Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid To Ask wasn’t as comprehensive as the title led me to believe. The film really only answered 7 questions.
[QUOTE=Ranchoth]
Ssssss—Or however many "s"es are supposed to be in it. Forget trying to pronounce it (not that you’d ever need to).
[/QUOTE]
This is the one I was going to mention. I saw it on TV many years ago, and the announcer kept having to say things like, “We’ll come back to sssss after these messages.” I bet they didn’t teach things like that in voice-over class.
Titles that bug me are usually just “Name” titles, like Michael Clayton, or Jerry Maguire… I mean, the title tells you NOTHING. Who are these people? Why have they movies made about them? It’s like changing the title of Fargo to Marge Gudersonn, or something. Case in point is Julia Roberts in Mary Reilly… wasnt that a Jekyll and Hyde story, as told by his maid? Who knows. Think about it, if you were asked, initially which of these movies was a biopic about the forefather of the Irish armed republican struggle, which would you pick;
Michael Collins
or
Jerry Maguire?
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
This happens with TV shows even more often than movies, for example:
Crossing Jordan
Tru Calling
House, M.D.
Grey’s Anatomy
…and it sucks. [/hijack]
[/QUOTE]
All these are puns on the characters’ names, right? I agree that they are even lamer than puns in general since the writers could create the character names to fit the puns. I’m not getting how House, M.D. fits the category though.
[QUOTE=John DiFool]
There can be only one: Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever.
[/QUOTE]
Seconded.
[QUOTE=Max Torque]
When I first heard the title, my reaction was, “Wow, how fortunate he is that his name rhymes so well with his chosen business. Just imagine how boring the movie would be if his name was Mr. Snafeteria, or Mr. Kepartmentstore.”
[/QUOTE]
Yeah. And what are the odds that somebody with the extremely unusual name of Hannibal would end up being that rarest of people, a cannibal?
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Agree 100%, it is the height of stupidity when a movie gives a character a stupid name so it can use that stupid name as part of a stupid title- another example, a movie called **Have Plenty ** which stars a character whose last name is “Plenty” solely for the sake of the “clever” (read: stupid) pun.
[/QUOTE]
I liked the way Oscar Wilde did that with The Importance of Being Earnest.
[QUOTE=bubastis]
Titles that bug me are usually just “Name” titles, like Michael Clayton, or Jerry Maguire… I mean, the title tells you NOTHING. Who are these people? Why have they movies made about them? It’s like changing the title of Fargo to Marge Gudersonn, or something.
[/QUOTE]
Y’know, it’s not like ‘Fargo’ reveals a whole lot about that movie either (especially since most of the action actually occurs in Brainerd, MN)
[QUOTE=Talon Karrde]
I liked the way Oscar Wilde did that with The Importance of Being Earnest.
[/QUOTE]
Agreed, but the difference there is it was probably an original idea back then, and at least Earnest is a real name.
Honorable mention for Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (points deducted for being a title that might actually make some people want to see it).
[QUOTE=neorxnawange]
The title Master and Commander isn’t a great title for the book . . .
[/QUOTE]
Sure it is. If the book is gay domination porn.
Prick Up Your Ears is a somewhat misleading title…
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
But the titles I really hate are those that don’t really tell you what it’s about, or give you any sense of what the film is. Sorceror is a good example of this. Even when you saw tthe trailer, with its South American settings, you get the impression that it’s maybe some Carlos Castaneda-type quasimystical film. It was YEARS before I learned what the title really meant. (It’s the name of one of the trucks. I’ll betcha didn’t know that, unless someone told you. It’s not as if it’s even ever clearly shown in the film.)
[/QUOTE]
I figured that one out, no problem. Good movie.
What did you think of Silence of the Lambs?
And you really should have known that, tdn.
[QUOTE=Cervaise]
Vision Quest.
If you know it, please sit out during the following. If you haven’t heard of it, please try to guess. What’s the story? Where is it set?
Give up?
[spoiler]Matt Modine and Linda Fiorentino star in a high school wrestling movie.
No, really.[/spoiler]
[/QUOTE]
Well, with the post by Reiber in this thread fresh in my mind, it has to be about a sojourn into the desert in search of your Original Face, perhaps with the help of various varieties of funky fungi, right?
[Checks]
Nope, not even close.
When I heard the title Murderball I HATED it. I do enjoy murder but it’s taking something I enjoy and turning it into a word that makes it sound like organized sports is just wrong! And it’s not even a sport I want to watch (like Battle Royale which is a great title)
I also hate the weird names I’m embarrassed to say like Hideous Kinky and Sexy Beast and Amores Perros
another vote for Hands, Hands of Fate and I submit Dude, Where’s my Car?
I think the best title by far is Monster a Go-Go
Oh yeah and post #64 is just as irrelevant as #61 and #62
A New Hope.
[QUOTE=Peter Morris]
A New Hope.
[/QUOTE]
But that conveys so much sense of a tide turning in a long story. Obviously that’s the title of a film that would come second or third, I don’t know, maybe fourth, in a long series, and would convey to the faithful audience that the dismal turns and wretched developments we had seen in the earlier acts were at last to be put away, with promises of better things to come.
Unless, of course, it’s the title of a film with nothing before it to establish all that, in which case, it’s a wretched choice.
Tomorrow Never Dies.
[QUOTE=Greg Charles]
I’m not getting how House, M.D. fits the category though.
[/QUOTE]
Is there a doctor in the house?
[QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher]
Is there a doctor in the house?
[/QUOTE]
“House” is actually supposed to be a pun on “Holmes,” as in Sherlock.
I explained this to my husband just hours ago, as a matter of fact. He thought it was pretty lame. I don’t see the problem. For some reason, I feel like the name fits the character. And the “M.D.” part is only added to the logo–the show title is just “House,” I think.