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What’s a movie that was so much better than you thought it would be?

Kid Heart

Kid Heart

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,087
As a Sonic fan, even I thought the Sonic movie was going to be a dumpster fire. I was pleasantly surprised to find that wasn't the case.

Also, The Croods was another movie I went in expecting to be dull, but left surprised to find it was honestly pretty solid.
 
Rodney McKay

Rodney McKay

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,280
Trolls

I forget when I first saw it, but it's surprisingly hilarious, has a lot of fun music, and the visuals are great (love how nearly everything's made of felt).
I've seen it a ton of times now since my fiancé and I babysit for a friend fairly often and they love it, and it has yet to get irritating.

I agree with a lot of the posts in the thread, especially all the animated movies I expected to suck but ended up pretty solid: Angry Birds, Trolls, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, etc.
 
frankenstrat

frankenstrat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
999
For some reason I started seriously tempering my expectations for the Invisble Man after seeing enough of the trailers and kind of giving Blumhouse the side eye after some duds. Movie is good. Damn good. Tense as hell, theater was quiet as it was during a Quiet Place.
 
Volimar

Volimar

volunteer forum janitor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,966
Into the Spiderverse. I thought there was no way it could live up to the hype. I was wrong.
 
Pickman

Pickman

Member
Nov 20, 2017
2,266
Huntington, WV
Soldier starring Kurt Russell. It's a love letter to military scifi garbage and it takes itself extremely seriously. I love it and watch it every time I come across it on cable or streaming.
 
gforguava

gforguava

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,734
hww.png

The Huntsman: Winter's War.

A sequel no one was asking for, seemingly only made for contractual reasons, with the shameless addition of an Ice Queen on top because, hey, Frozen was big, wasn't it? It is also a weird prequel-sequel to make it even less appealing.

And yet the film is great. A throwback to pre-LOTR style fantasy(but on a post-LOTR budget), where the story is simple and the characters streamlined, where the stakes might be big but they largely serve as the background for the characters to run through.
Much like its predecessor the film is unnaturally beautiful for its genre, with great costuming and art direction, wonderful use of natural settings and lighting, and just an all-around fantastic atmosphere, and that brings to question just why do so many other big budget action-spectacle films look so dang pedestrian?

If you are someone who likes Willow, or Krull, or Hawk the Slayer, or any other fantasy film from days long gone and yet you scoff at this, you are a fool.

Plus it has the amazing line: "You poor, heartbroken widower. That story must've wet the eyes of many a young lass. Maybe more than their eyes."
 
OP
OP
Hecht

Hecht

Pushin’ me down, pushin’ me down, pushin’ me down
Administrator
Oct 24, 2017
9,740
VaporSnake

VaporSnake

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,603
I remember thinking Dredd was going to be pretty bad, I thought Karl Urban was a great pick but the movie was released right in the 3D craze so the whole DREDD 3D angle from the marketing just sounded like a guaranteed fail....now it's one of my favorite movies ever, who knew?
 

HomokHarcos

Member
Jul 11, 2018
2,447
Canada
Son of Frankenstein. I knew about The Bride of Frankenstein's reception, but watched Son of Frankenstein pretty much blindly.
 
Skade

Skade

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,899
Pain & Gain.

Went expecting a random stupid Bay action/comedy Bad Boys style, ended up with the best (and hysterical) Bay movie in a loooong while.
 
Temtastic Muns

Temtastic Muns

Member
Apr 19, 2018
6,857
How To Train Your Dragon.

What initially looked like another sub-standard Dreamworks production ended up being, like, one of my favorite animated features of ALL-TIME.
 
Dice

Dice

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,729
Canada
Leona Lewis

Leona Lewis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,926
LOEV (on Netflix)

Looks like your typical low-budget gay film, then the actual movie starts and it's like being in an ethereal trance.
 
Mollymauk

Mollymauk

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,322
Deathstalker II

It's a mid-sequel in a low budget fantasy series, and somehow it manages to be funny and full of charm with good leads. It's different from all the others in that it's kind of a spoof.
 
Bigwombat

Bigwombat

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
3,416
Sense and sensibility (1995?). I've never read any of Jane austens books but I did enjoy the pride and prejudice movie with Colin firth. I'm not a sonnet/poem guy and can't get into Shakespeare or chaucer so I was surprised I was really invested in the outcome of everyone's relationships.

Kinda saw some things coming but that's probably more on people copying austen over the years rather than her story being predictable.

Great cast. My boy Gregory house is in it too playing a stuffy husband. Hugh, Winslet, Thompson etc.

Willoughby sucks! Snape shoulda beat his ass for what he pulled!
 
Khanimus

Khanimus

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
40,437
Greater Vancouver
How to Train Your Dragon - the music, the finale... all that shit took a movie I had no interest in into one of my all-time animated favs.

Game Night - a decent premise that has so much thought put into its pacing and presentation, with characters who all have such an interesting energy and great chemistry.
 
Double 0

Double 0

Member
Nov 5, 2017
7,494
I saw Captain America Winter Soldier opening night thinking it was going to be another pretty good Marvel movie.

I was dead wrong.
 
I KILL PXLS

I KILL PXLS

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,614
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

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Went in expecting some really shitty low effort early 2010s genre movie along the lines of Seventh Son or something. Turns out it's an awesome schlocky R-rated action horror B-movie that knows exactly what it is and is the closest thing I've seen to Army of the Dead in modern cinema. In this movie Renner's Hansel has diabetes (though no one calls it that or knows what it is) because of them getting force fed so much candy as children by the witch. It is amazing.
 
Dice

Dice

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,729
Canada
Bigwombat said:
Sense and sensibility (1995?). I've never read any of Jane austens books but I did enjoy the pride and prejudice movie with Colin firth. I'm not a sonnet/poem guy and can't get into Shakespeare or chaucer so I was surprised I was really invested in the outcome of everyone's relationships.
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Like Shakespeare, the great thing about Jane Austen is that she's great – even when everyone says she is (or folks who don't dig the more poetic-period stuff)
 
DrForester

DrForester

Mod of the Year 2006
Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,828
Star Trek Beyond. After the shit show that was "Into Darkness" and some horrible marketing, I expected Beyond to suck. But Pegg wrote a solid script that gave us action, and great character moments. It ended up being one of my favorite Trek films.
 
Bigwombat

Bigwombat

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
3,416
Dice said:
Like Shakespeare, the great thing about Jane Austen is that she's great – even when everyone says she is (or folks who don't dig the more poetic-period stuff)
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My wife's gonna be excited when I suggest we watch Emma next. I mean not before I watch the new season of castlevania but like after that.
 
Nairume

Nairume

SaGa Sage
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,012
Hot Tub Time Machine and then Purge Anarchy for quite possibly the biggest turn around from a dogshit first film.
 
ConradCervantes

ConradCervantes

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,055
I wasn't as big a fan of the MCU movies as my friends, so I was hesitant when two of them wanted to rope me into the midnight premiere for Winter Soldier. Went in completely blind, not having seen the first Captain America movie but hearing underwhelming things about it. Boy was I blown the fuck away.
 
YellowBara

YellowBara

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,083
That Sing! animated movie I was forced to see as a family thing and it was... ok. Game Night was also pretty surprising to me, and everyone else has said why already.

Edit: Forgot Happy Death Day! 1&2 were a real fun time
Double 0 said:
I saw Captain America Winter Soldier opening night thinking it was going to be another pretty good Marvel movie.

I was dead wrong.
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Same but probably not the right thread for it lol
 
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cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,195
Coral Springs, FL
Killer's Kiss was included with the Criterion of The Killing. I figured it would be a schlocky no-budget early Kubrick, but it's truly great, I can see his early influence all over it.
 
BreakAtmo

BreakAtmo

Member
Nov 12, 2017
12,963
Australia
Birds of Prey. I thought it would probably be ok when I first heard about it, but my god, what a funny, brutal, OTT and downright fun fucking film. I can't remember the last time I spent so much of a film's running time with a big, stupid grin on my face. My friend also thought it was hilarious despite not being into comic book films generally.
 
CortexVortex

CortexVortex

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
4,074
I've heard good things about movies like Jumanji or Bumblebee before so I was not that surprised that both are actually good movies.
But Speed Racer fits the topic. Everyone was shitting on it but it's one hell of a ride.
 
M. Wallace

M. Wallace

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,348
Midwest
Invictus said:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I expected a pretty decent history flick when I watched it a few months ago, but holy shit I wasn't expecting this. What an amazing film. The gorgeous cinematography. Some of the best acting by Pit and Afflek. The music..... it's just an amazing movie that exceeded every expectation I had.
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The best movie of 2007.
 
Officer Big Mac

Officer Big Mac

Member
Oct 28, 2017
22,596
Parasite

I was fully expecting to be duped by Era's hyperbole but if anyone deserved an award it was surely this movie. Even while reading subtitles I still had an emotional reaction towards every character in this film. I only watched it once so I'd like to watch again with less focus on the subtitles and more on the nuances to the casts performances, cinematography and set direction.
 
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