While it was not exactly Oscar caliber, Dumb and Dumberer was not quite the open, pus-oozing, running sore on the bloated carcass of Hollywood that I thought it would be.
I went in to see the first Matrix movie the first weekend it opened, having seen the commercials (running up a wall? that agent goofily dodging bullets on the roof? KEANU REEVES??), but determined to see it because it’s science fiction/action, and, well, that’s my kind of movie, so…
I remember thinking, suddenly, after the first rooftop chase with Trinity, “hey, wait a second, this movie doesn’t suck, it’s AWESOME!!!”
I love that feeling.
Of course, in the interest of Universal Balance, Matrix Reloaded had the opposite effect.
Kill Bill was actually a blast. I walked in expecting NOTHING from Quentin there.
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
I went to see Three Kings because a girl I knew was in luuuuv with Marky Mark and I didn’t have anything better to do. Wow, what a great movie!
I completely expected the movie version of John Irving’s The Cider House Rules to suck. The book was, in typical Irving fashion, convoluted and jumpy, and much of the “action” was internal. Someone I know saw the movie beore I did and mentioned to me that the character Melony was not in it, which I thought would be very weird given that she was so pivotal to the story.
I was pleased to see that while the story was considerably changed, characters were consolidated and huge chunks of the backstory were completely missing, the movie stood on its own as a good story and a faithful adaptation of the moral dilemma facing Homer, the main character.
What an atypical experience to sit in a theater and watch two of my favorite places show up on the screen WITHOUT being sanitized or bigbudgetspecialeffectized.
I was hoping for a good Hogwarts or The Shire, but never BOTH.
They both exceeded my mental image of them.
Yee. Hah.
Shallow Hal - Farrelly Brothers. I thought it was going to be, as Rolling Stone lied, a 90 minute fat joke. Not.
Despite the reviews, I loved Ghost Ship.
Pirates of the Caribbean surpassed all of my expectations as well. I was expecting nothing (or at least nothing good), and it turned out to be one of my favorite movies of the year (alongside Kill Bill and X-Men 2).
I originally didn’t expect much from The Shield (“Not ANOTHER cop show!”), Six Feet Under (“A family who runs a funeral home? How depressing!”), or 24 (“How good can an action serial on network TV be?”), but all three of those shows wowed me with their greatness, and now I’m a huge fan of all of them.
Martin Lawrence’s Blue Streak.
Pauly Shore’s In the Army Now.
The Buffy spinoff show, Angel. I watched it from the beginning and loved it, but figured it would falter and get cancelled after one season. It’s currently in its fifth season and doing beautifully. I don’t know if I’d say it’s better than Buffy, but I’ll be buying all five seasons on DVD, which is more than I can say for any Buffy after season three.
Galaxy Quest. To this day, the only thing involving Tim Allen that I actually enjoy.
I agree that Pirates of the Carribean must set some kind of record for the difference between expected quality and actual quality (at least in a positive direction; certainly any number of films have failed miserably to meet high expectations).
I’d have to say Spice World.
Yes, I actually laughed out loud in more than one place.
Wayne’s World
Amen, brother! When “Home Improvement” comes on (which is far, FAR too often) I can’t change the channel fast enough. But I loved this movie.
My pick is “The Fifth Element,” which my first girlfriend way back in college wanted to see. I figured I’d be nice and aquiese; I ended up liking it way more than any movie I had ever picked out.
Rocky 3. I saw this in a theater when it came out, with a friend who was into it. I wasn’t, at the time I was into nothing but sci-fi and fantasy and such. So my expectations were exactly zero, but I had a blast watching this film.
“Take it on down to Omeletteville!” I thought it was damn funny, too.
**Proof of Life **
I thought it would suck beyond measure then I realized as I watched it it had been mistagged as a chick flick/romance and it was a guy flick with every guy wanting to be Russell Crowe’s cool and cucumber character Terry Thorne.
Ghost Ship was very enjoyable.
PotC, of course. Johnny Depp deserves an Oscar for his performance.
Terminator 3. I actually expected it to be mediocre, but my husband wanted to see it so I added it to our Netflix queue. After watching it, I was hoping for a 4th movie.
Like BrandyFine said, Shallow Hal. It was a wonderfully sweet movie, and I’m very glad I watched it.