Monday Movie Meme – A Match Made in Hell

Happy Veteran’s Day! We’re back to our regularly scheduled Monday Movie Meme program, after a brief illness caused me to be out of commission last week. Years ago, I made a one-minute short comedy film about a woman whose boyfriend tests her patience when all she wants is some *ahem* extra special birthday attention.

In preparation for my re-posting of that movie on this blog, the scene has me thinking about dysfunctional couples; which brings us to the theme for this week’s Monday Movie Meme: A Match Made in Hell.

Share on your blog or in the comments section, movies featuring dysfunctional couples. It is just a matter of time before their relationship takes a turn for the worse. Or, they surprisingly operate well together despite you shaking your head wondering how these pairings came to be in the first place. Here are my selections for this week’s A Match Made in Hell meme.

Lighten Up

The fun loving girlfriend is all about enjoying the moment but her boyfriend is an egotistical and disgruntled employee who doesn’t know how to chill. I will be posting this movie – which I wrote and directed -- soon for your viewing pleasure.

The Best Man

I have to give props to this classic wedding movie starring Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut and many other talents – especially since “The Best Man Holiday” opens this weekend.

One of the groomsmen is dating an uptight woman who tries to control him, which reminds me of…

The Hangover

A dentist named Stu is in a long-term relationship with one of the most unpleasant, controlling girlfriends that I’ve ever seen in a movie.

Seems like Stu and the guy from “The Best Man” have something in common, especially since their friends are not that fond of their significant others.

Leaving Las Vegas

All arguments about everybody needing somebody aside, I doubt that the pair in this romantic drama starring Nicholas Cage comes to mind when people think of couples who are meant for each other. If the relationship between the suicidal drunken screenwriter and his hooker girlfriend isn’t dysfunctional, I don’t know what is.

Who are some of the most dysfunctional couples you’ve ever seen in a movie?

Movie Poster Trends - Attack of the Clones

Earlier this week, I started worrying less about all of the barriers to entry in prepping my short film “Abyss” for its release; and began to notice the many ways that I can leverage the (albeit limited) resources I already have access to, for maximum options – including the creation of key art. The search for a movie poster design that best represents “Abyss,” however is still on, bringing us to another common trend among one-sheets. 

I figure it’s worth considering any and all viable design concepts that could work while also identifying the ones that should be avoided like the plague.

So with that in mind, let’s look at some movies with posters that could easily pass for another film in front of audiences. In Christophe Courtois’s compilation A little resemblance, he describes how the study of small similarities between one movie poster and another makes a big difference in being able to identify traces of unoriginality among their designs.

It’s hard to argue with his implications after just one glance at these design patterns. Films with movie posters similar to previous releases appear to be riding the bandwagon of another title’s box office success or public status. That should be no surprise considering the nature of Hollywood – the land of questionable sequels and remakes. So it seems as though one-sheets are no exception to this rule. Why reinvent the wheel when another movie has shown that certain compositions, colors, etc. work when it comes to gaining audience recognition?

Movie Poster Trend #12 - The Rip-Off

“These are supposed to either remind you of another (and much better) movie or outright trick you into believing you’re actually getting this other movie at the videostore.” - Para1/ONTD

Call it lack of originality, a case of false advertising, or the simple form of being a downright copycat. One thing’s for sure, movies adopting this “resemblance” practice that Cristophe is referring to has succeeded in getting people to take notice. I have no problem with that, since it is the whole point of creating movie posters. Yet, there is also a part of me that wonders if such a move in design choices are made at the sacrifice of a film’s credibility in terms of its perceived value among audiences.

As “The Rip Off” movie poster trend suggests, some people may view these types of designs as a form of trying to compensate for a film that isn’t so good. On the flipside, one can also argue that similarities in poster designs are useful for helping to give some movies the extra push that they need -- an advantage that would otherwise not be possible due to limitations in their marketing budgets, difficulties in reaching a target demographic, or related factors.

Do YOU still consider movie posters “original” artwork if their designs are similar to notable films?

Is this practice of emulation among poster designs, as understandable as the sampling and/or song remixes done in the music business?

Previous installments of Movie Poster Trends series include a post on hidden face designs and another about text-over-faces. 

Monday Movie Meme - Lost in Translation

Have you’ve ever watched a foreign film with subtitles so puzzling that you feel like you’d be better off seeing this movie in its native language? If so, the theme of this week’s Monday Movie Meme is for you and those of us who have had to find our own way -- through the actions and moving lips in films from other lands: Lost in Translation.

Share on your blog or in the comments section, movies you’ve watched that contain frustrating subtitles. They might even be so bad that you felt a headache coming on, just trying to follow long in the story playing out on screen. Some subtitles are incomplete or do not make any sense. Others are displayed in an ineligible font or color that causes strain on the eyes. Whatever the case, you wished more attention to detail was put toward this seemingly minor, yet oh-so-important, aspect of a movie.

Here are my selections for this week’s Lost in Translation theme.

The Girl who played with Fire

I developed a headache while trying to watch this movie due to the faulty subtitles. Solution – turn on the English dub track! That was easy enough, except for the fact that I could not seem to turn the subtitles off, so I had two choices – watch “The Girl who played with Fire” with subtitles only, even though they disappear mid-sentence while the characters are visibly still talking on screen. Or, I can activate this movie’s English dub track and then sit back and watch while the English that I’m hearing on screen doesn’t match up to the subtitles. What the heck?! Did they outsource both versions to two completely different companies, or what?

What I found most interesting, however, is that after I returned this confusing piece of junk back to the library where I borrowed it from, the DVD rental that I picked up from Blockbuster was just fine – so fine that I didn’t even need to watch it with an English dub. I was able to watch it with fully completed subtitles. The lesson in this viewing experience: Be weary of getting foreign films from libraries.

Bliss (Mutluluk)

Yeah, this movie has been on my radar a lot lately and is the (loosely) inspiration for this week’s meme. The subtitles are thin, yellow and too damn small. I had to get up and stand in front of the television several times throughout this movie, just so I could read what the characters were saying.

Good thing that “Bliss” was otherwise a well-made film and had a tight story going for it. Although this is one of few foreign films that I would watch again, it is highly unlikely that I will do so, given the fact that its subtitling size needs to be bumped up a notch or two – or three!

Oldboy

After learning about this popular South Korean mystery drama, I rented the DVD, only to learn that its subtitles do not match up to the action and verbal communication being displayed on screen.

So, I refused to continue to watch “Oldboy” at that time and today it remains among the films I hit the “stop” button on, turning off after only just a few scenes in. Considering what happened with “The Girl who played with Fire” where I had to obtain the same movie twice from different services, I’m now wondering of this “Oldboy” subtitle mix-up was a case of a shoddy DVD source. As the November 27^th release of the “Oldboy” remake approaches, I also wonder if I should even bother watching the Korean one; why bother playing subtitle roulette when I can watch an all-English version without all this native/foreign translation drama?!

What foreign films have YOU watched that contained faulty subtitles, making it difficult for you to interpret, or enjoy, the movie?