This is going to be the first installment of what will become a regular part of this column. I'll review one-sheet posters for upcoming movies and basically tell you why I like or dislike them, as well as how I think they'll effect the film's overall marketing campaign. For the first time around, I have plenty of commercial artwork to choose from...

The big poster release this week was another teaser one-sheet for Quentin Tarrantino's Kill Bill movies. Nevermind my reservations about one film being split into two separate films, it really is an inventive and eye-grabbing poster. I can't help but smile at the tagline of "Here comes the Bride" - referring to Uma Thurman's character who goes by "The Bride" after almost being killed on her wedding day. The mixture of the wedding-gown sleeve and a samurai sword is very clever, and seems quite appropriate for a Tarrantino film (very offbeat and different, as usual).

Another upcoming film featuring an American actor wielding a samurai sword is the Tom Cruise flick The Last Samurai, due to hit theaters in December. The one poster released so far is an obvious teaser, and it's particularly striking because it only makes use of Tom Cruise's name, blatantly leaving out his face and only showing us his back. I always like it when the marketing for a film featuring a big star chooses to promote the film itself and not the actor. Surely I'm not the only one who is sick and tired of posters where an actor or actress' face is plastered across the entire thing with room for little else. The later posters will probably include Mr. Cruise's face, but what we have to look at for now is very stylish and definitely makes me want to see more. Mission accomplished.

A good example of what I was just talking about is the poster for Out of Time, which stars Denzel Washington as a small town Florida cop who gets into some trouble after getting mixed up with the wrong woman. But forget the fact that Washington's mug takes up most of the poster - the thing is just plain ugly and awful in every way imaginable. Does anyone else think this makes the film look more like a low-grade B-movie than a major release from a Hollywood studio? Yuck... give me a few pictures and five minutes with Adobe Photoshop and I can come up with a more appealing design.

Easily one of the most beautiful posters to come out in a long time is the one-sheet for Kevin Costner's return to the western, Open Range. The story is supposed to be pretty basic and so is the poster. In the end, it's good because it tells us all we need to know: this is a western about revenge, filmed in an old-fashioned manner. I really love the distant figures approaching beneath that beautiful sepia-toned sky, as well as the pose of Costner in the process of reloading his weapon. A classic design for a throwback film.

Another great teaser poster is for The Missing, starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. This is the project Ron Howard and Brian Grazer decided to pursue after pulling out of The Alamo, and although I've heard almost nothing about it whatsoever, the cast combined with this poster have me interested already. Not only is the combination of thick woods and fog a great way to establish a sense of mystery and possibly fear, it makes for a great background to set behind a partially vanished title. All I can say is, let's hope the actual film lives up to the poster.

The same praise I gave to the one-sheet for The Missing can also be applied to the one-sheet for Cold Creek Manner, starring Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone. The film is scheduled to be released in September - not too far away - and although I still haven't heard much about it other than the very basic premise, this poster does a wonderful job of establishing the tone of the film, assuming of course that it's dark and mysterious and dramatic. By placing our point of view down low by the grass with the mansion in the distance, you can't help but feel isolated.

Finally, we have this week's rip-off poster courtesy of the folks marketing The Human Stain, starring Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman. When I first saw Kidman highlighted in blue wearing a black garment with what appears to be the intent of sliding it off, I was instantly reminded of the poster for another one of her films, To Die For. Granted, her hair is different and she doesn't have the same scowl on her face, but aside from Anthony Hopkins on the left it definitely looks similar. I'm not saying this was in any way intentional - it's a fairly basic layout that gets used all too often - but the fact that Kidman was presented the same way twice is amusing. Even if it was original I'm still not a fan of this design, which makes the film come off as a dull drama more than anything else.

Posted August 19, 2003 | link