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.
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).
Saving Private Ryan and U-521.
I never thought much of Matthew McConaughey until that movie.
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.
Good choice. I remember being completely surprised by that one when I caught it on cable one night.
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.
I’ll agree with your Private Parts and I’ll add Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.
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.
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.
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.
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.