Tag: movies

  • Retro Double Feature Movie Adventures: The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944) and Christmas in July

    The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek

    William Demarest, Diana Lynn, Betty Hutton, and Eddie Bracken in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.
    Betty Hutton,, William Demarest, and Diana Lynn in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

    This is one of Elliott Kalan of The Flop House‘s favorite movies, so when the New Beverly had it as part of a Preston Sturges double feature I knew I had to go. And sure enough, it’s mighty funny. I want to spoil every joke. I will spoil none.

    This fake poster is based on a different “miracle” movie:

    A poster for The Miracle of Morgan's Creek mimicking the poster for The Miracle Worker
    If you think this poster looks pretty low effort, you should compare it to the original.

    Christmas in July

    Dick Powell and Ellen Drew back to back drinking coffee.
    Ellen Drew & Dick Powell leaning against each other in Christmas in July.

    This isn’t as strong as The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, but it’s still funny. It’s fun to see Sturges using a lot of the same actors in different roles.

    A very weak title link between this movie and the poster source:

    A poster for Christmas in July mimicking the poster for Romeo + Juliet

    BONUS BLOG MILESTONE!

    Christmas in July was my 100th Fake movie poster! How many hours have I spent making these things mostly for myself? UNKNOWN!

    100 fake movie posters, mostly based on real posters for other movies.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: 28 Years Later

    Alfie Williams as Spike in 28 Years Later
    Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, and Ralph Fiennes in 2 Years Later.

    My least favorite part of the movie: the zombie fights. I don’t really care for the high contrast low shutter speed choppiness of those scenes. And I always know a movie hasn’t quite got me when I’m mentally poking at plot holes while I’m watching.

    But I did enjoy the movie more as it went along, and the pace and story shifted from “uh-oh – another zombie horde” to A discussion of the meaning of death and life.

    Alfie Williams plays Spike.. Because he’s in a movie with a bunch of popular actors, he gets pretty low billing even though he’s the primary focus of the film. For today’s parody poster I decided to fix his billing.

    A poster for 28 Years Later mimicking the poster for The 40 Year-Old Virgin.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Retro Movie Pass Adventures: UHF (1989)

    A shot from UHF. Weird Al Yankovic, parodying the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, stares at an Oscar statuette.
    Weird Al Yankovic and David Bowe in UHF.

    Movies out in the summer of1989: Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Back to the Future Part II, Look Who’s Talking, Dead Poets Society, Leathal Weapon 2, Ghostbusters II, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Little Mermaid, Born on the Fourth of July… and this goofy little movie. It never had a chance.

    I had to adjust my usual Alamo Drafthouse viewing experience expectations for this. For one thing, anyone going to see UHF in a theater in 2025- and this includes me- is likely to be a weirdo who laughs loud and hard at corny jokes they already know. For another, I somehow decided I’d be okay sitting front row center, so the whole movie looked like this:

    A highly keystoned image of a movie screen showing a cat in a costume.
    Actual shot from my seat.

    UHF is about competing TV networks, so the source poster was a no-brainer. I could have left in all the original taglines. Unfortunately, the poster is not very well-known, but trust me: this is really accurate.

    A poster for UHF mimicking the poster for Network.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Materialists

    Dakota Johnson in Materialists
    Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal in Materialists.

    Some random things:

    • This is a treatise about the formulaic nature of relationships wearing a rom-com costume.
    • Dakota Johnson’s character says she’s had a boob job. If shes has (and maybe she has), it the most restrained and subtle one I’ve ever seen. But I guess that’s the point?
    • Another character has had his legs lengthened by six inches, but somehow their who body is proportional.
    • At one point one of the characters is in a play. I noticed the poster said it was written by the director. I looked it up, and it’s an actual play she wrote. That’s a nice bit of bonus pay.

    I thought about making the fake poster based on the one for How to Marry a Millionaire, but it has way too many elements to try and correlate things in this movie, so I went with something a little more obscure.

    A poster for Materialists mimicking the poster for Valley of the Dolls.

  • Retro Streaming Movie Adventures: Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

    Seita and Setsuko looking worried with fire behind them in Grave of the Fireflies.
    Seita and Setsuko facing each other and looking at something between them below the bottom of the image in Grave of the Fireflies.

    Boy, Studio Ghibli sure is good at crushing hearts.

    I spent way to long faking the logo for this fake poster, and it’s still not quite right.

    A poster for Grave of the Fireflies mimicking the poster for Ghost World.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Retro Streaming Movie Adventures: Nowhere (1997)

    The alien from Nowhere.
    James Duvall in Nowhere.

    There’s a pretty good chance I would have liked this when it came out, and there are some parts that work for me, but Old Man Me spent most of the movie thinking two things: “Gosh, they sure are trying hard to be edgy” and “James Duval has anti-charisma in this.”

    Some cool set designs, though.

    I struggled to find a poster to parody for this, and I don’t think it really works.

    A poster for Nowhere mimicking the poster for Mean Girls.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Pavements

    Two versions of Pavement: the original band and the biopic version.
    Pavements movie bar.

    The best possible Pavement movie. A documentary of the band, but also of a jukebox musical about the band, and also about the reunion tour, and also about a Pavement museum, and ALSO a parody of traditional Bohemian Rhapsody style biopics, and ALSO a documentary about making the biopic. Everything is jumbled together, and it’s often hard to know what’s real. It’s refreshing to see a band movie that never pretends to be accurate.

    Today’s fake poster was pretty obvious once I found a picture of the band standing like they were in a lineup.

    A fake poster for Pavements mimicking the poster for The Usual Suspects.
    As a Blank Check fan, I had to add Griffin to the poster.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Retro Movie Adventures: Dogma (1999) (25th Anniversary release)

    Mat Damon and Ben Affleck in Dogma.
    The cast of Dogma looking serious.

    I’m glad this movie was as good as I remembered it. Serious topics buried in New Jersey stoner humor; it’s Kevin Smith at his peak.

    Today’s fake poster is a spiritual successor to the one for Frida (but that one looks better).

    A poster for Dogama mimicking the poster for Dog Man
    Fediverse reactions

  • Streaming Slightly Older Movie Adventures: MacGruber (2010)

    Stylized image of MacGruber on a colorful fake LEGO background for some reason.
    MacGruber & Vicki in MacGruber

    Would Ethan Hunt ever put celery in his butt as a distraction? I think not!

    Today’s source poster is about as unrelated to this movie as it could be.

    A poster for MacGruber mimicking the poster for High Fidelity.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie (no) Pass Adventures: Caught by the Tides

    Tao Zhao smiling in Caught by the Tides. She is rendered in simplified shapes of orange, red, green, and black.
    Tao Zhao, arms above head, wearing sunglasses, looking to the right. Part of her face and arms are visible.

    I imagine Jia Zhangke in 2014 watching Boyhood and thinking “I like the idea of a movie shot over decades with the same actors. I’d like to do it with my favorite actress (who is also my wife), but I want to start with her twenty years ago. Maybe I’ll recycle old footage of her I shot for other movies. And I’ll throw in some random experimental videos I shot along the way.” No one should be able to make that work, but Jia somehow pulls it off.

    Today’s poster is about getting caught. I didn’t have the right pictures of the cast to make it work, but I decided they were blurry enough to fake with substitutes. Please pretend they look vaguely like the real characters.

    A poster for Caught by the Tides mimicking the poster for Catch Me If You Can.
    Fediverse reactions
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