Movies you thought wouldn’t enjoy, but got surprised..

[Smokey]

There are some “type” of movies or actors that you know you wouldn’t care to see, but after seeing it, it did surprise you and liked it. Does any comes to mind?

Here are couple that almost got away.......

Hoosier (1986)
Not a big fan of sport movies, but this movie had me cheering on the side lines
http://sportsmed.starwave.com/media/classic/2001/reelclassics/rc_hoosier1_i.jpg

Die hard II (1990)
Bruce Willis turn me off, however this movie turned me on :D
http://www.dvdcc.com/images/covs/diehard2se.jpg

South Central (1992)
Gang violence films can be too raw, but this movie delivered.
http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000000OCH.01._AA130_SCMZZZZZZZ_V1056627970_.jpg

Southern Comfort (1980)
Contemporary Military movies are not my cup of tea, yet this movie had me floored.
http://www2.netdoor.com/~takano/southern_film/posters/comfort.jpg

Karate Kid (1984)
This could have been a sleeper, but it made you stay up and cheer to the end.
http://www.roundtable.com/Event_Center/BFI/Karate_Kid.jpg

[Mr Peabody]

I had no desire what so ever to see Pearl Harbor. I got Pearl Harbor in a twin-pak when I bought The Rock. Well I had it, so I watched it. I loved the movie and the sound quality is awesome. Sort of the same thing with U-157, except some one told me it had a great LFE, so I rented it and ended up buying a copy, good movie. I recently watched Kingdom Of Heaven on HBO-HD and didn't know what to expect, it turned out to be a great movie. Mystic River is a movie I passed up many times at the rental store but watched it one day on cable to find it was good.

On the older side, I'm typically not crazy about animal movies but find I enjoy Disney's Homeward Bound quite a bit. It's a good story and the bantering between the 3 main animals is funny. Regarding Henry is good.

I'm sure there's others if I dwell on it more but I'll give some one else a shot.

[superpanavision70mm]

So is U-157 the prequel to U-571?

[Defshep]

I had no desire what so ever to see Pearl Harbor. I got Pearl Harbor in a twin-pak when I bought The Rock. Well I had it, so I watched it. I loved the movie and the sound quality is awesome.
You know, I've almost bought that flick several times, just for the sound quality.

[eisforelectronic]

You know, I've almost bought that flick several times, just for the sound quality.

I really love Hans Zimmer's soundtracks on both the Rock and Pearl Harbor.

[kexodusc]

I thought Wedding Crashers would suck - but I laughed my ass off...I don't usually like stupid comedies like that but that one hit a nerve.

Thought Cinderella Man would be boring, and I thought Heat would be terrible because the critics were tough on both of these.
Heat is one of my favorite movies - I love how the bad guys were made human, with feelings, romance etc. Cinderella Man was predictable, but Ron Howard has a good handle on these unsung hero type movies. He's becoming one of my favorite directors.

Didn't think I'd like Harry Potter much, but I'm addicted now.

[KaiWinters]

Catch me if you Can comes to mind. I did not want to watch the movie thinking my boredom meter would bend the stop but wife made me...twisted my arm and gave me "wet willies" until I gave in.

Wound up loving it and buying it. The relationship as it developed between the main characters was great. The sheer audacity and seeming ease of it when you are good looking and glib was funny as hell.

[SlumpBuster]

Munich

My wife and I were standing in Blockbuster when she picked it up and I actually said, "Urghhh, you know its just going to be really slow with alot of talking and jawing. Jaw, jaw, jaw, lesson, lesson, lesson, preach, preach, preach."

Wow, was I wrong. Munich was compelling and enthralling and tight. It looked good, sounded great, and was paced perfectly. The series of set up and hit, set up and hit, set up and hit, really contributed to showing the grind that the team was subjecting themselves to. It felt like the movie Syriana wanted to be.

Also, I thought it was ambivalent and did not pick sides on the Isreal/Palistinean conflict, regardless of what the press said. However, if people watch it with preconcieved notions, or go into it looking for zebras, they will find what ever they are looking for.

Finally, there is this new way to film violence that I keep seeing show up. Violence is an important part of film making since is such a primary component of so many stories. Munich had it and Kevin Costner's Open Range had it a couple years ago. It is gritty, intimate, and realistic (not that I would actually know what a gunshot wound looks like). No slow motion or fake sound effects. Death is slow and messy. People don't just shut off like a light switch. I find it really disturbing and wholly unglamorous, but great film making. To me the difference between violence is between the way Scorsese films violence and Speilberg and Costner film it. I think Speilberg and Costner get it right. In all of Saving Private Ryan, the most gruesome and disturbing scene was Adam Goldberg's fight and death scene with the Nazi slowly stabbing him.

[daviethek]

My wife rented "The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio" recently. I figured it was going to be a typical chick flick but it was in fact very good. It reminded me of working class family life in the 60's. Great performances by Woody Harrelson and Juliane Moore.

[Worf101]

1. "Tristan and Isolde" - A MAN"S romance movie. Lot's of fightin' and stabbin' and nekid wimmines.. oh and there's this love story too.

2. "Waterproof" - Burt Reynolds in a movie made on lunch money about secrets in a small Louisianna town call "Waterproof". Obviously filmed BEFORE hurricane Katrina.

Da Worfster

[Mr Peabody]

[QUOTE=superpanavision70mm]So is U-157 the prequel to U-571? :) lol

Oh...... uh...., could be or maybe that was my Pick 3 lotto numbers.

One of the other posts reminded me of a movie that really fits this thread for me, Million Dollar Baby. I thought, "just another sports movie". I didn't rent it or watch it on cable, until I was home sick one day and just had the TV on, I caught this movie just after it started and didn't know what it was, I really got into it. I was surprised to see it was Million Dollar Baby when I hit the "info" button. Well, actually having Eastwood in it and being about a girl boxer, I had a little clue. This is a really good movie, maybe one of the best Eastwood has ever directed.

I tried to reply once before but didn't see it appear, so forgive me for goofing again if I have 2 now.

[Mr Peabody]

[QUOTE=superpanavision70mm]So is U-157 the prequel to U-571? :) lol

Oh...... uh...., could be or maybe that was my Pick 3 lotto numbers.

One of the other posts reminded me of a movie that really fits this thread for me, Million Dollar Baby. I thought, "just another sports movie". I didn't rent it or watch it on cable, until I was home sick one day and just had the TV on, I caught this movie just after it started and didn't know what it was, I really got into it. I was surprised to see it was Million Dollar Baby when I hit the "info" button. Well, actually having Eastwood in it and being about a girl boxer, I had a little clue. This is a really good movie, maybe one of the best Eastwood has ever directed.

I tried to reply once before but didn't see it appear, so forgive me for goofing again if I have 2 now.

[Smokey]

Obviously by your selections, sometimes one can not go by movie critics to point out good movies. And in addition movie choices can be taunting considering the foreign films also, so most of time you are on your own :mad2:

[superpanavision70mm]

After Spielberg was on a huge roll with AMISTAD, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, and SCHINDLERS LIST he went into a disaster period of his career making what I would call the 3 films from hades....those being....

A.I.
MINORITY REPORT
and CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (but you really don't want to)

So, I had HUGE hesitations about seeing him take on a remake (WAR OF THE WORLDS), but somehow found myself enjoying the film much more than his previous few. Then MUNICH came along....

WOW! In many respects...it's his BEST film. I am not a fan of Spielberg too much, but MUNICH is on-the-money. It has all the key elements of a fantastic film.

The acting is superb, the use of camera and camerawork is top-notch. The directing is superb and shows his real potential as a more mature filmmaker. The setting, dialogue, script, and the pace is also staggering and it's my opinion that next to SCHINDLERS LIST...it is his finest work and his second masterpiece of cinema. One small example of just how complex this film is starts immediately as the viewer is quickly taken into a world of confusion. Instead of lots of subtitles telling us what we are seeing, Spielberg opts to make us feel the same confusion that our characters and the world were feeling at this time. This sets up the series of events that lead the film down a very incredibly path of tragedy, death, revenge, and some more confusion, but we constantly feel as the characters do. Complexity sometimes comes through simplicity and great storytelling is as such....a true story unfolds.

[Defshep]

I thought Wedding Crashers would suck - but I laughed my ass off...I don't usually like stupid comedies like that but that one hit a nerve.
That was the case for me with Grandma's Boy, except I do like some stupid comedies. I just really thought it wouldn't be funny at all. I actually belly-laughed several times. The same with Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.

[RGA]

Munich

My wife and I were standing in Blockbuster when she picked it up and I actually said, "Urghhh, you know its just going to be really slow with alot of talking and jawing. Jaw, jaw, jaw, lesson, lesson, lesson, preach, preach, preach."

Wow, was I wrong. Munich was compelling and enthralling and tight. It looked good, sounded great, and was paced perfectly. The series of set up and hit, set up and hit, set up and hit, really contributed to showing the grind that the team was subjecting themselves to. It felt like the movie Syriana wanted to be.

Also, I thought it was ambivalent and did not pick sides on the Isreal/Palistinean conflict, regardless of what the press said. However, if people watch it with preconcieved notions, or go into it looking for zebras, they will find what ever they are looking for.

Finally, there is this new way to film violence that I keep seeing show up. Violence is an important part of film making since is such a primary component of so many stories. Munich had it and Kevin Costner's Open Range had it a couple years ago. It is gritty, intimate, and realistic (not that I would actually know what a gunshot wound looks like). No slow motion or fake sound effects. Death is slow and messy. People don't just shut off like a light switch. I find it really disturbing and wholly unglamorous, but great film making. To me the difference between violence is between the way Scorsese films violence and Speilberg and Costner film it. I think Speilberg and Costner get it right. In all of Saving Private Ryan, the most gruesome and disturbing scene was Adam Goldberg's fight and death scene with the Nazi slowly stabbing him.

Spielberg is one of the best at on screen violence. Schindler's List to me was the first film I had ever seen that truly made a killing by gun look real. Yes Platoon and Saving Private Ryan and several others can do blow-ups but a basic shot to the head has not looked more real than some sequences in Schindler's List.

But then Spielberg has more movies in my top 100 of all time than any other director. He has proven to me to be one of if not the most diverse directors. I like a lot of directors but generally speaking they seem far more comfortable in one genre. Scorceses does the gangster picture well - or the offshoot of that with the seedy parts of city life. He is less successful IMO when he moves beyond that genre. Tarantino is visually impressive and has a unique style that screams pop culture hip and is IMO great at dialogue even when it is proposterous.

Spielberg has done thriller as well as that genre has EVER seen in Jaws. He has done science fiction with E.T.(also maybe the best family film ever made), Close Encounters, Minority Report, Jurassic Park. He has done the action adventure drama as well as it can be done in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the Last Crusade was a darn good effort as well.

His serious films Schindler's List(IMO the best film ever made), Saving Private Ryan and Munich have all been highly regarded in almost every major critical category largely because Spielberg retains a fair hand and usually stays to the historical evidence. I say that knowing that historians have differing views of evidence but Spielberg seems to do his homework and entertains divergent views in his films. No film is historically accurate because historians themselves don't have absolutes - and film suffers from being a once made non changeable product. A history debate can be argued back and forth in academic journals. Spielberg usually gets the main points correct.

Spielberg has made a number of what I would call misfires like Amistad and the abysmally idiotic War of the Worlds but nobody is perfect.

And hey everyone forgets the Sugarland Express -- Quite a darn good movie which surprised me.

[Smokey]

WOW! In many respects...it's his BEST film. I am not a fan of Spielberg too much, but MUNICH is on-the-money. It has all the key elements of a fantastic film.

The acting is superb, the use of camera and camerawork is top-notch. The directing is superb and shows his real potential as a more mature filmmaker.

I am not into "violence" movies, but may have to check that one out. As you said, I'm glad he did not go into this movie assuming one side is wrong or right. And that might be his strongest point making this movie.


Spielberg has made a number of what I would call misfires like Amistad and the abysmally idiotic War of the Worlds.

Jurassic Park II should be added to that list also. What a bummer :frown2:

[topspeed]

Hustle and Flow - I despise rap music, but this was actually very good and Terrance Howard absolutely deserved his Oscar nod.

Shawshank Redemption - A movie based on a bunch of old guys in prison doesn't exactly light my boilers. A surefire recipe for boring, Stephen King or not. Boy, was I wrong!

Matrix - I literally had to be dragged to this movie...that's how much I thought of Keanu's acting ability (this movie changed that). A groundbreaking movie in both concept and special effects.

[paul_pci]

Two movies that come to mind are Chicago and Black Hawk Down. First, who the hell likes musicals? I certainly don't. I mean, who breaks into song spontaneously during the day? But I caught this on cable and loved it. Even picked up the DVD and it sounds awesome on my system, the bass has real kick to it and I think the performances are astounding. Zellweger got totally gyped on the Oscar for her performance. And then there's Black Hawk Down. I, wrongly, assumed this was going to be a pump up America as a means of licking our wounds of that debacle type of movie. I hate flag-waving war movies and stayed far away from it until I, again, caught it on calbe. Now I've seen it more than a dozen times; it's very engrossing in its action and character study and its reflectiveness that isn't reflectiveness about war and conflict.

[Mr Peabody]

Hey, some one mentioned Heat earlier. I love that movie too. One of my favorite all time movie scenes is where Pachino comes into the house and finds the guy with his wife, and says something to the effect "you can F--K my wife but your not watching my F---ng TV", and he throws the TV in the car and leaves. Great scene.

[audio amateur]

There are many I'm sure but wedding crashers for sure. Went with my girlfriend, a buddy and his own. It was the girls' choice and I despised that movie ever since I had seen the trailer (not a big fan of owen wilson), but I absolutely loved it, however crude it was. Hilarious movie.

[SlumpBuster]

His serious films Schindler's List(IMO the best film ever made)


Actually, the best film ever made was Smokey and the Bandit.

But seriously folks. Speilberg's populist appeal can work against his films as a serious filmmaker. The logic would be "Since everyone likes his movies that can't be all that good, right?" Actually wrong. I actually liked Minority Report and AI (I also liked it them the second time around as Paycheck and The Island). I like them because even when Speilberg fails, he fails because he is over reaching, not because he is lazy/pandering/sloppy. When he fails, its like you can tell what he is trying to say, but he just can't find the words to say it. As oppossed to say, George Lucas. He failed with the Star Wars prequals because he wholly failed to guage what the public liked so much about the first three, because he became a slave to his vision, because he forgot his audience, and, finally, because he failed to temper his work with the constructive critisims of others. i.e. lazy and sloppy. Jar Jar Binks counts as the pandering part. "Oooo, let's make him Rasta! The kids will love it!"

[SlumpBuster]

I am not into "violence" movies, but may have to check that one out.

Thats my point about violence in movies like Munich or Open Range. It is not violence as entertainment, but violence that serves the story and, to me, creates a sense of disgust rather than titilation. To me, those movies are "calling out" movies like Hostile or The Hills Have Eyes. They mock "slasher" or "violence as entertainment" movies.

Oh Yeah, I also thought Memiors of a Geisha would be a snore fest, but I liked it alot.

[Mr Peabody]

I'm bent, I'm the only person I know that liked Jar Jar. I liked him better in the first movie. He was a funnier bumbler than a head of state.

[Smokey]

Thats my point about violence in movies like Munich or Open Range. It is not violence as entertainment, but violence that serves the story and, to me, creates a sense of disgust rather than titilation.

Martin Scorsese uses that effect very well in his movies. Like the scene in Casino where Joe Pesci killed a guy in the bar with a pen for insulting Deniro charactor. Very graphic scene :eek:

[L.J.]

I woke up early last week and didn't want to wake the family so I watched TV up front with headphones. I came across The Cave on cable and said what the hell. To my suprise it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I'm just a sucker for monster flics, I guess. :crazy:

[agtpunx40]

Deuce Biggalow. Me and a friend were going to see something completly different in the theater but were a few minutes late, so he said we should see Deuce. I think I said something like "I don't want to see that piece of crap," but we say it anyway and it was hilarious. I've had two other people tell me that someone forced them to watch it and they were very pleasenly surprised too. Don't really have any desire to see the sequal though.