The prejudices of the average movie-goer.

In Kong's latest review, he mentions being totally put off by commercials and trailers for Freaky Friday and forming some sort of prejudice against that film, only to be pleasantly surprised upon viewing. Did you have any such experiences yourself - positive or negative ?

I remember when Starship Troopers came out. The mere title, and the carefully mangled trailers made me think that this is a CGI-heavy Power Rangers rip-off. Naturally, I was pleasantly surprised with the heavy satire and good action scenes...film turned out kosher after all.

Chasing Amy, by Kevin Smith, was another hack job of marketing divisions in Serbia. The TV commercial featured some stills and slo-mos of Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams, including a cheesy tagline straight out of teenage romances, and a poster which gave away absolutely nothing. At the time I wasn't aware of Smith as a filmmaker (Chasing Amy was the first film I saw from him), so I avoided the film like SARS before I finally caught it on the local channel around 2AM during the war. I'm a fan of Smith's work eversince.

A "neutral" sort of surprise is the one I had after watching Korean masterpiece Friend (Chin Goo). After reading great reviews and almost orgasming after reading the tagline on the DVD case, "John Woo meets Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas", I found the film okay, but definitely not worth the abovementioned comparison. Then I watched it again, and again, and learned to appreciate it for what it actually is : a great drama depicting four different people growing up and their paths separating, and crossing again. So I did expect a great film, but the greatness came from another angle.

I don't remember when was it for the last time I was superbly hyped about some release (rabid joy spells over the DVD releases of Hong Kong classics don't count), so I don't suffer enough disappointments. I can say though that Denis Tanovic's No Man's Land didn't appeal to me at all despite great praise it received.

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Instinct was a huge surprise to me. They sold it as a thriller about a psycho played by Hopkins, and I thought that was what I was going to see. What I saw was my current favorite movie of all-time, with what I think is one of the most important messages any movie has ever had.

The biggest cinematic disappointment I've ever experienced was watching Batman Returns. I saw it either on the first day of release or on a preview. The crowd was excited as hell. When the projector started running, many people cheered. When the ads stopped and the movie began, even more people cheered than before. When they showed Keaton for the first time, people went nuts again. The excitement died down, and by the end of the movie NO ONE cheered; we just all kind of depressingly moped out of the theater.

I found the whole animal thing to be very stupid. Batman hung out with a bunch of bats, Catwoman hung out with a bunch of cats, and the Penguin hung out with a bunch of penguins. Catwoman licked herself clean and had nine lives!! I looked forward to this movie so much, and this is what Burton blessed us with. Yuck!

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One of the biggest myths told is that being intelligent is the absence of the ability to do stupid things.

I found Batman Returns to be one of the better Batman films to be honest. It managed to capture alot more of the darker side of Dark Horse comics than others such as Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.

Quite a disappointment was the recent Matrix Reloaded film but the more I think about it, I wasn't expecting too much as I didn't think they could improve on the original much. Instead they destroyed the plot and made it into a heavy budget action movie.

A pleasant suprise was the more recent Pirates of the Caribbean. I was dragged on reluctantly weary of the trailers depicting ghost pirates and orlando bloom. What I got in return was a hugely charismatic performance from Johnny Depp creating one of the most likeable onscreen characters I have encountered. A good side performance from Geoffrey Rush aswell. The quips from all characters were of reasonable wit and the physical humour was pleasantly appealing. It is definitely one of the most enjoyable blockbusters I've ever seen.

I felt that it managed to capture the goofier side of the TV show...

Edit: Just for the record, I thought Batman and Robin was worse, but I was much more disappointed in the second film, being as psyched to see it as I was.

I expected absolutly nothing from any of the Batman movies after part 2 and was not dissapointed in my theories. they were the worst action hero movies I had ever seen...I know this is not a thread describing batman movies but I find myself satisfied with the above comments on all the others....I cant think at this time of any others.

note: good pick with starship troopers I did not excpect much but found a lot more than I bargined for....I love you Heinlan.

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"YoU'r bOdy iS A bOaT tO laY aSiDE wHEn yOU ReaCh tHE FaR sHOrE...OR sEll It, iF YoU cAn FiND A foOL.......ITS FULL OF HOLES."
'BuRrOugHs.'

I expected nothing after the second one (which STUNK, in my opinion) as well. What comments did you disagree with?

the hulk is the most recent that i can remember thinking...omg why would they do that! just coz of all the cgi it had. but then when i saw it, well, i wouldnt say i was pleasently suprised but it certainly gave me and blib something to laugh about for a few hours.

the same with star trek (what ever the title of the latest one was. i only know it as 'the attack of the chins', 'return of the chin', 'the two chins' or some other name with chin in.) anyway i thought that film would be ****...which it was but i was happy to laugh at it with blib for a few hours and make fun of all the double and sometimes tripple chins in the film.

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I don't have Parkinson's. I inherited my shaking head from my grandfather Hepburn. I discovered that whisky helps stop the shaking. Problem is, if you're not careful, it stops the rest of you too. My head just shakes, but I promise you, it ain't gonna fall off!