# Movies you thought you would hate but ended up loving? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 4, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891 "2010-04-04T04:43:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/81 "2010-04-06T13:27:48Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > It ages very well, I think. What the hell, [lets link something.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YrinCQOxB0) I think you may have found the source of Jacksons unfortunate obession with his nose 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/82 "2010-04-06T13:49:18Z")
> [@](#): > > I love this movie so much. I was amazed to learn that most critics panned it, and most people consider it really bad. I was like, huh? The critics panned it because they changed it phenomenally from the original stage play, where Dorothy was, as you’d expect, a little black girl. The movie execs figured white audiences wouldn’t pay to see an unknown black kid as a leading character, so they jinked things around to a ludicrous degree, making an _adult_ Diana Ross the lead character. I guess they figured people would have heard of her – but it’s like casting an adult Barbra Streisand as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. They also stuck famous names in the other roles. I _hate_ when Hollywood does this. They royally screwed up **Man of la Mancha** by putting Big Names Peter O’Toole and Sophia Loren – two stars not noted for their singing ability – as the leads, when Richard Kiley and Joan Diener were still around. At least when they made **1776** they actually used most of the GBroadway cast. For which I love them. In any event, I don’t recall The Wiz getting a lot of TV time anywhere I was. I finally saw it on videotape. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/83 "2010-04-06T14:17:23Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > 1977, I’m 7 years old. My mother and aunt wanted to take me and my cousin to a movie. I wanted to see the new Benji movie but instead they insisted that we go to some dumb war movie. I was VERY pissed. I didn’t want to see a stupid war movie, I wanted to see Benji! > > Of course, it was Star Wars, and it pretty much framed my existence for the next, oh, 30 years or so. That was me in the summer of 81’. I was 11 years old enjoying my summer when dad comes home from work and over dinner tells the family he’s taking us to the movies. When asked which one he proceeds to tell us it’s about archaeologists looking for the arc of the covenant. :rolleyes: Seriously dad? I want to waste a summer night watching a full length documentary about some guys looking for religious artifacts? (groan) But he insisted. The rest is history. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/84 "2010-04-06T14:29:12Z")
I am not a fan of Will Ferrel, but I did watch _Land of the Lost_ and found myself laughing quite a bit. It wasn’t t he movie I wanted and my expectations were very low, but it did manage to entertain me unlike most of his other movies I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/85 "2010-04-06T14:49:37Z")
Regarding The Wiz, I didn’t see it until at least a decade after it came out (and on TV, of course). But I _do_ remember the big spread it had in Life Magazine about how amazing the special effects were supposed to be. Eh, when I saw it though, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/86 "2010-04-06T15:25:53Z")
“Rocky”. Back in the 70’s, my girlfriends insisted we go see a boxing movie, for crying out loud!:eek: They insisted, they said it was THE big movie to see, and dragged me there. Well, the movie theater on a Tuesday evening was just packed to the rafters, and when it was all over, there was a massive outpouring of applause and whistles from that audience (which I don’t think I’ve seen since for any other movie). I was breathless with that rare gobsmacking you get after seeing that rare movie that thrills… Similarly, my elderly mom was dragged by her elderly friend to see “The Fellowship of the Ring” for the same reasons - it was THE big movie to see, etc. Unfortunately, Mom did not appreciate it and turned down any offer to see the followups, LOL! When my daughter was little we took her to see kids’ movies, and while I didn’t expect to exactly hate them, I didn’t expect to end up loving them to this very day. There were some klinkers like “Matilda” and “Harriet the Spy”. But while I was prepared to sit through “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Babe”, and “The Incredible Journey” in a theater of yelling kids and at least know these movies would hold my interest - I ended up loving them so much we went back to see them again, and also bought them on videotape when they came out. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/87 "2010-04-06T15:39:25Z")
I, too, thought I’d hate **The Hangover**. Loved it. Also thought **P.S. I Love You** would be a typical schmaltzy, sappy girl movie- those are so weak. Again, pleasantly surprised by loving it. ---
**Author:** ![Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/88 "2010-04-06T17:35:23Z")
_Nights in Rodanthe_ The previews made it look like a typical rom-com so I avoided it for a long time. Then one night when there was nothing else on TV I decided to check it out. Was pleasantly surprised, it was actually good and quite sad at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/89 "2010-04-11T03:57:17Z")
I agreed to watch **Gone With the Wind** only because it was one of the “greatest movies of all time”. I figured I’d do my duty so that I could say that I’d seen it. I was completely blown away. It was so much more than I ever expected. A bunch of friends dragged me to see **Big Trouble in Little China**. I was in no mood to see “some stupid kung fu movie”, but I had nothing better to do… I really was expecting to despise the (fairly) recent **Underdog** movie. I don’t think I’d say I loved it, but it kept me smiling all the way through… ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/90 "2010-04-11T07:55:42Z")
I’m not going to say I loved Wanted, but it was a lot better than the commercials looked. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/91 "2010-04-12T23:56:58Z")
I just thought of one. **Alien**. I don’t like horror movies. I was new to science fiction (and by ‘‘new’’ I mean the sum total of my sci-fi experience was _Star Trek: TNG_.) My husband begged me to watch it with him. I’d seen the ‘‘[In 30 Seconds and Re-enacted by Bunnies](http://www.angryalien.com/0704/alienbunnies.html)’’ version–looked like a _gory_ horror movie to me. Two strikes. Grudgingly, after weeks of putting it off, I watched it. This is a truly a beautiful film. I hate 99% of all horror movies but every once in a while someone gets it right. **Alien** got it right. Also, I was surprised that I really liked **The Omen** (1976.) Another film that was artistically scary without being gratuitous. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/92 "2010-04-13T01:24:30Z")
American Splendor. I love Paul Giamatti, love indie films, and in general kinda like biopics and “based in reality” kind of stuff. But I didn’t like it. Slow, boring, interminable. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/93 "2010-04-13T13:06:51Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > 1977, I’m 7 years old. My mother and aunt wanted to take me and my cousin to a movie. I wanted to see the new Benji movie but instead they insisted that we go to some dumb war movie. I was VERY pissed. I didn’t want to see a stupid war movie, I wanted to see Benji! > > Of course, it was Star Wars, and it pretty much framed my existence for the next, oh, 30 years or so. I experienced something very similar, except that I was 8 years old. It was the summer of 1977 and we were staying at my grandparent’s house. The whole family was going to see some dumb movie about movie stars or something. My mom insisted that I would love it, saying it was actually about space and stuff, like “Space: 1999.” Of course, the movie was _Star Wars_, and she was right–I did love it. In fact, it pretty much blew me away. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/94 "2010-04-13T13:28:55Z")
> [@SoulFrost](#): > > Back in the early 90s, my then-girlfriend wanted me to watch something called **The Princess Bride** with her. > [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Yes! I saw it in college with male, geeky friends who were saying how great this movie was. I rooooolled my eyes so hard I thought they’d pop out; I am really not a girly-girl and couldn’t see how this would be interesting. And not too long into that viewing I was completely converted. **I even got the book and love it too.** I hope you got the full Morgenstern version and not the abridgement by that hack Goldman. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/95 "2010-04-13T15:07:41Z")
I haven’t really been surprised by a kid’s movie since Toy Story (I liked the later Pixar films but they weren’t surprises at that point). Then I picked up “The Iron Giant” for my kid. The animation still on the box didn’t impress me, it had voice work by Jennifer Aniston & Vin Diesel and was a cartoon about a kid with a giant robot pal? Thank heavens _I_ didn’t have to watch it. Except I did. And it was great. I haven’t watched it with anyone who didn’t find a little dust in their eye at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/96 "2010-04-13T15:47:55Z")
Iron Giant got a real raw deal by the industry. I wish it had been better advertised. I can take heart in the fact that Pixar snapped up Brad Bird and have been using him to good success. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/97 "2010-04-25T02:12:01Z")
> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > Not quite…cats with a liberal dose of parrot. The upchuck at the beginning is this _highest_ form of thanks for a parrot. (And perhaps a little bat in there, too) Just got back from How to Train Your Dragon. Pretty okay I guess. I agree Toothless was basically a cross between Stitch (of Lilo and) and a cat, with a stealth paint job and bat wings. Something they tossed out there then didn’t explain: The rare Night Fury dragons never steal food like the other dragons. Why not I wonder? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891/98 "2010-04-25T03:11:53Z")
> [@Maiira](#): > > Also, though I haven’t seen **How to Train Your Dragon** , and thought it looked dumb from the previews, this could potentially become one such movie. Because holy crap, [98% on Rotten Tomatoes??](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1194522-how_to_train_your_dragon/) Granted, some of it is “it look purdy,” but…hey, maybe I’ll change my mind. I’ll be damned if I understand how it’s getting such great reviews. It is essentially a pastiche of computer animation movie cliches, the main character is horrible voice-acted, and quite a lot of the characterization and theme is just lifted clean from “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.” My answer to the OP: Moulin Rouge!. My wife dragged me to see it. she expected to love it, I expected to hate it. I really enjoyed it and she hated it. I think she was expecting a standard musical, which it definitely was not; while I thought it had a lot of weaknesses I thought it was a daring, refreshing work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-thought-you-would-hate-but-ended-up-loving/534891.md?page=4)