Top five surprising movie gems
May 23rd, 2008
Sometimes there’s a movie that you don’t know anything about, or you’ve only heard bad things and then when you bring yourself to watch it you are really surprised, pleasantly surprised!
Well it’s Friday so it’s Friday Top Five time and here are my Top five surprising little gems of a film!
- From Dusk Till Dawn - I had no idea about this film, it came out in a time before widespread internet, actually I might not have even owned a computer at the time at all! At any rate it was my birthday, I was intoxicated and wearing a very bright Hawaiian shirt. “Hey we should go check out that new Tarantino film.” “Tarantino has a new film? Cool.” So up to the cinema we rock, somehow bought tickets and stumbled into the theatre. Wall to wall Goths and I’m talking serious long haired, middle aged Charles Manson looking Goths. I vaguely recall one of them commenting on my shirt and me thinking that I was going to die. Anyway the movie comes up and it feels like a Tarantino flick, there are guns, crime and of course Tarantino is there. Hey Clooney is cool, he holds a gun coolly and delivers one of my now favourite movie lines (Your best better get a hell of a lot effing better or you’re going to feel a hell of lot effing worse). OK the boys are now at some Mexican bar and Salma Hayek (my first introduction to her) is coming out to perform the dance of evil or whatever. Fair enough, doesn’t seem that evil… SWEET JESUS she just became a vampire and bit Tarantino! Sober in three seconds. Everyone is a vampire. Damn I didn’t see that coming, how cool is this!?
- The Big Lebowski - I knew of it, I had already experienced the genius that is the Coen brothers but hadn’t really gotten around to checking the film out. Some Sunday afternoon, nothing else to do, watch what I now know as one of the most brilliant films ever and introduce myself to The Dude. What isn’t great about this film? Awesome, awesome, awesome.
- Jason X - Oh dear, they made it to Friday the 13th ten, who would have seen that? Probably the same people who made Police Academy Mission to Moscow (no that is not on this list!). Ok so it isn’t the greatest film on the planet, or any planet for that matter. But I really enjoyed it for some reason, it was dumb as these films are supposed to be but then Jason gets an upgrade and it gets even sillier. Actually maybe I’m mixing some of this up with Leprechaun in Space or maybe the Hellraiser set in space?
- Future Cop/Trancers - I honestly only got this out because there was nothing else on the shelves that I hadn’t already seen. You have no idea how glad I was too! It is a lot of fun, low budget silly fun with great one liners.
- Eurotrip - I pretty much figured that I had outgrown films like this despite still enjoying the American Pie films. This was on late one night and I thought why not as it started, apparently Scotty didn’t know and I didn’t look back! It is now one of my favourite comedies and I constantly find myself cracking up when I think about it. Tracey always laughs whenever we quote “you’re a very special boy“. I like the song of course and the French robot.
I actually found this list really hard to write, I couldn’t think of any apart from the first two at first and I’m not convinced on Jason X because I’m thinking I’ve merged it in my mind with those other films mentioned.
So what films have you been totally taken by surprise how good it was or how much you enjoyed it (the film doesn’t have to be good to enjoy it!)?
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Categories: Top five | Tags: big lebowski, eurotrip, Friday top five, from dusk till dawn, future cop, jason x, Top five, trancers
The dude abides.
Rols last blog post..A Terrible Waste Of Oxygen
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First, I confess I gotta make some time to see the Dude. I haven’t heard a single bad review of it, but it never quite makes it to my queue for some reason.
Anyway… pleasant surprises for me (in no particular order):
1. UHF - already talked about this one in the “1989″ comments
2. Ernest Saves Christmas - “Nobody moves, nobody dies…. AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! …. heh heh heh: Air brakes.” Stupid fun, but with a good moral message, too. Nice family movie. The first Ernest movie I ever saw (and easily the best).
3. Spaceship - this is easily the lowest budget movie I’ve ever watched, but it’s got some great older stars (Cindy Williams [Shirley Fini], Patrick MacNee [sp? from Avengers and original BSG], and Leslie Nielsen) and a slime alien/pet that ends up doing a song and dance number about eating your face. This is full-on B-movie (maybe even D-movie) sci-fi camp and cliche. I was in tears with laughter.
4. The Usual Suspects - somehow I heard NOTHING about this movie, not even the title, before seeing it on the theater marquee and my friend and I were bored enough to walk in with zero info. As you might imagine… Blown. Away.
5. The Karate Kid - my younger brother actually had to talk my mother and I into going to see this one. I’m glad we did.
Jeffs last blog post..Star Wars: Clone Wars videos (and an Obi-Wan debate settled)
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You picked some good ones, but Jason X? Even the Horror community shutters at the mention of such a poorly crafted sequel…gratuitous nudity is always nice though, so maybe it does deserve a place on your cool list.
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I can see the testosterone swirling around the room as I write this, but have to add that one of the most surprising movies I’ve seen lately was…VANITY FAIR. You can stop choking on your coffee now.
It’s not a movie I would have normally picked, and I chose it by default (the rest of the selection sucked, and James Purefoy was in it, so how bad can it be?).
As it turned out, it wasn’t half bad at all. None of the mannered Regency niceties I was braced for, rich characterisation, and an absolutely fascinating role by Rhys Ifans, who most people remember as the horrendous “Spike” from NOTTING HILL. This time, he was a romantic hero. It took me twenty minutes to recognize him.
Tracy Cooper-Poseys last blog post..Money…a great tool for Anchored Authors
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Rol - it’s nice to know that somewhere out there the Dude abides…
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Oh god Jeff this is really creepy - Spaceship was one of two films that absolutely terrified me as a small child, I have no idea what it was inside my five or six year old mind that triggered it but that slime creature and stuff haunted my nightmares for years.
Only a couple of years ago did I see it in the video store and grabbed it to face my fears. I was more horrified that it was this thing that had terrified me, this cheap nasty film.
So I can have no appreciation for it whatsoever. In case you’re wondering the other film was one called ‘The Stuff’.
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As I say Sir Jorge it is very possible that I have rolled that film up into a bunch of other horror franchises in space that were all these awful films that I quite enjoyed late at night.
Anyway what do you have against the Jason X people? They like you.
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Of those 5 I’ve only seen the Big Lebowski.
Psycho Beach Party was one we picked up on DVD years ago that looked terrible. And it was terrible but in such a way that made it wildly amusing and terribly good fun to watch. Voyage of the Rock Aliens is another so bad it is fun to watch.
Hmmm I sense a top 5 brewing.
Maritas last blog post..Habits
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Tracy - LOL you have no idea how close the Princess Diaries came to being on this list so I can assure you the testosterone levels are at a sensible level… um not that we aren’t manly men…
Anyway I’ve heard that before about Vanity Fair actually, a lot of people seemed to have written it off and then watched it and really enjoyed it.
For some reason or the other I have the impression that it is a really long film?
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Marita - Psycho Beach Party I’ve heard of but Voyage of the Rock Aliens I never have and it sounds like an awesome title at the very least!
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Augh! Vanity Fair?! I had the complete opposite reaction to that (and I’m not chick-flick-phobic). It looked good, it seemed good for a while, and then I just didn’t care anymore. Too long, too boring, too blah. At the end I and my wife were both sitting there going… “wha…? That’s what I spent my night doing?” Pointless.
Lee: you’re killing me with the Spaceship-phobia… I had no idea anyone else had even heard of that movie, let alone been frightened by it! I can’t stop laughing… Sorry. My friend and I used to walk around going “IIIII want to eat… your face” for weeks. heh heh.
Now I have to go find “The Stuff”…
Jeffs last blog post..Star Wars: Clone Wars videos (and an Obi-Wan debate settled)
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Bloody hell Jeff I was pretty young at the time LOL
I’m surprised anyone else knew of it too.
The Stuff isn’t scary either really, it is just one of those things that freaked me out when I was really young.
It is an interesting parody on consumers actually.
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Yes, VANITY FAIR is quite long — about 2.5 hours, which is longer than usual. The time moves along pretty quick, though. Besides, I’m one of those weird people who used to read the entire LORD OF THE RINGS, including appendices, once a year, and now watches the entire LORD OF THE RING, director’s cut, every year. Long doesn’t bother me, so long as I can off-load commitments for the necessary period.
I’m going to check out your top two movies, which are unknown to me.
Cheers,
Tracy
Tracy Cooper-Poseys last blog post..Money…a great tool for Anchored Authors
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Starship Troopers!
I don’t know what it is, but I loved that movie. Thought I’d hate it when I first was conned into watching it with hubby, but laughed my way through it. And that one with David Douchoveny and the green slime and the aliens (can’t think what it’s called)
Bettinas last blog post..Why Aunt Tina?
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Really have to think about some movies in this category…
Eurotrip wás fun though and normally I réally hate these kind of movies (it’s always fun to hear people speak Dutch in an English movie too).
Got to get back on this.
Arjans last blog post..Meeting a Ms. psycho bitch
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No bad reviews of The Big Lebowski? I hated it. I don’t remember what it was about at all, I just remember overwhelming dislike. I’d be willing to give it another chance since I don’t remember it, but my first reaction was not good!
Bettina, Starship Troopers is on my list too. The other one you mentioned is Evolution.
I was pleasantly surprised by Terminator 3, I hadn’t seen the others so I thought it was going to be mega lame. It was alright, then I watched the others and they were even better!
Also pleasantly surprised by Shaun of the Dead, the description sounded quite lame, but it’s freakin’ awesome. Also love Hot Fuzz, which has a lot of the same cast and some cross-over jokes.
kristarellas last blog post..Tumblr, tweets and twizzles (for shizzle)
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