Saturday, August 16, 2008

NOW SHOWING!: Is the Spy Capable or Not?


My wife and I rented a movie here in Croatia a couple years back that is called Crazy House (Luda Kuča) when literally translated. It stars Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore and although it’s a little over the top we enjoyed it. When we visited the States we looked for it on DVD but couldn’t find it. Turns out the title was actually Duplex. Since then we’ve found that very few of the popular titles are translated literally the same when imported into Croatia.

Chris Hawley wrote an entertaining piece in USA TODAY and the Arizona Republic recently about the literal translations Hollywood movies have in other countries. The following is a list of some of those movies and their titles along with the countries (or areas) in which they were renamed:

Get Smart (2008)
Super Agent 86 (Mexico)
Confused Spy (China)
Is the Spy Capable or Not? (Taiwan)

Airplane! (1980)
The Unbelievable Trip on a Wacky Airplane (Germany)

Alien (1979)
The Eighth Passenger of the Nostromo (Poland)

Much Ado about Nothing (1993)
Lots of Noise and Not Many Nuts (Latin America)

Knocked Up (2007)
Slightly Pregnant (Peru)
One Night, Big Belly (China)

Grease (1978)
Vaseline (Argentina)

Lost in Translation (2003) Lost in Tokyo (Israel)

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