This summer, I have been trying to watch a lot of movies, many of which I know are famous and I had missed. Some have surprised me by how great they are, while others have surprised me how great they…weren’t. What have you seen recently that surprised you in a good or bad way?
Note: Just because it is under bad, it doesn’t mean it was a bad movie. I just mean it surprised me in not being better or surprised me in a bad way.
Good:
Mad Max 2 - Wow, I was missing out not seeing this movie. The final 25 minute chase action sequence is one of the best I’ve ever seen and if I did not know this was from 1981, I would have insisted it was CGI enhanced. Amazing.
Mad Max 3 - I’d heard a lot of negativity about this one. It was actually really good. Not as good as the second one, but I liked it quite a bit. This surprised me. I guess I was OK with the whole “kids” section of the movie. I do admit the opening 45 minutes in Bartertown was the highlight, though.
Zero Theorem - Best Terry Gilliam movie since 12 Monkeys and I think his most personal movie. At least of the ones I have seen. Deep, funny, and odd. I was kind of expecting it to be a disappointment. It wasn’t.
Bad:
Brazil - I know, I had not seen Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece. This movie was only OK for me. I get what makes it neat, but not what makes it a great movie. It was pretty good, but a let down. I was ready to love it.
Blue Velvet - Dennis Hopper was awesome in this movie and it is a highly memorable movie. However, I found it to be overly long and the opening 30 minutes or so is too long to get to the meat of the movie. He could have found the ear and ended up in the closet more quickly and it would have packed more punch. Having said all this, I liked it. I expected better, but I did like it.
Mad Max - I had no idea it took until the final 30 minutes for him to become Mad Max. I knew nothing of the plot, but I have seen stills of him with a leather jacket looking angry. The first hour was mainly filler. It was still OK, just not great.
Oldboy - USA version. I’d heard bad rumors, but wow, this was a total waste and was a terrible movie. I’ve seen the Korean version(which is awesome, by the way), so I knew it wouldn’t be as good as that, but this was flat out terrible. Never see it. It was a good example of how the same material by two different production teams can produce two results. Josh Brolin is innocent, though. He was fine…the movie just was badly made.
How about you, folks?