The Vacation Read: What were your best and worst movie surprises?
Our fifth day of vacation has us thinking about the way movies can sneak up on us
'Predator' was one of the best movie surprises of the 80's for me
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At the start of this week, I mentioned the "Robocop" remake in passing as a way to get to a larger conversation about spoilers for things that are in production or in development.
One of the reasons I feel so protective of "Robocop" is because the original is one of the great movie memories of my life. When the film came out in 1987, I was working at a theater, and the poster for the film was a source of constant amusement for us. The tag line was "Part Man, Part Machine, All Cop," and that plus the title was a recipe for cheese. Or so it seemed.
A few days before the film was released, they screened it at midnight for the employees of the theater, and I was a believer by the time the closing credits rolled. I was won over completely by the film, and I still think it's a sort of a miracle. The script, the cast, and Paul Verhoeven's work as director… all of them came together in a way that was magic. I look at it now, and I still can't believe it exists. It doesn't feel like other films from the '80s, it doesn't really feel like anything else Verhoeven ever made, and looking at the sequels and the TV series that spun off from the film, it's obvious that even the people who made it weren't able to reproduce the film's appeal. Even if I didn't hate the script for the new movie, I would still be skeptical just because I know how amazing it is that the film worked in the first place.
I live for those surprises, those films that work when you have no expectations at all. Even better, when you walk in convinced that you're going to see something terrible and the film just plain refuses to make it that simple. Another great example from the '80s for me was "Predator," and in both cases, I feel like my low expectations may have actually helped.
My question for you today is what are the great movie surprises from your own experience? And I'm curious about the inverse, of course, those movies that you were convinced were going to be great all the way up to the moment the closing credits rolled and you have to admit to yourself that it just plain didn't work. I know it took me several days after seeing the 1989 "Batman" to fully understand how much I disliked it because I was so completely onboard that it's almost like I didn't see the film the first time I sat through it. I want to hear about the best surprises you've had and the worst, and I'm curious to see if there are titles that we all have in common or if there are titles you mention that I would have never expected.
I look forward to reading your responses to this and all the other topics this week, and I'm thanking you in advance for participating, even if you don't normally participate. If you guys don't respond, this is going to be a very slow week here on the blog. I'm counting on you, and I hope that by the time I return next Monday, I'll know a lot more about you, and that I can use your answers to help make Motion/Captured even better.
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Next 66 Commentsmpjedi2
August 31, 2012 at 12:05PM EST Reply to CommentMine's pretty easy, and recent:
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
After the Burton debacle I had ZERO belief that anything good would ever come out of that franchise again, and somehow the right people put it together. It showed a canny sense of franchise building, feeling like just a first act of a larger story, but completely fulfilling. Not only that, but they got that the emotional connection to what was going on was the paramount consideration. The performances were great, the effects and the script all perfectly aligned. And I expected drek, or near-drek.
murphy I hear you, man. It looked like perfectly disposable late summer rush job. Caught it as a double-feature with "Cowboys & Aliens" which I thought would be fun and was simply hoping that "Apes" wouldn't be a complete waste of time. That was an interesting reveral that day. Loved Serkis, thought the effects were stunning, and the plot opened up hours of philosophical discussion that I haven't seen from that franchise since "Escape from the Planet of the Apes."
August 31, 2012 at 1:38PM ESTushaped As an original Apes-series fan, I have to totally agree. I also liked how there were little touches that connected it with the earlier films.
August 31, 2012 at 3:40PM ESTOne major disappointment was seeing Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. After the awesomeness of Raiders, this film was a complete letdown. No Marion, borderline racism and implausible stunts.
Best total surprise: Videodrome. Cronenberg's films were already really odd and creepy but this film was totally something else. There is a sense of unease and menace during the entire film that is unlike any other film I've seen.
Monty Jack Rise was the first film I thought of, too. I mean, it sounded AWFUL when I first heard of it...not only a remake barely a decade after the Burton film (which I still stubbornly kind of like), but a prequel AND with eerie mocap technology for the apes? But then the reviews started rolling in, and I went in with guarded optimism...and now I consider it every bit as good as the 1968 original...perhaps even better. It's a new science fiction classic.
September 1, 2012 at 10:01AM ESTCJVanNice
August 31, 2012 at 12:13PM EST Reply to CommentRecently I was surprised positively by Lockout, that Sci-fi prison break film with Guy Pearce. I thought I was just gonna get dumb, loud fun, but I got a surprisingly clever film with dialogue that threw me back to Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. Was it still a tad cheesey? yeah. Was it perfect? no. Do I still love it? Oh yeah. As for disappointment, I call that "The Kung-Fu Panda effect" because of how disappointed I was when I first saw it. Don't get me wrong, I love it now, but I kept hearing about how amazing it was and that it was Dreamwork's first "PIXAR level film" so when I got to see the film, finally, was a little let down.
JeffreyOtto
August 31, 2012 at 12:28PM EST Reply to CommentThe best surprise that immediately comes to mind is Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. When this movie came out in the summer of 2003 I specifically avoided it for a month. I mean really, how could a movie be any good that is based on an amusement park ride. But I finally went to a matinee screening with maybe 4 other people in the theater, and absolutely loved the film. Jack Sparrow's introduction of riding into port is one of the best movie character introductions ever. From that point on the fun and energy of the film never let up. It's still something I can watch almost any time.
Ted B Ha, that immediately came to mind for me as well. I wasn't aware that it was based off a ride, but the sheer lentgth of the title and colon and another title led my friends and I to a series of jokes about rambling non-sensical titles.
August 31, 2012 at 12:37PM ESTWe still quote parts of it to this day, pleasantly surprised by it is an understatement.
travelingrant Ok, lets try that again...
September 1, 2012 at 9:05PM ESTPirates of the Caribbean was absolutely a great surprise. Mixing fantastic special effects with some excellent work from both Depp and Geoffry Rush it was just fun from start to finish. I ended up dragging my friends and family to it several times in theaters. Which made the bloated sequels an even greater disappointment.
V.N.
August 31, 2012 at 12:29PM EST Reply to CommentThe biggest surprise? Two things come to mind, both from 1999:
First, 'The Mummy'. I had seen the trailers, and it looked like a dour special effects slog. Much to my surprise (and delight), it turned out to be a campy, goofy Indiana Jones-style special effects romp.
I don't make any claims that it's a particularly good movie, but it was a pleasant surprise when every other big movie at the time seemed to be plodding and self-serious...
Second (and one of my favorite movie experiences ever), my friends and I went to see a new movie on its opening night. The (very) few commercials for it I had seen weren't that funny, but I was a fan of the director and I figured it would probably be decent yet forgettable.
That movie was 'Office Space'.
Being in that theater was one of the greatest moments I've ever had as a film fan, and to this day, we're all unbearably smug about having been there first.
The biggest disappointment is easy, as well: "Transformers".
I figured here is a project that the 'human-hating', 'machines creating carnage'-loving Michael Bay can't possibly screw up. It seemed almost tailor made for his particular skill set.
Clearly I underestimated him...
murphy Loved "The Mummy." Such a crazy, fun flick. Looked like the stupid, brainless movie I go to at the start of every summer, but instead it was a fast, silly charmer. Wish Spielberg had tried to get some of that movie's energy in Crystal Skull maybe Indy would have truly gone out like he should have.
August 31, 2012 at 1:51PM ESTmurphy Never minded the first Transformers though. The sequels are terrible, but the first one was very entertaining and gave me just the right amount of testosterone fuel to run outside and blow shit up with every firecracker I could find.
August 31, 2012 at 1:54PM ESTRev. Slappy
August 31, 2012 at 12:39PM EST Reply to CommentHere are a couple (also from the 80s):
The original Die Hard was a bit of a stunner. For starters, the title is awful. Like the Robocop posters, the idea of Bruce Willis as an action star was (at the time) patently ludicrous. Willis was famous for his wise ass Moonlighting persona and his biggest movie had been Blind Date for Blake Edwards. John McClain was a bit of a revelation in the late 80s as the decade was filled with impervious action stars. Willis brought real world vulnerability to McClain. Not to mention Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber, one of the greatest movie villains ever. It looked totally preposterous at the time but it's maybe the best action movie in history. And every action movie since is pitched as "it's Die Hard in . . ."
I was also really surprised by Midnight Run, an all-time favorite. I had seen super-method DeNiro before. I had never seen human DeNiro. The scene where Jack Walsh is reunited with his daughter? And then she gives him her savings? Unforgettable.
murphy
August 31, 2012 at 12:39PM EST Reply to CommentKinda opposite for me in regards to Burton's "Batman", Drew. I was seven and it was a 4th of July weekend. I didn't know anything about the movie, had not seen a single commercial or preview at the time and my only image of live-action version of the character came from the Adam West show and the old serials. In fact, for the entirety of the opening credits, I was convinced that this would be a new Adam West Batman adventure. The movie that followed opened my mind to what not only could be accomplished with the character, but with the world building of film. It sucked me in and I have never forgotten the experience of being completely taken on that journey.
Scot Yup. I was actually 6 though the first time I saw Burton's Batman in the theater. The seriousness of that movie in regards to the way it portrayed its characters, the drama and the look, were something I had never been exposed to before in a movie. This movie was one of the first I was ever exposed to that showed me that during a movie, you could actually be deluded into believing things are different, more fantastic and even better, than our regualr, real-world, everyday experiences. This also is the first movie I remember dreaming of as a little boy for many nights following my first viewing. Movie still holds a special place in my heart, even if it truly was bested by the Nolan Super-trilogy
August 31, 2012 at 12:54PM ESTmurphy I had nightmares about the scene where Nicholson fried that gangster with his hand buzzer. Freaked me right the hell out! But, even with the grand storytelling of the Nolan series, nothing Batman has ever made my jaw drop lower than seeing the Batplane swoop through a ridiculously designed cityscape to zero in on a madman with the most insanely big handgun in history. That was movie magic.
August 31, 2012 at 1:46PM ESTmurphy
August 31, 2012 at 12:47PM EST Reply to CommentMy biggest theatrical disappointment as far as my expectations go has to be Spielberg's "Minority Report." I really like and respect the film now, but I was sure at the time that it would be the biggest ride of the summer. That it would be bursting at the seems with classic Spielberg action sequences and jaw-dropping special effects. Instead, the look was depressingly washed out, the action was sparse, the plot more cerebral than adventurous, and it had a bizarre sense of humor that I never really gelled with. I knew at the time that it was still a fine film, but my hopes for it were roundly dashed.
jnemo1329
August 31, 2012 at 1:01PM EST Reply to CommentThis one was easy. Speed.
I don't recall what people's expectations were for this film, but I remember being blown away when I first saw it. It was the day I graduated from 5th grade. Me and my buddy were very excited about going to see City Slickers 2: The Search for Curly's Gold. After being disspaointed by the lackluster sequel, me and my friend decided to sneak into Speed, since we were big Bill and Ted fans. I just remember being on the edge of my seat the entire time and the whole audience cheering throughout. The next day I took my dad to see the film and randomly ran into the same friend I had seen it with the day before who had also brought his dad.
Crow3711
August 31, 2012 at 1:11PM EST Reply to CommentSeeing In Bruges in theaters was one of the most plenty surprising and entertaining experiences ive had at the theaters. But the one that sticks out the most, the one that I think back and say "I really thought it would be awful, by ended up being possibly the funniest movie I've ever seen...MacGuber. Seeing that in a theater with literally 5 other people in the theater, all dying of laughter, was like being let in on a secret that no one would ever believe in the first place. I cried I laughed so hard.
Also, Beasts of the Southern Wild BLEW MY MIND three weeks ago. I had no idea. Still affecting me
Tim
August 31, 2012 at 1:14PM EST Reply to CommentTotally surprised me and worked: Fight Club, Ratatouille, Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Scream 4
Totally didn't work: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Prometheus, Silent Hill (though I shouldn't have been surprised)
murphy Scream 4 had such a perfect opening. The rest of the movie could have straight coasted along and I would certainly give it a polite bow for its audacious movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie prologue.
August 31, 2012 at 2:08PM ESTSilent Hill really sucked all my goodwill I had for it the second the lady motorcycle cop showed up and looked like a Playmate model.
murphy I know all the problems with Prometheus. I can see and understand exactly what everyone's problem with it is, but despite all its shortcomings, I adore it. I love the visuals, the icy cool performances, and the completely open to interpretation story. Warts and all, it was the best time I had in theaters this summer.
August 31, 2012 at 2:14PM ESTOdysseus
August 31, 2012 at 1:48PM EST Reply to CommentMy Happy Surprises: ROBOCOP; DIE HARD; TREMORS; MIDNIGHT RUN; HELLBOY
Blue Harvest Hellboy was one of the most hugely disappointing movies I've ever seen. And I should have known it too. I've been a fan of the comics since the beginning and also of Mike Mignola's other work. del Toro's movie misses almost every mark in trying to adapt Mignola's story and characters. It's completely unwatchable for me. Sat through the sequel on DVD with a friend. Ditto on that one.
September 2, 2012 at 4:36AM ESTungruntled
August 31, 2012 at 1:52PM EST Reply to CommentMajor negative surprise: "What Dreams May Come."
I wasn't necessarily on board with Robin Williams as a dramatic lead, considering his recent mawkish failures (Being Human, Jack), but he'd also shown he could occasionally deliver the goods (Good Will Hunting, his guest spot on Homicide). He was definitely hit or miss, but I figured I'd give him a chance.
No, it was the other contributors on the film that got me excited. Specifically, I had previously seen, and ADORED, Vincent Ward's film "The Navigator," and I couldn't wait to see what he did next. Also, I knew the Richard Matheson source material, and was similarly in love with Matheson's work as a writer generally. And the previews totally sold me on the film's borderline-abstract visual sensibility.
Bottom line, when I walked into the movie theater on day one, not having read a single review, I was positively rabid to see the thing.
And over the next two hours, I got progressively sadder and angrier, as the film wasted every single one of its assets, and all of its potential. To this day, it's my personal benchmark for failure, for the biggest gap between "what might have been" and "what was actually delivered."
I stared at the amazing production design, absorbed the groundbreaking (and still remarkable) visual effects, and I felt nothing at all. I struggled to understand how a story with such compelling stakes - a man chooses to abandon paradise, driven by utterly selfless love, embarking on a quest to rescue his soulmate from Hell itself - could be so dramatically and emotionally inert. It just failed on every level. Even the staggering visuals were distancing and distracting; instead of underlining the fantastic world, and contrasting with the everyman trying to navigate their mysteries and horrors, they simply called attention, with their energy, to how little anything else on screen mattered. By the midpoint, I was working overtime, trying to convince myself there was something worth enjoying in the film. In that effort, the only thing I succeeded in accomplishing was utterly exhausting myself.
And when the credits rolled, I found myself unable to rise from my seat. I was absolutely deflated. I was a dead battery, an empty balloon, waiting to be thrown into the trash.
That's my chief "bad" movie surprise. I walked into the movie expecting a cinematic blowjob, and instead, I got my nuts chewed off.
murphy What always bugged me about that movie was the way it constantly cut the scenes of paradise and Williams' journey into Hell with a constant stream of increasingly depressing flashbacks that not only wrecked whatever sort of pace the film had, but also firmly established Anabella Sciorra's character as an insufferable, unlikeable, uninteresting bitch. And it was increasingly annoying how the end of the movie was a constant series of twists about the true identities of EVERY PERSON HE'S MET!
August 31, 2012 at 2:03PM ESTThat Werewolf Guy I remember one critic starting his review with: "Ignore whatever follows next and go watch this movie, because it's maybe the visually most stunning thing you will see for years!" Then he started to tear the rest of the movie to shreds.
August 31, 2012 at 3:06PM ESTjakelasker
August 31, 2012 at 1:57PM EST Reply to CommentADVENTURELAND - a friend and I went expecting to see SUPERBAD 2 as the ads promised but what we saw was so much richer, fuller and more satisfying than what we ever could have imagined. ADVENTURELAND is one of the true unsung gems of the last few years and a movie I will gladly continue to share with people for the rest of my life.
Rob I found ADVENTURELAND to be incredibly pretentious. Nobody talks like those characters, and those who do are a real pain in the ass.
September 2, 2012 at 9:51PM ESTdigdug85
August 31, 2012 at 2:03PM EST Reply to Comment"World's Greatest Dad" surprised me in a good way. Netflix recommended it for me -- said I would give it 5 stars, which I thought was total BS. So I watched it partly just to prove Netflix wrong.
But I loved it and would give it 6 stars if I could.
My life is now better because of great lines like this:
"You guys didn't like Kyle. That's okay. I didn't either. I loved him. He was my son. He was also a douchebag."
That Werewolf Guy
August 31, 2012 at 2:53PM EST Reply to CommentBack in the days I used to visit my local multiplex every Tuesday for something that they called "Sneak Preview". I don't know how commong this concept is over the world, but in fact you bought a ticket without knowing what movie was shown. The only thing you knew was that it was one, that would be released in 2 weeks.
The first time I did that, I saw THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY. I didn't know anything about it and I laughed of course my ass off. But I think the two biggest Sneak Preview surprised were a Danish movie named IN KINA SPISER DE HUNDE ("In China They Eat Dogs"), which started out very slow and in fact after the 40 minutes mark, most of the audience had left the theatre, but it turned out to be a hilariously dark and twisted comedy, that got more and more absurd until its bizarre punchline. The other surprise was a German comedy named ERKAN & STEFAN. Now, these Erkan & Stefan fellows were two at that time pretty popular one-note comedians. They were the poor man's Ali G. But to be honest, the movie turned out to be pretty hilarious. It was very broad slapstick, but I laughed loud and often.
I just realized that most of my surprises seem to come from the comedy genre. Probably because it's the hardest one to sell. One man laughs hard about the same joke, that makes another man yawn. And too many critics seem to be ashamed of laughing at silly jokes. So I have to say, which is probably where I will lose everybody here, the biggest surprise of the last few years was to me...GROWN UPS. Even I stopped laughing about Adam Sandler movies years ago and when I caught it a few months ago on TV, I didn't expect anything, but then it turned out to be a pretty charming and surprisingly low key comedy about some good friends, who want to share the magic of their childhood with their families. Something tells me that if this would have been some low budget indie comedy, full of unknowns or TV stars (Jason Segel, Rainn Wilson) instead of the Sandler gang, critics would have liked it a lot better. (But let's not turn this into another chapter of the neverending ciritcs-just-don'tunderstand debate.)
Worst surprises...CASINO ROYALE, which made me wonder if I saw the same movie as anybody else. I just hated everything about it, except the Parkour chase. Daniel Craig, the stupid script that revolves around Bond trying to humiliate someone in a game of poker (I know, I know, it was in the book...), the unintentional silly torture scene (I know, I know, it was in the book...but hey, SHERLOCK HOLMES 2 succeeded in showing a really gruesome and painful PG13 torture scene!), how they promised realism, but turned Bond into an invincible action hero who can still fistfight with a nail in his shoulder or just walks a flatline off like a hickup.
Or 300, the only movie ever, that made turn the volume down, so that I didn't have to suffer through that painful monologue anymore. (Not to mention that if your movie is supposed to be an almost non-stop action scene, you shouldn't run half the movie in slow motion)
Or UNDERWORLD. Vampires Vs Werewolves? AWESOME! Only that it's one of the very few movies that I couldn't watch till the end.
In conclusion: I'm hard to surprise, I guess. From time to time I encounter a movie that is much better than expected, but I very hard encounter one that makes me want to write home about it.
That Werewolf Guy Oh, I forgot one: ICE AGE 2! Hear me out. The surprise wasn't the movie, but the audience reaction. I live in Germany and Germans just watch movies. We laugh at the jokes, we jump at jump scares, that's it. I saw this movie in a Canadian movie theatre and people were cheering and applauding certain moments! I never saw people applauding anything on screen during a regular showing!
August 31, 2012 at 3:02PM ESTjaketaylor7 I agree with you about 300. There are pieces of the movie I enjoyed, but I just don't get the mass appeal. But in all honesty, I'd read Gates of Fire long before I'd even heard of 300 and was partial to that particular telling of the battle.
August 31, 2012 at 3:58PM ESTThomas
August 31, 2012 at 3:16PM EST Reply to CommentThere are a lot of movies to choose from but to me the biggest surprise/revelation was…
The Matrix.
I think it’s easy to forget how under the radar this movie was originally. Remember Matrix came out the same year Phantom Menace did, which got all the hype around that time. I don’t even recall seeing a trailer and went in spoiler free (this was still early in the internet so avoiding spoilers was a lot easier).
The Matrix in my opinion is one of the best movies ever. It’s too bad that that the two sequels diluted the brand, but that still does not diminish the masterpiece that came unsuspecting to us in April 1999.
Another movie I would mention is LOTR: Fellowship Of The Ring. The only familiarity I had with Lord of The Rings was that bad animated movie. So I had no expectations going in. WOW. Fellowship to me was the best of the three movies. I dislike Drew’s use of the phrase “transported” but that is an apt phrase here as PJ took us to a whole new world…much the same Lucas did with Star Wars.
I didn’t expect that at all.
travelingrant Its true. I remember skipping school to see The Matrix on a bit of a lark. It was late spring of Senior Year and who cared? So we thought we would see just what was up with this weird looking kung fu movie. And it was amazing. A little bit later when I bought my first DVD player and DVDs, The Matrix was one of them. (Something I think holds true for a lot of people)
September 1, 2012 at 9:07PM ESTChip Booth Yeah the Matrix was my biggest surprise as an adult. I had never seen anything like it, and was completely unspoiled. I couldn't think of anything else for weeks.
September 2, 2012 at 6:19PM ESTFOTR was one of the most powerful film experiences I have ever had. As a lifelong Tolkien fan I had the highest of hopes for it, and actually seeing that world come to life was almost overwhelming emotionally. I guess it was a surprise that it was as successful as it was, but strictly speaking my expectations were fulfilled. I agree it was the best of the three movies, though each had wonderful sequences in them.
jaketaylor7
August 31, 2012 at 3:55PM EST Reply to CommentThe greatest surprise in my experience is The Shawshank Redemption. We had a free Showtime weekend and my brother insisted on watching it in 1995 (give or take) because he heard it was great, and I relented even though I thought I was going to fall asleep within the first 20 minutes. I knew it had some Oscar pedigree, but I always associated Oscar nominations/awards with boring movies at the time. I was fascinated within the first 5 minutes and sat on the edge of my couch the entire movie.
Biggest disappointment: every Arnold movie after 1994 (except T3, which I enjoyed but I likely won't watch again). I grew up worshipping the Oak. I watched Predator, T2, Commando, and Conan nonstop as a kid, and every time I'd see a trailer online I'd think to myself "Well, this movie must be good if he's doing this instead of CRUSADE or WITH WINGS OF EAGLES or I AM LEGEND" and every time I was thoroughly disappointed.
Cody B
August 31, 2012 at 4:22PM EST Reply to CommentThis is a great question and one that I really had to think about.
Best Surprise:
My biggest surprise isn't a movie that I though was going to be terrible but actually a movie I had been wanting to see for a long time. I wasn't overly excited for it, but I knew it was a movie that looked intriguing and I knew I wanted to see it. That movie was: Kil Bill.
When Kill BIll came out I was only 11 years old. My parents are pretty strict about the R rating so there was no way I was going to see it in theaters. Luckily for me, my parents were much more relaxed in terms of letting me watch R rated movies on channels like TNT, AMC, etc. since they usually edit out the bad stuff. Well one day Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 happened to be playing on TNT. I instantly set them to record and anxiously waited for my family to go to sleep so I could have the TV to myself.
It was late and wasn't actually planning on watching both sittings in one night but that is exactly what happened. I sat there glued to the TV as I watched The Whole Bloody Affair play out before my very eyes. I was stunned. Never had I ever seen anything like it. The movie blew me away and rocketed to the number one spot on my list of all time favorite movies, were it still firmly sits to this very day. The music, the characters, the story, the locations, the editing, all of it just seemed to blend so perfectly. Kill Bill surprised me because I had figured it would be pretty good, but I didn't know it would become my favorite movie of all time.
Worst Surprise:
I'm probably going to get chewed out for this one...
I was aware of Drive ever since the project was announced and I was totally onboard from that moment. I loved the story and I loved that Gosling was attached. Then as it got closer to the release date and critics started giving it great reviews, both my dad and I got more and more excited. The trailer totally sold us. We so ready for a kick-ass movie with Ryan Gosling being a total bad ass stunt driver by day, wheelman by night. Unfortunately that wasn't what we got...
We into the theater on opening day, totally excited and we left scratching our heads. What the hell happened?! The trailer made it look so exciting! You remember that lady who tried to sue because she thought it was going to be like The Fast and the Furious? I 100% agree with her, but I see where her head is at. While I never thought it was going to be like F&F, I thought it was going to be much more like that great trailer they had. The trailer portrayed him as someone you did not want to mess with. But int he actually movie though? He was a pussy! Lets run through the list here:
1) That hammer and bullet scene that everyone seems to think is so cool? In the "actually" cool version of this movie he would have done it!
2) The scene where he walks up to the restaurant in the mask kills me. I can remember thinking "ok, finally, this gonna go busts some heads!" But nope, he walks up to the door, creeps on the guys, THEN WALKS AWAY! WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
3) This last one is the worst. The scene where Albert Brook shanks Gosling. This one was the last straw. I thought this character was going to be a cool and calculated character but this scene just proves how much of a scrub he is. He turns his back practically BEGGING for Brooks to shank him! How unprofessional is that! While the scene was paying out I literally thinking in my head "Nooooo, he's not going to just turn around like that. Brooks is clearly gonna try and do somet- WHAT?! He DID turn around! COME ON!!!!"
I'm sure that if I had never seen the trailer and had gone into this movie cold I would have loved the hell out of it. I loved Brooks and all the other actors, and I loved the soundtrack. I just couldn't help thinking the entire time I was watching it, how much more of a kick-ass movie this would have been if Gosling's character hadn't acted the way he did.
I'm sure you guys will counter all of my reasons for disliking this film, and I'm sure you'll all be right. But I'm tellin ya, that trailer really engrained a specific version of what I thought this movie was going to be and unfortunately the actual movie ended up being the exact opposite of what I thought I was going to see.
Scott You've just listed all the reasons why Drive was a great movie.
September 3, 2012 at 8:20AM ESTBaneus
August 31, 2012 at 4:38PM EST Reply to CommentBiggest Suprise in a good way:The Matrix.
The ads showed nothing about the movie. No one had any idea what it would be about. Shit, we were all thinking it would be another Cinematic abortion like Johnny Neumonic. Nothing prepared me for how great the first movie was. I wish more movies were sold to us like that. The only director who manages to keep us in the dark is Nolan. Which brings me to my biggest dissapointment...
Biggest dissapointment: the Dark Knight Rises
I know. I know. So many of you loved it. Most people I talk to think it is the best of the triliogy. For some reason though I was so let down by it. I did not care for it at all. I'm still bummed I diddnt like it.
Drew, like you and Batman 89, I left TDKR happy with it. But when I got home I started thinking about it and started disliking it. I woke up the next morning with the realization that I diddnt care for it at all. I'm 30 years old and I've never had that reaction to a movie before in my life.
filmboy34 Baneus, I could not agree with you more about the film you chose for biggest disappointment. I too left the theater feeling as if I saw a decent conclusion to Nolan's series. But over the next few days I started to pick the film apart and increasingly came to the conclusion that I really didn't like the film.
September 1, 2012 at 12:58AM ESTThen I added to it my own expectations for the film and what I hoped would happen based on the previous films in the series. Combined it made me kinda angry and disappointed. My hopes for the film were so high and the actual film is so underwhelming. It still kinda nags at me a bit. But it is Nolan's series, for better or for worse.
Amit Aggarwal
August 31, 2012 at 4:54PM EST Reply to CommentTron: Legacy
I'd never seen the original Tron. Still haven't. I tried watching it a couple of times, but it never really engaged me, and it gathers dust on the blu-ray shelf. But the trailers for Legacy looked intriguing, the promise of something my CGI-weary eyes hadn't seen before. The prospect of light cycle battles in glorious IMAX 3D tickling me, I duly booked my BFI IMAX tickets, for myself and my wife, frothing with anticipation, her less so.
Then the first reviews began to surface. Ranging from mediocre to plain badness, and not badness in a badass way. I wondered whether I should get a refund on my IMAX tickets and wait for it to come out on blu-ray. I'm not quite sure why I decided to hang onto those tickets. But boy, am I ever glad that I did.
To this day, Tron Legacy in IMAX 3D remains for me, the finest IMAX experience to date. And i've seen TDK, Avatar, Mission Impossible 4, Prometheus, and TDKR in IMAX (as well as Fantasia, but the less said about that the better) so have some major releases to compare to. From the pulsing bass notes of Daft Punk over the opening credits, to Sam Flynn's break into Encom Tower, his transportation to The Grid, catching up with his father on the state of tech in the 21st century while aboard a floating neon soaked sail barge, to Old Man Flynn's final sacrifice to save his son, I was transfixed. Utterly engrossed, and transported to The Grid. Is it one of the best films I have seen? No it isn't - i'm more objective a film geek than that. But is it one of the finest sound and light shows I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing? By a country mile.
And what about my wife? Was she similarly gobsmacked? Nope. She thought it was junk, and no amount of persuasion can convince her otherwise. I guess sometimes, there's just no accounting for taste.
scott I agree with you a million percent - visually and aurally it was one of my absolute all-time greatest movie experiences. Especially the disc gladatorial battle and the light-cycle chase scene.
September 3, 2012 at 8:22AM ESTRobin Agreed. I had zero expectations for Tron: Legacy. I went because my boyfriend HAD to see it.
September 4, 2012 at 2:45PM ESTI walked out of that theater saying that was the best movie experience I've had since seeing the Matrix (4 times) in the theater. Neither was the best movie ever made, but for pure visual cinema, they were both simply amazing.
AMIT AGGARWAL Now all we have to do is persuade Mr McWeeny that this is a film truly worthy of a Second Look!
September 4, 2012 at 5:28PM ESTjeves23
August 31, 2012 at 7:03PM EST Reply to CommentThere have been a few films over the years that surprised me, good and bad. Let's start with the bad.
Going into 'Miami Vice', and knowing Michael Mann's track record, I was expecting something good, maybe even really good. I had heard good things about it from trusted sources (I believe you liked it quite a bit Drew, if memory serves), and what I got was a cheap looking piece of trash (even expecting video, after the relative masterpiece that was Collateral), that seemed to have no (engaging) story or characters, and was instantly forgettable (except for Colin Farrell's greasy-ass mullet & moustache). Not sure what happened there.... (but whatever it was continued on into Public Enemies... awful).
On to the good.
Somebody else mentioned Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which I am onboard with all the way, but the film I would have to pick would be The Matrix. For me it came out of left field - I was given an advance pass through work, and went with some friends expecting.... I don't know, something cool and fun, I suppose, based on the few tv commercials I had seen. But I left the theatre holding my brain and my jaw in my hands, not sure what I had just seen, but knowing that it was unlike anything else that I had come across before.
Runner up would be Fight Club, turning me into an all the way Fincher and Pitt and Norton and Palahniuk fan.... Again it was a movie that I had certain confined expectations for, and it managed to play both inside and outside that box, striking something deeper than pure entertainment.
Cash Bailey
August 31, 2012 at 8:30PM EST Reply to CommentWorst:
I don't know if you could actually call it a 'surprise' since this director's careerhas been steadily going down the toilet for the best part of a decade. But M. Night Shyamalan's appalling adaptation of THE LAST AIRBENDER ranks as the biggest cinematic disappointment of my life.
Going into it I allowed myself some hope. I figured that not even SHyama;an at his most self-aggrandising could screw up such a wonderfully-crafted piece of source material. I felt that he would inspired to bring back his A-game and make, essentially, his STAR WARS.
Oh, how wrong I was...
Best:
This is tough as I tend to not go see movies unless I'm pretty sure I'm going to like them. But one movie that was better than I expected was IRON MAN.
I knew nothing of the comic so I had no real expectations, but I was thoroughly entertained by the whole thing.
filmboy34
September 1, 2012 at 1:23AM EST Reply to CommentI must admit that biggest surprise was a tough one. But I have to go with the one that popped into my head first: Children of Men.
I went into that film only knowing of Alfonso Cuaron's work from the third film in the Harry Potter series, The Prisoner of Azkaban. So I kind of knew that the film would be shoot well. The cast was strong, particularly Sir Michael Caine and Julianne Moore.But I still worried that the film would be too much like every other post-apocayptic film that had come before it, with their desolate landscapes and abundance of gray tones.
Now the film does have both of those things in it. But it also had plenty of surprises as well. One of them was the unexpected killing of Julianne Moore's character. You assume with an actress of her statue that she will be in the film for a great deal of its overall running time. But this film wasn't playing by those rules and it just quickly and mercilessly kills her. It happens so quickly that I found myself as shocked as her estranged husband, played by Clive Owen, and the other passengers in the car with her. It was just such a jolt and it set the tone that this film was using a very different playbook.
Another thing that surprised me was the sheer level of filmmaking talent on display. In particular, the entire sequence involving Clive Owen running through a landscape as fighting waged around him. The entire sequence was shot with a single camera and it was done with no cuts, just straight continuous shooting. It was such a wonder to behold and so completely different than anything I had seen to that point. It just floored me completely. So much so that I spent the next several days searching online to learn all I could about how that sequence was shot. It is just one of the most incredible things I have seen in a film.
Then there was the ending. There is a very incomplete feeling about how the film ends. Clive Owen is dead in the boat and the girl and her child are safely about the ship, headed to be examined and understood. We don't know if the boat makes it back to the scientists. We don't know if those same scientists figure out what makes this girl different and in turn find a way to allow women to have children again. We simply don't see how everything turns out in the grand scale. And quite franly we should have to.
The point here was that the film ends when Clive Owen's adventure does. Once he dies, his adventure is over and as is the story being told. It is a brilliant way to approach a story like this I just find it so appropriate for the film itself.
As far as biggest disappointment, well that is easy : The Dark Knight Rises. This film landed this rare honor due to just how high my expectations going into the film. You had the The Dark Knight as the predecesor to this film. You had critcs giving standing ovations at test screenings and some saying they cried at the end. Amd you also had the high quality of the previous two films in the series.
Too many expections and too little deliverance on the promise of the ending of The Dark Knight and themes wherein. As a film, just looking at craft, it is pretty good. But the story could have used much more work.
matthew
September 1, 2012 at 2:26AM EST Reply to CommentA few different movies come to mind but none greater than John Carpenter's Halloween. I was never a big horror fan and I'm still not today. When I was a teen I had seen all of the big ones like Jason, Freddy, Pinhead, Chucky and even most of the Halloween sequels. All I felt that they had in common was that they sucked and slasher was garbage genre. But I'd never watched the Carpenter original. I watched how a true master of horror used simple things like POV shots, eery music and a "less is more" script (in terms of how they used Michael Myers) to keep the viewer uncomfortable and on high alert at all times when you wouldn't expect something bad to happen (i.e-"Hey creep, speed kills!").
The simplicity of the character of Michael Myers, which was deluded in the sequels, made him an even more horrifying killer than the other big names. He didn't tell jokes like Freddy or have flashy kills. His motives were simple. He killed his sister and now he was coming home to kill again and he just seemingly picked a lone random group of friends to torment on sight. In the first film he doesn't reveal Laurie is Michael's brother, in the first film he just decides to go after her after seeing her in front of the Myers house and proceeds to stalk her friends. In the sequels, he is given all of this cheesy motivation i.e-he has to kill all his family because of the cult he is apart of.
And finally, Dr. Loomis is probably one of my all time favorite protagonists of any genre. The Van Helsing of this era. He is just as obsessed and crazy in his own way as Myers is. Obsessed with stopping him. He is the only person who really knows and understands what kind of killer the police are dealing with and he knows that he hast to be killed.
Just an incredible experience to watch Halloween and its my all time favorite movie.
iain
September 1, 2012 at 5:24AM EST Reply to CommentA big recent surprise was Beasts of the Southern Wild. I was curious after seeing the trailer, but seeing the actual movie just floored me. I've been back to see it a second time -- I still feel like I'm processing it. It is very much it's own thing, but in many ways it tasted like a Miyazaki film...
Biggest disappointments... is it too easy to rag on The Phantom Menace? I saw the original Star Wars when I was 13 and, like Drew, it was a bullet in my brain. When the first prequel was announced I turned 13 all over again. I went bonkers. I stood in line at midnight to buy toys. I stood in line a month in advance to buy tickets and then stood in line again for 18 hours to get good seats to the first midnight show. I pre-bought a ticket to a matinee the next day because I KNEW I was going to want to see it again. I was drunk on Star Wars. But like a wormy bottle of tequila, it was rough going down. There were moments I liked, but there was an awful lot of crap to swallow. I was troubled after the midnight show, however I was still in denial and couldn't admit the truth. It was after that second matinee that the Star Wars hangover really hit and I realized I hated it. I kept hoping for the magic to come back through two more sequels -- for me, it never did.
Wires
September 1, 2012 at 8:00AM EST Reply to CommentZathura was really enjoyable.
TRON Legacy: as my expectations were low from reviews. Although the plot really isn't the greatest, the visuals and soundtrack just got me feeling like a giddy kid again.
Also the Matrix, as many have mentioned, the advertising was quite subtle and I didn't really know what to expect.
Kill Bill as well, just such a brilliant all round film.
Paul S
September 1, 2012 at 12:37PM EST Reply to CommentI had deep reservations about watching The Terminator, I had no respect for Schwarzenegger as an actor and did not really know much of James Cameron's work, but it was a cold winter's night and I decided to get out of the cold and watch it....Like a lot people, it pretty much changed my life! After growing up with Star Trek and Star Wars et al, this was grown up, punk rock stuff and it blew me away!
I was talking about this movie for months afterwards, begging my friends to watch this one.
My worst experience was Highlander 2 The Quickening - I adored the original and loved the trailers and hype to the sequel...but a few minutes into it, I felt like Kathy Bates in Misery regarding Rocketman..."This doesn't make sense....this disrespects the logical of the original!" Anyway, I have not seen any of it's other sequels as a result.
Because of this (it was 1991), I had reservations that Cameron's Terminator 2 would not be very good....thankfully it more than lived up to the hype.
Max
September 1, 2012 at 4:03PM EST Reply to CommentIf I had to pick the biggest disappointment of my movie-going history it's without a doubt "Episode One: The Phantom Menace". No other movie has left me that deflated and sad and totally angry upon exiting a theater in my life. I was CERTAIN it would be incredible, I mean it's fucking STAR WARS! But, holy crap did it suck.
Another movie I thought would be just fucking incredible was "Escape From L.A.". I'm sorry, but that movie is ass from beginning to end. The same goes for "Vampires". John Carpenter and James Woods killing vampires. How could that NOT be cool. Turns out in every way possible.
As for movies that really surprise me, they're never huge event flicks. They're smaller movies that look like crap but end up being awesome. "Tremors" was a movie I expected NOTHING from based on the poster and total lack of advertising and it has become one of my favorite movies of all time.
Another movie that really surprised me by taking me completely by surprise was "The Matrix". Never heard anything about it aside from the poster and I didn't have the internet back then. I walked in thinking it was a spy movie (And let me point out now, how great it is to be able to walk into a film unspoiled like that. You just don't get that anymore.)and walked out feeling completely shell shocked by awesomeness.
dyikini
September 1, 2012 at 11:52PM EST Reply to CommentIt's all dependent on your expectations isn't it really. Sometimes ahead of the quality of a film itself.
We can all talk about how we try to see a film for what it is, what it's trying to be and how well it's been put together based on those - but the emotions invoked by expectation can be hard to overwrite.
I'd actually always wanted to ask guys like you Drew, and Devin and the other writers I follow and respect the opinion of: How much do you honestly think expectation and your preconceived notions of what a movie will be play in to your overall feelings of it. What movies defied it and what movies could you NOT get over the fact you had an idea in your head. Especially since you guys have access that we typically don't and absorb a lot more pre-watching news, information and detail.
Anyway, biggest pleasant surprises for me are: Shawshank Redemption, Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, The Matrix... they all had a certain hype to them and it's a rare set of occasions where they are exceeded and the genuine quality of the films is why people get so excited about them!
Negative: One stands out above all others for me. Everyone was going about it's awesomeness and I maybe read into it a little too much - I simply cannot understand how ANYONE can think The Mist is a good movie in anyway what so ever. I think it's terrible and was shocked watching it just how bad it was, yet so revered!
Baneus I actually really enjoyed The Mist. I'm not a big horror movie guy, I never read the book (although I am a Steven King fan. I'm still waiting for them to turn The Talisman into a movie).
September 2, 2012 at 8:45AM ESTI found the movie itself to be atmospheric and suspenseful. What really won me over however was the ending. I thought it was really ballsy to end the movie to such a dark, dark note.
Granted, it's not a movie I can ever watch again. I have no desire to. But for what it was, I enjoyed it. I'll also never forget it.
Was there anything specifically that you didn't like about that movie? Or just the whole movie in general?
Just curious.
dyikini Yeah, it's hard to say why it hit me the wrong way so badly.
September 2, 2012 at 8:45PM ESTI love the premise and the general idea behind the film. Though I'd read non-spoiler reviews I didn't know much about it at all. I really just skimmed the reviews and then saw some reports on the difference between the colour vs black & white version.
What made me dislike it so much was the character's behaviour and the way they evolve throughout the situation. I just found it too absurd to take the rest of the movie seriously.
If you are to care about the characters in a film, you have to believe them and believe in them and their actions. That way when they find themselves in certain circumstances, you're along for the ride with them.
With The Mist, (sorry, I've seen it twice now but too long ago to remember too many specifics), I just found from the get go, that I couldn't relate any of their actions to anything but unwarranted or ridiculous.
They were doing things that they hadn't earned a reason to be doing yet - now, I know the movie is a premise that you could say "well, you don't know how anyone would act in such extreme circumstances" but the key factor is (from memory) they started this behaviour, well before it was warranted.
So when it came time that they started the particularly wild behaviour, I was already thinking "Oh c'mon!!! Yeah, like that guy's gonna do that!" - that thought popped into my head throughout most of the movie.
I don't remember details but I remember the old woman, and one of the soldiers being the biggest offenders.
Now, I know that those circumstances would change anyone's motivations and drive people to do some bat-shit crazy things, but I just found the evolution from 'normal' to 'doing shit we never thought we'd do! oh my god, what am I doing?!' just forced and not organic or well constructed in any way.
I found the final scene comically over-the-top and just plain silly as a result with no emotional impact because by that time I didn't believe in the characters, the world (also thanks to some crappy fx in parts) or their motivations in anyway by that point.
I just don't understand it and I don't understand how anyone can see it as anything other than that.
I don't mean to just pay it out cuz I didn't like it either! I'm not that kind of person, if this seems like a bit of a fanboy is disappointed attack then it's just cuz I'm typing this at work and kind of in a hurry :P
To sum it up, I wasn't sold on the characters because from start to finish I found their behaviour forced and unnatural, so come time for the more heightened stuff, I was angry at them and thought the whole thing just plain silly and silly is anything but scary, tense and thrilling.
On a side note, another surprise and this is one of the few other movies I totally disagree with the majority on, the english Death At A Funeral. Just thought it was the worst - tired jokes, typical situational comedy, cheap gags (midget in a coffin - oh haha. Guy on drugs does silly stuff - please stop, it's hurting it's so funny... yeah.) hehe anyway, that is all!
Hope it makes some kind of sense.
raleighstclaire
September 2, 2012 at 6:27AM EST Reply to CommentGreat question to get a first time post from me.
Totally shameless best surprises would have to be Pitch Black, Sahara and most recently Real Steel - who knew a film about big robots fighting could have actual heart.
Biggest disappointments would be any of the Matrixes - I will never get them - and Superman Returns where John Williams and childhood flashbacks got me over the line in the cinema but the DVD rewatch revealed the true nature of the film.
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