Movies that looked awful...but turned out to be surprisingly good.

[bucknersrevenge]

Oh and in light of all the hip-hop fans I submit these 2 jewels from the very early days:

Breakin'
Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

C'mon if you're at least 29 there's absolutely no excuse to not know what movie I'm talkin' about here and you KNOW you loved it too when it first came out. Don't even play like you didn't wanna break like Turbo and Ozone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqV6E9Zol24

If nothing else, watch this movie now as an adult. The Unintentional Comedy Rating is through the roof!!!!

[freshinthehouse]

Freddy vs. Jason.  This movie had crapfest written all over it.  But they kept it silly, kept it stupid, and made a movie that was a lot of fun.

Dawn of the Dead remake.  I guess I can't say that I thought it looked awful, because the ads were alright.  But knowing the track record of horror movies over the last decade, I was VERY skeptical, to say the least.  They knocked this one out of the park.  The first ten minutes or so are superb.

[celticmaestro]

A couple more I've just remembered.

Sideways - Comedy/Drama with Paul Giamatti; really like this film, looked bad but was a brilliant film.
Lucky You - Poker film with Eric Bana & Robert Duvall; this didn't get the attention it deserved, not great but doesn't warrant the bad reviews it got.
The Painted Veil - Edward Norton, Naomi Watts; despite having fantastic male & female leads, it looked so boring. Quite the opposite.
Click - Adam Sandler; I normally can't stand Sandler (he's got nothing on Ben Stiller) but this was a good film, funny at the right times and sent out a good message.

[greg_kite]

Well I remember seeing the ads for The Matrix, and seeing Keanu Reeves star in it and refusing to see it.  Ended up renting it and enjoyed it.

As a wee lad, I thought Braveheart was going to be a cheesy romantic epic.  Turns it it was the war movie that redefined war movies.

Grandma's Boy was going to be awful... but then I saw it and it wasn't anything like I expected, and I laughed until I could barely breathe.

Gotta agree on Braveheart.  I forgot that I originally thought it was going to be a crappy movie about medieval times.  Now it's my favorite movie of all time.

[bucknersrevenge]

Freddy vs. Jason.  This movie had crapfest written all over it.  But they kept it silly, kept it stupid, and made a movie that was a lot of fun.

Dawn of the Dead remake.  I guess I can't say that I thought it looked awful, because the ads were alright.  But knowing the track record of horror movies over the last decade, I was VERY skeptical, to say the least.  They knocked this one out of the park.  The first ten minutes or so are superb.

TP for Dawn. I wasn't a big horror fan and still aren't but this was a very intelligent movie. Now as it stands I'm a big fan of the zombie genre though not all of them are as good as this one wasy. 28 Days Later is another favorite.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Here are some that I didn't think much of when I decided to watch them and ended up being pleasantly surprised or at least ended up enjoying them:

Knocked Up
Superbad
Ace Ventura
Amélie
Airborne
Payback
You've Got Mail
Kindergarden Cop
Blue Streak
Howard the Duck

[Redz]

Freddy vs. Jason.  This movie had crapfest written all over it.  But they kept it silly, kept it stupid, and made a movie that was a lot of fun.

Dawn of the Dead remake.  I guess I can't say that I thought it looked awful, because the ads were alright.  But knowing the track record of horror movies over the last decade, I was VERY skeptical, to say the least.  They knocked this one out of the park.  The first ten minutes or so are superb.

TP for Dawn. I wasn't a big horror fan and still aren't but this was a very intelligent movie. Now as it stands I'm a big fan of the zombie genre though not all of them are as good as this one wasy. 28 Days Later is another favorite.

The Dawn of the Dead remake was well done.  Maybe my favorite opening credits ever done to Johnny Cash's "When the Man Comes Around"...Right up there with Rocky 3 "Eye of the Tiger" for getting me pumped up for a movie.

28 Days Later was another good one, though I liked 28 Weeks Later even more (rare case of enjoying the sequel more - and I did like the first one)

Here's Johnny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDN-tqDgssE

[CountChockula]

Two words...Pootie Tang!!! Sa-da-tay 

[StartOrien]

Two comedies: Undercover Brother which was probably funny only b/c i had such incredibly low expectations

and Walk Hard, which has escalated to one of my favorite comedies ever.

[Redz]

Two comedies: Undercover Brother which was probably funny only b/c i had such incredibly low expectations

I definitely had no high hopes on Undercover Brother either, and you're right it was pretty funny.

Come to think of it, probably the biggest surprise for me ever was Austin Powers.  Everything I'd seen in the previews seemed incredibly annoying.  I didn't see it until it was on video, but once I started watching it I got what they were shooting for.  Dr. Evil put me over the edge in being sold that Austin Powers was a mild stroke of genius.  Of course they milked it dry, but coming from flatly refusing to see it, to having me in stitches ranks it up there in this category for me.

[Eja117]

I wasn't sure about Walk the Line.  Dan in real life (or something like that) with Steve Carril was something I couldn't stop watching. I was nervous about No Country for Old Men and Unforgiven.  I wasn't sure about Marty. Singing in the Rain. I didn't expect much from Frankenstein (the 1933 one). I wasn't sure what to expect from Rebel without a Cause. When I was a kid Princess Bride looked dorky till I watched it. The cover of Willy Wonka looked chaotic and intimidating when I was a kid

[miraclejohan]

Goodburger.

Stuntman.

[celts55]

Harold and Maude. When I first heard it was about an 80 year old woman and a 20 year old boy, I had my reservations, but it turned out to be one of my favorites.

[freshinthehouse]

28 Days Later was another good one, though I liked 28 Weeks Later even more (rare case of enjoying the sequel more - and I did like the first one)

Talk about a movie with a great opening.  The first ten or so minutes of 28WL are freaking intense.