I loaned a movie to a friend tonight and it got me to thinking about this subject. I don’t watch a lot of television or movies, but occasionally I will get into the mood and will do so. I have this weird habit of not being interested in mainstream stuff. House? Never seen it – I know it’s a popular show about a doctor, but it holds no interest for me. Sex in the City? Nope, not into chick shows. The list goes on of popular/mainstream stuff that just doesn’t interest me.
Anyways, to get the point – I always seem to find some obscure movie that ends up being amazing. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz being two examples. (Yes, British dopers, you guys knew Simon Pegg was awesome, but when I got **SoD **from Netflix, no one I know had heard of this guy or the movie, ok?) From back in the old days – Repo Man, White of the Eye and Penn and Teller Get Killed stand out for me. Most recently, I ordered a movie from Netflix that just looked like it might be funny but I didn’t have high hopes. Boy, was I ever wrong. **Fido **is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in ages. Seriously, people, if you wanna giggle, watch it. I told my friend about it and how funny it was, he just rolled his eyes at me and said “oh, what the heck, I’m bored, let me borrow it.” He has texted me 3 times already about how funny it is.
So, help me with my sick fetish of not watching mainstream movies – what’s your most unexpectedly good movie? I’m not talking about “oh, I thought The Dark Knight was gonna suck, but it turned out ok” I’m talking about “so, we bought The Stuff because it was a quarter, but omigawd, we couldn’t stop laughing” totally (or at least when you saw it) unheard of movies. Oh, and yeh, **The Stuff **is a freakin’ hilarious movie, although I think it was supposed to be a horror movie.
I knew almost nothing about Cloverfield before seeing it, but some of my dumbass corworkers really liked it, which really put me off. Plus the few ads I had seen made it look low-budget and dumb. It’s turned out to be one my favorite movies of all time.
Also, Kung Fu Panda looked dumb, too. Plus I don’t like Jack Black. But the movie turned out to be hilarious, and is one of the better films I’ve seen this year (way better than Wall-e).
Something’s Gotta Give. I don’t know if this is what the OP is looking for, but I didn’t know anything about this movie, except for that it was a “chick flick”. I was sucked in, dropped what I was doing, and watched the whole thing on HBO. This is really astonishing for me because I have a very short attention span.
I hung out on the set of that movie for about a week in Atlanta. (Friends with Kelly McGillis). I had high hopes for it, I wasn’t thrilled with the end result.
No parody has a right to be as funny as Galaxy Quest. The fact the characters are worthwhile and likable (even the unlikable ones are just somewhat sad more than jerkish) adds to the fairly good drama also in the film.
Häxan is silent, subtitled, and I saw it around 2 AM when I was sleepless with a bad head cold. I couldn’t turn away and I certainly couldn’t even try to sleep while it was on.
I mentioned this movie in a another thread recently, but I’m still kinda excited about it. The Chaser, a somewhat recent hidden gem from korea. Heard stuff about how it was ‘fucking gruesome man’ and ‘way fucked up’, and since it was a new director, new cast, figured he was just trying to shock his way into infamy with his debut. Saw it with some friends expecting some decent thrills but still pretty much a generic serial killer movie. Holy shit was I impressed. What a raw ass movie. I kind of hesitate to recommend it to a foreign audience, because its easy to miss some important plot elements especially with things getting lost in translation. Actually I just realized that there probably isn’t a way for people outside of Korea to get a copy of the movie without downloading. It’s getting remade by Leo DiCaprio and WB, so I really hope they don’t dumb it down or something.
I don’t know that I’d have had any interest in the premise of the show, either. I watched it because I was watching something else and a preview for it came on (I had never heard of it before–this was near the beginning of season 1) and I about jumped out of my seat and said “HUGH LAURIE!!! Hugh Laurie is in a US TV show!!!” And so then I had to watch it. He’s a brilliant British comedic actor; long been one of my favorites. I enjoy the show primarily because I love to watch him.
Did you really have some reason to not expect it to be good? Why? I saw the trailers for it and thought “this is going to be awesome!”
I agree with a lot of the movies mentioned that at first they just didn’t seem like they were going to be any good at all but turned out pretty good. More what I am talking about is just b-movies that you saw by accident or boredom that turned out to be better than a b-movie. Another one I just thought of that was surprisingly good was Dark Angel: the Ascent.
Fear of a black hat i thought it would be another mindless black comedy about a fake rap group like CB4 but it was incredibly funny, i recommend it to people who liked “this is spinal tap” or any other mockumentary.
Runaway Train. Perhaps I’m the only person for whom it was unexpected, but I never saw it during its release due to the way it was promoted. When I saw commercials and posters like this, all I could think was “how can you make a car chase movie with a train?” Maybe I’ve got it all wrong, but to me, that’s not what’s about at all. The first time I saw it was on broadcast TV when I was too lazy to do anything else, and I was stunned. I’m unable to describe what Manny and the train, moving inexorably through that amazingly bleak, frozen landscape mean to me, but it’s something that really reaches deep inside and shakes me to the core.
“The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.” Expected to be mildly entertained and amused, but was really drawn into the story. Good storytelling and character development.
**Valley Girl **with Nicholas Cage and Deborah Foreman
I was driving cross country and watched it on television in a hotel somewhere and by golly it was just an enjoyable and sweet movie. Didn’t expect I’d enjoy it and I’m surprised I even left it on long enough to get into.
This is what I came in to say. I usually enjoy documentaries similar to this (Mad Hot Ballroom, Word Wars, etc.) and expect them to be enjoyable enough, but this one was great. My husband and I watched it last night and we both just **loved **it.
I loved it so much, I watched it again this morning with my son.
I didn’t expect it to be any more than a really cheesy cash-in at best. Look at it this way: It’s Tim “The Toolman” Allen, Sigourney “Long Time Since Aliens” Weaver, and a bunch of unknowns in a movie [del]ripping off[/del] parodying Star Trek and its fandom, something that seemed to mean “low-lives in funny ears” to studio execs. I expected the name leads to phone it in and the rest to be ciphers.
What I got was a funny script with multiple plot- and character-based jokes that tended to work, a good performance from everyone, and a rather human portrayal of characters that are all losers in some respect. The fact it had an effects budget is certainly a plus as well.
uncle squeegee, psycat90: Keep in mind that “King of Kong” is, first and foremost, a work of fiction that got sold as a documentary. It is deeply dishonest in major ways.
I kept rolling my eyes at any passing mention of Zoolander, until someone finally shoved a copy into my hand and made me watch it; I now own it. Yeah, it’s stupid cheeseball comedy, but it’s enjoyable stupid cheeseball comedy.
