Female Ass-Kickers Article: Thanks for inserting yourselves into our movie posters, boys!

Thanks for inserting yourselves into our movie posters, boys!

posted by DarkSarcasm

Girls! Girls! Girls!

你 know what I love? 电影院 about women who kick ass. It doesn't have to be physical. I just want to watch awesome ladies being awesome, 或者 doing awesome things. (That was my final use of the word "awesome", so stop thinking about making this into a drinking game.)

你 know what I hate? Rebranding. Or, to be specific, since this rant will focus on movie posters: Posters for female-driven 电影院 that go out of their way to appeal to a male audience. (Because GOD FORBID a BOY watches a movie about GIRLS!) This poster issue is what I refer to as Bro-ifying. (Is that a word? Whatever, it is now.)

Maybe there's a little 更多 to it than trying to appeal to males? Could be. Maybe the studio is trying to boost sales 由 highlighting 流行的 actors. That explanation would be slightly less despicable, but still annoying and misleading. If I pick a movie because an actor I like is on the cover, and they die in the first ten minutes, I'm gonna be pissed. (This leads to a lot 更多 borrowing first to see if it's worth buying, 由 the way. Think of the tens of dollars you've 迷失 with your sneaky ways, DVD distributors!) Blah, blah, corporations will do anything for teh monies, blah.

This 文章 focuses on the posters of a few female-driven movies, as those are the ones I'm currently fired up about (and this is the FAK spot), but it happens to all kinds of movies. It's a sleazy 移动 the studio pulls when they want to make a few 更多 bucks, and is completely insulting to everyone involved in the movie AND the audience. (See actor link's blog post about a clever indie movie named 'Intramural' being rebranded as what appears to be a teen sex comedy called 'Balls Out'. Spoiler alert: the 电影院 are exactly the same, and it contains neither teens nor sex.)

Below are 4 电影院 about women that I love, but have posters that suck because of Bro-ification. The poster on the left will be the 更多 accurate original, and the one on the right will be the BOYZ! U CAN SEE DIS! 或者 LOOK! STARZ! poster.

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Original / Bro-ified

link (2012)
Actors Featured on Poster: 射线, 雷 Liotta, Kelli Giddish, Gina Gershon
Actual Stars: Gina Gershon, Kelli Giddish
Gina Gershon and Kelli Giddish are the stars of this movie. That is a fact that cannot be argued. Wayne Duvall, Val Kilmer and 射线, 雷 Liotta are probably on screen for less than ten 分钟 each. And yet, 射线, 雷 Liotta made the cover of the German version. (Ze Germans are very big on Bro'd posters.) The ridiculousness of this Liotta'd poster is what made me start this rant-disguised-as-an-article. The Breathless spotlight is for Gina and Kelli. GTFO.
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The original Bro-ified LRRP poster / The one where the female lead doeN'T EVEN APPEAR

link (2010)
Actors Featured on Poster: Dwight Yoakam, Kris Kristofferson, Lizzy Caplan, Scott Speedman, Peter Dinklage, Jon Foster
Actual Stars: Lizzy Caplan, Jon Foster
I have found another Last Rites of Ransom Pride poster, and OH BOY do I have some things to say about it. But I'll start with the first poster, which was the only poster for the first few years. Lizzy Caplan is the 星, 星级 of this movie. So why is Dwight Yoakam the first name credited, and Kris Kristofferson's head so very large? Cote de Pablo, who plays another important ass-kicker in this movie, has her name mentioned but she is not shown. Jon Foster gets the shaft here as well, because he gets the most screentime (aside from Lizzy Caplan) and is barely visible. (He's on the horse.) At least Lizzy is in the front, but I still think this deserved a better poster.

But wait. There's another poster, and it is so much worse. Poster #2, which is the one featured in iTunes, doesn't even have Lizzy on it. Shown on Poster #2 are a distant Jon Foster, Kris Kristofferson (again, a big draw for the Western crowd) and... Scott Speedman, who plays Ransom Pride. Who, spoiler alert, dies before the 5 分钟 mark. The movie is literally about his girlfriend trying to bury his body. Why is he on the poster and she isn't? I MEAN DAMN.
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Two originals / Two Bro-ified

link (2000)
Actors Featured on Poster: Michelle Rodriguez, Santiago Douglas
Actual Stars: Michelle Rodriguez
This was Michelle Rodriguez's first movie. She is the star, and she kicked major 屁股 as 拳击手 Diana Guzman. The first poster is the most popular, and has a small Santiago Douglas, her 爱情 interest, up top. (I never noticed him until I started looking for posters that had been Bro'd.) The two on the right put a much larger focus on him. While Santiago did a good job, this was Michelle's movie, and Diana's priority was always boxing. The priority of the studios who re-worked these posters? Not boxing. Admittedly, the inclusion of the 吻乐队（Kiss） may be trying to target female 粉丝 of romance, but it's still taking away from the fact that Diana is here to fight, dammit!
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Original poster / 1995 VHS cover / 2003 DVD cover

link (1995)
Actors Featured on 1995 Poster: Larisa Oleynik, Rachael Leigh Cook, Christian Oliver, Bre Blair, Austin O'Brien
Actual Stars: Schuyler Fisk, Bre Blair, Rachael Leigh Cook, Larisa Oleynik, Tricia Joe, Stacy Linn Ramsower, Zelda Harris
Ugh, the 1995 poster. While The BSC does include a boy 或者 two, the main characters are clearly the girls. On the left, we have one of the original posters featuring the girls. In the middle, the 1995 VHS cover featuring three girls, Mary-Ann's boyfriend and some douchebag that Stacey had a fling with in the movie. Kristy is the 星, 星级 of this movie, and as anyone who has ever read a BSC book can tell you, Kristy is the 心 of the BSC. SO WHY WAS KRISTY SWAPPED FOR BLONDES AND BOYS, COLUMBIA? The 2003 DVD cover (right) includes all of the girls, with Kristy in the center. The boys on the DVD cover are Aaron Michael Metchik (who helped the BSC in the movie) and Christian Oliver again (the romantic interest). I believe that O'Brien instead of Oliver would have made 更多 sense, as O'Brien's character was an actual BSC member, but at least it contains all the girls this time. Points for trying, Columbia!
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Original Poster / DVD Cover

link (2018)
Actors Featured on Poster: Taraji P. Henson, Tracy Morgan
Actual Stars: Taraji P. Henson
Taraji P. Henson stars as a sports agent who, after being passed up for a big promotion she felt was rightfully hers, has a wild night out with her 老友记 and wakes up with the power to hear men's thoughts. Tracy Morgan, featured on the DVD and Blu-Ray cover, plays a potential client's dad. It's basically a cameo role. I admit, the first poster could be a little off-putting. But the 秒 poster is so lame and generic, it tells 你 nothing about the movie, and... oh come on.

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So, what do 你 guys think? Do 你 know of any other kick-ass lady 电影院 with Bro-ified posters? Should we all gather at the full moon and burn them? ;D

Lovely_Leo, x-menobsessed26 and 3 others like this

misanthrope86 Great article, twin! This is a sucky practice, for sure. The 'Baby-Sitters Club' ones are really good examples because you rarely see minor female characters inserted into posters for male-dominated movies... I think 'Mad Max: Fury Road' could also be accused of this but my theory is that it was deliberate. The Fury Road posters were total "boy" posters, marketing it as a really big action movie with boys doing awesome stuff and explosions and fiyyyyyaaaaaaahhhh. But the movie actually focused on women, which got the dude bros and fuck boys mad because it was "false advertising" lolololol. This reminds me sooooooooo much of the [url=http://www.justpressplay.net/images/stories/jreviews/7236_frenemydvd_1292451452.jpg]'Frenemy' dvd cover[/url]. Zach Galifianakis has an extremely minor role in this movie. Like, literally one or two scenes of little consequence, and that's it. But he got famous and they slapped a giant photo of him on the cover with some bad photoshop. Certainly not the same as the systematic minimisation of women's representation in media, but a strong indication that companies really don't give a shit if their marketing actually reflects the movie. I haven't seen any of the Girl + Dragon Tattoo movies, but [url=http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTczNDk4NTQ0OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDAxMDgxNw@@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg]ol' Jimmy Bond seems to be front and centre[/url] despite despite the story focusing on the female lead. Olivia Wilde was not as prominent in the marketing for 'Cowboys and Aliens' as she should have been given her role in the movie, but she was competing for poster space with James Bond and Han Solo so move aside little girl, the men are here! Black Swan was pretty good at keeping the focus on Natalie Portman, except for some of their Oscars posters which largely featured Portman with a male character. The posters for North Country were pretty good, as even the ones that had boys on them shoved them to the back. And the Tomb Raider posters were always pretty much just Lara Croft in all her glory, but I found [url=https://www.cinematerial.com/media/posters/md/ji/jidulyvp.jpg?v=1452789374]this one[/url] pimping a car used in the movie that made me lol.

DarkSarcasm Ha, I also believe the Mad Max marketing was deliberate. Gotcha, dudebros! =D Frenemy sounds like the Intramural/Balls Out deal. The original title and poster looked like it might've been an okay movie, but the giant bearded freak and stupid title... yikes. (In the words of Nick Kocher: "Fun fact, if you ever want to prank a bunch of actors, offer them a movie called Hope Holds A Flower, then after they’ve filmed it change the title to Tiny Taint’s Fart Parade.") I never got into the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, so I didn't notice that... but woah, those are Bond-y. And the possessive, [url=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/f2/f7/8f/f2f78feff836efd4f935009a00d595bb.jpg]topless[/url] one, just ew. The posters for the original [url=http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/The-Girl-with-the-Dragon-Tattoo_poster.jpg]Swedish[/url] movies didn't have that problem - there were variations that included the dude, but the popular posters were just her. LOL, Lara Croft doesn't seem to be very impressed with the Jeep. XD

glelsey This is great! I haven't seen any of these movies myself but I'm glad I read this. The two posters for Breathless next to each other like that made me laugh. They didn't even bother to find a different photo with all three characters in, they just stuck the guy there next to the two women (who are actually posing together). So even for someone who wasn't initially aware that he had such a minor role, that alone is hilarious. I'm also glad you mentioned who the actual stars are in the second movie, because I would have otherwise guessed at the two men whose heads are at the top of the poster. I couldn't even see Jon Foster! And from this poster, I think I'd have guessed at the opposite to what they're apparently doing with Lizzy Caplan - I originally thought that she might have played a smaller role, and they decided to stick her at the front so that they could say, "See? There is a woman in this movie!" Instead it sounds like they went in a completely different direction and took the focus away from the female star by enlarging two male characters and putting them at the top. Interesting selection of posters for Girlfight! I find it hard to believe that the top right and the bottom left are advertising the same movie. I think you could be right in that some of the poster designers were trying to attract a female, romance-oriented interest, but if the movie doesn't centre around her romance as much as they're led to believe then that might not be such a smart advertising technique after all! I haven't seen any Baby-Sitters Club movies but I did read some of the books when I was a kid, and I was going to say, "but wasn't there a boy in the BSC anyway?" I wouldn't have known which characters were depicted on the 1995 poster though. To be honest, that poster gives me the impression of the movie being somewhat of a romcom. Very different atmosphere to the other two posters! Great article, anyway, and it was an interesting read for someone unfamiliar with the movies. :D

DarkSarcasm Thanks for commenting, glelsey! In Ransom Pride's defense, those old white guys are big draws for the country/western crowd, and while their presence is exaggerated, their faces probably sold a few DVDs. The boyfriend in Girlfight is an important plot point, but it certainly doesn't take up as much of the film as it does that top right poster. I've edited the BSC section after looking closer and realizing which boy was actually on the DVD poster - still the one who plays the douchebag love interest, so it's one kinda-BSC member and one guy to lure in Saved By the Bell fans.

DarkSarcasm Updated with What Men Want and a new Last Rites of Ransom Pride poster.