OT Surprisingly Good Movies

[HuskyHawk]

While we wait for the seasons to begin, here is another thread to occupy your time. I'm curious to see what you think are movies that surprised you to the upside. Maybe the story, or acting, or perhaps they just moved you in some unexpected way.

I'll start with the 2013 version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I confess to generally liking Ben Stiller's comedies, especially with Owen Wilson or Vince Vaughn. But here we have a drama that was well told and moving. Use of the song Little Paws was also brilliant.

Another one is Don Juan de Marco. Something about it just feels right. Both movies involve people discovering who they are and who the can be.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Hangover 3. Reviews were pretty rough, but I thought it was very funny and a good end to the trilogy. I thought Hangover 2 was just the original, in Bangkok, and was not a fan overall. I liked the focus on Chow.

Kingdom of Heaven (2005). I really liked this movie. It was like the 9th major swords and sandels epic over a 5 year span, and there was definitely some audience fatigue on the genre when it came out. I am not a huge fan of Orlando Bloom or Eva Green for that matter, but otherwise the cast was pretty strong, especially Ghassan Massoud as Saladin. I have heard that the Director's cut is even better than the regular movie, but I have not seen it.

Smoking Aces. A bunch of cartoonish assassins go to Reno to kill Jeremy Piven, who is basically playing Ari Gold. This movie is just a fun film to watch. The plot is ridiculous, but it doesn't really matter. Enjoy the dialogue and the shootouts.

Boiler Room - Giovanni Ribisi is amazing in this movie about a Long Island bucket shop, stock brokerage. I am sure people walked out of this movie in 2000 wondering when Vin Diesel would win his first Oscar.

25th Hour - I am not sure how underrated this movie is, because it got a lot of love when it came out. Still, it is probably Spike Lee's best film.

Tin Cup - There are a lot of places this movie could have gone wrong, from its slow pacing, to a cast with inconsistent Kevin Costner, mediocre Rene Russo, and weak Don Johnson, to the fact that it is a movie about golf from the 90's without a Tiger Woods cameo. This is one of the funniest sports movies ever made.

 

[August_West]

Original Point Break

Bad movie that is one of greatest movies of all time.

 

[SubbaBub]

Periscope down. There should be no reason to watch or enjoy this movie but, there is.

 

[billythekid]

Two comedies that I had zero expectations of but really enjoyed were Tommy Boy and Stepbrothers. Stupid movies to be sure, but plenty of laugh out loud moments in both.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Two comedies that I had zero expectations of but really enjoyed were Tommy Boy and Stepbrothers. Stupid movies to be sure, but plenty of laugh out loud moments in both.

To that I'd add a slew of Ben Stiller comedies I thought would be terrible, like Zoolander, Dodgeball and Starsky & Hutch, yet all of them were hilarious.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Hangover 3. Reviews were pretty rough, but I thought it was very funny and a good end to the trilogy. I thought Hangover 2 was just the original, in Bangkok, and was not a fan overall. I liked the focus on Chow.

Kingdom of Heaven (2005). I really liked this movie. It was like the 9th major swords and sandels epic over a 5 year span, and there was definitely some audience fatigue on the genre when it came out. I am not a huge fan of Orlando Bloom or Eva Green for that matter, but otherwise the cast was pretty strong, especially Ghassan Massoud as Saladin. I have heard that the Director's cut is even better than the regular movie, but I have not seen it.

Smoking Aces. A bunch of cartoonish assassins go to Reno to kill Jeremy Piven, who is basically playing Ari Gold. This movie is just a fun film to watch. The plot is ridiculous, but it doesn't really matter. Enjoy the dialogue and the shootouts.

Boiler Room - Giovanni Ribisi is amazing in this movie about a Long Island bucket shop, stock brokerage. I am sure people walked out of this movie in 2000 wondering when Vin Diesel would win his first Oscar.

25th Hour - I am not sure how underrated this movie is, because it got a lot of love when it came out. Still, it is probably Spike Lee's best film.

Tin Cup - There are a lot of places this movie could have gone wrong, from its slow pacing, to a cast with inconsistent Kevin Costner, mediocre Rene Russo, and weak Don Johnson, to the fact that it is a movie about golf from the 90's without a Tiger Woods cameo. This is one of the funniest sports movies ever made.

Not a fan of Eva Green? Do you have eyes? I thought Kingdom of Heaven and Tin Cup were both pretty good. I think Smoking Aces too, but I can't remember it.

 

[G0UCONN]

Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2 - had no interest in watching but went with son. Excellent movies, very funny and entertaining.

Mystery Alaska - Goofy story. Liked it.

Deadpool - hilarious.

Three Kings

This is The End

 

[Taco]

Anyone ever seen The Change Up with Ryan Renolds & Jason Bateman. It's has a really tired storyline where the switch identities when the pee into a fountain... Thought it's be horrible, but it was hilarious.

 

[August_West]

To that I'd add a slew of Ben Stiller comedies I thought would be terrible, like Zoolander, Dodgeball and Starsky & Hutch, yet all of them were hilarious.

Add Tropic Thunder to that list.

Also Love Get Him to the Greek

 

[auggie22]

Echo the following:
Boiler Room
Tropic thunder
Dead pool
This is the End (x2 .... what a surprisingly funny and silly movie)

Add to that:
Semi-pro
Swingers
High Fidelity
PCU
Kingpin ( this movie holds up perfectly )
Hall Pass
Outside Providence
Just Friends ( hillariouslu rewatch able )
Say it isn't So

 

[G0UCONN]

Semi Pro has grown on me.

 

[intlzncster]

Original Point Break

Bad movie that is one of greatest movies of all time.

Yup.

Even further back, a movie that most probably didn't see, Big Wednesday.

 

[storrsroars]

Bandits
Flirting With Disaster
Nobody's Fool

 

[nwhoopfan]

Lots of good movies already mentioned. Semi Pro, that movie kills me. So dumb, but so hilarious. The poker scene is the best. You were never in 'Nam, you jive turkey.

Pitch Perfect

Accepted

Galaxy Quest

 

[Tommyboy]

Lots of good movies already mentioned. Semi Pro, that movie kills me. So dumb, but so hilarious. The poker scene is the best. You were never in 'Nam, you jive turkey.

Pitch Perfect

Accepted

Galaxy Quest

Galaxy Quest is a fantastic example of a surprisingly good movie. Never thought that would be anything and I loved it.

 

[intlzncster]

Bandits
Flirting With Disaster
Nobody's Fool

Clicked on the thread and forgot which one it was. Yours was the first post up.

And I read this and thought it was some sort of haiku or limerick. Was like, "not bad storrs, not bad".

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Bandits
Flirting With Disaster
Nobody's Fool

It is hard to put a movie with Paul Newman in the "surprisingly good" category. You could say the same about my inclusion of 25th Hour.

 

[storrsroars]

It is hard to put a movie with Paul Newman in the "surprisingly good" category. You could say the same about my inclusion of 25th Hour.

You've never watched "Harry & Son", have you?

 

[superjohn]

Hangover 3. Reviews were pretty rough, but I thought it was very funny and a good end to the trilogy. I thought Hangover 2 was just the original, in Bangkok, and was not a fan overall. I liked the focus on Chow.

Kingdom of Heaven (2005). I really liked this movie. It was like the 9th major swords and sandels epic over a 5 year span, and there was definitely some audience fatigue on the genre when it came out. I am not a huge fan of Orlando Bloom or Eva Green for that matter, but otherwise the cast was pretty strong, especially Ghassan Massoud as Saladin. I have heard that the Director's cut is even better than the regular movie, but I have not seen it.

Smoking Aces. A bunch of cartoonish assassins go to Reno to kill Jeremy Piven, who is basically playing Ari Gold. This movie is just a fun film to watch. The plot is ridiculous, but it doesn't really matter. Enjoy the dialogue and the shootouts.

Boiler Room - Giovanni Ribisi is amazing in this movie about a Long Island bucket shop, stock brokerage. I am sure people walked out of this movie in 2000 wondering when Vin Diesel would win his first Oscar.

25th Hour - I am not sure how underrated this movie is, because it got a lot of love when it came out. Still, it is probably Spike Lee's best film.

Tin Cup - There are a lot of places this movie could have gone wrong, from its slow pacing, to a cast with inconsistent Kevin Costner, mediocre Rene Russo, and weak Don Johnson, to the fact that it is a movie about golf from the 90's without a Tiger Woods cameo. This is one of the funniest sports movies ever made.

Hangover 2 was horrendous so I expected the third one to be as well, thought it was hilarious though.

25th hour is great, the last 10 minutes of the movie are perfection.

 

[intlzncster]

Hangover 2 was horrendous so I expected the third one to be as well, thought it was hilarious though.

I honestly could watch movies with Chow all day. It's so dumb but he never fails to make me laugh.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Hangover 2 was horrendous so I expected the third one to be as well, thought it was hilarious though.

25th hour is great, the last 10 minutes of the movie are perfection.

I like the scenes in 25th hour where it just focuses on 1 or 2 characters, like Barry Pepper on the trading floor, or Philip Seymour Hoffman in class. The movie is incredible. For that reason it is hard to apply "surprisingly good" to the movie.

I didn't think Hangover 2 was bad so much as it was exactly the same movie as the first one, just in Bangkok. The jokes aren't as funny when you see them coming a mile away. Hangover 3 was something completely different though. I liked it.

 

[superjohn]

I like the scenes in 25th hour where it just focuses on 1 or 2 characters, like Barry Pepper on the trading floor, or Philip Seymour Hoffman in class. The movie is incredible. For that reason it is hard to apply "surprisingly good" to the movie.

I didn't think Hangover 2 was bad so much as it was exactly the same movie as the first one, just in Bangkok. The jokes aren't as funny when you see them coming a mile away. Hangover 3 was something completely different though. I liked it.

25th Hour also handled 9/11 perfectly. It was always looming (like Monty's prison sentence) and was like a background character that filled everything with some dread and somberness but Spike did a good job of never exploiting the tragedy.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Overboard isn't that funny & plot is absurd but b/c of Hawn-Russell chemistry very watchable.
The Terminal (might not count under the Newman rule as it has Hanks, but as a Russian!)
The Principal (Jim Belushi)
Salvador (JB again but mainly James Woods as an extremely liberal photographer, ironic given his current right-wing stance)

 

[Excalibur]

Original Point Break

Bad movie that is one of greatest movies of all time.

I met and had dinner with the producer of that movie in Hong Kong about 5 years ago. He told me about the (then) planned remake, called it the most ridiculous thing he'd ever seen. And we're talking about the guy behind Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj. Of course, he couldn't pass up a buck -- I saw his name as an executive producer of the remake.