It was very poorly advertised. The promos didn’t portray the film accurately.
The Red Sox got rained out, they aired “The Missiles of October”, with Bill Devane as JFK, good flick.
Of course once you start watching it, that’s a plus. But it didn’t look like a film with thinking characters. They could have made that more obvious.
As I said earlier (and in other threads in the past), I’ve wondered if that was on purpose. But OTOH, I assume they really hurt their numbers that way, at least the first few weeks worth of ticket sales. I mean, to this day, I’ll still hear people say they’re not interested in seeing a movie about people beating each other up.
My wife saw Fight Club before I did. Of course, she knew the actors and the director and knew that, at worst, if it were a failure, it would be an interesting one.
A few years ago we went through a string of “surprisingly good” movies. The only one I recall is Get Smart.
Alien surprised me. I thought it was gonna be just another ‘monster eats people’s faces’ horror flick based on the ads and years later I saw it on cable and it was a topnotch science fiction flick.
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil – I thought it would be a Jim Carrey level hillbilly horror flick, instead it was a fairly entertaining film about class and cultural expectations DISGUISED as a hillbilly horror flick.
People forget, Stallone won the Oscar for writing the first one.
My only problem was his vanity. Retired boxers do not have people carefully shaping their eyebrows.
The two that immediately came to mind were Kick Ass and The Boondock Saints.
Tremors. I’ve heard claims that it was envisioned to be a straight-up monster movie before the cast realized it could not be taken seriously, and went for comedy. The end result is a very self-aware, funny film, with a twist of genuine tension as the characters try to survive an unusual kind of threat.
After I made that post I read the wiki article on Fight Club. It seems even the Executive Producer said the marketing for the movie was a failure. Of course, he wasn’t on board with it from the beginning, but my guess was right in that it didn’t do well at the box office.
I had such low expectations for Armageddon that when I found out it was merely mediocre, I enjoyed it more than I would have expected.
It may seem odd now, but I went to see the first of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies only because a friend of mine hectored me into coming with him. I’d never read the book and had low a low opinion of sword & sorcery movies; if he hadn’t insisted, and if the theatre hadn’t been within walking distance of my apartment, I’d never have bothered. I was gobsmacked by how wonderful it was, and it got better with re-watching.
The above should not be misinterpreted to mean that I don’t hate Return of the King. I’d say that THAT one gets worse with every viewing, except that I refuse to watch it any more. Even the four good scenes.
I’m not a big fan of over the top macho crap in most guy action movies, but I also enjoyed the Riddick movies. I just imagine a hot guy as Riddick.
I rewatch The Chronicles of Riddick once in awhile for the Necromonger scenes & the escape from Crematoria.
I thought Limitless with Bradley Cooper would be a cheesy little technothriller. Now it’s one of my favorite movies - smart, unpredictable, stylish, scary and fun.
Galaxy Quest.
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.
Met two of my criteria for bad movies: pretentious title, and ham-fistedly contrived character name to create cutesy rhyme. Only watched it because my kids wanted to see it.
I thought In Time was much better than I expected it to be.
Daybreakers is a vampire movie from a several years ago, set in a world in which most people are vampires. I thought it was pretty good.
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls. I thought it would be nothing more than a cheesy high-school-musical-knockoff cash grab; in fact, it turned out to be a rousing critique of high school social structure, with an incredibly funny premise (when you really think about it, it’s basically “I have to win this popularity contest to get back the nuclear football” - watch it with that in mind and it becomes hilarious) and some of the catchiest musical numbers I’ve ever seen. It’s been months and I still can’t get “Helping Twilight Win The Crown” out of my head. So much fun.
Frozen. I thought it was disney princess pablum aimed at little kids; it turned out to be the best animated movie I’ve seen since Up with amazing visuals, a song which allowed the academy to engrave one of their trophies months in advance, an amazing story, and… need I say more? You’ve all seen it (OR SHOULD BE SEEING IT VERY SOON). Okay, let’s be honest, I don’t know why I thought it would be aimed at little kids - none of the Disney movies from my childhood pulled any punches. Even Bambi was pretty brutal.