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The top three movies at the box office last weekend:1. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
2. Barnyard: The Original Party Animals
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Funny how movie titles get longer and more complicated as movies themselves get simpler and dumber. Seems like film titlers have taken a cue from the wildly successful -- though clumsily titled and overly colon-ized -- Lord of the Rings trilogy. In particular, Will Ferrell seems to be taking a shine to the colon. The last movie he both wrote and headlined was Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Ferrell seems to be creating cinematic archetypes via the stodgy, ceremonial use of the colon (the "legend"! The "ballad"!). I can't wait for Fist Full of Sewage: The Saga of Curd Smiley: The Septic Tank Expert of Dayton, Ohio.
For the rest of 2006, we can look forward to DOA: Dead or Alive, Jackass: Number Two and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Beginning. The one colon-ized film that looks like it's worth its verbiage? Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. See the divine trailer here.
But does a colon in a title indicate a movie's quality? One might argue that all the movies listed above are either bad or ridiculous. Can you think of examples of good/clever colon usage? And name some great/prestigious movies with colons in the title.
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9 comments:
it's in translation, but "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" is an example of a great film that deigns to use a colon.
that's a really good and funny point, I love it.
You're insight is...insightful..
--RC: The Blogger of strangeculture.blogspot.com
In the case of Talladega, it doesn't mean an improvement ... I found the movie to be very funny in stretches, but when Ferrell hogged screen during his "rehab," it was just deadly dull.
You've seen Borat in his original medium, I hope?
Brilliance.
Appropriate use of colon?
Reno 911!: Miami
- L-Train
Yes. Yes yes yes.
I personally loved Lars von Trier's Shittown: Yes, I Still Hate America.
Oh, a personal favorite of yours:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Okay, a personal favorite of mine...
...perhaps the most visible and enduring example of colon-use in film titles. I thought for a second that "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" had a colon in it, but alas, it's a comma.
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