Being obsessed with movies and in the field of design, I have a thing for movie posters. Big fan. With that said, I’m obviously a fan of zfs!’ quasi-regular postings commenting on recent cinematic posters. I may have tapped into his source or at least one of them. I’m intrigued by a “blog” that only displays posters and very limited film information. It seems too, well… yawn, for my tastes.
The staff at ZFS! and their somewhat-monthly rundowns add humanity and insight typically comedic to the two-dimentional film promotions. We here at U.T.D. appreciate such things. If imitation is, indeed, the sincerest form of flattery, I can only hope those in New York take it as such. zfs! staff, please ignore my stereotypical depiction of texas in the previous post. These are ordered from the highest factor of suck to the highest factor of sweetness.
Get Smart
I liked the show. I like carell. I like hathaway in the “i want to be on you” sense. I hate this poster. Television shows remade on film always work out well. What’s with Hathaway’s hair all up in Carell’s grill? Is that supposed to show her dominance? PG-13 means no Brokeback or havoc-like flesh that could possibly provide relief from the tedious lame. This movie could suck the yellow off a banana I was going to go with a jenna jameson reference here, but, if you’ve seen her lately (if you haven’t, click here), it would have sparked a fit of vomiting like something out of the exorcist.
Last Chance Harvey
Dustin looks to be pondering the days when he was in the graduate or runaway jury or i ♥ huckabees. Maybe he’s just daydreaming about all his upcoming time in the studio doing voice-overs. It sure doesn’t look like he gives a shit about Emma to the right. The over-choched photo of the bridge and the painfully simple design of this impressively pompous pile of bird droppings makes my retinas throb. The layout wants so much to be centered, it aches like a broken molar. I guess everyone at overture films is cross-eyed.
Just add water
The graphic is sort of interesting. The headline confuses me. Is “add” really a subordinate? In a three-word title, can’t we keep them all the same size? Just sayin’. The string of six character names is decent, but the layout is so… myspace top friends. Does anyone else want to see this just to figure out what the hell devito is wearing? “Because a life can grow anywhere?” Nice tagline, idiot-who-probably-makes-more-than-me. There’s less non-literal cheese at a Packer playoff game than is printed on this semi-gloss.
the wackness
The movie, set in 1994, is about a drug dealer who falls in love with the daughter of his pothead therapist. As far as I’m concerned, this poster is brilliant. Define the decade of a film better. I dare you. Graffiti-esque handwriting, worn label, and all on a cassette. C’mon. I’m ignoring the argument that this is too obvious. Because it is, but it’s still classy. This one was narrowly beaten out by the next. Judging purely on poster-related merit which is how ebert does it, I have no idea if the movie will be quality. They have a second poster with all the graffiti-esque-ness and none of the awesome. Really makes me wonder.
the bank job
I caught wind of this one from zfs! and suddenly understood all the longing of alicia silverstone in the crush. if you didn’t follow, this poster is my cary elwes. All the vintage simplicity; the muted colors; statham’s attentive glare; the reflection in the window; the type, bold and centered on the right half—it’s inedibly-delicious. The alignment, typography, and photographic treatment send us back to the seventies by “us,” i mean those old enough to know what the hell “the seventies” means; i’m only working from terrible movies and regrettable fashion trends when things were far better the high oil prices, threats of recession, unpopular war, and weed cancel out because they’re on both sides of the equation; it’s simple algebra than now.