10 Most Misleading Movie Titles Of All Time

10. Tyrannosaur (2011)

tyrannosaur_peter-mullanExpectation: Jurassic Park spin-off, finally giving the star the attention it deserves? Another one of those low-budget, straight-to-DVD monster movies? If only it had an exclamation mark, then it would be an indie superhero film wherein an excavation mishap grants a teenage vigilante with, erm, dinosaur powers. Okay, just anything featuring a T-rex, basically. The poster even featured a man standing above the deep-buried bones of a dinosaur. But then again, did anyone really complain that Gus van Sant's Elephant was a metaphor for our response to school shootings? Ah, now we're getting somewhere... Reality: Paddy Considine's directorial debut was an expansion of his 2007 short Dog Altogether, starring Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsan. With its Leeds streets and skies the same wash of grey, the social realism was so gritty it got stuck in your teeth. Mullan played an ever-aggressive one-man army, Colman the Christian charity shop worker who reaches out to him, and Marsan her abusive husband. Violence very rarely stays under the surface for long. And so the meaning behind the title rises from unearthing secrets, men becoming monsters and an affectionate anecdote about an ex-wife. It's compelling if uncomfortable viewing but, unfortunately, a rigid three-act structure means that, like its namesake, Tyrannosaur bares its teeth, roars, and ultimately dies out.
 
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Yorkshireman (hence the surname). Often spotted sacrificing sleep and sanity for the annual Leeds International Film Festival. For a sample of (fairly) recent film reviews, please visit whatsnottoblog.wordpress.com.