In reponse to NEON MERCURY's thread about big disappointments, here's one that is the complete opposite... what totally suprised you... you thought it'd be terrible, you saw it, then thought it was great (or at least better than you thought)... i'll start:
Kill Bill v1
Pirates of the Carribean
Punch-Drunk Love
Heaven.
Magnolia to a certain extent.
Your Friends & Neighbors.
Husbands and Wives.
Age Of Innocence
Kundun
The Lady Vanishes
Rebecca
Beseiged
Resident Evil
Turned out to be a lot of fun
American Wedding
Signs
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
The Rundown
im trying to think but i usually dont see films unless i think they will be good
None of PTA's movies were surprises to me because straight from the trailers, I knew that were going to be something great. But the following movies did surprise me:
Identity
The Ice Storm
Storytelling (unaware of Solondz at the time, now extremly aware)
Under the Tuscan Sun
Matchstick Men
Being John Malkovich
O Lucky Man
Presumed Innocent
The Usual Suspects (i think it was the best surprise i ever had)
12 Monkeys
Velvet Goldmine
Ripley's Game
Audition
Monsoon Wedding
Hable con Ella
City of God
Owning Mahoney
Equilibrium: yeah, hated by many, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Harry Potter: never read the books, my only gripe is that it's too long.
Cabin Fever: was totally not what I thought it would be.
Barry Lyndon: I avoided seeing it forever, but as it turns out, it's probably my favorite Kubrick, go figure.
Psycho 2: It's actually pretty darned great! Very underrated.
agree with Harry Potter
uptown girls
fight club (while i still haven't decided whether it was GREAT, i was expecting something TOTALLY different)
signs (never really liked sixth sense, thought this was pretty good)
galaxy quest (foolishly expected kiddy fair)
the emperor's new clothes (expecting weak drama, thoroughly enjoyed it)
Exotica
Scream
Final Destination
Silence Of The Lambs
2 Fast 2 Furious
..some of these i agree w/others..
scream..
wes craven'n new nightmare...
talk to her...(brilliant)
magnolia..to an extent also..
affliction
in the name of my father
a.i......
attack of the clones...
adaptation.
three kings..
M*A*S*H*
short cuts.
momento..
midnight cowboy..
apocalypse now..REDUX
John Stockwell John Stockwell John Stockwell!!!!!!!
~rougerum
changing lanes
white men can't jump
28 days later
thelma and louise
speed
Quote from: ©bradchanging lanes
Wow, I completely forgot about that one. That was one great movie.. VERY underrated.
I think Changing Lanes was Over-rated, by people here, I mean.
Everyone beefed up to be the missed genius it wasn't.
Same with that shitty Denzel movie... I forget now...
Oh... these are supposed to be GOOD surprises.
Ummmmmm...
Iron Giant blew my fucking mind.
i was very surprised by
-28 days later- well the first half anyway.
-jackie brown- it was much more restrained and subtle than i thought it was gonna be.
-minority report- considering how much i hated AI and catch me if you can, i thought this was gonna suck- it actually turned out to be really great
-evil dead- my perception that it was just a funny little occasionally clever low budget horror flick was surprised when i saw how genuinely terrifying it is.
-girl interrupted. usually, angelina jolie annoys the piss outta me, but this movie really was touching and true.
Starship Troopers
Unforgiven
Punch Drunk Love
Jason X
Quote from: SHAFTR
Jason X
agree
Just stuff that wasn't particulary hyped, like the hidden gems, stuff that came out of nowhere. And then there's the movies that were just so much different than I expected in a good way. All that is this:
-Boogie Nights (I was clueless of all of it's praise at the time)
-Cry Baby
-Drugstore Cowboy (made me feel in a huge way, same with Idaho)
-Kill Bill
-Welcome to the Dollhouse
-Married to the Mob
-Melvin and Howard
-Something Wild
-Sid & Nancy
-Edward Scissorhands (on a revisit)
-Arizona Dream
-Remember the Titans
-Romeo + Juliet (luhrmann's version)
-The Man IN the Moon (not "on)
-Niagra Niagra
-Punch Drunk Love
-Over the Edge
-Miller's Crossing
-State of Grace
-Fear (whalberg and witherspoon one)
-Streets of Fire
-At Close Range
-Used Cars
-Barton Fink
-The Secret Garden
-Bottle Rocket
-A Little Princess
-My Own Private Idaho
-Baraka
-Koyaanisqatsi
-Safe Men
-George Washington
-All the Real Girls (w0w)
-What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
-Wild at Heart
-Lolita (the original, blew my mind)
'The Matrix'. That was a real eye-opener. Who the hell was expecting THAT?! It could have been 'Johnny Mnemonic 2' and ended up being this...well...you know how great it is.
'Happiness' was certainly something 'new'.
Every QT flick (heard heaps about them all but still shocked/suprised by them).
'Vanilla Sky'!!!! Expected something offbeat but not that FUCKED and wonderful.
Undercover Brotha.
old jackie chan movies.
my respect for ebeaman has jumped enormously.
yeah, i can't chime in with anything new. sorry.
but i don't know how anybody could think changing lanes was genius. that movie was awful, i don't care what you say. i had a hard time staying awake. it was booooring and obvious.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2F079284405X.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg&hash=1e7dfc06a9d6d8bc547cba233541b9322764633a)
...this needs a criterion release...w/ a better cover.....
Quote from: bonanzatazmy respect for ebeaman has jumped enormously.
Wow, seriously? Or are you being sarcastic? Cause I won't hold it against you if you don't like A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, lol. Danny Elfman is what really makes the latter. Then the former is just a good movie to me.
to ebeaman,
i agree with most of your list. little princess=awesome. fear=big pile of dog crap. grissam's in that movie, though, that's pretty sweet.
to neon mercury,
shallow grave rocks. that cover DOES suck. they make it look like an 80's zombie movie.
Quote from: bonanzatazshallow grave rocks. that cover DOES suck. they make it look like an 80's zombie movie.
Not that there's anything wrong with 80s zombie movies. :-D
Quote from: Find Your MagaliQuote from: bonanzatazshallow grave rocks. that cover DOES suck. they make it look like an 80's zombie movie.
Not that there's anything wrong with 80s zombie movies. :-D
well, of course not, but somebody renting that movie to see an 80's zombie movie would be quite disappointed to find out that it most certainly was not!
Quote from: bonanzatazto ebeaman,
i agree with most of your list. little princess=awesome. fear=big pile of dog crap. grissam's in that movie, though, that's pretty sweet.
Who's Grissam? Doesn't ring a bell.
What other movies on the list do you like man? PM me with them all, I really wanna know. A lot of those are movies I've never heard of anybody liking but me.
Quote from: RegularKarate
Iron Giant blew my fucking mind.
I don't know where else to put this, but I just saw Iron Giant. IT's one of those films I've always heard is really good but I've stayed away from fo so long. It is yet another great film of 1999. I loved that watching the film, I never thought of the Giant as Vin Diesel. Along with the Pixar films, one of the best kids movies in a very long time.
PS> The DVD Extra with Diesel talking about being the voice is hilarious.