There’s not much that moviegoers can agree on. That’s half the fun (and agony) of going to the movies, and hanging out on sites like Film. Discussion would dry up if our brains were in lockstep.

She can be as crisp about business as she can be about sex

But there is one thing about film that we can all build a beautiful consensus from: Modern movie posters are awful. Few are worth the paper they’re printed on, and fewer still are worth hanging on your wall. Only a handful of directors manage to wring good marketing images out of studios, and even their best efforts don’t create the kind of frenzy and collector lust that a Mondo poster can.

She can live in a man’s world, and by a man’s rules, but she is still a woman

Now, that’s wandering off topic a little — but only a little — because we’re supposed to be talking about the poster for No Strings Attached. But the first thing you really notice about it is what an awful, plastic, and impersonal poster it really is. This is not something to echo through the ages. It’s disposable and empty. It’s what we all loathe about cinema.

To be fair, No Strings Attached doesn’t have anything to live up to. I was about to launch into a tirade about how awesome old romance posters were, but I googled some of my favorite movies and . well, they’re not that good. The poster for It Happened One Night is pretty terrifying. Doris Day’s posters are universally awful. The only truly good ones that spring to Google Image are The Apartment, Gone with the Wind, and The Seven Year Itch. I suppose this makes sense. Jedi, guns, squints, blood, cigarette smoke, well-endowed dames, fedoras, and big jawlines make good posters, and these aren’t staples of romances or romantic comedies. Read more