Tuesday Movie Poster Round Up

Posted on July 13, 2010 By James Merolla Blog, Movie Poster Art

1. Red Grade: C-

I chose this poster because it made me chuckle. I looked past it a handful of times without much notice, but then, maybe it was the color that drew me too it, I decided to take a closer look, and saw the tag line. It speaks for itself, and every time I read it I giggle like a schoolboy.

2. Jean-Michel Basquiat The Radiant Child: Grade B

I like this poster, but at the same time, and unfairly so, it is hard not to notice the subject of the film, and immediately think of his work. Not that I am an art expert, but I would like to see a poster that represents Basquiat’s particular brand of street art. I’d also like to see a little more of an intimate portrait of the man.

All this complaining, and you’d think I hated the poster, but there are things I like. The color particularly strikes me, along with the patterns, it reminds me of a hot chaotic New York City summer, the strange and familiar home of Basquiat.

3. Cairo Time: Grade F

This really is a lean week for the Poster Roundup. Yes, the poster for the newest Bruce Willis film has it’s charm *snicker* and yes, I am enamored with the pretty colors and patterns for the Basquiat poster, but this poster is just terrible, and represents nearly all the posters this week. Where do I begin? It is yet another example of someone in love with Photoshop. The colors are washed out and the actors look like wax figures of themselves, just terrible.

4. 22 Bullets: Grade C

This poster is interesting, but not really. The only thing that really caught my eye, much like the poster for Red *snicker* is the wonderfully absurd tag line. Basically the poster is saying “This film is going to suck, so we will try to distract you by mentioning a far superior film in this tag line”. Poor Jean Reno.

5. Legend of The Guardians: Grade F

I can’t quite put my finger on what I don’t like about this poster. It just seems like I’ve seen this for just about every fantasy film that has come out in the last 10 years. It basically looks like a remake of 300 starring owls. There is nothing original about it, and it just looks like a mess of ugly images.

6. Let Me In: Grade C+

I really hate that they shortened the title of this film from it’s original title. However, I won’t just the poster on that nitpick. There is nothing particularly remarkable about this, but it does capture the cold mood of the setting, and I like the detail of the lettering in the ice, but overall it is a typical, dull teaser poster.

7. Machete: Grade A

Finally a poster that I really like. I could have chosen from a number of different posters from Machete, but this one is heads and shoulders above the rest. It’s Deniro, with his iconic scowl, in a kind of self-parody, with guns-a-blazin’. It’s funny, it’s fun, it has the old school grind house retro treatment, it’s my kind of poster.

8. Takers: Grade F

If only this worthless poster had an equally terrible tag line, I might be somewhat lenient with my grading, but without it, it’s just a bunch of Photo shopped floating heads over an urban landscape.

The tagline should read “This is a very edgy film.”

9. Tere Bin Laden: Grade C+

This is an interesting clash of ideals. We have the Americana look with the stamp, but with a mosaic of Osama Bin Laden. I love absurdity so I like this poster, but it also seems lazy, and cheaply slapped together, which is a very big turnoff.

10. Farewell: Grade A+

Finally, we come to our poster of the week. One can feel the paranoia of this film coming through in this poster. It has a disjointed, documentary feel to it with the tight, textured shots of the two men. I did knock off a few points, however, with the design of how the names and tag line are, it is very typical, and unimaginative.