Mooner or later . . .

Sigh. I promised to keep you faithful readers updated on the latest The Twilight Saga: New Moon news and I shall keep my promise. Even though I'm getting so very, very tired of Twilight related news. I also made a promise to flamboyantly gay fellow blogger Ricky that I would post any pictures of R Patz shirtless as soon as they come to light. Thankfully there's a fragment of decency left in me yet and I shall refuse to post said pictures. Instead follow this link to 65 hi-res images straight off the New Moon set (from the climatic scene no less). 

Enjoy or be damned.

The best day in May

Since my title is ace and I’m going to boast, I’ve decided to keep up the rhyming pace for the rest of this post. The best day in May is not today of course, even though I did contemplate poking a horse. I’m talking about Thursday, the best day of the week (as that’s when all the new movies are released). This Thursday in particular, the last of the month, has given me great cause to squeal and jump. After what feels like years of waiting, State of Play is finally opening. Russ and his mates can crack open a Tooheys, because going off overseas reviews, no one is booing. In fact, the journalism thriller is getting all sorts of applause from the people that count and studio execs are hoping box-office dollars will start to mount. On my must-see movies in 2009 list, State Of Play is one not to be missed. Another flick to get a mention is Adventureland, a slice of indie-comedy heaven. With that chick from Twilight, Kristen Stewart and a guy who looks like Michael Cera, the target market couldn’t be any clearer. Yet with the presence of Ryan Reynolds this awkward, teenage love story has become something to peddle. Sitting at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, Adventureland is looking as tasty as chocolate gelato. With two movies highly anticipated by Movie Mazzupial released on the same day, it’s no wonder the 28th is my favourite in May. In conclusion, I can’t wait to digest the above flicks and hopefully when leaving the movies I won’t be impaled on a stick.

The Vegemite of Aussie cinema

You go in to a movie with high expectations when any of the following happens:

-The Weekend Australian Review calls it `one of the finest films made in this country’
-said film is currently sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes
-pillars of movie criticism Margaret and David BOTH give a film five stars
-Empire Magazine says it is `beautifully made and acted'

When all four of the above occurs, you go in to a movie expecting brilliance. Walking out of Samson & Delilah, I'm not sure brilliance is what I got. Instead I felt like I had been privileged to see a piece of Australian history immortalised in this incredible film. As a white Australian of middle-class origins, Samson & Delilah certainly doesn't document my life experiences and it won't for majority of viewers. However, for thousands of Aboriginal Australians the difficult subject-material is less a movie dramatisation and more a reality.
Essentially a love story between two ostracised teenagers from a remote community in central Australia, Samson & Delilah examines the many issues facing Aboriginals in contemporary Australian society. In a word I would describe it as unflinching. You can forget the stolen generation – the filmmakers did. Instead Aboriginal director Warwick Thornton explores the effects of decades of neglecting our indigenous people and how many struggle to find a place within modern `white Australia'. For a nearly dialogue-free film it’s astounding how many issues Thornton and co. manage to cover. Domestic violence, substance abuse, illiteracy, gang rape, racism and artistic exploitation are just a few of the unsettling yet pressing subjects covered in what is no doubt one of the best Aussie films ever made. Unlike some independent films, Thornton doesn’t lose the many messages of Samson & Delilah in his beautiful and artistic camera work. Consciously repetitive at times, Thornton is a master at making the audience feel the tragedy of the two protagonists. This skill was most recently recognised yesterday at the Cannes Film Festival where he won the Camera d’Or first film prize. Samson & Delilah is essentially the Vegemite of Australian cinema; intriguing and unusual at first, it’s black and has a bitter taste to it. Once the discomfort has faded, you find yourself attracted to its distinctly original, however harsh, flavour. Like Vegemite, Samson & Delilah will too become iconically Australian.

What the people want, the people shall get

The progress of Twilight sequel New Moon continues to create more hype than the latest Eminem album and Entertainment Weekly is all over it like white on rice. They’ve managed to get the first pics from the set of New Moon with a breakdown of each image by director Chris Weitz. Click here to view their gallery. In more teen-vampire related news, it is 100% certain David Slade will be directing the third Twilight novel, Eclipse. How interesting that my least favourite of the four novels will be getting my favourite of the directors to date. Slade is the man behind Hard Candy and the delicious horror 30 Days Of Night. The film is listed as The Twilight Saga: Eclipse on the Internet Movie Data Base and is tagged with a June 30, 2010 release date for the US. Pre-production is already underway and filming is due to start before the end of the year in Vancouver.

In no way movie related, yet semi-interesting

Below: A crazy week? Yes, yes it has been. However, still not as crazy as Britney Spears with an umbrella.Talk about drama. The past week has been as close to Armageddon as me and mine are going to get in our sheltered corner of the GC. Lets start with an unfortunate friend who I shall call Birdie for the sake of anonymity. Birdie and her partner were having sexual liaisons and to cut a long, medically related story short she burst a blood vessel in her vagina. Yes, she broke her va-ja-ja. Sprained her squish mitten. Axed her bitch wrinkle. Smashed her ham wallet. After a night in hospital Birdie has been in considerable agony ever since, surviving only on a cocktail of morphine and Panadol Forte. As the doctors have told her, the only way to cure her ailment is bed rest and time. Severely immobilised friend aside, the next major drama has come from none other than Huey the Sea God and his pal upstairs. The Gold Coast has been lashed with hail, 100km plus winds and cement-like rain for the past five days and my home has taken it particularly hard. In summary, the roof has given up on life and needs to be replaced. Buckets have been placed under the leaking sections of roof but there’s not much you can do to prevent pieces of plaster falling off the ceiling and thwacking* you at inappropriate times. But really, when is an appropriate time to be thwacked* by a collapsing roof? Hmm? Luckily all is covered by insurance and I will be required to live in a provided apartment while the work is being done. A minor inconvenience for a new roof over my head. The next incident does not involve me directly but was a major bummer for my friends and surrogate family who live in the dainty, New South Wales country town of Grafton. The entire town has been evacuated due to major flooding. Thankfully my friends were too stubborn to evacuate and were instead surrounded by water and cut-off from the outside world for a few days. Much like Gilligan’s Island but on a volunteer basis. The floodwaters have finally started to subside and the clean-up in G-Town is beginning. One would dare think everything was back to normal for me and mine. That is until I slipped off a boat and sliced my leg open on a boardwalk yesterday. I was reporting from our annual Visually Rich and Lovin’ It Boat Show at Sanctuary Cove when the incident occurred. Ten stiches and a massive dent in my pride later, it is now official; this week of craziness has been the most . . .erm, crazy.

*Thwacking: a word Movie Mazzupial created which (in letters) mimics the sound made when a piece of ceiling makes contact with a person. It can also be applied to any scenario where a person is hit by a thwack-worthy object.
*Thwacked: variation of above word.

Lets go Lego!

Never really been much of a Lego lover myself but you’ve got to admire the creativity of some Lego fanatics. Especially when said fanatics recreate famous movie posters in Lego! These people may have too much time on their hands and live at home with their parents BUT they’ve done a darn fine job. Here are some of my favourites but you can view the full compilation of 21 movie-Lego posters here. Enjoy :o)

Guess who's Holmes

Looksie here wannabe sleuths. The trailer for Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes movie hit the net yesterday and you can watch it here. 

Thoughts???

Starring Robert Doney Jr as Holmes, Jude Law as Dr Watson and Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler it will be out in Australia on boxing day `09.

You can read up on Sherlock Holmes here.

Posting poster love

Talk about topical. Just last week I did two humongous posts here on the best and worst movie posters of all time. Then yesterday the Twilight team release the starting posters for New Moon. The first poster depicts the Edward-Bella-Jacob triangle perfectly but isn't really anything too exciting. Of course, the now millions of fans of the movie series will be drooling like the dirty tweens they are. The second poster shows off the impressive bods of the members of the Quilette tribe, Jacob's werewolf pack (I particularly dig the unifying tats). The third poster is my favourite of the three as it depicts the dark nature of the second novel and key players; the Volturi. Dakota Fanning is looking deliciously evil as Jane, one of the integral members of the ancient, ruling Volturi vampire clan. From this snippet of a pic it looks like they've got the Volturi costuming down pat complete with the signature black hoods.

Twilight's sequel New Moon is currently filming the final scenes from the book in Italy. It will be out in Australia late November/early December this year. 

And so, Oscar season begins . . .

As a lover of all things kitsch and movie related, it’s only right that I bring a neat little discovery to your attention. With possibly the best movie title ever comes this straight-to-DVD release Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus. No, you didn’t mistake me, that IS the actual movie title (plucked straight from the dreams of a 15-year-old boy). The plot, and I use the term loosely, evolves around two enormous, prehistoric sea creatures terrorising the Californian coast as they battle for supremacy of the ocean. Watch the giggle-inducing trailer here. I repeat, you must watch the trailer – it’s hilarious! Not only does Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus feature some of the worst special effects seen on screen since Will Smith’s I Am Legend, it also appears to house an ensemble cast full of brilliantly bad actors. The film comes from esteemed director Jack Perez who also brought as such superbly titled films as America’s Deadliest Home Video, Monster Island, The Big Empty, The Greatest Show You Never Saw and my personal favourite 666: The Child. Could this film be so bad it’s good? No way. Odds are it’s as bad as it looks and then some. Oh, did I mention the scene at the end of the trailer? No? Well, some pleb casually looks out the window of a plane to see a MEGA FUCKING SHARK jumping up to eat the plane whole! Bahahahahaha!Above: This is the legitimate movie poster. Even I couldn't make one this good.

Words of wisdom

Occasionally I branch away from my usual movie musings and post snippets of conversation I overhear or partake in. The following took place during a car trip with a photographer at work whom I shall call Cznery.
Quote of the month :
"Yeah, there are bears you just don’t poke. You don’t poke it and then be all surprised when the bear attacks you. " - Cznery

Socrates eat your heart out.

The might of Date Night

It’s a rare thing for Movie Mazzupial to admit she was wrong about a statement on this website but now is one of those times. Last month I boldly said, in relation to the superb casting of Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Tina Fey and Steve Carrell in Date Night that `could this cast get any more awesome? I think not!’ I was wrong. The awesome factor has been upped on what is looking to be one of the most highly anticipated comedies of 2010. The talented Mark Ruffalo, rising star Mila Kunis, creepy Ray Liotta, Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson, rapper Common and so-so Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester have also been announced as cast members. For a full run-down on the Date Night plot and info view my April post here. Frankly, I couldn’t care who else is added to the cast line-up as I can’t get past the fact that Mark Wahlberg and James Franco are starring in a movie together! Squealing and panty throwing is sure to ensue on my behalf. The comedy has already started shooting and is tagged with an early 2010 release date.

Anyone got a Cannes opener?

Arguably the worlds glitziest film festival, Cannes kicked off overnight with the who’s who of the celebrity world walking the red carpet at the French Riveria. Lets be honest, I couldn’t give a flying Dutchman about who wore what and all that movie-star b/s. The reason I look forward to Cannes is the stellar line-up of films which can be made or slayed by the worlds most respected critics. Cannes is an excellent preview of what's going to be the big movies critically (sometimes commercially) over the next six months. The buzz this year has been all about Pixar’s Up (above) which was selected as the first animated 3D film to open the festival in Cannes 62-year history. You can watch the very interesting and visually breathtaking trailer here. The other big buzz-fueller is Inglorious Basterds, the latest from Movie Mazz favourite and previous Palme D’Or winner Quentin Tarantino. The long-awaited flick starring Brad Pitt and Michael Myers is a blood and guts WWII tale (see poster below for further confirmation) about a group of Jewish-American soldiers on a mission to murder Nazi’s in German occupied France. Watch the trailer here. It’s nice to see selectors have thrown in a horror film as one of the movies to screen (out of competition). Drag Me To Hell from horror legend Sam Raimi (also known as the guy who did the Spiderman films). Other films to screen at Cannes that are on my radar are Oscar winner Ang Lee’s humourous look at the 1969 Woodstock festival aptly titled Taking Woodstock, Anne Aghion’s My Neighbour My Killer which looks at the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide, Heath Ledger’s last film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus directed by Terry Gilliam, Broken Embraces Pedro Almodovar's follow-up to Volver starring Penelope Cruz, Looking For Eric by former Palme D'Or winner Ken Loach and Australian aboriginal love story Samson & Delilah. And what a judging panel! Probably one of the most exciting I’ve seen since Natalie Portman was on the panel. It’s made up of French actress Isabelle Huppert (president), Italian actress, director, screenwriter Asia Argento, Turkish director, screenwriter Nuri Bilge Ceylan, South Korean director, author, screenwriter Lee Chang-dong, U.K author, screenwriter Hanif Kureishi, Taiwan actress Ahu Qi, American actress Robin Wright Penn and Movie Mazzupial homeboy American director James Gray (booyah!).It’s interesting to note Vanity Fair cancelled their annual exclusive party due to American dollars turning to ash when placed in the sun. However, that hasn’t stopped the multi-million dollar yachts made from the tears of low-income workers still anchoring in the bay. Stay posted for Cannes twitterings.

The Da Vinci Cool

I’m not going to pretend to be one of those hardcore fans who started loving a book years before it became popular (like I am with The Lovely Bones and all Charlene Harris novels). When people started creating a ruckus about the brilliance of Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code, I read it simply so I could discuss it with others and because it had such an effect on the wider community. I liked but didn’t love it. However, to this day it remains one of the most well-researched books I’ve ever read. So when the movie adaptation starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou was released back in 2006, I trotted along to see it having mediocre expectations. For me personally it turned out to be one of those rare films where the movie was better than the book. Unfortunately I was one of only six other people in the world who liked the movie. Critics slammed it harder than the Rock and Mickey Rourke in a cage fight. Everyone was unpleasantly surprised when director Ron Howard announced he would also be adapting the sequel to The Da Vinci Code, titled Angels and Demons with a 2009 release date. I popped along to see the film when it opened last night and I must say I was incredibly pleased at its excellence. Unlike the first one, I hadn’t read Angels and Demons and perhaps that added to my viewing experience. Howard’s second effort with Hank’s character Professor Robert Langdon was faster paced than the original and remarkably better overall. It covered darker themes and the performances from the international cast were superb (Ewan McGregor especially!). Angels and Demons was beautifully shot – and I mean beautifully! Vatican City never looked so good and I’m not sure whether the film crew were actually allowed in the Sistine Chapel or not (highly doubtful) but golly it looked believable. With the exception of a few shots that were obviously CGI, overall the cinematography was exquisite and I thought Howard did a great job at shooting this difficult material. The messages in the film, particularly the one about science and religion embracing and working with each other instead of against, were freakishly relevant. With all this taken in to account majority of critics have pinned Angels and Demons as slightly better than the original but still crap. Heck, I may be just one insignificant movie blogger in the critical sphere but if you would rather eat your own spleen than sit through Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past or 17 Again at the movies this weekend, try Angels and Demons for a seriously intelligent ride.

10 Worst Movie Posters Of All Time

Now, after I’ve finally completed and posted my list of the best movie posters of all time, it’s only fitting I show you my list of the worst. Thankfully this compilation didn’t take as much research because for some reason whenever I see a terrible poster it stays with me, haunting me to the point where I wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat and screaming. Okay, that last part may be a lie but bad movie posters really give me the shits. Here’s my 10 worst movie posters of all time.
Make It Happen
Can you say tired? If not, check its pronunciation in the dictionary and beside the definition should be a picture of the Make It Happen poster. There must have been a $2 design budget because the `artists’ have just grabbed an image, ANY image of the title character and shoved it in the foreground. I doesn’t matter the pose looks like she’s arthritic and doesn’t resemble anything close to dancing, as long as you can see her toned midriff it’s allll good. I have to give them some credit though, they did remember to throw in generic shots of romance and friendship in the background along with a saturated pink backdrop in case the targeted tween audience wasn’t already peeing their Supre hot-pants panties with excitement. The tagline here doubles as not only a stereotypical dance movie phrase but also as a handy checklist for anyone wondering if they’re clinically dead. It reads: `Hear the music. Feel the beat’
The Last Kiss
This poster is trying so hard to get across its arty and dramedy nature, it hurts. Posters don’t need to be colourful but it might be nice if they don’t have the same colour scheme as a sheet of toilet paper. The cast has some acting cred but frankly not enough to warrant their names brandished in huge grey letters. This is not to mention shoved in at the side of the frame is Zach Braff wearing an expression which looks like the mystery woman has shoved her other hand up his anus. Wait, please don’t let me forget to mention possibly the worst tagline ever; `We all make choices. What’s yours?’ Mine, you ask? Not to see this movie thanks to your atrocious, artsy poster.
Seven Pounds
This poster is so fucking pretentious just looking at it makes me want to vomit. The fact poster designers thought Will Smith’s face looking compassionate would be enough to sell this movie to the masses makes me feel cheap and underestimated. Get those huge black ears and obscure tagline out of my face and come up with something creative you bastards!
Knowing
Slick as this poster looks and as ingenious as this movie was, I personally would like to see more in a movie advertisement than a picture of the Earth where it looks like its been dunked in a glass of Fanta. Knowing is an extremely clever, sci-fi thriller and absolutely NONE of this is portrayed in the poster.
Basic Instinct 2
Poster designers for the craptastic flop Basic Instinct 2 may have thought they were being clever by referencing the famous scene from the original film. However, in turn what they did was incite the following response from millions of innocent humans (including myself):
"Noooo! Lord no! Keep them shut! If there is a God show mercy and KEEP THEM SHUT!"
Arguably I don’t think this is the effect marketers were going for.
Gran Tarino
A brilliant movie which, thankfully, wasn’t hindered by an incredibly uninspiring poster. It tells you little about the movie or excellent storyline. Instead it tells you: He’s Clint Eastwood. He has a gun. There’s a car involved.
Corky Romano
I know, it’s hard to believe this is actually a movie poster. It must have taken a long and excruciating three minutes to put this poster together which looks freakishly similar to the bang-up jobs I do in paint (yes, Microsoft paint). It works out quite well though; an utterly awful poster for and utterly awful movie.
Surfer Dude
Speaking of bang-up jobs I’ve done in Microsoft paint, let me introduce you to the next woeful movie poster on the list. Oh, who can forget this highly entertaining comedy with environmental undertones starring Matthew McConaughy. Well, er, everyone apparently. This straight to DVD release wasn’t helped by the god-awful poster `art’ promoting it. Considering this puppy was released late last year it’s hard to believe it’s technologically possibly for posters this terrible to still be made. I imagine the conversation behind the concept for the poster would have gone something like this:
Creative consultant 1: Any ideas?
Creative consultant 2: Nope.
Creative consultant 1: What’s the movie called again?
Creative consultant 2; Surfer Due.
Creative consultant 1: Fuck.
(Three hours later)
Creative consultant 2: I know! How about we throw a shirtless Matthew on the cover! That’s the only reason people are going to see this shit anyway.
Creative consultant 1: Yeah, but what about the environmental themes?
Creative consultant 2: Heck, I say we just chuck some animals in a tree and be done with it. Oh . . .we better put a wave in there too somewhere.
Creative consultant 1: It looks a bit biblical now, a bit Noah’s Arc-esqe?
(Pause)
Creative consultant 1: Wanna get Chinese?
Creative consultant 2: Sure.
Superman III
If there’s ever been a movie poster so bad you don’t know where to begin criticising it – this is the one.
Cursed

I hate to defame anything related to Wes Craven or Kevin Williamson but there’s plenty to be said about the poster for werewolf flick Cursed. Looks familiar doesn’t it? That’s because designers have used exactly the same lighting and exactly the same head-shot approach as the Scream and Scream 2 posters. See the example provided below for further proof. However, since this movie is about a werewolf they decided to be `clever’ by adding some claw marks across the front of the poster and a glowing eye (for good measure). Because nothing says she-wolf like a glowing eye. Instead of designers creating an eye-catching poster that appealed to audiences like the Scream posters, it ended up looking like the dog ate their homework.

When an imitation of life imitates art

At face value a movie poster is a means to sell a film to the audience with a single image. At a glance, the poster is supposed to intrigue, entice and captivate the potential viewer. Sometimes they do more. Sometimes the poster is so clever, so beautiful and so unique the poster itself becomes iconic and a stand-alone feature from the movie (think Jaws or A Clockwork Orange). A creative movie poster combined with, but not necessarily needing, an awesome tagline can save studios millions in advertising. I’m personally an avid collector of movie posters and am intrigued by the idea of trying to summarise the integral themes, images and tone of a movie with a single poster. Just the very thought of trying to do that to some of my favourite movies seems impossible. For a while I’ve been trying to put together a list and finally here I’ve compiled a catalogue of my favourite movie posters of all time. I’ve tried to keep it to 20 but there are seriously hundreds out there I adore for one reason or another. However, the ones listed below are what Movie Mazzupial considers stand-outs. In no particular order . . .
Funny Games Probably my favourite move poster of all time. Err, actually that’s a big call but it’s definitely up there. The horror, the trauma are all captured beautifully on Naomi Watts’ teary and pained face. The tussled hair and mouth poised for . . .a scream perhaps? Action? The brilliance is in the sheer simplicity of it. Funny Games itself is more than a by-the-numbers horror movie and the poster eludes to that. The movie explores the very depths of human cruelty and the effects of emotional torture as well as physical. However, what makes this poster significant for me is the sinister tagline which echoes the madness and malice of the two perpetrators in the film. Fitted in neatly beside Watts’ tragic face and the title it reads; `You must admit, you brought this on yourself’.
Paris J’taime What better way to portray a mish-mash of short films about the world’s most romantic city than with a mish-mashed piece of funky art? I love the understated effort put in to the design of this poster but most importantly I love the detail and how every time you look at it, you notice something different. The poster works on two levels here; not only does it represent the nature of Paris itself (a trendy, iconic, arty city) but it shows the audience what to expect from the film (one city shown from dozens of view points by unique filmmakers). The people of Paris all have different stories and Paris is viewed very differently throughout the world. For a movie that wanted to demonstrate that, the poster art does the mission justice. High fives also have to be given for managing to fit all the filmmakers names creatively around the central image as a border.
Wolf Creek If there’s one poster that somes up the atmosphere of a movie perfectly – it’s this one. With one image the poster captures the horror of the situation experienced by the feature character. Her isolation and the literal isolation of the Australian outback is framed beautifully here. Combined with the eerie lettering, the poster found the perfect balance between being horrific to the viewer but not too much (as has been the mistake with the Saw posters). The Wolf Creek poster is just horrific enough that the audience would be interested to find out how this nameless woman ended up in the dire situation and whether she will get out of it. Plus with the tagline `How can you be found when no one knows your missing’ audience intrigue and the shiver-factor are boosted. Part of the brilliance here is the poster didn’t do what so many horror movie posters tend to do and that's overload the poster with too many images (i.e. Thirteen Ghosts etc). Wolf Creek was a huge success commercially, critically, domestically and internationally. In many ways it’s credited with reinvigorating Aussie horror. This image created a lot of hype for the low budget flick pre-release and larger Hollywood movies have made several attempts to copy the concept. For example The Strangers pretty much copy and pasted the basic character figure from one scenario to another, as pictured below. Pffft, lazy. Identity One of the smartest and most underrated horror thrillers of all time, Identity also stand outs for the clever poster art. The poster points to the complexity of the plot and cleverly juxtaposes the shadowy identities of the central characters. Tagline: `Identity is a secret. Identity is mystery. Identity is a killer.'
Sin City Where countless comic book movie posters have failed, the Sin City poster succeeded in keeping with the tone of its subject material and the film itself. Unlike majority of comic book posters Sin City didn’t overdo the colour component of the artwork and managed to keep the mood dark, like the narrative. Further kudos have to be given to the designers of the poster who managed to fit the films most recognisable stars in to the poster in poses that capture the essence of their characters perfectly. Finally, in case you were curious as to what film could have all these superstars dressed in peculiar attire with guns and gals, Sin City is foregrounded with the only spot of colour on the poster. Tagline? Ha, sooo unnecessary.
Secretary From the moment you look at this poster it reeks of kinky office sex. It would have been easy for the design of the poster to fall in to the exploitative category but luckily the lone image maintains a dignified simplicity which appealed to the indie audience of this film. Again, the key here is keeping the image basic but the concept complex if you dig me. Oh, and did I mention the wicked tagline? `Assume the position'. Brilliant.
The Dark Knight
Ahhh The Dark Knight. Not only one of my favourite films of all time but one of the most brilliantly marketed and presented. The problem I had adding it to this list is there were sooooo many freakin posters for this movie it could have it’s own top five list. Personally I have six different The Dark Knight posters in my room but there are literally dozens more out there. Here I have included my two favourite but I STRONGLY recommend you Google The Dark Knight movie posters because you will be blown away by the number, brilliance and creativity of each one. Above is my favourite poster for the film and below is the close second. Both capture the madness and psychopathic nature of the Joker while eluding to the darker tone of this Batman film. Of course, I would be a complete douchebag if I didn’t mention the now famous and constantly quoted tagline `Why so serious?’ With the bigger budget of this masterpiece no expense was sparred composing the posters and in all honesty it didn’t matter. Because, as different as they were from each other, each poster tied together perfectly and were united by the underlying themes/tone of The Dark Knight.
Savages How do you promote a film that deals with adult issues? With a cartoon (of course) that not only appeals to the artsy crowd it’s marketed at but one that draws-in film buffs who follow the bright lights of critical praise featured at the top of the poster.
Desperado

The poster for Robert Rodriguez’s action loaded exploitation flick Desperado is wicked. I adore the whole brooding-killer/sensitive-badboy vibe they’ve tried to get going here and the photography is quite beautiful. A basic concept, presented well. Plus, nothing says exploitation flick like the following tagline; `He came back to settle the score with someone. Anyone. EVERYONE.’
Choke
At the risk of sounding like a broken record I must preach the brilliance of simplicity in movie posters. I particularly love this one because of the mod colour scheme and clever use of silhouettes to punch home some important points in the plot. Silhouettes are rarely used for movie posters mainly because they show so little and are rarely executed well. This Choke poster, however, is the exception.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Sigh. Just looking at this poster I get warm and fuzzy. It’s hard to describe why I like this so I’ll just say it has an x-factor for me. Whether it’s the pastel tones, peek-a-boo shot of the three main stars or how it manages to capture a fragment of the beauty of Barcelona in the poster, I'm not sure. Visually this Woody Allen film is gorgeous to look at and the poster is no exception.
Grindhouse
It’s on the verge of ridiculous how many posters there are for this double-bill of films which pay homage to the Grindhouse phenomena of the 70s and 80s. Instead of choosing a poster from one of the individual films shown in Grindhouse (Quentin Tarantino’s Deathproof and Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror) I’ve gone with one of the first pieces of artwork put together, before the films were split and released separately. The artists have done such a good job of making this poster look like an authentic Grindhouse original it would be easy to think this had been ripped straight off the wall of a cult cinema in the 70s. From the lettering to the scantily clad woman this poster encapsulates everything exploitation films are about and is a true piece for the collectors out there.

Zac and Miri Make A Porno
Like The Dark Knight, there were several posters made up for this Kevin Smith comedy. But unlike the Batman blockbuster Zac and Miri Make A Porno didn’t have a monster budget. Why so many posters then? As explained on a post I wrote back in February, Smith and co. ran in to major hurdles with the US censorship douchebags for not only the title but various drafts of the poster they had submitted. Despite the issues with the use of the word `porno’ and some of the themes in the movie, Smith and his creative buddies made the poster a joke about how they couldn’t actually release a poster. Above is just one example of the posters they released which are not only clever but when teamed with the other two. . .hi-freakin-larious. The above excellent tagline reads `A poster for everyone who finds our movie a little hard to swallow'. Click here to view the other Zac and Miri Make A Porno posters.
The Descent
A good, not great, film I saw purely because the poster art was kick ass. It makes it clear right off the bat it’s a horror movie but promises more to the viewer thanks to the very clever composition of bodies which pays homage to the image at the centre of the moth on the Silence of the Lambs poster - which, in turn, references the famous Salvador Dali image Skull Women. The unfortunate thing is the poster is easily 100 times better than the movie.
Where The Wild Thing Are

The most recent poster to be added to this list, Spike Jonze’s adaption of the popular children’s book doesn’t waste space showing viewers things they already know (like the complete appearance of the main monster). Instead, it focuses on capturing the quirky tone of the book and film. Throw in the knowing tagline `There’s one in all of us’ in a childish font and you have potentially my favourite poster of the year.

Brick
A fitting poster for one of my favourite movies EVER. The tagline is simple `A detective story’ and you can’t help but wonder how such a `detective’ story could revolve around the youthful and quirky characters pictured. The digital art keeps the poster hip while the dead-like hand points to something more sinister. Not to mention they also manage to throw in the quotes applauding the films brilliance and originality. My favourite Brick posters though don’t look at the film as a whole but instead focus on specific characters. There are five in total (one for each main character) and they’re combined with a witty summary of the character reminiscent of the films dialogue. Below is the poster for Tug with the tag `He shined a gat as he blew the berg’. Humanoids From The Deep
So kitsch it hurts. I mean really, what is there to say about this poster except how brilliantly daggy it is? From the hand drawn artwork to the scenario the Humanoids From The Deep poster tells you everything to know about the movie. What the poster says is `You! Come along and see this movie where a bunch of wet, bikini wearing women will be chased by outlandish looking monsters’. Hell, with a poster this hilarious why wouldn’t you see this movie?

Red Sonja
Okay technically this movie hasn’t been released yet, in fact it won’t be out until at least 2010. But (and there’s a big but) the poster art for Red Sonja formed one of my first posts on this blog nearly a year ago and it’s easy to see why. For all the details on the movie and a step-by-step breakdown of the poster click on my previous post here. Overall, this poster is not only bold, bright and evocative, it also captures the she-devil essence of the title character perfectly. Now if it would just hurry up and be released already. . .
The Shining
Talk about iconic. The above image and following dialogue `Here’s Johnny’ have become one of the most recognised in film history. Massive kudos have to be given to the poster makers who were able to pick and display the perfect image from a scene which captures the madness and horror of Stanley Kubrick’s classic.
LolitaNothings says `jail bait’ like the above Lolita poster. The story about the forbidden relationship between an underage teenager and a middle-aged man was one of the most controversial films at the time and the poster did nothing but add to the is-it-promoting-pedophilia flame. The film is classic and deals with complex themes and I dig the poster because it manages to get all of this across in one shot. The poster combines the childlike nature of the title character Lolita while at the same time eluding to the sexual themes explored.