I just recently bought the movie Funny Games, which everyone has been raving about.
I’ll have to state that I’m rather disappointed. There was a point where I thought the movie was over, and I sat there for awhile with my mouth open, thinking “yeah…that’ll work!” Then to my horror, it proceeded to add about another 30mins of movie. WHY?!
Of course, I’ve had some great blind buys, too. I just recently purchased Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural. What an oddly pleasing movie!
Tell me about your horrifying blind buys. Good ones are welcome as well.
I bought a cheap Hong Kong DVD (not a bootleg) of Shaolin Soccer before Miramax released an edited version in the States. I laughed pretty hard, and I’m happy to own it.
I spent more than I should have on a movie called G-Men From Hell, based on an obscure comic book by my favorite comic artist, Mike Allred. The movie is so low-budget that it shows panels taken directly from the comic to show the characters’ origins, rather than filming them. Mike and his wife Laura (his usual colorist) do the commentary track, rather than anyone else involved with the movie. As a bonus, the DVD includes an entire other movie as a special feature: Astroesque, starring, written by, and directed by Mike Allred, as a tie-in to another one of his comics, Red Rocket 7. It is boring, but I guess I’m happy to own it.
Just the other day, I splurged at Wal-Mart’s “2 DVDs for $11” bin, and bought two movies I’ve never seen before: Top Secret!, the '80s comedy with Val Kilmer (which I know some Straight Dopers seem to like), and America’s Sweethearts, with John Cusack and Catherine Zeta Jones (who I like) and Julia Roberts (who I don’t). Haven’t had a chance to see either of them yet.
My best blind-buy in history has to be Super Troopers. No doubt.
And Lou, you picked two fantastic movies. Top Secret! is a guaranteed near-embolism from laughter, and America’s Sweethearts, while partially recycled-romantic-comedy-crap, is made totally worth it by the wonderful cast–even if you hate Julia Roberts.
Perhaps I’m missing the pioint of the thread. I thought this was supposed to be about movies we bought without much knowledge of how they would be, then belatedly realizing we had made a terrible mistake.
I have one of those. Black Beauty, “starring” Mark “Oliver! Twist” Lester.
I just won’t buy a movie blindly unless it’s reasonably foreseeable that I will like it. I assume I eventually will make a huge mistake, but for now I liked one, wasn’t overly impressed by another, and haven’t seen two yet. I was trying to contribute as best I could.
I give you Good Against Evil. Only a dollar from the dollar store, and overpriced. Actually it wasn’t horrible but it was such an obvious amalgamation of bits stolen from better movies (Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist to name two), and it turns out that it was actually a pilot for a proposed series that didn’t get picked up, so there’s no resolution to the main plot. Dull.
I also bought Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural blind a few weeks ago. Nifty little movie. I’ve heard of Funny Games, but I’m in no hurry to see it.
I don’t usually get burned on blind buys as I only buy movies I know about and that sound interesting. One turkey though was Mike Figgis’ The Loss of Sexual Innocence. Yuck. (Okay, I bought because of the hot chick on the cover…)
I also bought Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural blind a few weeks ago. Nifty little movie. I’ve heard of Funny Games, but I’m in no hurry to see it.
I don’t usually get burned on blind buys as I only buy movies I know about and that sound interesting. One turkey though was Mike Figgis’ The Loss of Sexual Innocence. Yuck. (Okay, I bought it because of the hot chick on the cover…)
I finally thought of one that was truly torturous–Jessica: A Ghost Story. Bought, of course, because my name is Jessica.
It was obviously some guy who decided to make a movie with his video camera. It might have been salvageable, but we were too busy laughing at the pornish cinematography to really get into the movie.
Zombi 3 (as mentioned in a similar thread) TERRIBLE!
I got tired by the 3rd scene of characters walking through a zombie infested area and zombie apparently having nothing better to do than to hide behind corners and on top of ledges.
I bought a copy of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back on a whim. Then, before I got around to watching it, I saw it on Cable. My jaw dropped at just how stupid and unfunny it was. I may have to use the DVD as a coaster.
Aren’t some scenes a shot for shot recreation of what was in the original ABT? At least that was the impression that I got after I saw the trailer for it - I’ve never seen ABT2.
I made the terrible mistake of buying From Dusk Till Dawn 2 because it was cheap, and I had really enjoyed the first one. This turned out to be a truly wretched movie. I didn’t expect it to be extremely good, but it was worse than I could possibly have imagined. This is not a DVD for watching. This is a DVD for putting in the microwave and turning into a coaster.
You guys who don’t like your DVDs, remember you can always sell them on eBay or Half.com or offer them for free to fellow Dopers, rather than destroying or defacing them!
