# Movies You are Surprised You Enjoyed **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2008, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446 "2008-09-27T05:10:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Walking\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90ced4/32.png) [@The\_Walking\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Walking_Dude)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/1 "2008-09-27T05:10:03Z")
I thought of this last night while I was watching, of all things, [Speed Racer](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811080/). I enjoyed the cartoon as a child, but really didn’t think the movie would be worth watching. There was no particular reason behind that, I for some reason had the idea that it would probably be pretty bad. Many of you may disagree, but I was very happy to find that I was completely wrong. I enjoyed the visuals, found it very funny, liked the story, and thought that most of the actors/actresses did great jobs. Especially Christiana Ricci, but that is neither here nor there. 😃 So, here’s the question: what movies have surprised you with how good they were? The worse you thought they were going to be the better. I just realized that a very similar thread was done about a month and a half ago, so feel free to ignore this one if you want to. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/2 "2008-09-27T05:24:51Z")
I think my answer is still the same: _Zoolander_. Cheesy, corny, and incredibly stupid, but really, really fun. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/3 "2008-09-27T05:28:02Z")
_The Wedding Singer_ and _American Pie_. I was fully prepared to hate both - [del] stupid [/del] adolescent comedy not being my thing at all. I like dry dry dry humor with a side of sarcasm. But \*The Wedding Singer \*was actually really sweet, and _American Pie_ was, although broad as can be, actually hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/4 "2008-09-27T05:37:05Z")
A Knight’s Tale. My lord, I saw the ads for that and thought it looked like the worst piece of shite I ever heard of. Particulery the modern music in the middle ages. But I happen upon it on cable and it was a lot of fun. And it occured to me at jousts they probably did sing the eqivlent of We Will Rock You. Hell they didn’t go to some event where people knocked each other off of big snorting animals with great big sticks to sing madricals. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/5 "2008-09-27T08:38:32Z")
> [@The\_Walking\_Dude](#): > > I thought of this last night while I was watching, of all things, [Speed Racer](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811080/). I enjoyed the cartoon as a child, but really didn’t think the movie would be worth watching. There was no particular reason behind that, I for some reason had the idea that it would probably be pretty bad. Many of you may disagree, but I was very happy to find that I was completely wrong. I enjoyed the visuals, found it very funny, liked the story, and thought that most of the actors/actresses did great jobs. Especially Christiana Ricci, but that is neither here nor there. 😃 > > So, here’s the question: what movies have surprised you with how good they were? The worse you thought they were going to be the better. > > I just realized that a very similar thread was done about a month and a half ago, so feel free to ignore this one if you want to. :smack: I opened this thread to say… SPEED RACER. Mom & I were visiting my brother in L.A. and he wanted to see it. Now, we went to see Indiana Jones 4 that same day and Prince Caspian a few days later. IJ4 was OK, PC was fine, but SR just ROCKED! And I only went to see it because Mom & my brother did (him being the one who really wanted to see it.) ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/6 "2008-09-27T09:02:48Z")
I’ll second _A Knight’s Tale_ for going at it wholeheartedly and somehow making anachronisms refreshing. _Moulin Rouge_ had a similar sort of take, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I still don’t think it’s a wonderful film, but as I don’t much care for musicals and expected it to be way too overwrought and dumb, it did exceed my expectations. I shouldn’t have been too surprised, though; I actually liked _Romeo + Juliet_ from the start. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/7 "2008-09-27T09:52:56Z")
Not Another Teen Movie. It’s titled like one of the “… Movie” movies, I haven’t watched a teen movie since the John Hughes stuff, and puerile humor usually annoys the hell out of me. But, it turns out that it’s heaps better than a “… Movie” movie, there are plenty of John Hughes references and parodies, the characters are hilarious as the skewering of archetypes (as opposed to skewering specific characters), and there’s plenty of humor even if the more puerile stuff is ignored. It’s become one of the movies that my friends and I quote, much to the annoyance of those around us. ---
**Author:** ![SpecialAgentJem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@SpecialAgentJem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpecialAgentJem)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/8 "2008-09-27T10:46:20Z")
Nanny McPhee - I usually hate this kind of set up but I loved this so much Ive been known to watch it more than once in one night! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Walking\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90ced4/32.png) [@The\_Walking\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Walking_Dude)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/9 "2008-09-27T12:00:46Z")
Some good ones here. The only one I haven’t seen is Nanny McPhee, all of the other ones are good movies. Especially A Knight’s Tale, it ranks as one of my favorite movies of all time. Not Another Teen Movie is another one that truly surprised me, I thought it was much butter than the rest of its more recent brethren. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/10 "2008-09-27T12:22:56Z")
“American Beauty” A radio was giving away free tickets, so we went just because we didn’t have anything better to do. I was pleasantly surprised. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2008, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/11 "2008-09-27T12:36:44Z")
_Empire Records_ It’s one of my g.f.'s favorites and she shared it with me about a week ago. It’s filled with teen angst, slacker anti-angst, and, oy, Renée Zellweger. This is not normally a recipe for me to enjoy a movie. But it was a hoot, and I’m very glad we watched it. I identified more with Anthony LaPaglia than any of the kids, natch, but that’s okay, too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MidnightRadio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@MidnightRadio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MidnightRadio)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/12 "2008-09-27T12:41:14Z")
_Wild Things_. It was as trashy as you’d expect, but the plot twists made it fun. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/13 "2008-09-27T14:29:46Z")
_Clay Pigeons_ – I don’t like Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn, or Janene Garofalo (sp?) but this is a surprisingly fine little serial killer movie. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/14 "2008-09-27T14:39:11Z")
Zoolander, A Knight’s Tale, Clerks 2 Dogma and mall rats. I have decided I like Kevin Smith movies and need to watch them =) ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/15 "2008-09-27T14:57:44Z")
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ---
**Author:** ![davidw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@davidw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidw)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/16 "2008-09-27T15:25:50Z")
**Heartbreakers** , with Sigorney Weaver and Jennifer Love-Hewitt. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/17 "2008-09-27T17:55:30Z")
**Under the Tuscan Sun:** As a rule, I loathe chick flicks, but this came on cable and I was hooked immediately. There’s just something sweet and awesome about how Diane Lane’s character found another life in another country and developed into another person. It’s the only chick flick I have in my DVD collection. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/18 "2008-09-27T18:32:12Z")
_Tremors_. It’s the exact sort of movie that I hate, and watch only under duress. But it somehow managed to be really funny, mostly by not taking itself too seriously. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/19 "2008-09-27T19:45:43Z")
I took our younger son to see _Nanny McPhee_, not expecting to like it, but figuring it’s part of paying your mommy dues. I went with fella bilong missus flodnak to see _La vie en rose_, because he’s a big Edith Piaf fan, not expecting to like it, but just wanting to keep him company. I figured I might even be able to catch a short nap. To my surprise, I liked both films. Not loved them, but liked them enough that I was glad I went. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446/20 "2008-09-27T19:50:33Z")
I second The Wedding Singer… I HATE Adam Sandler movies. But, despite everything, TWS isn’t an Adam Sandler movie…it’s a movie that happens to star Adam Sandler, and it’s not bad at all. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-are-surprised-you-enjoyed/465446.md?page=2)