Oh, come on. It’s fucking Keanu!
Fat Albert surprised me. Not that it was great, but I expected it to be painfully bad. Took my boy and a friend last weekend and it wasn’t nearly as horrible as I thought it would be.
Lowered expectations rule!
Mean Girls. I did not LOVE it, but I didn’t hate it either, and I fully expected to hate it a lot.
The Princess Diaries is another one I expected to hate, and THAT one I loved.
(The fact that I saw these can be attributed to the fact that I have a teenage daughter who nags.)
My answer. I thought it would be one of those ubiquitous goofy-dumb-stupid movies; it actually turned out to be a rather clever satire on Hollywood and the fashion industry.
I quite enjoyed National Treasure. I don’t like Nicholas Cage, and the plot heavily rips off The Da Vinci code which is pretty flaky itself, but I was still entertained.
I don’t see too many movies. For the record, I’ve only seen two of his other movies (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Anger Management) since.
ooh, me too. the cover is bright pink for fuck’s sake. but I actually laughed quite a lot, and while I won’t be rushing out to buy it, I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
(the fact that I saw this can be attributed to the fact that I have a girly girlfriend who tortures.)
(…I deserve it :D)
Dude! At least rent it in a few months and see for yourself. It ain’t Hellblazer, and it is certainly a flawed movie, don’t get me wrong. But not only is it not half-bad, there are parts that are actually quite good. Think of Constantine as a good movie to show in a double-feature with the occult-noir film Angel Heart, with Mickey Rourke and Robert DeNiro.
And is one of my favorite movies ever. Look at who you have:
Elisabeth Shue (a later Oscar-nominated actress), who could read the phone book, and I’d watch,
Brad Whitford (Mister Jane Kazcmarek), who went on to star in The West Wing,
Anthony Rapp, who went on to Broadway (he was in Rent),
Maia Brewton, who later starred as Parker Lewis’ kid sister,
Blues legend Albert Collins (“Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues”)
Surprisingly good.
Let me second (third, whatever) Pirates of the Caribbean. I just watched this for the first time today. Johnny Depp keeps proving himself to be one of my favorite actors for very good reasons. Him and monkeys make every movie better.
Three Kings. Surprisingly smart movie.
Ocean’s 11. It got such bad press, and when I finally saw it, it was pretty damned good.
Galaxy Quest. I avoided it in the theater due to my deep-seated aversion to Tim Allen (and general indifference to things Trek-related), but since catching it on cable this has become one of those movies that I simply cannot get tired of watching. Sam Rockwell and Tony Shalhoub in particular were brilliant.
And, believe it or not, the sequel Babe, Pig in the City sucked much, much less. I Netflixed it after someone on the board mentioned how suprised and thrilled they were by the movie, and after I got it in the mail it just sat on the coffeetable for a couple days. My SO wasn’t interested in it at all, and finally extreme boredome on my part and extreme duress on his made us watch it. I have never made so many telephone calls after seeing a movie. It’s now on the Netflix queue of everyone I know.
ZJ
I share a lot of the answers here. Especially Pirates of the Caribbean. Even when it made tons of loot and got good reviews, I thought everyone was stupid but me.
But that movie was awesome. I almost NEVER re-watch movies and I rewatched that one.
The other answer that comes to mind that I don’t think anyone else mentioned was High Grant’s About a Boy.
My wife has brought me love, comfort and my only child. But she has also brought me other such chick flicks as Two Week’s Notice, Notting Hill, Miss Congeniality Under the Tuscan Sun and ANYTHING with Ashley Judd.
So when she brings home About A Boy, I figured we’d have another crappy Blockbuster night.
But that movie was really good. It had true substance. There was even Oscar talk surrounding it.
Another “chick flick” that was pretty good, but lacked About a Boy’s substance was How to Lose a Guy In Ten Days. Cute. I wouldn’t pick that type of film, but if my wife’s picks were this humorous and watchable, I wouldn’t grumble when it was her turn to select the DVD.
I thought it would be good, because the cast of the friggin State is in it(!!), but no. I didn’t end up liking it much at all.
Tank Girl, Treasure Planet, The Big Hit, National Treasure, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, King Arthur, Troy, Pirates of the Caribbean, Elf and Godsend were far better than I’d guessed before hand.
Are you sure you weren’t drunk at the time? 
I went with some friends very grudgingly to see Something About Mary and it made me laugh so hard I almost peed my pants.
I second LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring. I really didn’t care, but everybody else was excited, so I thought I’d give it a try. I’m very happy I did.
Ocean’s 11. I’m surprised by how much I adore this movie. I’ll watch it whenever it’s on.
Not Another Teen Movie cracked my shit up. “Have you ever seen Pretty in Pink?” “Yes, I masturabe to that movie.” Hee
Yo, right here. I went in without much expectation one way or the other, and walked out with it on my list of the twenty-or-so worst waste-of-time movies. And Depp’s mumbling, inane performance is a big reason why.
You clearly haven’t seen enough REALLY horrible movies.
**Kung Pow: Enter the fist. **
I thought it was going to be stupid, but a friend rented it and we watched it.
I was right. It was stupid…but it was also quite funny, and I don’t mind rewatching it when it comes on TV.
I’ll second Not Another Teen Movie, and Three Kings.
And add The Butterfly Effect and Secret Window.