A Brief History Of Obvious (And Not So Obvious) Movie Titles Films that do exactly what they say on the tin
There are movies that, like the well-known household sealer, do exactly what they say on the reel. Take Raiders Of The Lost Ark (ingredients: a lost ark, some raiders) and The Battle Of Algiers (and its sequel, ‘Clearing Up After The Battle Of Algiers’). Wherever you look there are plenty of others - Three Men And A Baby, Alien Vs. Predator and The Fighter to name just a few. These titles are a marketeer’s dream - slap them on a poster and you’re ready for the pub. Other films, though… well, let’s just say that we spent a long time waiting for the dog in Slumdog Millionaire. And we’re still waiting for the bit in Happiness when someone, anyone, cracks a smile. While we’re on it, why isn’t Sling Blade about a champion knife-thrower? Here’s a sliding scale of Ronseal movie titles, from the blindingly obvious to the mystifyingly obscure.
Man On A Ledge There's a man. He gets onto a ledge. What more do you need to know?
Rear Window There's a man. He has a window at the back of his house. He looks out of it. He can probably see Man On A Ledge.
Riding The Bus With My Sister Andie MacDowell and Rosie O'Donnell travel around an American city by subwayminicablightcycle bus. They're sisters.
The Woman In Black It's a movie about a scary lady who dresses in black. Look out, too, for the terrifying Paul W.S. Anderson sequel, 'Woman In Black Vs. Lady In Red: Requiem'.
My Dinner With Andre Wallace Shawn (or 'my') goes out for dinner with actor/director Andre Gregory ( or 'Andre'). They talk. They eat. Louis Malle films it. Then they ask for the bill. Everyone goes home.
Driving Miss Daisy Jewish widow (Jessica Tandy) gets driven about in big car by Morgan Freeman. Until someone makes the Parker-from-the-Thunderbirds biopic, 'Driving Lady Penelope', this is the best driving-someone-around-in-a-car movie title on IMDb.
Cars With oil to change and carburetors to, erm, carburate, car lovers haven't got a lot of time to be faffing about deciphering cryptic movie titles. Being super-smart, Pixar knows this… hence Cars. If they'd made a Tom Cruise movie in the '80s, they'd have called it 'Nascars'.
Toy Story Pixar already had a tradition of obvious titles before Cars. This would be higher up, except that it was so simple we thought it must be misleading.
It's a film about a font called Helvetica. They called it Helvetica. Job done.
Snakes On A Plane The movie often cited as having the ultimate high-concept film title, although really Mike Leigh favourite 'Two Earthworms Moving Slowly Across A Field' still takes the honours.
The Weather Man This movie stars Nicolas Cage as a meteorologist who sticks the crazy to the map of life. This title could only be more literal if the weather man was played by Michael Fish. Please make this happen, Hollywood.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Arguably they should have specified that he goes to Washington DC rather than Washington State, or on a visit to Mr and Mrs G. Washington. Otherwise, however, it's pretty bang on the money.
The English Patient He's English and he's bedridden, so a good title, right? Wrong. Ralph Fiennes' count is not actually English and behind those bandages lies an amazing backstory. We'd have called it 'The Saucy Hungarian Map Guy'.
Planes, Trains And Automobiles Tipping point reached! Here's one of those titles that tells you what's in the movie but not what it's about. If it had been directed by the Dardennes brothers you'd find it under 'M' for 'Mean Thin Man And Hopeless Fat Man Learn Important Life Lessons'. It probably wouldn't have starred John Candy.
The Apartment With its seminal tagline ("Set inside the architecture of some more architecture") and great moments of inventory checks and lease agreement, Billy Wilder's real-estate classic sees Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine's can-do couple snag a desirable urban des res and see their dreams coming true. Hang on, that's Location, Location, Location. Fiddlesticks.
Clash Of The Titans "Titans will clash!", eh? Not really, since technically no Titans were involved. "Krakens will krack" maybe. We dread to think what kind of reaction this title got from the people who grumbled that Drive was short on driving. And we haven't even mentioned the 'in 3D' bit.
Elephant There are elephants in Water For Elephants, there are even elephants in Temple Of Doom, so where the heck are the elephants in Elephant? Except perhaps for on the poster. If you didn't know better, you'd think Gus van Sant's film was about teen love blossoming under the watchful eye of a tusky mentor. Could have been worse, though. He could have called it 'Oliphaunt'.
Octopussy Number of cats with eight legs in this movie? 000.
Monster's Ball On paper, this sounds like one of the best things ever: a giant fiesta filled with beasties and furry freaks getting their fangy la-la's out, like the party at the end of The Leopard only with Ray Harryhausen and H. R. Giger in charge of the invite list. On screen, we got rape, suicide and prison. Not as good.
Posted on Wednesday February 8, 2012, 13:57 by Judge
Noone had to ask what Batman Begins was about. Read More
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RE: Clash of the Titans has no Titans in it
Posted on Wednesday February 8, 2012, 13:11 by MOnkeyboy1138
I know that this I've spent m'way too much time on this, but according to Greek myth the kraken (originally known in Greek as Cetus the whale) was born of two titans who made sweet weekly love in the sea, can't find any mythical context for Medusa being a Titan. But in the Harryheusen version of the film they are both referred to as titans. I'm not trying to be a knob, just trying to prove Empire wrong Read More
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Posted on Tuesday February 7, 2012, 15:30 by EriCritic
To be fair, Man on a Ledge has more going on in it than just a man standing on a ledge. True, it does happen there. Doesn't matter anyway...the movie sucks. How come Cowboys & Aliens isn't on this list? An obvious title if you ever saw one. One look at the title and you'll know immediately whether you want to see it or not, no plot needed. Read More
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Posted on Tuesday February 7, 2012, 14:22 by fraser1978
As Empire said in their review.,Primal Fear, completely meaningless title for the movie's plot! Read More
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Clash of the Titans has no Titans in it
Posted on Tuesday February 7, 2012, 14:06 by muckseen
Sorry, Monkeyboy, neither the Kraken nor Medusa count as titans. Also, I'd like to play my nerd card here by pointing out that the Kraken is actually a monster from Old Norse stories and has nothing to do with Greece.
To put aside that nerding for more nerding: Reservoir Dogs seems like a good example. Not a reservoir or dog anywhere in sight. Read More
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Posted on Tuesday February 7, 2012, 13:29 by tejrai
Clash of the Titans does have titans who clash (technically)
Posted on Tuesday February 7, 2012, 13:17 by MOnkeyboy1138
Just want to point out, the Kraken is a titan as is Medusa. Medusa's severed head turns the Kraken to stone, and it crashes to pieces. So, in closing Medusa v Kraken = Clash of Titans, Kraken pieces falling to ground = Titan pieces clashing with the ground. :) Read More
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Posted on Tuesday February 7, 2012, 10:40 by nc006914
Posted on Saturday February 4, 2012, 18:03 by fantastic mr ethan
Most obvious Heading for a comment ever. Man thinks EMPIRE is wrong. Not 100% sure about it. Read More
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Steven Seagal...
Posted on Saturday February 4, 2012, 17:32 by ianpaulstone
...is the ronseal of films... There's none of his in here??? Why not?
Under Siege
Out for Justice
Mercenary for Justice
Marked for Death
Hard to Kill
Driven to Kill
Out for a Kill
Born to Raise Hell
do I need to continue... the entire list could've been made up of him alone!
Read More
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Posted on Saturday February 4, 2012, 09:59 by Psycho Savager
There is no labyrinth in the film Labyrinth. There's a maze, which is technically not the same as a labyrinth.
Ghost World has no ghosts or mentions of them.
St. Elmo's Fire surely holds the record for most tenuous attempt to shoehorn an otherwise unrelated title into the film.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake has nobody being massacred with a chainsaw. Read More
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The Birdcage
Posted on Saturday February 4, 2012, 08:05 by Grimm
Not about the imprisonment of feathered creatures. Read More
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Most Obvious
Posted on Saturday February 4, 2012, 08:03 by Grimm
The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford.
There you have it: the entire plot explained in the title!!! Read More
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Where's Brazil?
Posted on Friday February 3, 2012, 21:31 by duncanwhatmore
Nothing to do with a South American country whatsoever. Well, except for some incidental music. Read More
