I think you may have found the source of Jacksons unfortunate obession with his nose 
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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…
I’m not going to say I loved Wanted, but it was a lot better than the commercials looked.
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’’ 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.
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.
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.
I hope you got the full Morgenstern version and not the abridgement by that hack Goldman.
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.
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.
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?
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.