Films you enjoyed (but did'nt expect to).

mike65

As a companion piece to the "Most over-rated Movies of all-time" thread which flick did you see not expecting anythng much but
which turned out to be great even Great.

Two which I think of are The Sugerland Express which I saw on the box over Christmas in about 1979-1980. This was just before I started buy to reference books and so all I knew was what the RTE Guide told me - ie not much. It was/is great - exciting, funny and in the end quite moving, hell I nearly thought Goldie Hawn was a proper actress . I knew Spielberg from CE3k of course but this was I huge surprise. If you get the chance, see it.

The second is a film called Nobody's Fool starring Paul Newman
as a 60-something waster who is managing to annoy/alienate all around him during a bleak mid-winter (yes the weather is
symbolic). Its a tour-de-force from Newman but also Bruce Willis
who is not in the credits, hell he might get an Oscar yet!

Mike.

Giblet

I have two new ones.

Dog soldiers: I thought it was going to be rubbish but it was easily the best film of the year.

Insomnia: Just went to see it for no reason, wasn't expecting much, was good though.

phobos

American Beauty, without a doubt. I remember going to see it with a large group of people. Out of that group only one wanted to see it, and because he's very stubourn we let him have his own way, and we all thanked him in the end. I wanted to see something else that night, and it turned out to be pants when I eventually got to see it.

Now I listen to people that know there shít, like plastic membrane who is king of film on these boards IMO

;-phobos-)

sceptre

Shawshank Redemption.

Went to see it while in third year (as scummy poor students we used occasionally leave one movie and sneak into another if one ended just before another started)

Sneaked from Timecop (crappish) into cinema 4 in the Savoy in Limerick (door hidden from view of the chap checking the tickets)

So good we all felt like paying for it on the way out (as it happens we didn't because we were scummy students and wanted to be able to sneak into other movies)

Ever After was a surprisingly good flick imho (at least I liked it)

Dustaz

Fight Club: i hadnt read the book and ignored all the trailers so i thouht it was a brad pitt vehicle.

Withnail and I: "oh fcuks sake, a film about english struggling actors, yeh great..."

Makaveli

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest: saw it in school, thought it would be totally crap. Just some old Nicholsan film. How wrong I was, loved it. One of my all time favourites.

Run Lola Run: saw it in 5th year German class, so we could use it for out Oral exam. I didnt expect much from it, and the fact it was in German didnt appeal to me all that much, but I was wrong again. Excellant film.

To anybody that hasnt seen either of the above films (which I would say is very few) I highly reccomend them.

Oh and one I expected to be crap only for it to turn out to be enjoyable was Enemy Of The State with Gene Hackman and Will Smith.

Cake Fiend

La Haine
Fight Club
The Matrix
TimeCode (ask Dusty)

Dont be at yourself

I too didn't expect much from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. A very pleasent surprise, its a top notch film.

Recently, I thought Amelie was fantastic, depite not having high hopes for it. I mean, its french, for God's sake!

Robbo

Bizarrely, I sat down and watched "What Women Want" on Sky Movies there recently. Mildly enjoyable and completely untaxing.

Naturally, I was very drunk.

BKtje

During 4th year a cpl years back, we went to the Irish Film Centre.

Saw some French film about a guy who gets a gun. He ends up killing a cop then killing himself or something.

i cant for the life of me remember the name of it and i cant remember much of it either which is a real shame. It was brilliant.
Every student in the place at the start was making noise, but by the end it was silent. Every 1 was gripped by the power of it.

I know it aint a lot to go on but does anyone know the name of it?
Been trying for ages to remember it.

Anyway. That was the film i thought would be ****e but ended up being class.

bugler

That was the aforementioned "La Haine", and yes, it's a fine film.

Hmm, Dog Soldiers would have to be there alright, very enjoyable. Also Vanilla Sky. I only went to it because whatever else was on had started/was sold out, and I hadn't a clue what the film was going to be about. Could have been a romantic comedy about Cruises mishaps in love for all I knew. And that was the way to approach it

BKtje

o, was it?
cheers for info

claire h

Life Is Beautiful (La Vita É Bella) - forced to go see it in the IFC for school, but loved it.

American Beauty - thought it'd be just another bland comedy, but was proven wrong.

Drive Me Crazy - yeah, shut up. I watched this with a friend when we felt like something unbelievably trashy, and was surprised. Not exactly deep and meaningful, but as a teen romance, pretty good.

Erin Brockovich - with Julia Roberts in it I was thinking "okay, romantic comedy which I'll cry at during the appropriate times and cheer when she finally ends up with the man of her dreams." I was somewhat misguided.

Mark

Memento. Rented it out after being mildy intrigued by seeing some of a trailer for it. Lo and behold, it went straight into my top 5.

gandalf

Life as a House Excellent film that I saw on the plane back from Japan. I ended up buying the DVD so I could see it properly.

Run Lola Run I agree with Makaveli its a very good and different film.

Taxi Bought this blind from the foreign films thread on this forum. Enjoyed it greatly eventhou I had heard nothing about until seeing it reviewed on here.

Withnail & I Held off watching this film for years because I don't like Richard E. Grant. Boy was I wrong this is a brilliant comedy.

The Ruling Class another blind DVD buy. It had Peter O'Toole in it and I had just watched Lawrence of Arabia so I took a chance. Its a absolutely excellent black comedy about a Duke who thinks he's Jesus. I won't go into any more detail as I'll ruin it for you.

Gandalf.

Squall

I must admit i went it to A Sum of all fears expecting it to be a "Goddammit Mr President" america is great type thing but it actually had little or none of that. i thought it was very enjoyable and very tense, i guess i shoulda known with morgan freeman.

tman

run lola run was a totally unexpected surprise, my mother dragged me out to some foreign film night, i expected it to be sh|te, but ended up loving it.
the matrix i'd heard nothing but bad things from idiots that didnt understand it, one of the few sci fi films i truely loved
suckers it's been on tg4 3 times now, and i've watched it every time:D. didnt know what to expect the first time i watched it, one of my top 10 films of all time at this stage

Makaveli

Originally posted by gandalf

Taxi Bought this blind from the foreign films thread on this forum. Enjoyed it greatly eventhou I had heard nothing about until seeing it reviewed on here.

How could I forget this.
Stumbled across it one late night on Channel4.
Excellant film.

Pigman

Boogie Nights
About Adam
Cube
Star Wars Ep 2 .... oh wait, I didn't like that!

tman

Cube

is that one where a few people get put inside this weird cube type thing and have to find their way out?
cant remember much more, just that it was a class film

Pigman

Originally posted by tman

is that one where a few people get put inside this weird cube type thing and have to find their way out?
cant remember much more, just that it was a class film

yep, that's the one.

po0k

I see a few of ye put Run Lola Run here.
I love that film, but I can't put here by rights, cos I rented it on the basis of seeing that chick with the red ahir pegging it around for and hour and a half.

Anywyas:

The Cube
Pretty Village Pretty Flame
The Abyss
Shrek
Titan A.E.

Tellox

Erin Brockovich
Screwed
My Dog Skip

Caesar_Bojangle

raging bull
12 angry men
when stella got her groove back .......... oh no that was ****e

Bard

Bad Company... recent movie with Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock.

Enjoyed it far more than I expected. Forgot about it swiftly afterwards.

er...


I'll get me coat.

Pigman

One more to add to the list .....

Just saw Kurosawa's Seven Samurai today and I have to say that it was simply amazing. Check it out if you get a chance!