BIG second-that. When Reba McEntire comes off as the best character in the show (and she had A LOT of competition, there), you know something’s working well.
Josie and the Pussycats. Considering the source material it had no reason to be very good. But it’s a surprisingly intelligent (and funny) movie.
This is a good one. Agreed!
I love this movie. So many good quotes. And, surprisingly, it scares me on repeat viewings.
*Doesn’t he have a home to go to?
Can you fly, sucker?*
Bicentennial man - I expected a mediocre film but was really surprised about how the plot played out. I guess the fact that I was heavily into reading Kurzweil at the time helped make the plot concepts more powerful to me.
Scenic Route - Figured this was some B movie crap on netflix, was really impressed by it.
Also this isn’t a movie, but I decided to watch some Doug Stanhope comedy on netflix since I didn’t know much about him (except vague memories of the man show). Expected another forgettable comedian stand up routine, but didn’t get that. Awesome, he is like a better version of Bill Hicks or George Carlin IMO.
A few kids movies have already been mentioned as adult treats. I’d recommend Sky High - lots of fun satirising super hero concepts. And Kurt Russell in his best Disney movie role since The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes [not recommended].
There’s two that come to mind for me…
Head (1968). This was the movie The Monkees made just before they started disintegrating. It’s become one of my guilty pleasures. A much better movie than The Magical Mystery Tour, the Monkees ended up excelling over the Beatles. It’s quirky and funny, and does a better job of being a psychedelic movie than the Fab Four was able to produce.
Gojira (aka Godzilla) (1954) - Forget all the goofball sequels. The original movie isn’t bad at all. Most of Godzilla’s attacks occur at night, and are mindlessly violent. It hides the flaws of the rubber suit, and presents a monster that appears genuinely dangerous.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is rated well, but when I saw it I heard mostly meh reviews and it didn’t get a lot of hype. It starts off slow, but there’s some balls to the wall crazy awesome visuals in there. It’s fun to watch a cartoon where they unleash the story boarders and let them do whatever.
Tremors is great. But the premise is played completely straight, I’d say. It’s just the two leads bicker like an old married couple and the location is like another character. It’d work without the graboids.
Scary Movie 7 (or whatever the newest one is): My girlfriend and I rented it cuz we were bored and it was all Redbox had that we could agree on. it was one of the stupidest movies I have ever seen…and that is a grand compliment.
It was Airplane (my favorite movie ever) style of comedy. Just stupid stupid background stuff happening and plays on words, and not so much ultra-contemporary parodys that are old in a month
I had free passes to go see this movie. Low-budget, Bill Paxton-starring and directed. Matthew McConaughey also stars. I wasn’t expecting much. Looked like a cheesy horror film, of the “direct-to-video” variety. After all, God tells a guy to kill other people. I mean, come on…movie-of-the-week territory.
What I got was a fairly terrifying, suspenseful flick. Extremely well-made, well-acted. Finely crafted, and extremely plausible.
Certainly a film that I still recommend to this day.
A Knight’s Tale is one of my absolute favourite movies.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Mrs. Brown, though I don’t remember many specifics about it. I was about 12 when I saw it, and really only watched because my mother wanted to see it and I had nothing better to do. I think it was this movie that made me realize what a great actor Judi Dench is.
A Haunted House with Marlon Wayans. It’s a comedic take on Paranormal Activity, and it’s been roundly criticized as a very bad movie. My girlfriend begged me to watch it with her on Netflix, and I grudgingly agreed. It started off badly and was stupid. And it remained utterly stupid throughout the entire movie, but I found myself laughing more and more. I thought it was pretty damn funny, actually.
Well, I guess we don’t get to make fun of Burt’s lifestyle anymore.
I thought The Hidden would just be a dumb B-movie about alien abduction, but it was darkly comic and a lot of fun, with an emotionally-satisfying ending.
I thought Enchanted would be just another cookie-cutter Disney princess movie, but it was witty and had great songs, and I even developed a little crush on Amy Adams.
Just thought of another one: the remake of 21 Jump Street. I was amazed at how funny it was.
Sounds like The Wicker Man remake. It was so hilariously unintentionally bad that a couple of times I almost fainted from laughing so much and running out of breath.
I Spy with Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson is really funny. If Eddie would stick to material like this and Bowfinger, he’d be way poorer, but he’d also have a career to be proud of.
Second Tremors, Big Trouble in Little China, 21 Jump Street, Babe and Galaxy Quest
I fell deeply and irrevocably in love with cute young Kevin Bacon. He never looked so adorable (maybe in Footloose).
I don’t know why Galaxy Quest is considered ‘low expectation’. I took my little girl to see this when it came out, and we came home and told him “I do believe lightning has struck. I do believe today, we saw a movie I would give a “TEN”.” True!
Red Tails – for some reason probably involving copyright violation, it’s available in full on Youtube.
I was able to watch it all the way through, and that alone exceeded my expectations.
I was rather a fan of Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper in Boiling Point. A much more character driven cop story than the ads led us to believe.
Patrick Stewart in Safe House was also quite good.