# Films that exceeded your expectations **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828 "2013-06-24T22:38:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/61 "2013-06-28T09:33:00Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > \*Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. \* Total schlock, but worth every penny of the $3.99 rental charge. Loved the girl who played Gretel, and enjoyed the story. Gemma Arterton. Which reminds me of a film of hers, called _Tamara Drewe_ - it came on telly and I started watching expecting not much (I only knew her from the crappy Bond Quantum of Solace), and instead got this sort of modernization of _Far From The Madding Crowd_ with bonus Tamsin Greig, it was awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/62 "2013-06-28T10:14:58Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > **Despicable Me**. Watched it on On Demand long after it was in theaters just because we wanted something vaguely interesting to watch for a Sunday evening. Loved it. > > **Kung Fu Panda**. I didn’t want to like it because I don’t like Jack Black, but it won me over. Very cute, fun movie. > > **How to Train Your Dragon**. Hmm…I sense a theme here. But yeah, didn’t have high expectations, ended up thinking it was sweet and cute and really good. > > For non-animated movies, don’t judge, but I loved the fluff Disney teen flick **Lemonade Mouth**. I had it on in Netflix as mindless background noise for WoW leveling and ended up turning off the game and watching the movie. I think Dreamworks just really sucks at marketing. Or perhaps it’s just that they excel at marketing towards kids more stupid interests. Almost every recent Dreamworks film I’ve seen has been on the spectrum from “at least slightly above average” to “amazing” and yet every single one I thought was going to be shit from the trailers (except How To Train Your Dragon, I expected to like that one). ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/63 "2013-06-28T10:30:14Z")
Saving Private Ryan and U-521. I never thought much of Matthew McConaughey until that movie. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/64 "2013-06-28T13:30:53Z")
Considering how immensely popular they are now, these might seem surprising: **Star Wars** – I saw the trailer for it in January of 1977, when I went to see **Network** and was incredibly unimpressed. I’d seen SF movies with effects before. Somehow they managed to use scenes that didn’t really convey the sense of the film. In addition, the musical score wasn’t the John Williams fanfare-and-bombast that came to define the series, but some brooding, menacing music. Even the characteristic yellow-piping-on-black logo that opens every film wasn’t there. they had "Star Wars in blue in some indifferent typeface. It looked to me like some utterly forgettable kiddie film. The other marketing didn’t help – the novelization hit stores months before the film and used older Ralph mcQuarrie concept art that made Chewbacca look like a monkey. The overly large Darth Vader helmet, tilted forward at a ridiculous angle, filled the background. What the hell was that, a Sphinx? But then Time Magazine gave it a corner notice as “Best Film of the Year”, and on opening day they put ads on the bottom of the front page of the newspaper. That evening the crowds at the movies were huge. I saw it the next afternoon in a deserted cinema, and sat through it twice. I thought **The Terminator** was going to be a low budget film with guys in masks running around LA shooting at each othe. That’s the sense I got from the TV trailers. Then I saw a clip from the opening, with the Future War stuff, and that convinced me to go see it. I was utterly blown away, because here, for once, was a science fiction film that was informed, and didn’t assume its audience was unaware of or uninterested in the genre. There were LOTS of cute touches and dark humor, many of which didn’t become obvious until later. I was similarly surprised by **Robocop** a few years later, which again looked like a dumb idea 9Robot Cop with a gun in his leg? Ho-hum). I wasn’t prepared for its equal knowledge of the genre, with equally dark humor and tips to Cyril Kornbluth’s _The Marching Morons_. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/65 "2013-06-28T15:15:05Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > **Rocky Balboa** , aka Rocky VI. Okay, old man takes on a boxing champ in his prime? Adrian took a pass on it? Yep, even she knows this movie is gonna suck. Turned out I enjoyed it, especially all the shout-outs to the original movie. Unlike the other sequels, the movie wasn’t merely a 2-hour set-up to the final fight. And darned if they didn’t make that fight look believable. Good choice. I remember being completely surprised by that one when I caught it on cable one night. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/66 "2013-06-28T16:37:09Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I think Dreamworks just really sucks at marketing. Or perhaps it’s just that they excel at marketing towards kids more stupid interests. I think I just have a bad impression of Dreamworks as a sub-par Pixar wannabe who relies more on celebrity casting to sell their stuff than good stories. However, I loved both **How to Train Your Dragon** and **Megamind**. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/67 "2013-06-28T17:19:34Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > Also Private Parts and the Wedding Singer. I’ll agree with your **Private Parts** and I’ll add **Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story**. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/68 "2013-06-28T17:58:23Z")
_Man of Steel_ greatly exceeded my expectations. It wasn’t without flaws, but it was a much better film than I was expecting based on some of the reviews I’d seen. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/69 "2013-06-28T18:13:10Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Gemma Arterton. Which reminds me of a film of hers, called _Tamara Drewe_ - it came on telly and I started watching expecting not much (I only knew her from the crappy Bond Quantum of Solace), and instead got this sort of modernization of _Far From The Madding Crowd_ with bonus Tamsin Greig, it was awesome. If you haven’t, check out _The Disappearance of Alice Creed_, a British kidnapping-gone-wrong flick in which she plays the title character. Not a bad film and you’ll get to see her quite naked, if that’s your thing. But don’t read the movie’s Wikipedia page, whose description gives away major spoilers in its first sentence. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/70 "2013-06-29T00:22:58Z")
_Any Given Sunday_. Oh, look, it’s a football movie. And it’s got Al Pacino in his post-Scent-Of-A-Woman days, when he’s all HOO-AH instead of, y’know, acting. So who else have we got? That chick from _Dumb And Dumber_, and that cross-dressing jokester from _In Living Color_, plus Cameron Diaz, Matthew Modine, Elizabeth Berkley – okay, granted, that sounds like a pretty fun cast for a light comedy. Wait, it’s a drama? Yeah, well, I’ve got suitably low expectations. I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828/71 "2013-06-29T03:34:06Z")
_Limitless_ with Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. A great high-concept technothriller that had some great twists and turns. _The Hidden_ with Michael Nouri and Kyle MacLachlan. A great B-movie about an alien fugitive hiding out among the lowlifes of L.A. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-that-exceeded-your-expectations/661828.md?page=3)