Unexpectedly decent movies
 

Doesn't happen often, because, most often, when you don't expect a movie to be decent, well, you just don't waste money or time (or physical space) on it. Still, life being what it is, or, in the best of cases, trust being what it is, sometimes you check out a movie bracing for the worst. Or take a leap of faith.

And it turns out okay. Or good. Or brilliant.

Easy examples : As a kid, I used to assume that any classic was classic for reasons of tradition and snobbery, and would always turn out boring like a school obligatory read (oh how many masterpieces the school context did ruin). So the very fact that Casablanca and Citizen Kane blew my mind blew my mind.

More mundane examples : I checked out the MCU expecting the silliest franchises to make the lamest movies - but Captain America, Ant Man and Doctor Strange turned out paradoxically the most enjoyable ones to me (maybe because the weak premises forced the writers to either subvert them or embrace the silliness, anyway to think further than the original material).

And tonight I just watched Venom, because I once commented that its sequel's trailer looked amusing and some forumer answered that the original was actually very watchable. Which is surprisingly true. The movie suffers from being a Marvel flick at two levels, one benign (Venom is only as "alien" to human culture and biology as a superhero character can be, so it starts like The Thing and quickly turns into Men in Black), and the other critical (very boring Marvel-type ending(s), full with stupid mid-title sequence), but that doesn't ruin the overall experience. It's a fun action movie, for the most part as silly and as grounded as Leigh Whannell's Upgrade, which had struck a perfect balance. And Tom Hardy is definitely a very, very amusing actor.

So, Venom is my latest good surprise. The previous one was The Suicide Squad, which was much more entertaining than what I expected.

Lots of superhero movies in that category. Any good or great movies that you almost completely disregarded, on your side ?

Went to the local theatre and saw Reminiscence. Sci fi noir. It wasn’t bad, despite following a typical noir mystery formula, the mystery is what kept this going, and Jackmans performance. Nothing great, certainly not oscar material, but he played the desperate/lost man in search of his past love pretty well.

So there’s that, I guess.

Re: Unexpectedly decent movies
 

Wading through the sea of terribleness that is 50's sci-fi, I would never have expected I Married A Monster From Outer Space to be one of the genuinely good ones. I expected 10 tons of cheese outta that one.

Jackman REALLY carried this one, but he was excellent IMO. My opinion of the movie might have improved with a big screen view but ended up streaming it on HBO Now. Visuals and effects were mostly very well done. I enjoyed the last twenty minutes or so very much. Just everything before that was a chore to get through for me.

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I love 50s B sci fi but yeah it's cheesy. I Married A Monster From Outer Space was surprisingly nuanced, such a ballsy title for such a statement type film.

Yeah, it’s way too predictable and follows the formula too closely to be great, but I enjoyed it enough. Jackman was good, not really great to me. It had an interesting concept for sure.

My little Boris Karloff spree accidentally morphed into an exploration of asian detectives played by "white" americans in the 30s. And after the cheap and marvelously embarrassing Mr Wong Detective, I expected the same from Think Fast Mr Moto. I was wrong. That's a genuinely cool little movie. And Peter Lorre is really, really awesome.

I'm partially driven by the will to more accurately get Murder By Death's references (I started the The Thin Man series recently because of it), so my first Charlie Chan movies are next. But I really think I'll keep watching all the Mr Moto films, possibly with the same pleasure as the old James Bond.