The Blair Witch Project should have been called The “Let’s see how many idiots we can dupe into paying good money to see this crap while we sit in the projection booth and laugh till the pee runs down our legs” Project.
I’m still pissed about this. Dammit, give me my money back!
A Gay Bishop? Can’t beat that!
Two movies that came out at around the same time were Falling Down (about Michael Douglas playing an engineer who snaps one day) and Point of No Return (with Bridget Fonda as a trained assassin, in a remake of La Femme Nikita). Interestingly, in Falling Down, Robert Duvall comments that Douglas’s character has “passed the point of no return” and in Point of No Return, Fonda at one point hums “London Bridge is falling down…” These two movies could easily have swapped titles and still worked.
[Nelson]I can think of at least two things wrong with that title.[/Nelson]
One that always bugged me is Primal Fear, the Richard Gere / Edward Norton movie from a few years back. This was a fine film done a real disservice by its title.
The title was obviously created by the same pinheads who changed “Cop Tips Waitress.” It tells you nothing about the movie, and it is eminently forgettable. It’s like one of those parodies of Hollywood movie titles they used to come up with on Seinfeld.
Yeah, I think when you have a psychological thriller, it has to be two powerful words like “fatal Attraction”
“Basic Instinct” “prognosis negative”
Waiting for Guffman
I love the movie, but the title annoys me. I know it’s a spin on Waiting for Godot, but Guffman wasn’t a major plot point.
You would pull something strange out of your hat. BTW I keep seeing you on that game show you were on. I know I’ve seen it on at least three times in the last couple of weeks. I could only watch once though.
Uh, say what? I have never been on a game show. Have you got me confused with someone else?
I think “Do The Right Thing” and “You Can Count On Me”, sound sort of stupid.
Not necessarily misnamed, but unless I missed it I can’t fathom why Paul Thomas Anderson named his three-hour pathos fest “Magnolia.”
By the time the “Amos ‘n’ Andy” TV show came on, Amos (as the result of the radio series) had been relegated to a secondary character. By then it was really the (mis)adventures of Kingfish and Andy. Amos did not have many noteworthy appearances, serving mainly to introduce the programs.
Actually, the REALLY confusing P.T. Anderson film title is “Punch-Drunk Love.” A better title would’ve been “Two Hours of Little Pianos and Awkward Pauses, Occasionally Punctuated by Adam Sandler Yelling. And Pudding.”
The remake of The Italian Job barely took place in Italy. 
And also sucked.
Soul Survivors should’ve been called “Why Did You Rent Me, Jackass?”
Well, I’m still right. If it’s a whole new character in a whole new movie with a whole new story, then it’s simply a second story that’s also neverending. So nyah.
No, it’s simply a new movie piggybacking on the old name. A second movie that is indeed neverending. Which makes it a misnomer in the same sense that the first one was. Which is what I said. Neener neener, neener neener.
At this point, the only way I can save face is to bring up the ten plus Final Fantasy video games. What’s up with that?
I think it’s on IMDb…It’s named Magnolia because that’s the street Julianne Moore is driving down at the beginning of the movie.
Similarly, the film About Last Night was based on David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago, but the title of the play was deemed too risque for a mainstream movie. Of course, that was all the way back in 1986…
I always thought that if Shawshank Redemption had a better title it would have done better at the box office.
Fortunately, thanks to Video and TNT, it has become a smash hit after market.
Not too unlike Road To Perdition.
I also agree that You Can Count on Me sounds a lot more like a sappy aftershool special than the fine indy flick it was.
But my all time favorite bad title has to be Rambo: First Blood Part II.
Um, wouldn’t that be Second Blood?
That one’s been bugging me for almost twenty years. Glad that’s finally off my chest.
Incidentally, did anyone see the Dennis Leary Roast? Dr Dre and Ed Lover listed all of Dennis’ movies on a blackboard and retitled them, accordingly.
IE: Operation Dumbo Drop became Operation Piece of Shit (IIRC).
Grape-Nuts – no grapes, no nuts!