if you can think of a dumber title for a movie, please let me know. I mean, are they ignorant as to how the English language works or are they trying to be racist against Chinese...?
shareFor goodness sake, look at the titles of the Sixties and early Seventies! What do you see but many offbeat titles, unlike so many of today's incredibly mindless ones that either repeat previous titles or just use a person's name. Check out these:
Puzzle of a Downfall Child
Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker
If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium
Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing
Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?
Yours, Mine and Ours (remade as a dud with the same title)
Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose the Beat
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad
Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It.
Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?
The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
There are many others. Odd titles were extremely popular.
~~MystMoonstruck~~
I love those titles! How about:
Reflections in a Golden Eye
Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
They Shoot Horses Don't They?
Oh my! I almost included those, especially the "Zombies" one! Actually, there are so many weird and wonderful titles from that era.
There have been some imaginative ones in the time since, but, so often, they reuse titles (The Guardian, Pulse, Changeling~confused with The Changeling) or simply use people's names but names that aren't of anyone particularly famous or a name that stands out (Charlie Bartlett, Erin Brockovich, etc.).
To sum it up: I LOVE the title of this movie! It's evocative of the times and memorable. There's no mistaking it for other mixed/extended-family films of the same time.
~~MystMoonstruck~~
At least four of these titles:
Reflections...
Who's Afraid...
The Man Who...
and They Shoot Horses...
come from novels or plays on which the movies were based. I regret to admit that I have not read or viewed the source material for any of them, but I have seen at least part of each. They are all interesting, and mostly well reviewed movies. "Reflections..." appears to have been found quite as esoteric by the critics as I found it. Interesting, but weird.
I don't know about "The Incredibly..." I suspect the title was picked to reflect that it is a satire.
And then there's... "I Could Never Have Sex With Any Man Who Has So Little Regard For My Husband." Try fitting THAT on a marquee.
shareWow, thanks for this impressive list. I never thought about there being so many "offbeat" film titles from the 1960's.
If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium is one of my favorite films - the title is so perfect and part of the charm.
Did you watch the movie idiot? When they are at the chinese restaurant the kid is excited because with six in your party you get eggrolls! Their new whole family has added benefits. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Not everything is racist PC morons.
shareVery true pelverud but that is what is taught non-stop in US schools today.
shareI don't quite get why some posters find it necessary to INSULT another poster in their reply. Calling someone an idiot and a moron really is completely unnecessary.
singjohn and nycruise-1.... your explanations adequately explained the title to the OP without making it a PERSONAL ATTACK.
I don't quite get why some posters find it necessary to INSULT another poster in their reply. Calling someone an idiot and a moron really is completely unnecessary.
It's hardly racist.
While the expression may sound like something uttered by an Asian speaking pidgin "Engrish," it's not.
The phrase is uttered by one of the kids at the Chinese restaurant, and it's simply an observation of the circumstances at-hand: "with six, you get eggroll" - and it shows how, despite all the other antics that preceded that point in time, all that really matters to him is that the combined families now qualify for a freebie.
I will admit, though, that as a stand-alone title, it does sound somewhat like a desperate attempt at humor. Once I saw the movie, however, I changed my mind.
"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"
It's a strange title but I love the movie. Today many titles are so bland and/or short- Her, The Butler, Nebraska, are a few recent examples.
Dini
Yet another looking-for-racism-where-none-exists mope. Did you not see the scene in the Chinese restaurant when the boy is delighted that every table with six or more diners gets free eggrolls? Nothing but a trouble making troll.
share