Recently, I’ve noticed a trend with movie titles: non-sensical, yet oddly descriptive titles. I’m ambivalent about the trend: yes, the titles seem idiotic, but they do have an appealingly absurd quality.
My theory is that these titles stems from a game the cabal of film producers play to add some excitement (and original stories) to lives that are consumed with remake after remake after reboot after prequel and sequel after sequel after sequel (part one & two). Members of the group write words or phrases on slips of paper and then the lucky contestant draws two (or occasionally one) out at random from a hat. For instance, Grace Loh, Matt Moore, or John Morris picked “Hot Tub” and “Time Machine” out of the hat. The cabal of producers bet a dollar that the producers can’t make a film bearing the title. As with the Duke brothers, they don’t care how many lives (or careers) are destroyed in the process.
The beauty of the game is that the resulting film is as literal depiction implied by the absurd title. At least you know there will be a hot tub that transports characters through time, a shotgun wielding hobo, and monkey fighting snakes on a Monday to Friday plane. People would rather not be surprised.
Candidates
- Snakes on a Plane
- Hot Tub Time Machine
- Cowboys & Aliens
- Hobo with a Shotgun
- TrollHunter
- Battle Los Angeles
- Battleship (One word, but quite the challenge to make a movie about a seriously boring board game)
- Shark Night
- Cabin in the Woods
- RoboCop
- Human Centipede
- Machine Gun Preacher
Honorable mention to Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives; though not a Hollywood film, it has a fantastically, and absurdly, descriptive title. Also, honorable mention to Jane Austen for Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility, for the original idea to mash two arbitrary words together.
Note: I concede that not all above candidates have such a pedigree, but this theory is more more fun than basing movies on obscure graphic novels.
I will add more as I encounter them, feel free to suggest some candidates as well.