When does a title drop ruin a movie for you?

[BrunoMattei]

I hate the title drop as I think most people do. It's forced. It's awkward. It's usually there just for the trailer and something for the retards in the back of the room barely paying attention to the movie so they go "Oh, I get it." With the dim lightbulb in the cavernously vacant center of their brain flickering in and out, barely clinging to the tiniest most remote part of energy deep in the rotting neural cortex of a mind hovering between an 85-90 IQ like a speedometer driven by a faulty broken down vehicle in remote regions where you don't know how prickly the town cops actually are so you err on the side of caution and keep to the speed limit as other cars angrily pass you by because they're on their way to see the latest POS 300+ million blockbuster and they eagerly want to drop off their neglected bastard children at the theater so every member of the family can temporarily block out the pain of being alive and being surrounded by assholes like themselves where they can witness the 45 minutes of commercials while gorging on stale popcorn and buttery-flavored oil, nearly pissing themselves holding it in after consuming a gallon of watered down Doctor Pepper all so they don't miss THE moment where asshole turns to the camera and gives the title drop so all the retards in the room can smile and look at each other like "Yeah, I got it! Now I understand why the movie is called Suicide Squad!"

Another movie that pissed me off is the Jack Nicholson vehicle As Good As It Gets. Solid film carried by Nicholson. I dislike Helen Hunt's NY accent. But the instant Nicholson goes "This is as good as it gets!" I turned off the movie and starting writing this nonsense.

 

[The Cunting Death]

 

[BrunoMattei]

Now, an example of a title drop done correctly would be in the original Friday the 13th.

And it works because the audience is wondering why it's called Friday the 13th when nothing vaguely supernatural has happened, there's no black cats or anything invoking superstitions -which would be a decent premise for a horror film by itself. But then Mrs. Voorhees explains why and it works.

As stupid as the Friday the 13th movies could be, the title drop makes perfect sense. And there's only one other title drop in the series in part 6: Jason Lives where it made sense in that context as well.

 

[Product Placement]

This one sucks, but in a cheesy way

 

[Billy Bob Dick]

my favorite title drop:

but yeah, title drops are stupid

This one sucks, but in a cheesy way

man, a lot of those 80s direct-to-video movies are worse than porn

shit, modern porn is better scripted, better produced, better directed, better acted, has better action and a better budget

 

[AnsemSoD1]

Average modern kids slop.

 

[Biggie Smalls' Taint]

When she is done getting plowed and turns to one of the four guys and goes "I guess I really am one of Brazzer's Top Cumsluts Volume 4 Featuring Megan Rain in over three hours of cum soaked fun"
Terribly unrealistic dialogue. Her character would never say that.

 

[FuckMeGentlyWithAChainsaw]

A bad title drop is bad exposition, "Is this some kind of Suicide Squad?" isn't really worse than "This is Katana, her sword eats souls or whatever" from a pure writing perspective, it would still suck if the film had another title. But making it a title drop has that additional insult of feeling like the writer is looking at the camera and winking at you, it kills tension and the suspension of disbelief.
I like title drops where it pulls together the themes of the work without feeling too artificial. Films with a narrator generally do better on this than films taking its title from incidental dialog.
My favourite title drop is kind of cheating because I'm mostly thinking of the book and the better of the two movie adaptions omits it, but whatever.

Spoiler: The Big Sleep

What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was. But the old man didn't have to be. He could lie quiet in his canopied bed, with his bloodless hands folded on the sheet, waiting. His heart was a brief, uncertain murmur. His thoughts were as gray as ashes. And in a little while he too, like Rusty Regan, would be sleeping the big sleep.

 

[Übertroon]

I like title drops when it's not just verbatim dropped, take for example Hellsing

"Here it comes. I can feel it. A river of death. Tonight the dead will dance. And all of Hell shall sing."

 

[TheArtilleryman]

A bad title drop is bad exposition, "Is this some kind of Suicide Squad?" isn't really worse than "This is Katana, her sword eats souls or whatever" from a pure writing perspective, it would still suck if the film had another title. But making it a title drop has that additional insult of feeling like the writer is looking at the camera and winking at you, it kills tension and the suspension of disbelief.
I like title drops where it pulls together the themes of the work without feeling too artificial. Films with a narrator generally do better on this than films taking its title from incidental dialog.
My favourite title drop is kind of cheating because I'm mostly thinking of the book and the better of the two movie adaptions omits it, but whatever.

Spoiler: The Big Sleep

What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was. But the old man didn't have to be. He could lie quiet in his canopied bed, with his bloodless hands folded on the sheet, waiting. His heart was a brief, uncertain murmur. His thoughts were as gray as ashes. And in a little while he too, like Rusty Regan, would be sleeping the big sleep.

He's right, you know.



It's hard to define when it becomes too forced. I wanted to say it's alright when it makes perfect sense for the character to say it at that time, but then I realised that also holds true for Suicide Squad yet that one still sucks. Maybe hearing it in the trailer and seeing the rest of the god awful writing pushed it in to cringey forced territory.

Edit: And making the characters visibly aware of how stupid it is doesn't make it any better, Hot Tub Time Machine.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

This one sucks, but in a cheesy way

No, that one rules.

The worst was The Dark Knight. Ruined that movie.

 

[The Last Stand]

It's usually there just for the trailer and something for the retards in the back of the room barely paying attention to the movie so they go "Oh, I get it."

I take offense to that. I love the movie drops.

The Avengers.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I can't think of a point when it was bad enough to quit the film, but I do remember this cringe

 

[Fascist Frederick]

The Matrix. As soon as I heard someone say "The Matrix" I rolled my eyes and ripped the VHS tape out of the VCR and threw it directly out of the window into the street below.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

How about the insertion of a title drop where it didn't exist in the original?

 

[The Nothingness]

From one of the supposed better movies: "And you people, you're all astronauts on... some kind of star trek."

 

[Preferred Penne]

From one of the supposed better movies: "And you people, you're all astronauts on... some kind of star trek."

Not a title drop, but from the same character on a different show:

"This engine will help us explore those strange new worlds. It will help us go boldly, where no man has gone before."