We all know what it's like to go and see a movie massively hyped and over sold and then be disappointed as all the best bits were in the trailer.
There are also movies which you may watch cos you're bored, gaining brownie points or your Dad has the remote but actually turned out to be amongst your favourites.
For me it was Men In Black III (cue rolling eyes everywhere!) but I thought it was the best of the trilogy (unusual in itself) with an excellent ensemble cast and standout performances from Flight of The Conchords' Jermaine Clement as Boris the Animal (it's just BORIS!) and Michael Stuhlbarg as Griffin. Most memorable though was the very poignant ending (no spoiler alerts!) which tied the whole series together perfectly.
Are there any other much maligned movies that people have been pleasantly surprised by?
The 13th warrior..Films soo cool u can never watch it enough
Run fat boy run . fucking hilarious
From dusk till dawn...Don't judge me people, I never liked Tarantino till i watched this film and I only watched it because my brother had it on..it was AWSOME.
The Last Samurai...Really surprising because I probably hate Tom Cruise more than anyone else on the planet...the blokes a complete nob.
Dogma...Who knew Alanis was god??
Alien Resurrection - in truth i thought Alien 3 was so bad i swore i would never EVER watch another but this one was good almost as good as aliens which was my fav of them all.
Robin hood Prince of thieves..LOL just kidding it was awful.
I will think of some more later but my final for now is a fav of mine and my dads too
Last of the Mohicans
Love and other Drugs......I watched it on Direct TV.....I love Anne Hathaway.
There are a few I knew I was gonna love, The Simpsons movie, The Die hard movies and many others. 3 that come to mind that I didn't expect to be brilliant are these.
The Departed. I love Martin Scorsese and he is in fact my favorite director. Although, aside from Matt Damon, I wasn't much of a fan of anyone else in the movie. Then I watched it and loved every moment of the movie. I didn't even completely get it on the first view. I watched it again and loved it even more on the second view. Its still my favorite MS directed movie and it has some great competition. Taxi driver, Goodfellas can Cape fear.
The second is Black Mass. It came out back in September and starred Johnny Depp. I'm not even a great fan of his and didn't almost anyone else in the movie. He perfectly portrayed James Bulger and made the movie perfect. Even though The Departed is just loosely based on this movie, I'd still have to give it to The Departed. I guess for the cast and director. Though, Black Mass is perfectly constructed and definitely worth your time. Its hard to watch at times, but still near flawless. It tells the story of what happened vividly and makes you love it as a whole by time its over.
The third is the screwball comedy Stranger Than Fiction. It didn't strike me like Anchorman, Wedding Crashers or Old School did. I still gave it a try. It was funny and perfectly written. You never could pinpoint what was gonna happen next, and it had a perfect cast to make it great. What really thrilled me, was that it was completely original and just let the comedy flow out organically too. Will never did a movie like that before and I certainly hope he tries something like this again.
All three got perfect 10s from me.
Boyhood
They filmed it over a 12 year time frame. It was fabulous.
xo
Well, there are a ton of these going out every year, so I'm simply going by recent memory.
-Leviathan by Andrey Zvyagintsev. It's unlike me, but this one took me completely by surprise. It's absolutely brilliant, from a director I had never heard of until then.
-Son of Saul. by Lazlo Nemes. Okay. That one was always going to be good, but it's flown a LOT under the radar. It's gut-wrenching and brilliantly designed, if utterly depressing.
-Mommy by Xavier Dolan. I'm really not going into a happy place with this list, am I? Anyway, Xavier Dolan is an unrecognized but extremely talented director, and Mommy is probably his best movie.
These were maybe not the "best" movies of the last two years, but they certainly flew under the radar and deserve some more attention. I will add: The Assassin, Birdman and Citizenfour for consideration. Although none of these qualify as "unexpected" successes given the directors history. Then there's Whiplash, excellent and unexpected, but it got its fair share of hype as well.
Big Trouble in little China.
God, it was hilarious
Edit. Spaced Invaders.
Im not gonna say a thing about it other than it was so stupid it was incredibly entertaining
Crazy stupid love. Dreadful title, great film. Warm and funny. Also, I'm not gay. but Ryan Gosling without a shirt on. WOOOOSH. Steve Carrell is funny too.
Byzantium - dark and brilliant. The perfect blend for a vampire love story.
The Lion in Winter - 1990's version with Glenn Close and Patric Stuart. The original version was lovely but when Glenn and Patric get together something intense happens with the whole script. Glenn is perfect playing Eleanor of Aquitaine. So much so that this movie inspired my novel Viette.
Time Lapse - it really landed on me as being dull by the half way point and then quickly became stupid as hell. But we Netflixed it so we watched the whole thing anyway. It redeemed itself with the last 20 minutes - Now it's one of my favorites. It's totally fucked up but in an awesome way.
Rubber - My father declared he wanted 5 minutes of his life back after watching this movie, but I still love it. It's stupid, bizarre, and just full of wtfery. Just my thing.
The 13th Warrior
Tremors
The Princess Bride
Gattaca - great film, premise and a fantastic cast. Very well shot too.
Event Horizon - I caught this late one night. Woah!
Three Colours Trilogy (Blue, White & Red)- I was given this as a present and I languished on a shelf for a year. I was at a loose end and put the first one on (Blue). Quite simply, it is the greatest film trilogy ever made.
I love some of the ones that have been chosen.
"The Fountain" has to be one for me. Every I watch it I glean something new.
For me it's "Hector and the Pursuit of Happiness" It's on Netflix and it is truly brilliant, heartfelt, funny, and amazing
The Hundred Foot Journey...I watched it at the behest of someone else and found it to be a delightful movie and Charlotte Le Bon was a delight to look at throughout the movie....
The Fault in Our Stars - This movie made me cry - a whole lot. I was expecting a typical teenage movie that was okay. This is a five star movie all the way.
Maragarita, With a Straw - An Indian movie, I was expecting nothing more than just okay. Not only is it the best Indian movie I have ever seen, it is the best movie about a disabled person I have seen since Rain Man.
Scavenger Hunt - One of the three greatest slapstick comedies of all time. The last time I checked, it had still not been released to DVD, but this will make you laugh your ass off!
The Usual Suspects - I had no idea what to expect. Lots of plot twists that you don't see coming.
Downfall - A German made movie about the last days of Adolf Hitler? Yeah right! Well guess what? They hit it out of the park.
A Simple Plan - The best movie about greed since The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton are perfect for those roles.
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