Pop Culture for Fun

  Have you ever went to a movie just because of it’s title? Say you’re at a multiplex, and you have no idea what you want? What are you going to see? The Dark Knight? Or The Love Guru? only based on the title. Well, I don’t think there’s much of a choice there. However there have been cases of good movies with awful titles, The Shawshank Redemption is an awful title for a movie, ok for a book, awful for a movie.
   And there are a lot of very, very bad movie titles, from intentional (Freddy Got Fingered) to naive (The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants) to really, really disturbing (Cannibal Women In The Avocado Jungle of Death-haven’t seen that one, not planning to). Sometimes you have to wonder: what were they thinking? As with Grease? Who on Earth thinks grease in a title will attract people? Well, it will, but the wrong kind of people. Fire Down Below..hmm I’m not even going to comment on a Seagal movie. Don’t Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood? Leave it to the Wayans to come up with something that weird. To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Hmm…then again, what other title would fit a movie about transvestites?
   Then there’s my favorite group. The unintentionally adult industry titles (it may very well only be me and my twisted mind though). Fun With Dick And Jane. Well..that one’s pretty self explanatory. Snatch – no comment. Rear Window. Advice for filmmakers: when titling your movies, please be sure to think about future connotations of the title. Phat Girlz. Believe it or not, it wasn’t an adult movie, the producers actually chose this title for a wide release movie. Dr. T And The Women. Well…if it were Mr. T And The Women it most certainly have been an adult movie. Feeling Minnesota. I don’t think there’s anyone able NOT to think of something dirty when reading that title. And last but not least: Ocean’s 11. So it’s about this guy Ocean right? And his eleven what? Such titles deprive the porn industry of coming up with creative titles of their own based on them.
   But then again, were it not for such titles, what would we laugh at? What pop culture puns would we make with out friends just to pass the time? We can all agree that Snakes On A Plane is an awesome title as much as it is bad, can’t we?

Posted on October 9th, 2008 by MrWiseguy
Filed under: Movies