Movies that pleasantly surprised you.

[Zardoz!]

As a positive counterpoint to my "disappointing movie" thread let's talk about movies that pleasantly surprised you be being better than you expected.

This'll be a short list for me as the one I can come up with is "interview with the vampire".

OK, it killed some of the critical elements of the book,  and the guy playing armand was waaaaay too old, but tom cruise's  lestat was better than I'd dreaded, and the tone of the movie wasn't bad. The ending was a shocker, but sort of kept with the theme of the later books.

So, all in all I knew some of it was going to suck, and I don't mean blood, but some of it was good and I was surprised.

[Kzinistzerg]

I was pleasantly surprised with Blood and Chocolate. I mean, it ripped the book into little tiny pieces and burnt them, but in of itself it was a not that bad of a movie.

[mike5150]

kiss kiss bang bang..........I was drug kicking and screaming, but ended up lovin it

[Raven]

There were a couple for me.

Death to Smoochy - looked awful but is actually one of my favorites comedies.
Domino- looked ok but I laughed from start to finish.
Paycheck- for a Ben Affleck movie it wasn't horrible.  I went just to make fun of it and really liked it. Nothing great but wasn't bad either.

Chris

[Crazy_88s]

Batman Begins - Far better than I could have ever expected.

[Dim of the Yard]

Oddly enough, Superman Returns.  I was "meh" over the "Superman" bits of the movie (especially concerning Lois Lane), but Kevin Spacey met and surpassed all of my expectations about him and made the movie a lot of fun for me.  It had the nasty side effect of me rooting for Lex Luthor during the whole movie, but what are you gonna do, ah?

[erika_lk]

Death to Smoochy - looked awful but is actually one of my favorites comedies.

This was exactly what I was going to say.  I was drug into this movie kicking and screaming by my friends (two of whom walked out after half an hour), and I ended up loving it.

[Phantom of Krankor]

I was surprised by Death to Smoochy too. I'd read all of the negative critic reviews and heard it flopped, but it ended up being probably one of the funniest movies I've seen in a while. Robin Williams was great!

[a pretty girl is like]

Quite the genteel and bitter-sweet story of a man of a certain age trying to connect with someone with the added bonus of limb mutilation.

[tgeorgic]

dodgeball.  i was dragged to that and expected it to be just toilet humor with not a single sign of intelligence.  it turns out the humor was very well written and even have lots of subtle background jokes peppered throughout (like the treasure chest in the suddenly happy ending having a plaque of deus ex machina on it).  of course if you listen to the audio commentary they wanted to do the vulger joke in every situation they could have but some mean old producer wouldnt let them.  becasue of the popularity of that movie they were alowed to do what they wanted with movies like blades of glory which i thought was boring and unfunny,

[gbeenie]

I'm sure I'll get some brickbats for this, but

War Of The Worlds (2005)

While Tom Cruise often does well in "serious" roles, his action-movie output tends to be pure cheese. I found this movie to be an exception; who knew he played "frustrated dumbass" so well? 
Also, I liked the one-person's POV storytelling, as well; it made me pine,. once again, for the revival of the anthology series. I think a War Of The Worlds TV series, with each episode telling a different story from the invasion, would be boss (anyone here read the second League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book?). And I thought the "war refugee" story was interesting; here in America, we have very little understanding of what it's like to be a refugee, driven from one's home by an act of war. Many New Yorkers unfortunately got a taste of this during 9/11, but I think it's slightly different when every single person you know is in the same boat.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

I'm sure I'll get some brickbats for this, but

War Of The Worlds (2005)

 

Only thing that's good about that movie is what Scary Movie 4 did with it.

Anyway....they just showed a commercial for I Am Legend and that reminds me....

I, Robot pleasantly surprised me.   It was anything but perfect but it didn't stink on ice like I thought it would.  And Will Smith was actually paying a character this time and not just being Will Smith (like most of his roles).   Again, some problems with it but I enjoyed it all the same.

I'm actually considering seeing I Am Legend.   Scary.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

Only thing that's good about that movie is what Scary Movie 4 did with it.

So, Scary Movie 4 was good but Ralph Bakshi films are only entertaining when you're high?



I mentioned the remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in a couple of other threads. I originally expected it to be absolute trash considering that it was made by a first-time director, and the original was such a classic, but it was pretty good.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

I'm fully aware of that. I was exaggerating his statement because I can't see how someone could say that the worst film in the Scary Movie series is entertaining, but that American Pop is pretentious and comparable to Xanadu and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band....

[Petey Wheatstraw]

I got to tell you, David Zucker is really disappointing these days. Not only is he producing mediocre movies, but he's let himself be brainwashed by the Republican Party. Now here is a real asshole....