The Last of the Mohicans and Death Becomes Her both fit the bill. My best friend dragged me to both of them back in college; we went to the movies each weekend, and alternated who got to choose. She was very annoyed both times that I loved a movie she wanted to see and ended up hating.
Years ago, the ex and I shuffled into the Metreon in San Francisco as was our weekly wont, but there wasn’t anything really good playing that week. I suggested Galaxy Quest, just for the heck of it. I was fairly certain it was going to be horrible, but it was my week to pick and I figured 90 minutes of it wasn’t going to kill us. She had more misgivings than I and I had to talk her into it.
So we walk into the theater and there is no one in there. Not a soul. We took this as proof of it’s worth and walked out before the movie even started – we theater hopped and went to see something else instead.
So I held on to that bias for years until I caught it on HBO one day. Loved it.
Not that it’s the most brilliant movie ever made, but I love it, if for nothing else, Alan Rickman’s delivery of the line: “By Grabthar’s Hammer … … what a savings.”
Napoleon Dynamite and American Pie were a couple that I figured were just dumb teenage comedies full of crude sexual references. Well, okay, American Pie is, but I thoroughly enjoyed both and have seen them several times each.
I hated Dreamworks’ “Shark Tale” so much that I had zero hope for “Kung Fu Panda” but it’s now my favorite movie. I adore it. Likewise, I didn’t think I’d like “Semi Pro” but it was a very funny and charming film. I think there’s a knee-jerk reaction against Will Ferrell, but he’s done a lot of charming and funny films (Elf, Stranger than Fiction, Semi Pro, Blades of Glory, even Talladega Nights has a few laugh out loud moments).
I avoided watching “Father Goose” for years because 1) it’s a dopey title and 2) 40 years ago our PTA forced our junior high school c to rent it instead of “Psycho” and “The Birds” for a student movie day. But for what it is, it is pretty charming.
From the ads, I thought The Terminator would be a cheaply-made thriller with people in rubber masks running around LA, shooting each other up. What I got was savvy, informed, darkly witty science fiction. It blew me away.
The ads for Robocop made it look like a stupid, formulaic big-budget dumb SF film. But, again, it was witty and informed. who woulda thought there’d be two films within a couple of years of each other by people who actually knew and loved science fiction?
Under Siege is actually a pretty decent flick and probably the best Seagal has ever done. They were smart enough to put some real, good actors around him in Tommy Lee Jones, Colm Meany, and pre-complete freakout Gary Busey. Seagal’s squinting, growling, stilted line delivery worked and wasn’t a detriment to the movie, and he hadn’t regressed into the “two punches then I twist your neck” fighting style he fell back on in the movies that came after.
That’s because it’s a much better movie.
The title probably didn’t help either. I remember seeing an AMC special some years back about the movie. Apparently everyone who worked on the picture wanted to change the title because it sounded so cheesy, but for whatever reason couldn’t think of anything better.
Either way, I agree with you. A pretty kickass movie.
Substitute “western” for “war movie” in the above post, and that’s me. I’d seen a picture of Han Solo in his vest, and I thought it was a western for some reason.
It’s the look of utter disdain that Kelli Maroney gives while delivering the line. It’s perfect.
Here is a movie I thought would be OK, then I saw it and hated it, but then saw it later again and realized it is brilliant.
Shrek 2
Seriously, that movie is amazing and I didn’t realize it until I started using it for rewards for the kids at school. It’s an impressive movie.
Couple’s Retreat got a lot of bad reviews, it looks pretty lame in the trailers – as if they packaged all the alleged funny bits right there and gave it away for free, a lot of the jokes are tired, it’s not quite dirty enough for adults and not quite clean enough for kids, there’s a lot of depth to the characters that’s completely skipped, and it kind of looks like all the actors and director took a vacation at some awesome tropical island and half stepped their way through a movie to show for it.
Despite that, I actually really identified with Vince Vaughn in it. I wouldn’t say that I loved it, but it wasn’t a half bad movie with a handful of comedic moments that worked for me.
A girl made me take her to a local cinema to see a French movie, “The Dinner Game” and I ended up laughing my head off while she just sat there. She was from Croatia and couldn’t understand the English subtitles well enough to follow the jokes, while I was laughing ahead of the dialog.
I thought for sure I would hate The Hangover, the story didn’t appeal to me and who needs another lame Vegas comedy. I wasn’t boycotting it per se, but I didn’t go out of my way to see it.
My brother popped it in the DVD player when I was visiting and I literally laughed so hard I was crying! (during the scene with the condom, for some reason).
I will be watching it again soon to see what I missed while I was guffawing uncontrollably.
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)
I’ll agree with Speed Racer, but I understood it from the beginning, loved it all the way through, and was visibly choked up at the finishline at the end. Anyone that’s been in-the-zone in a car would feel the same. And it looks epileptic-ally AWESOME in Blu-Ray.
I’m a third for Night of the Comet “Who’s DMK?”
Die Hard. I went in after having a rotten month after a nasty breakup thinking it would be a stupid movie (Bruce Willis? An Action Hero™? The Dude from Moonlighting?)
The quiet man with John Wayne.
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?
Also, interestingly, I was shocked to learn as an adult, that a lot of white people never even heard of the film. It was a staple of my childhood.
I havent seen it in a long time. I wonder what I’d think of it today? And I miss remembered it. Jackson didnt play the main character, he played the scare crow (and did a pretty good job too IMO).
It ages very well, I think. What the hell, lets link something.
Saw RESIDENT EVIL on DVD and kinda hated it as I had no clue about the game itself. Read up about the franchise, watched it over and now I LOOOVE RE.