New movie posters evoke the past

Posted Friday, October 14, 2011 at 4:35 PM Central
Last updated Friday, October 14, 2011 at 4:46 PM Central

by John Couture

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery and no one knows that more than Drew Struzan. His iconic look to the movie posters for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones defined an entire generation of movie posters.

Today, it seems that everyone is looking to take their cues from The Hangover movies. And why not? The Hangover was extremely successful so it's no surprise that everyone would want to imitate them.

Take the iconic elevator scene. In both movies, there was a shot of the guys in an elevator.

Today we were adding a bunch of pics from the latest Harold & Kumar movie and couldn't help but notice a familiar shot.

A couple of weeks ago when Tim was adding the first theatrical poster for The Rum Diary, he couldn't help but notice the similarities to marketing materials from The Hangover movies.

I was skeptical at first, but there's not much debate with today's second theatrical poster for The Rum Diary.

Actually, the only thing open for debate here is whether that is indeed Johnny Depp's body or if they simply Photoshopped his head onto someone else's body.

Getting away from the eerie similarities to The Hangover, we present the just released poster for The Three Stooges. Nope, this one is just plain eerie.

I realize what they're trying to go for, but I just think they totally miss the boat on this silhouette effect. Personally, I like their other image they are using much better. At least you have more their iconic look captured in it.

And wow. What can say about the most recent offering from New Year's Eve?

I'm literally speechless. I really didn't think they could get any worse than their first incarnation above, right. I guess I should only be happy that Steve Carell isn't one of the cast of thousands in this movie.

Of course, according to Gavin Berliner, "the more heads, the better." Even he couldn't imagine a day when 18 heads would appear on a movie poster. The best he could do was 17 for Crash.