The Best of the Worst Movie Posters of 2006

There were some great movie posters in 2006, but you can put those out of your mind because we're here to talk about the stinkers. The ones that made you want to avoid the movie, that would make you turn your head and hurry past at bus stops. Cringe inducing comes to mind, because these aren't ones you would decorate your walls with ... even if you lived in a dorm room. You could possibly use them to wrap fish in, or maybe pad items that you were shipping to Peru. But, why would you want to?

These were the ones that I identified as the worst of the crop. Designing a visually appealing poster that makes someone want to go see the film is hard work, and these posters show you why. I single handedly avoided most of the movies on this list based on the posters alone. Granted, that's a bit like judging a book by it's cover, but hey ... I'm shallow, what can I say. We need to start a book blog so I can write "The Best and Worst Book Covers of 2006," or better yet "The Most Judged Book Covers of 2006."

However, let's get back on track to the worst posters of 2006. These are just a smattering of them, because my eyes started to bleed after culling my (un)favorites. Check them out after the jump and tell us what your least favorite movie posters of the past year were.

The Marine -- Personally, I think this poster helped this movie tank. Take a virtually unknown (outside the wrestling world) guy, stick him on a poster with a gun in his hand, and tt pretty much screams DIRECT TO VIDEO about as loudly as possible. The background image of him in his uniform tries to hammer home what the USMC on his t-shirt and the title of the movie might not convey: he's a Marine.


Venus -- I love Peter O'Toole, and I think he's one of the best actors of his generation. He has a pretty set of films under his belt, if you can ignore the missteps he seems to take every third film or so. In fact, at this point he has the wise, drunken playboy role down pat. He's untouchable in that arena. However, his expression on this poster, and the Photoshopped-looking eyes just make me feel very uncomfortable. I'm all for using Peter O'Toole on a poster, but this one misses the mark by a few miles.


Art School Confidential -- This one really gets to me because you've got a movie written by Dan Clowes, one of the best alternative comics artists of the past 20 years, and the poster chops up his artwork and replaces the top half with a shot from the movie ... complete with a blurb about the director over the art model. Two confusing images make for one bad poster.


Annapolis -- Almost every movie that is ever made about the military features a poster image with the stars in uniform, staring off into the distance. It's meant to make them look stoic, heroic, and tough. However, since it's something that we've seen a million times, it lost the impact long ago. These two guys arent even staring off in the same direction, which makes me think that James Franco got distracted by something shiny.


ATL -- Okay, we know that ATL is hip, its urban ... but what's with this poster? The background is gritty enough, but the foreground looks like an ad for something cheerful and bright. Plus, check out the cargo shorts bringing up the rear. It's like a Mentos ad that got put up in the wrong part of town. ATL ... WTF?


Employee of the Month -- This posters proves that smug, unfunny, annoying comedians can't sell a movie. If you're going to feature Dane Cook on a poster, it had better be for a concert film ... not something he's trying to act in. This poster looks like Dane Cook trying to rip off Ryan Reynolds, and failing at it.


The Last Kiss -- Apparently this movie stars Zach Braff and ... an unknown female. If you've seen the uncropped version of this poster, then you know that's Jacinda Barrett in the picture, so why chop her out? I'd be more than a tad mad if I was her. Feature my lips, nose, and hand but not me? Hell hath no fury like an actress cropped.


Basic Instinct 2 -- Sharon Stone claimed to be outraged when her famous crotch shot from Basic Instinct was used in the movie, but it looks like she is definitely making reference to it here. Even promised hints of full-frontal nudity couldn't save this poster, let alone the movie, from the bargain bin.


The Good German -- I talked about this one in the Best Posters of 2006 post, but I have to bring it up again here because it's just so shameless. Were they hoping that some of the excellence from Casablanca would rub off on The Good German? You've got Cate Blanchett and George Clooney in your movie, do you really need to copy of of the most famous movies of all time? This actually makes me want to avoid this movie.


The Lake House -- Where do you start with this one? First of all is the obvious miscasting in this movie, which is made clear by the poster. Then you can move onto Keanu's creepy "Hi, I'm your stalker for the duration of this movie" pose, Sandra's slightly apprehensive expression, the black & white vs. the color. This poster fails on multiple levels other than bad design.


Man of the Year -- This poster might have worked if it was one in green tint, making Robin Williams look like George Washington on the one dollar bill. Maybe. instead we get a really awkward photo of Williams aping Washington, and it looks like an ad for hair dye, or perhaps wigs ... maybe even incontinence undergarments.

So there you have it folks, my picks for the worst posters of 2006. I'm praying that we get some good ones in 2007, but I'm secretly hoping that I get to duplicate this again next year. Have a happy and very safe New Year's! While you're out there, see if you can spot any really bad posters. Tell us what they are and what you didn't like, poster wise, from 2006.