombies. Heck, that’s the subject of the 2010 film of the same title ( [The Dead (2010) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386925/) ) > **[The Dead (1987 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_(1987_film))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > The Dead is a 1987 drama film directed by John Huston, written by his son Tony Huston, and starring his daughter Anjelica Huston. It is an adaptation of the short story of the same name by James Joyce, which was first published in 1914 as the last story in Dubliners. An international co-production between the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany, the film was Huston's last as director, and it was released several months after his deat... ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/38 "2020-04-29T13:52:52Z")
**“Anthropoid”** , a 2016 movie about two Czech soldiers who parachute into their occupied homeland to assassinate Nazi officer Reinhard Heydrich, is really good. But the title makes it sound like a sci-fi/horror flick. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/39 "2020-04-29T13:55:24Z")
[The King of Comedy](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085794/reference) was as good (i.e. outstanding) as anything Scorsese did. Yet it did not fare well at the box office. When it was released, a lot of people were probably disappointed that despite starring Jerry Lewis, it was anything but a comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751/40 "2020-04-29T14:03:49Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > [The King of Comedy](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085794/reference) was as good (i.e. outstanding) as anything Scorsese did. Yet it did not fare well at the box office. > > When it was released, a lot of people were probably disappointed that despite starring Jerry Lewis, it was anything but a comedy. :eek: 😕 Not a comedy? That movie is hilarious from start to finish! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-that-need-better-titles/852751.md?page=3)