For all the considerable resources that go into marketing Hollywood movies, it would seem that scant attention is paid to checking the grammar and punctuation of film titles. Case in point, the new Star Trek, whose title omits a punctuation mark that not-so-subtly changes the meaning of the words. TIME copy chief Danial Adkison and copy editor Douglas Watson offer their professional judgment on some other suspect movie titles.
Star Trek Into Darkness
“The movie in which a celebrity goes on a long hike in the middle of the night.”
Suggested fix: A colon
Star Trek: Into Darkness
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
“Is it really O.K. to ask a question and not put a question mark at the end.”
Suggested fix: A question mark
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Law Abiding Citizen
“Some citizens the law can abide; others it cannot stand.”
Suggested fix: A hyphen
Law–Abiding Citizen
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
“This is not the movie you thunk it was.”
Suggested fix: Remember past participles?
Honey, I’ve Shrunk the Kids
Warner Bros.Two Weeks Notice
“Two weeks notice what? Can a week (or two) really notice anything?”
Suggested fix: An apostrophe
Two Weeks’ Notice
The 40 Year-Old Virgin
“At first glance an “s” appears to be missing: The 40 Year-Old Virgins. But that can’t be. Who would make a movie about 1-year-olds? And in what kind of world would it need to be specified that these 1-year-olds are virgins?!”
Suggested fix: A hyphen
The 40–Year-Old Virgin
The Ladies Man
“The apostrophe is needed to make clear that although this man may think he possesses the ladies, in fact they possess him.”
Suggested fix: An apostrophe
The Ladies’ Man
An Alan Smithee Film Burn Hollywood Burn
“Sometimes it really helps to use punctuation otherwise no one can tell where one thought ends and the next one begins it’s such a nice day today I think I’ll go read a modernist novel or something oh look there goes a seagull.”
Suggested fix: A colon and some commas
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
“Without the comma, we can’t tell if it’s a wedding that’s larger than life or a ceremony of Hellenic sumo wrestlers.”
Suggested fix: A comma
My Big, Fat Greek Wedding
Eight Legged Freaks
“A movie about eight freaks who have legs? Is that what makes them freaks? Don’t a lot of people have legs?”
Suggested fix: A hyphen