# Great Films You Never IntendED To See
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 8, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467 "2007-09-08T15:37:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/1 "2007-09-08T15:37:43Z")
We have a thread already about great films that people plan never to see.
But what about movies you assumed would be horrible or not for you, until you actually were in a situation where you ended up seeing them, and changing your mind?
For me, it’s “Fight Club.” I assumed for a few years after it came out that it was nothing but a dumb action picture. At university, my friend had to see it for class and she asked me if I’d watch it too–I ended up totally engrossed. Now it is one of my favorite films ever.
What about you?
---
### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/2 "2007-09-08T15:41:28Z")
_Mean Streets._ I don’t like violence (see my answer on _The Departed_ in the other thread), but it popped up unannounced on TV – regular network TV – one night and I was immediately sucked in. Brilliant movie.
---
### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2007, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/3 "2007-09-08T15:49:59Z")
[QUOTE=twickster]
_Mean Streets._
[/QUOTE]
:smack:
That should be _Goodfellas_. I still haven’t seen _Mean Streets_.
---
### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/4 "2007-09-08T18:32:45Z")
I always figured _Casablanca_ was just a stupid old love story.
I had to watch it in a film class in college, and I thought it was great!
---
### Author:  [@nevermore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevermore)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/5 "2007-09-08T19:40:27Z")
I don’t know if it’s considered “great”, but I certainly never planned on seeing The Notebook (there’s people kissing in the rain on the cover, ew). Same goes for the most recent Pride and Prejudice, but I actually liked both rather a lot.
---
### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/6 "2007-09-08T20:30:13Z")
‘‘The Graduate’’
I figured it was a boring old 1960s era film that earned its reputation on the sheer shock-value of its plot.
No. It rocked my face off.
---
### Author:  [@DellieM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DellieM)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2007, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/7 "2007-09-09T03:08:49Z")
Definitely Fight Club. My boyfriend wanted me to watch it after asking me what I thought it was about, when I replied ‘underground fighting’ you couldn’t have taken the smile off his face with a wire brush. A total jawdropper.
---
### Author:  [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2007, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/8 "2007-09-09T03:24:30Z")
Definitely Before Sunrise. I hadn’t even really heard of it until its sequel (Before Sunset) came out, which I have yet to watch. On a lark, I decided to buy the DVD (for 75 cents wee). Maybe the best on-screen romance I’ve ever seen.
---
### Author:  [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2007, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/9 "2007-09-09T03:49:46Z")
[QUOTE=DellieM]
Definitely Fight Club. My boyfriend wanted me to watch it after asking me what I thought it was about, when I replied ‘underground fighting’ you couldn’t have taken the smile off his face with a wire brush. A total jawdropper.
[/QUOTE]
Another vote for _Fight Club_.
Also _True Romance_. when my then-girlfriend rented it, the only reason I thought it might not be a complete waste was Christian Slater holding a pistol on the cover, so It might be a forgetable action movie with some unintended laughs.
---
### Author:  [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2007, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/10 "2007-09-09T03:51:14Z")
Yeah, _Fight Club_. One of my favorite films, but horribly mismarketed.
---
### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2007, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/11 "2007-09-09T14:31:20Z")
_The Usual Suspects_.
Me and a friend of mine were trying to woo these two chicks in college, and we’d convinced them to come over, and then we decided to go to the movies, and that was the one movie that was starting relatively soon.
I wouldn’t have seen it until years afterward if that hadn’t happened.
---
### Author:  [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/12 "2007-09-09T22:28:51Z")
[QUOTE=Windwalker]
Definitely Before Sunrise. I hadn’t even really heard of it until its sequel (Before Sunset) came out, which I have yet to watch. On a lark, I decided to buy the DVD (for 75 cents wee). Maybe the best on-screen romance I’ve ever seen.
[/QUOTE]
A second vote for this. Please watch “Before Sunset”. It is equally compelling.
---
### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/13 "2007-09-09T22:56:39Z")
_Becket_. The movie was shown in my 10th grade history class. I’ve been a fan ever since.
---
### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/14 "2007-09-10T02:15:08Z")
I thought it was too soon for such a movie, and that it would be hokey, but last night I watched _World Trade Center_ on TV. IMNSHO it was actually very good.
---
### Author:  [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/15 "2007-09-10T02:22:44Z")
[QUOTE=solkoe]
A second vote for this. Please watch “Before Sunset”. It is equally compelling.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve only seen _Before Sunset_. Is seeing its “prequel” still worth it?
---
### Author:  [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/16 "2007-09-10T02:53:38Z")
Don’t know if it’s considered great by anyone other than me, but Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of _Henry V_ made me love Shakespeare. And to think I only rented the video because I had to write something about it for my English Literature class.
Nowadays, whenever I hear someone say he/she find Shakespeare boring, I would tell them to go and _watch_ his plays, not read them. The man didn’t write novels.
---
### Author:  [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/17 "2007-09-10T06:59:06Z")
I couldn’t get into one of the Star Wars movies (can’t remember and don’t care which one), so we saw Office Space instead. Great film? Well, one of my favorites. I even have an Initech coffee mug.
---
### Author:  [@cedman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cedman)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/18 "2007-09-10T12:51:39Z")
[QUOTE=Pine Fresh Scent]
I couldn’t get into one of the Star Wars movies (can’t remember and don’t care which one), so we saw Office Space instead. Great film? Well, one of my favorites. I even have an Initech coffee mug.
[/QUOTE]
My wife and I went to see “Double Jeopardy” (we’d seen the trailers) but it was sold out. We decided to see “The Sixth Sense” which we knew nothing about. A lot of people have knocked this movie but we found it a great story and we were entertained. Isn’t that why you go to movies anyway?
---
### Author:  [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/19 "2007-09-10T13:08:48Z")
[QUOTE=Speaker for the Dead]
I’ve only seen _Before Sunset_. Is seeing its “prequel” still worth it?
[/QUOTE]
Ai ya! I can’t imagine watching Before Sunset first. I just saw it, and it seems more like a (exceptionally well done) coda to Before Sunrise than a complete movie. I’m glad I waited and didn’t watch them in quick succession; just feels more right that way. Yes, forget you saw the sequel, watch Before Sunrise, wait a week or so, then watch Before Sunset again. 🙂
By the way (and I feel like a dork for admitting this), did anyone else get chills when Celine was playing that song on her guitar?
---
### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467/20 "2007-09-10T13:13:04Z")
[QUOTE=DellieM]
Definitely Fight Club. My boyfriend wanted me to watch it after asking me what I thought it was about, when I replied ‘underground fighting’ you couldn’t have taken the smile off his face with a wire brush. A total jawdropper.
[/QUOTE]
See, I’ve never seen _Fight Club_, pretty much for this reason. What the hell is it about then?
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-you-never-intended-to-see/418467.md?page=2)