If Movie Posters Told the Truth

In class this week, we discussed genre films, the status quo, and how films are usually produced in cycles depending on public mood. Today, CollegeHumor posted "honest" movie posters of this year's Best Picture Oscar nominees. These posters take the familiar images of the year's best films and satirically alters the titles, taglines, and other text to convey many of the obvious, though not directly expressed themes of the film, reactions of film critics, and cultural myths associated with each movie. Though comical, these posters speak to many of the aspects of films that often either deter or attract viewers to see a particular movie.

Here are two examples of these honest posters:



Mentioned many times in class, James Cameron's (who here is referred to as "the guy that knows how to spend $280,000,000") Avatar is re-titled Predictable due to its cookie-cutter plot line that has been recreated many times (Watch this video for confirmation).



The Blindside is re-titled White Lady Saves the Day, a kind of genre film that seems to pop up in many sports movies (Disney uses this formula for all of their sports films such as Remember the Titans and Glory Road) as well as movies about underprivileged students in poor, inner-city high schools (Michelle Phifer in Dangerous Minds and Hilary Swank in Freedom Writers).

The other posters can be seen at the CollegeHumor post.