jackie childs said:

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Spy

I think it's the first Melissa McCarthy movie I saw in a theater and remember thinking it was way better than it had any business being

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Ooo good one.

Spy had me quoting one liners from it for months.

"Oh what? You gonna cry!? You swedish *****"

The Hangover

Had no idea what the movie was about or any actors in the movie. I rarely go to the the theaters and I was told after opening weekend, before all the huge hype, by a friend I needed to see it.

A Quiet Place

Quite a few Oscar nominations listed on here so far

MuckRaker96 said:

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Every time Bradley Cooper does well in a dramatic role, it's just one more nail in the coffin that he will never play Sack in Wedding Crashers 2: The Rise of Todd

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Hit and Run was on the other night. He's had an interesting trajectory.

Not the last but secondhand lions was great.

Moon (2009) with Sam Rockwell.

Book of Life (animated)

Hell or High Water
Ex Machina
They are both critically acclaimed, but I knew nothing about them before I watched.

Social Media Influencer said:

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MuckRaker96 said:

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Every time Bradley Cooper does well in a dramatic role, it's just one more nail in the coffin that he will never play Sack in Wedding Crashers 2: The Rise of Todd

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Hit and Run was on the other night. He's had an interesting trajectory.

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That super cut of Louis ck making fun of students asking questions on the actors studio and how the will amount to nothing followed by Bradley cooper doing that followed by bradly cooper rubbing his nuts in cks face..is a thing of beauty.

Said clip

Inside Out

Tanya 93 said:

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Inside Out

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great choice. It was by all means a kids movie, but it was brilliant!

jjmanzano said:

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Tanya 93 said:

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Inside Out

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great choice. It was by all means a kids movie, but it was brilliant!

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Bing bong

Oh, another one I thought of, Logan Lucky. I had zero expectations from that movie, but it ended up being very good.

Unfortunately part of my judgement of movies/shows I watch at home now is whether it interests me enough to ignore my phone completely. The "what door" scene in Westworld season 1 and the opening walls scene in Sicario both made me literally drop my phone to pay attention.

Totally agree on all those!

The Big Sick. Wife and daughter wanted to watch it one weekend and I went in thinking the film would have nothing for me. I was so wrong. Fantastic movie.

91_Aggie said:

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Also Sling Blade in the same category.... that one I heard a little buzz. Told my girlfriend we should see it based on one person's rec.... she went expecting it to be a dumb action movie based on the title.

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If you liked Sling Blade, you should checkout The Apostle. Lots of the same actors and has a similar vibe.....plus a young Walter Goggins.

But to answer the OP's question, I really enjoyed Good Time starring Robert Pattinson. I had low expectations, but really liked the movie.

Kiss kiss bang bang,

For personal reason, A Monster calls. I had no idea what the movie was about when I watched it. I had literally come back days before from saying goodbye to a friend that was in their last days from cancer, and by the end I was crying my eyes out, it was the exact cathartic experience I needed.

Would agree with a Star is Born (posted something similar in another thread).

On the "going in with lower expectations" spectrum - Joe Dirt, Road Trip, and GOTG.

CowtownAg06 said:

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Kingsmen and Edge of Tomorrow are great calls....

However Guardians of the Galaxy is when I went from mildly interested to all in on the MCU.

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Yes!!! GoTG 2 Is what got me hooked.

I still say Oh Brother Where Art Thou was the best surprise for a movie. Original movie we wanted to see was sold
out and dude at the ticket booth suggested OBWAT. Went back to see it again the next day with more friends.

chipotle said:

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jjmanzano said:

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Tanya 93 said:

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Inside Out

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great choice. It was by all means a kids movie, but it was brilliant!

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Bing bong

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I cried when he died.

That movie had levels of depth I wasn't expecting.

I randomly threw on Everybody Wants Some!! One day and wasn't expecting more than a fun booze comedy.

What I ended up getting was a movie that perfectly encapsulates what it is like during the early years of college. It's seruously one of my top 10 of all time and far ahead of dazed and confused

Dark Knight
infinity War
Matrix
gattaca
The big short

TresPuertas said:

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I randomly threw on Everybody Wants Some!! One day and wasn't expecting more than a fun booze comedy.

What I ended up getting was a movie that perfectly encapsulates what it is like during the early years of college. It's seruously one of my top 10 of all time and far ahead of dazed and confused

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That's exactly how I feel about Everybody Wants Some! One of my favorites of the decade. Replace college baseball team with the Corps, and set it in 2003, and you pretty much have my freshman year experience, with more hazing of course.

I always liked, but didn't love Dazed and Confused-also directed by Richard Linklarter-simply because I wasn't a stoner in High School. EWS connected with me in a way that film didn't.

Yup. I was in the Greek system but it just proves that we all kind of did the same things, no matter the organization.

The down time before classes started were exactly that the movie portrays. Not a lot to do, a ton of freedom, and a ton of booze. It was spot on.

And I agree with your assessment of D&C. It was fun but wasn't exactly how my high school days went, primarily because I wasn't a big dope smoker.

Random one but I'll say Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I hated the trailers ~5 years ago, and I've mostly enjoyed Edgar Wright but found his stuff a little overrated, but damn if I wasn't laughing throughout this entire movie. It's very Kung Fu Hustle.

The last two for me, on totally different ends of the spectrum.

John Wick, the trailers made it look just like another action movie, but the buzz built up quickly into something I had to see, and I was not disappointed. Probably my favorite action move ever now, it's so awesome and unique. Not just the story, but the world it created as well. It's definitely a film I can watch over and over and not get tired of.

The other one is Coco. I just stumbled into it on Netflix when watching stuff with my daughter about a year ago. I just kind of figured, it's a Pixar movie, has to be good. Was definitely hard to hold back the tears by the end of it. I just loved the movie, completely. The whole story revolving around who we are is built on our family, and our family also hoping they aren't forgotten. Miguel playing the song for Coco at the end and her remembering her father singing that song for her when she was a baby, just really hit home for me. Hector didn't get to be a father to his daughter because of what happened to him, and his family never knew and he was almost forgotten. I highly recommend this one if you haven't seen it, doesn't get the love it deserves amongst the other Pixar films.

is this thread a list of "Pleasant surprises that you had no expectations of" or about movies that you had low expectations of and were really surprised by how your expectations were subverted?

I thought it was more the latter.

John Matrix said:

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TresPuertas said:

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I randomly threw on Everybody Wants Some!! One day and wasn't expecting more than a fun booze comedy.

What I ended up getting was a movie that perfectly encapsulates what it is like during the early years of college. It's seruously one of my top 10 of all time and far ahead of dazed and confused

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That's exactly how I feel about Everybody Wants Some! One of my favorites of the decade. Replace college baseball team with the Corps, and set it in 2003, and you pretty much have my freshman year experience, with more hazing of course.

I always liked, but didn't love Dazed and Confused-also directed by Richard Linklarter-simply because I wasn't a stoner in High School. EWS connected with me in a way that film didn't.

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so minus the chicks as well then.

both. Movies that exceeded your expectations could mean movies you thought were going to be terrible but turned out to be great or movies you thought were going to be ok that turned out to be great.

Silver Linings Playbook

My wife had to drag me to this one and I ended up loving it. She laughs at me about it now as I ended up liking it way more than she did.

Notting Hill

Same with this one. Every time I run across it I have to stop and watch.

District 9
The Hateful Eight

Toy Story 4

Mary Poppins 2
Along Came Polly

Inside Out.

I went because I expected to be watching a family movie with my family.

I didn't expect to watch something that affected the way that I deal with my kids.

A lot of great examples here. Edge of Tomorrow, Source Code, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang were great surprises. But if I had to narrow it down to one...

I did not want to see Lucky Number Slevin AT ALL. A friend dragged me to it and I came out blown away. Still one of my favorite movies ever.

Everyone is going to kill me on this - but I'll go just a different way. Going to see a movie last week with my teenage boys. Nothing at the theater...but we all wanted to see something. We chose x-men: dark phoenix.

My expectations were it would be a notch below the last Fantastic Four. Horrible plot holes, story that totally didn't make sense, bad special effects...

By no means a great movie - but I could possibly give it a 5/10. Especially if you rate it as a standalone movie. My biggest problems with it were really how it fell into the overall series (oh my god the series totally is one big plot non-sequitur) Not thrilled with Sansa Stark - but she wasn't horrible. Got through it, me and the boys were ok with how we had just spent our time.