[QUOTE=The Scrivener]
Another vote for Prick Up Your Ears, if only for the awkwardness it posed to marquee title-changers everywhere. There was no polite way to abbreviate it if your sign was too short.
[/QUOTE]
I would love to see them try, though.
ETA: It just occurred to me that you only need to move one letter to get a film title appropriate for another genre, Prick Up Your Arse.
[QUOTE=fetus]
Although a close runner-up is Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. The title itself made me completely uninterested in what was apparently a decent movie that has since been covered up by the sands of time.
[/QUOTE]
No, it really wasn’t a decent movie by any stretch of the imagination. I wish I’d been saved from it by the bad title. The sands of time did right to cover up this one.
[QUOTE=tonedef]
You sure about that? Cause didn’t George Lucus write 9 star wars movies? And after being rejected from a heap of movie studios only finally picked him up and said they would do 3 so he did 4,5 & 6.
I could be wrong with this, but its what I have been lead to beleav for many years.
[/QUOTE]
No, the plan for nine movies came after the original Star Wars became a phenomenon of Western civilization. It wasn’t even designated as “Episode 4” until long after its release.
BTW, I’m not a big fan of Eps. 1 to 3, but “Attack of the Clones” is supposed to be a silly title reminiscent of the silly, but highly entertaining, serial adventure films of the Good Old Days ™.
[QUOTE=Greg Charles]
No, it really wasn’t a decent movie by any stretch of the imagination. I wish I’d been saved from it by the bad title. The sands of time did right to cover up this one.
[/QUOTE]
Fair enough. I only heard one recommendation, and nothing specifically bad about it that I can recall.
Re: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
[QUOTE=Greg Charles]
No, it really wasn’t a decent movie by any stretch of the imagination. I wish I’d been saved from it by the bad title. The sands of time did right to cover up this one.
[/QUOTE]
Not true. It’s a gorgeous movie to look at. I saw it for the first time in German; couldn’t understand a word and it was great.
The only real problem is the way Gwyneth Paltrow decided to play her role. It cried out for a fast-talking, His Girl Friday type of performance, but Paltrow decided to be all pensive and fragile. (At least, I assume it was deliberate on her part, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her play a really confident role.) Strange, too, because her mother could have nailed that part.
[QUOTE=fetus]
It just occurred to me that you only need to move one letter to get a film title appropriate for another genre, Prick Up Your Arse.
[/QUOTE]
No cite, but I once read that that is no coincidence. The wording of the title was deliberately chosen to sound rather like, “Prick up your arse”.
The Wikipedia article on the film says much the same.
I’ve been lurking for ages and this is the thread that finally made me sign up to post.
3 favorites…
“Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood” Ugh. :mad:
“Playing By Heart”. The title itself isn’t horrible, it’s merely so boring as to be totally forgettable. But what puts this on my list is that the title was originally going to be “Dancing About Architecture.” What? The producers appear to have realized just in time what a staggeringly incomprehensible title they were about to thrust upon the world. Can you imagine the arguments? “Hey honey, do you wanna see the new Angelina Jolie movie about line-dancing?” “Yuck. Why don’t we go see that new Sean Connery film about the construction business instead?”
This Is Spinal Tap. How many millions of dollars have been lost in rental fees when legions of stoned college kids went to Blockbuster only to give up and get something else after ten minutes of scouring the S section? “Dang it, Spinal Tap must’ve been rented out again. How come it’s never here?” :smack:
[QUOTE=KGS]
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar – not only is the title way too long to fit on a marquee, it conjures up the image of people passing pithy post-its back and forth for 2 hours. It’s the kind of title that’s so pretentious, not even Leonard Maltin would watch it. I don’t even know what the movie’s about, and I never want to find out!
[/QUOTE]
Just go see the (superior) original, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, instead.
Not sure about the worst ever, but here are a few guaranteed not to have you racing to the box office:
serious:
Turtle Diary
The Belly of an Architect
Two Mules For Sister Sarah
silly:
Eegah
Rat Pfink A Boo Boo
Cannibal Women In The Avocado Jungle of Death
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (presumably a prequel to the aforementioned, richly deserved, assassination)
[QUOTE=Zebra]
Closed for Remodeling
[/QUOTE]
Reminds me: when I was a lad we drove by a theater and the marquee read “This Building Is Condemned”. I had no idea it was a movie title (early Robert Redford, I think).
Anyhew. I guess my own nomination would be: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
I’ve got a couple:
Gleaming the cube - there was no gleaming, there was no cube.
Every which way but loose - bears no relation to anything in the film.
I’ve never seen The Abyss, in large part because I can’t help mentally adding *-mal *to the title.
[QUOTE=BJMoose]
Reminds me: when I was a lad we drove by a theater and the marquee read “This Building Is Condemned”. I had no idea it was a movie title (early Robert Redford, I think).
[/QUOTE]
And that reminds me – there was a drive-in out in the middle of nowhere, and people often mistakenly turned off the highway at the road before the one they were supposed to turn at. They put up a sign at that intersection, advertising the current film and advising people not to turn yet.
A friend who wasn’t familiar with the setup was taken aback the day we drove by and the sign read “VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED – DON’T TURN HERE!”
[QUOTE=Robot Arm]
Re: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Not true. It’s a gorgeous movie to look at. I saw it for the first time in German; couldn’t understand a word and it was great.
The only real problem is the way Gwyneth Paltrow decided to play her role. It cried out for a fast-talking, His Girl Friday type of performance, but Paltrow decided to be all pensive and fragile. (At least, I assume it was deliberate on her part, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her play a really confident role.) Strange, too, because her mother could have nailed that part.
[/QUOTE]
Actually, the problem with the movie was that it was written, directed and produced by a software engineer, rather than by actual filmmakers. That’s why it came across not as an bona fide movie but rather as a two-hour cutscene - and not a particularly good cutscene, either.
Not likely, but it IS by the same guy who gave us Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula.
No joke.
[QUOTE=KarlGauss]
Not so much the worst title, but certainly among the most misleading was King of Comedy.
I suspect that i) some people went to see it expecting a comedy, and ii) some people stayed away thinking it was a comedy. Of course, and as anyone who did see it knows, King of Comedy was a fairly heavy drama that delivered a strong commentary on what was then becoming an increasingly common phenomenon (and which remains so).
[/QUOTE]
::hijack::
Actually, the first time I saw it, I felt the same way. Something compelled me to watch it again, and I discovered something interesting–it really is a comedy!
A very dark one, but a comedy nonetheless. I’ve since seen it at least 10 times, and it’s easily on my 10 best list.
(! really came in to mention Hieronymous Merkin but was beaten to it. :mad: )
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I mean WTF?
Se7en. Yikes. Seven would be acceptable, but a 7 instead of a v is neither big nor clever. Somewhere, someone is trying to sell a script for Ei8ht.
Numb3rs would be an honorable mention if only it were a movie.
[QUOTE=RickJay]
“Star Wars Episode II: The Attack of the Clones” is surely the worst title ever, isn’t it?
[/QUOTE]
All of the Star Wars films have bad titles. It’s only because we’re accustomed to them that some don’t sound so bad anymore.
I remember, back in 1979, when we learned that the sequel to “Star Wars” wasn’t going to be called “Star Wars 2” (which is what everyone expected), but “The Empire Strikes Back.” I vividly recall lots of groaning and eye-rolling from friends when they heard this. This title seemed impossibly dumb to us, and suggested that the next film would be embarrassing and childish.
[QUOTE=BJMoose]
Reminds me: when I was a lad we drove by a theater and the marquee read “This Building Is Condemned”. I had no idea it was a movie title (early Robert Redford, I think).
[/QUOTE]
Don’t forget the drive-in movie version of that title: Closed for Winter (sometimes known as Closed for the Season).
I was just in a movie theatre yesterday and noticed a marquee for an upcoming movie called The Bucket List.
Man, that is a bad, bad title.
I hate punny titles. Example: Overdrawn at the Memory Bank