I’m about as far away from girly-girl as one can be, and have no interest in anyone’s sex life, and never saw the TV show Sex and the City.
But when I went to see the SATC movie with my mom and my aunts, I was pleasantly surprised at how not bored I was.
Wow… that is just so spot on. I also, didn’t love that film. I walked away feeling like it would have made an insanely great 45 minute short, but didn’t quite have enough material for a feature.
There are a lot of dream-like sequences and much repetition, plus going back and forth in time, but I guess I was in the mood for that and found it mesmerizing from beginning to end. It held up for me when I saw it a 2nd and 3rd time. I didn’t recognize James Franco either at first even though I knew he was in it. It finally came to me when he was on the picnic table. On my 2nd viewing I realized he showed up a lot earlier too, as the DJ on the beach.
I expected to like Bernie, it’s Richard Linklater after all, but I never expected to like it as much as I did. Moonrise Kingdom though, was no surprise. Wes Anderson is a god.
Repo Man and Songwriter.
A very strange double bill back in the 80s. Both movies blew me away, but for completely different reasons.
It was definitely the best of the Star Trek movies.
I thought Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery sounded like kind of a cheesy idea for a movie, but I thought it was hilarious. I think I felt similarly about Dude, Where’s My Car? and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, although those weren’t quite as good as Austin Powers.
Dude, where’s my Car is a good one. It was a lot more insane then the “Dumb and Dumber” knock-off I was expecting.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I was pleasantly caught by surprise by Topsy-Turvy. I have no interest in musical theater. None whatsoever. So though I liked director Mike Leigh, I figured this film would bore me silly. I can’t even remember what circumstances got me to watch it, but I ended up fascinated with it. A really delightful film.
Someone mentioned Moonrise Kingdom earlier. Wes Anderson is really, really hit or miss for me. Loved Rushmore and liked, but didn’t love Fantastic Mr. Fox. But many of his films are too arch/pretentious for my taste and bore the crap out of me ( Zissou, Darjeeling, Tannnebaums ). So I saw this one recently when it came to cable and wasn’t sure what to expect despite the generally good reviews. But I was kind of surprised how strong of a chord it struck. Possibly because who I was when I was twelve or thirteen - as a “memory of a fantasy” it really resonated. Perfectly written, cast ( except maybe for Keitel ), acted, scored and filmed. Though I can totally get why some might dislike it, it’s still quite Andersonian and twee.
I can also agree with some of the other above mentioned films like Frailty and Galaxy Quest, films I expected to be pretty slight that surprised me with their quality.
Stealth, I watched it not expecting very much at all (having heard bad things about it) and have to say I really enjoyed it, a big, silly but most important of all fun action film. Too many modern movies try to be dark, portentous and meaningful and forgot to actually entertain the audience (Exhibit A - Man of Steel). And its a movie that really rewards watching it on a large TV with surround-sound. Also likable characters (Poor Henry!).
Battleship - much, much better than it had any right to be given its source material. Again it had a lot of silliness but also a lot of cool moments, and unlike most alien invasion films where humanity is basically incapable of fighting back (which gets rather monotonous) it felt like watching an actual battle with both sides having victories and reverses and learning from their opponent.
S.W.A.T. - again a pretty good action movie with one of those rare things where the characters make reasonable choices based on the information available to them. In fact the only really non-realistic scene was the climatic battle on the bridge and that’s a forgivable Hollywoodism.
Honestly, Lord of the Rings far exceeded my expectations.
After seeing too many of my favorite books ruined by movies, I really had no hope…and in fact during the fireworks scene at the beginning, I had a horribly sinking feeling it was going to be awful.
So glad that about 10 minutes after that I decided I was wrong.
I wish I’d got to see it a second time at the cinema, I have a feeling it won’t work so well on DVD when it will be too easy to break the rhythm of it. When I said earlier that it was flawed, it was mainly because I felt it was all style and very little substance - but I will say the style was absolutely astonishing, and as you say, mesmerising.
A little Cuban zombie flick called “Juan Of The Dead”. Absolutely no reason to expect it to be as good as it is.
I’d never watched any of the X-men movies, mostly because I’ve seen Hugh Jackman on Broadway and wanted to keep thinking of him as a song-and-dance man.
I finally broke down about a month ago and watched the first one, and then the fourth. I have a new appreciation for Jackman’s acting talents.
Summer of 81’. 11 years-old.
Playing with friends outside and dad yells “C’mon, were going to the movies.”
I was reluctant since I was already having fun.
“What movie?”
“A guy at work saw it and said it was good. About archeologists looking for the Ark of the Covenant.”
(grooooan…)“Sounds boring. I really don’t wan’t to go.”
“Just come see it.”
So I whined all the way to the theatre thinking I was going to see some National Geographic documentary that I would sleep through.
Needless to say expectations were mildly exceeded.:eek:
I once dug around in a box of old cast off video cassettes my girlfriend inherited from an old roommate to find some background noise while wasting another evening playing Civ IV. 10 minutes later I couldn’t take my eyes off** Requiem for a Dream **and when it was over I realized I forgot to take my pizza out of the oven.
Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone. I hadn’t read any of the books, so I didn’t know what the director had to start from.
Fellowship of the Ring. I saw the Bakshi & Hasbro versions, and did not have great expectations. I hadn’t seen any of Jackson’s previous work, and I don’t know that it would have helped anyway. Thus forewarned, however, I saw the Two Towers & ROTK with appropriately high expectations.
Alien. I read the graphic novel first and went into it thinking “Well, I know the story, so it’s not going to scare me or anything, and it’s just gonna be a big spaceship movie.”
I agree with this. Alien movie based on a boardgame starring Rihanna. Hmmm, what to expect here…actually, it’s a perfectly decent film, and Rihanna is good in it.
Mind you, I liked Battle: Los Angeles too.
Dark Shadows. I only watched it to watch Depp but I wasn’t expecting much. I really enjoyed it and watched it again a week later.
I don’t think it’s humanly possible to use “Requiem for a Dream” as background noise. Or at least, I don’t want to meet the person that hums along contentedly to their work amidst infected heroin scars, “ass to ass,” and Clint Mansell’s score.
I don’t know much about Rihanna so I had no preconceptions regarding her going in, and agreed she plays her part perfectly well.
Oddly enough, and opposite to the title of this thread, I had high expectations for Battle: Los Angeles and was sorely disappointed by it, but it was so unmemorable I can’t remember why! On the lines of alien invasion movies and the subject of the thread I enjoyed the much maligned Skyline much more than Battle: Los Angeles (it would have been better if the main characters weren’t such unlikable jerks though).