10 Mysterious Or Bizarre Movie Titles With Disappointingly Boring Explanations

By Toby McShane /

It's no exaggeration when people say a movie title is the selling point of a film. Would The Lord of the Rings have gained so many fans, if it had been called 'Little Men Try to Put Ring in Fire for 7 and a Half Hours'? I would say, no. You can understand why then, that many films leave a little bit of intrigue in their titles, something that requires a closer inspection - something even, that requires watching the whole film to finally understand and once they've got you doing that... "hey presto!" - the film is making money. But... with a mysterious title, it is paramount the audience is left satisfied with the explanation. Otherwise they are going to have felt robbed, cheated and unlikely to recommend a film like that to anyone else. This lead me to explore a few of those films that hammed up the intrigue, whacked out the metaphors and immersed themselves in the mystery all without actually delivering on the initial promise. Here's 10 of 'em.

10. The Italian Job (2003)

Okay, so not a mysterious title in the sense of hidden meanings and subtle metaphors, but definitely in the sense of "Italian Job? Really?"

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It was a remake that never needed remaking. Alas, many film fans have resigned themselves to the fact that Hollywood will keep rebooting franchises if fans of the originals still go and see them. And they do. However, fans of Michael Caine's slick, witty heist movie would have received a metaphorical slap round the face when they found themselves at the fifteen minute mark of this movie moonlighting as the Italian Job. After a fairly enjoyable opening scene in which Mark Wahlberg drives a boat through Venice (okay, so it's not Turin but we can let that go) and Mos Def blows a safe down through a building, nobody can argue that they've not captured "authentic Italian setting" well. Then our hopes are suddenly destroyed. Standing in a snowy landscape somewhere in the Alps, about twenty minutes in, we wave goodbye to Italy for the very last time! Excuse me Hollywood? We're left with a big cast and a generic plot in a film that may as well have any title in the world because a job it may be - Italian? No. You may share his name Wahlberg, but you will never be Charlie Croker.