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I get so aggravated when I see an ad for a movie that has a generic title.  If it's vague and tells me nothing specific about the plot, then I don't want to see it.  Examples that immediately come to mind are The Core, The Happening, The Fighter, You Again, Everybody's Fine, Life as We Know It, and pretty much every Harrison Ford movie ever.  Even Inception's title was enough to put me off seeing it until I heard the positive reviews and felt assured that it was worth my $14. 

As a kid, I took issue with restaurants that were named after the owner or some cultural representative of the type of cuisine.  I was incensed at the lack of imagination displayed by Mario's, Molly's or Don Jose's.  Maybe this resentment of lazy movie titles is residual of that, but come on, people.  You're writers!  I know titles are tricky, but unless you're adapting a board game you have no excuse. 
Now I'm going to step down off this soap box, and let you Analyze That.  If I catch you doing That Thing You Do again, I'll have the G-Force on you in 88 Minutes.  Trust me, It Could Happen to You.


so you want to be a writer?

-Charles Bukowski

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.


if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.