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Terrible Movie Titles

addiesin

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I thought this might be fun.

What are some of your least favorite movie titles, and why?

The Dark Knight Rises - after the second film was called The Dark Knight, I felt it was a mistake to return to that nomenclature. But if they insisted, then surely it should be Falls, right? It's the definitive end of a trilogy. Bad choices all around.

Star Trek Into Darkness. I see what they're trying to do and the only reason I think they even went this direction is to hide the Cumberbatch reveal. Still, it makes no sense. Star Trek Beyond is not much better of a title. Both just come across unintentionally generic. Actually, lump the first of the Kelvin series in there too, that one they just called Star Trek.

As mentioned by matrixgrindhouse, the Rambo movie titles are all messed up. 
  1. First Blood
  2. Rambo: First Blood Part II
  3. Rambo III
  4. Rambo
  5. Rambo V

"The Thing" is the title of both the John Carpenter 1982 film and the attempted in-continuity 2011 prequel (not a remake or reboot). I think the prequel should have been called "What's That?!" or something similar so the two titles would have wordplay with each other when said aloud.
 

The Scribbling Man

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Most of the time bad movie titles are a good sign of a bad movie, and they just make me smile. Occasionally, good movies get bad titles, and it's frustrating - though I can't think of examples right now. 

The Dark Knight Rises is definitely the first that comes to mind (which you also mentioned). It's not a good movie, but it was an anticipated one, and I remember when the title was announced and being like "seriously?".

I thought The Force Awakens was a terrible title, but now I've seen the movie, it kind of makes sense.

Quantum of Solace - whatever the hell that is.
 

DigModiFicaTion

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*Ahem* Attack of the Clones for the win
 

matrixgrindhouse

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DigModiFicaTion

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The Never Ending Story I-III
Implying that the previous stories truly did end....
 

matrixgrindhouse

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From the Rambo school of confusing sequel titling, here's localization run amok (there's only two movies here, to be clear).

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The belated third film also had a name change, and neither region acknowledges that it's part of any series whatsoever.

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Well, except in Germany, I guess?
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flaminio

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[font=q_serif, Georgia, Times,]The worst named movie that I can think of is Sorcerer. Before I go on, if you are unaware of this movie, what do you suppose it is about?  It came out in the mid-1970s, if that helps.[/font]


[font=q_serif, Georgia, Times,]Most people would think it involves wizards and magic and maybe a princess. And since this is the mid 1970s, you'd be forgiven if you dismissed it as rather schlocky fare, given that such films were common back then.[/font]

[font=q_serif, Georgia, Times,]In reality, it's a taut thriller about two teams of truck drivers transporting a load of dynamite across the Central American rainforest. It is a remake of the French classic Wages of Fear, and directed by The Exorcist's William Friedkin. It's an excellent film that flopped miserably at the box office, and I'm convinced that a large part of that is due to the stupid, stupid name.[/font]

[font=q_serif, Georgia, Times,]Why Sorcerer? As it turns out, it's graffiti scrawled on one of the trucks. It's never mentioned in dialog, and plays no part whatsoever in the plot. It almost sounds like it was one of those code names often used in production that nobody bothered to change to the film's real name. They should have just re-used Wages of Fear.[/font]
 

Moe_Syzlak

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flaminio said:
[font=q_serif, Georgia, Times,]The worst named movie that I can think of is Sorcerer. Before I go on, if you are unaware of this movie, what do you suppose it is about?  It came out in the mid-1970s, if that helps.[/font]


[font=q_serif, Georgia, Times,]Most people would think it involves wizards and magic and maybe a princess. And since this is the mid 1970s, you'd be forgiven if you dismissed it as rather schlocky fare, given that such films were common back then.[/font]

[font=q_serif, Georgia, Times,]In reality, it's a taut thriller about two teams of truck drivers transporting a load of dynamite across the Central American rainforest. It is a remake of the French classic Wages of Fear, and directed by The Exorcist's William Friedkin. It's an excellent film that flopped miserably at the box office, and I'm convinced that a large part of that is due to the stupid, stupid name.[/font]

[font=q_serif, Georgia, Times,]Why Sorcerer? As it turns out, it's graffiti scrawled on one of the trucks. It's never mentioned in dialog, and plays no part whatsoever in the plot. It almost sounds like it was one of those code names often used in production that nobody bothered to change to the film's real name. They should have just re-used Wages of Fear.[/font]
This is weird.  I’ve never even heard of Sorcerer before, but in two different forums it was brought up nearly simultaneously. In the other forum the discussion was around cinematography and the film was praised. 

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flaminio

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For a long time Sorcerer was tough to find in a decent format. But recently it was remastered for Blu-ray, overseen by Friedkin, and in this format it is gorgeous. It's one of my favorite movies.
 

matrixgrindhouse

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Here's another Chan series that's had some a troubled history of US localizations.  Some of these were retroactively corrected... but still. 



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matrixgrindhouse

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On the mainstream side of things, how about Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation?  Great spy flick, but one that does not feature a rogue state in any shape or form.  A group of former intelligence agents is compared to the concept at one point, but it really feels forced.  I think they probably announced the title before the script was finished.  Or started, maybe.
 

theryaney

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Star Wars:
4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 7, 3.9, 8, 3.5, 9.
 

TM2YC

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Sorceror's title is also confusing when you are watching the movie, as it's about two trucks, one called "Sorceror" and one called "Lazaro". Friedkin said this about the title:

"The Sorcerer is an evil wizard and in this case the evil wizard is fate"

Makes perfect sense.

'Anthropoid' is pretty bad. It's about a cybernetically enhanced animal right? No it's about a WW2 operation called "Anthropoid". Surely you call it "Operation: Anthropoid" then everybody knows it's a war movie. It'd be like if another WW2 movie called "A Bridge too Far" had been called "Market Garden" making everybody think it was cosy film about growing vegetables. A rival Anthropoid-based movie was going to be called "HHhH" before they changed it to "The Man with the Iron Heart" which isn't much better, sounding like a 'Wizard of Oz' spinoff. The first (lose) adaptation of the Anthropoid story was by Fritz Lang and called 'Hangmen Also Die!' which sounds like a Spagetti-Western.
 

TMBTM

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I usualy don't like movies with only the name of the main character, like Erin Brockovich or Ed Wood. I mean they fit the movies obviously, it's not "terrible" but I don't know... it's lazy and it does not speak to the audience...
Not to mention that sometimes it can even causes confusion like with Donnie Brasco and Donnie Darko, lol.
EDIT: some mentioned John Carter, and yes that's another example. You could even think it's a movie about "John Carter" the character from the TV series E.R.
 

The Scribbling Man

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I find "Present participle verb + Noun" titles a bit annoying and somewhat of a cliche. 

Saving Grace
Saving Private Ryan 
Saving Mr Banks 
Killing Gunther 
Being John Malchovich 
Finding Nemo
Finding Neverland 
Becoming Jane 
Breaking Bad (not a film, but you know...)
Breaking Dawn 
Regarding Henry 
Educating Rita 
Forgetting Sarah Marshall 
Keeping Mum
Raising Arizona 

Etc.
 

ssj

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extremely loud & incredibly close
now that lacks poetry.
 

addiesin

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TMBTM said:
I usualy don't like movies with only the name of the main character, like Erin Brockovich or Ed Wood. I mean they fit the movies obviously, it's not "terrible" but I don't know... it's lazy and it does not speak to the audience...
Not to mention that sometimes it can even causes confusion like with Donnie Brasco and Donnie Darko, lol.
EDIT: some mentioned John Carter, and yes that's another example. You could even think it's a movie about "John Carter" the character from the TV series E.R.
Thank you! Plain name titles, how could I forget?!

I hate these titles so much, I avoided seeing John Wick for years because of the name.

I accidentally saw a trailer or tv spot and was like "THAT'S John Wick?!"
 
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