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Lost In Translation: 20 Baffling Foreign Movie Posters

By Jay Thomas January 28, 2009 690,654 views
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#10.
Big (Czech Republic)

"That's your poster for the JFK movie? You're fired, you sick bastard."

"Uh... no! Of course not! This is the poster for... Big, the Tom Hanks comedy about a man who changes bodies with a child!"

"Perfect! Here is your raise."

#9.
Army of Darkness (Japan)

Having just watched the first few minutes of the film before slapping their poster together, the Japanese marketing department renamed Army of Darkness to Captain Supermarket because, you know, Ash worked in one.

You can just picture the poster designer tapping the pencil on his desk thinking, "Okay, supermarket. Let's get a bag of groceries on there. What else do they sell at the supermarket? Soup! Campbell's soup! And the star is named Bruce Campbell! It almost makes too much sense!"

#8.
Bullitt (East Germany)

We're too terrified to make a joke.

#7.
Easy Rider (Czech Republic)

Well it would appear that this poor man has a dove for a dick, and is trying to fuck the horseheaded guy. The question is: Which one is Jack Nicholson?

#6.
The Fly (Poland)

Of course you have to tell the audience that the movie has a scene with a fly-monster puking. Why else would they buy a ticket? Oh, and go ahead and imply that the fly is played by Kojak's Telly Savalas just to make sure.

#5.
First Blood (Japan)

Japan repackaged First Blood as a kickass motorcycle chase through the city with Dukes of Hazzard-esque ramping of cop cars (bottom). But at least they portray the safety-conscious Sly as wearing a nice padded helmet.

#4.
Planet of the Apes (Poland)

Props to the designer for both drawing a literal planet made out of an ape and giving away the twist ending.

But here's the problem: Once audiences have actually seen the movie and realize it's not actually about humans landing on a monkey-headed globe in space, how do you do posters for the sequels?

#3.
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (Poland)

We knew we would regret asking that question.

#2.
Deliverance (Yugoslavia)

We all know why this could have been worse.

Okay, before we go, let's hear from Poland one last time. Let's pick a movie they couldn't possibly turn into nightmare fuel: The Muppet Movie.

#1.
The Muppet Movie (Poland)

And... you are now insane. Sorry.

For more tasteful foreign cinema, check out 9 Foreign Rip-Offs Cooler Than The Hollywood Originals and Ridiculous Overseas Rip-Offs of American Films.

And visit the foreign version of Cracked.com's Top Picks by clicking the link (we went ahead and translated it for you so you'd know where to click).


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288 Comments

On the 11th poster, KingKong...
It's a Belgian one.
"Kingkong komt in opstand" in Dutch.
Only in Belgium can you find such bilingual posters.
(Sorry that I feel a little bored when people say all FrenchSpeaking people are from France. Belgium exists! What would you think if I said all Englsih-speaking people were from England? America swept out of the map! Nice, isn't it? ) ;p

10/27/2009 5:49:04 PM
SillyBlondine

Wow, this is what Europe is up to while griping about how badly America sucks? f**k the rest of the world.

8/14/2009 6:05:32 PM
Kindahuge

Muppety jada do Hollywood. I think we should officially change the name of that movie, this one is far superior.

7/27/2009 9:58:02 AM
Conformist138

canuguru, it's probably because this poster was for belgium which share some french and dutch speaking communities

4/20/2009 9:48:26 AM
hastur

i would immediately go see ANY movie with the face hand

4/6/2009 7:06:48 PM
DJM

King Kong (france) might make sense, except that most of text is not in french, its dutch.

4/2/2009 7:23:54 AM
canuguru

This was one of the funniest collection of things I have seen I'm a while. It's like it was made by aliens who didn't understand humans. I really like the give away for Planet of the apes and I liked the rib cage skull from aliens. Also Captain Supermarket was pretty good. I have a idea why don't people make some short films based on the movie posters that got it so wrong. I would watch all of them except for Bad Lieutenant which would probably be a dong showcase.

4/2/2009 1:53:54 AM
Super-Dave

The Polish posters are great and as mentioned in other comments, in many countries movie posters are considered art and not just an advertisment for the movie. They're supposed to make you think or laugh or something and want to see the movie

4/1/2009 3:50:26 AM
petpet

Foreign movie posters feature some of the best are for most films. I have been collecting vintage movie posters for 15 years and I have many posters in my collection from France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Poland, etc. I think collectors should be more open minded to foreign posters as they really do a stunning job on some of them.
Ralph DeLuca
Madsion, NJ

3/26/2009 6:52:05 AM
ralphdeluca.

I'm a little depressed at the close-mindedness of a lot of these comments. I love the esoterism of a lot of these posters, and would personally rather see these graphic mindfucks plastered across cinemas than yet another throwaway floating-head Photoslob job.

3/22/2009 5:08:45 AM
Stereo_Mike

Even though I am from Poland I really enjoyed this list. I laughed out loud! :) It’s just a shame that under such a funny article so many dumb comments were posted.
(I really wanted to post these messages as one, but couldn't. Kinda sucks.)

2/11/2009 3:25:07 AM
Crov

And don’t let me start about this one: http://correctopinion.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/the_fall.jpg :) It must be confusing to go to the movies for some people. :)

2/11/2009 3:24:19 AM
Crov

Or “Burn after reading” poster: http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2008/06/17/burn-after-reading-poster.jpg ? Giant letters attacking photographer?

2/11/2009 3:23:56 AM
Crov

Though I am wondering what an average American person (like some of those guys posting comments here) thinks when he/she sees one of older posters for, let’s say, “The Dark Knight”? Like this one: http://ofpenguinsandpeanuts.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/dark-knight-poster-why-so-serious.jpg ? Do they think it’s a movie about someone tagging the walls? :)

2/11/2009 3:21:56 AM
Crov

It's pretty understandable that someone from USA doesn’t get these posters since their posters are only used for advertisement (‘phenomenal’ posters for ‘masterpieces’ like “Push”, “Over her dead body”, “Unborn” or “Street Fighter” ;)). Many before me said it – it’s considered art by many people, but it’s not like these posters are on DVD covers or in cinemas.

2/11/2009 3:21:15 AM
Crov

"Escape from the planet of the apes" is NOT a movie poster. It's a PARODY drew by a Polish cartoonist, Andrzej Mleczko (http://mleczko.interia.pl/). Seriously, it should be researched, man.

2/11/2009 3:19:43 AM
Crov

#11 isn't a poster for King Kong it's the poster for Ape.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074148/

2/8/2009 2:26:29 PM
Rutledal

Kid trips out after trip to dentist: the REMIX! hilarious!!! I'll have what he's having...

http://www.tokillfor.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5690823d30d15269a980&page=1&viewtype=&category=rf

2/4/2009 9:14:44 PM
dalekiloveyou

Man, and I thought Horror Movie Posters from the 80s were completely messed up!

2/4/2009 1:46:36 PM
Fangarius

"Muppety Jadą Do Hollywood"
"Ucieczka z Planety Małp"

Ha ha ha! That was quite funny, If I should say so myself.

However, I'm not really surprised at these weird posters we made, since anything really western could get you sent to Siberia :(

2/4/2009 11:23:03 AM
photon_man62

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