'Buenas Muchachos': 15 Movie Titles That Are a Whole Lot Funnier In Other Languages

What’s in a name? Quite a lot when it comes to movie titles.

Published 1 year ago in Wow

What’s in a name? Quite a lot when it comes to movie titles.

While we may gather together for yet another viewing of “The Hangover,” the French are watching its European counterpart — “Very Bad Trip.” While we may rave about “The Sixth Sense,” people in China are reminiscing about their version of the ‘90s classic, “He’s A Ghost!”

From “GoodFellas” transforming into “Buenos Muchachos” to “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind becoming “If You Dump Me I Delete You,” here are 20 movie titles that are a whole lot funnier in foreign languages.

1
Step Up
“The ‘Step Up’ films are called ‘S—y Dance’ and that's a far better title except ‘Step Up 2: The Streets’ is a great stupid title sentence.”

2
Shawshank Redemption
“In Finland ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ was translated into ‘Rita Hayworth - The Key For Escape.’” That translation is so stupid that it is almost unbelievable.”

3
Dear John
“The movie ‘Dear John’ in Bulgarian is translated as ‘With The Scent Of Cinnamon’, literally. Then again I haven't watched the movie, so maybe cinnamon is the main context.”
4
Rosemary's Baby
“My fave Spanish movie title fail is the blatant spoiler in ‘Rosemary's Baby’: ‘The Devil's Seed’. That's it. That's the movie. You don't even need to watch it anymore.”

5
Army of Darkness
“‘Army of Darkness’ was translated to ‘Captain Supermarket’ in Japan”
6
Johnny English
“‘Johnny English’ was titled ‘Mr. Bean Is A Spy’ in China.
7
The Sixth Sense
“Plot spoilers aren't as big a deal in China apparently, because there the ‘The Sixth Sense’ was titled ‘He's a Ghost!’”

8
Jaws and Airplane!
“Germany had a couple of good ones, in a totally German fashion. ‘Jaws’ - ‘The White Shark’ ‘Airplane!’ - ‘The Incredible Journey in a Crazy Plane’”
9
Evil Dead, Night of the Living Dead and Return of the Living Dead
“Here in Portugal we've got this little clusterf—k I'm not sure many people are aware of: ‘The Evil Dead’ was translated to ‘A Noite dos Mortos Vivos’ (‘Night of the Living Dead’). ‘Night of the Living Dead’ was translated to ‘O Regresso dos Mortos Vivos’ (‘The Return of the Living Dead’). ‘Return of the Living Dead’ however was translated correctly as ‘O Regresso dos Mortos Vivos’ (‘The Return of the Living Dead’), so now you've got two different movies with the same title. And, on top of that, ‘Night of the Living Dead’, besides being translated as ‘The Return of the Living Dead’, also can be found online under the title ‘A Noite dos Mortos Vivos’ (‘Night of the Living Dead’), same title as ‘The Evil Dead.’ Awesome and not at all confusing, right?”
10
The Sound of Music
“‘The Sound of Music’ = ‘The Rebel Nun’ I remember that one from when I was a kid.”

11
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Probably the worst translation ever is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind = "Se mi lasci ti cancello" (if you dump me I delete you) that totally sounds like a s—ty rom-com. In fact, a few years before, the romantic comedy movie "Runaway Bride" was translated "Se scappi ti sposo" and some people thought these two movies were correlated because of the similar structure of the title. It was so bad that the DVDs now have the English title and the Italian bad title in small lettering.
12
GoodFellas
“Okay I’m sorry, but this is way funnier in Spanish”
13
Hot Fuzz, Bad Boys, Alien and Tangled
“German film distributors/publishers have some strange preference for using the (or sometimes 'a') English title, but then include a German subtitle, which sometimes is just the actual translation, other times completely nonsensical, but either way usually very weird. So we've got gems like: ‘Hot Fuzz’ - Zwei abgewichste Profis (‘Two Screwed-Up Professionals") ‘Bad Boys’ - ‘Harte Jungs’ (basically a translation) ‘Alien’ - Das unheimliche Wesen aus einer fremden Welt ("the sinister being from a foreign/alien world") [‘Tangled’] ‘Rapunzel’ - Neu Verföhnt (which is an awful pun of "neu verfilmt" = to make a new film, and "Föhn" = hair dryer)”

14
The Hangover
“In France, ‘The Hangover’ was translated to ‘Very Bad Trip’ (in English!). The French have a bad habit of 'translating' American movie titles by just giving it a different name in English....”
15
Deliverance
“‘Deliverance’ turns into "Picnic with the Death" (Piknik Med Døden) in Norwegian. It boggles the mind how this translation made sense for the person coming up with it.”