The last time you were FOOLED into thinking a masterpiece would be a horrible movie?

[TheLaughingMann]

Props go to Penelope37 in their thread for originating the idea of the last time a horrible movie fooled you into thinking it was a masterpiece: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=292286

But what of the opposite? When was the last time you were fooled into thinking something that was inexplicably brilliant or well done or great was going to be a horrible movie?

For me, it was A Knight's Tale. I thought it would have been horribly cheesy the first time that I saw it. But I got captivated from start to finish. And here we are, over a decade and a half later, and the movie has gotten BETTER (especially with the climb of some of the cast members):

When you have a movie that features Robert Baratheon, the Joker, Vision (from the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Lydia from Breaking Bad, Wash from Firefly, Marc Antony from Rome, and Obergruppenfuhrer Smith from The Man In the High Castle, with a dose of rock for the soundtrack, and the right blend of comedy, drama, and hope woven into it, it really becomes the kind of movie that people can enjoy.

So go ahead, folks. What was that rich and vibrant gem you found in the film wastes that needed a good polish (or watch) to be appreciated beyond a first glance?

[Stanis]

Starship Troopers, when it came out all the worst redneck types were in love with it and Cgi was my mortal enemy and I stubbornly avoided it. It wasn't until a decade or more later that I realised that it was a Verhoven, and finally swayed myself to watch and was stunned that the whole thing was so plainly a parody of jingoism and patriotism and fascism. A masterwork of tongue in cheek so firmly planted it worked as just a gungho shootemup for redmeat types and antifasc for the flower power types, great subversion

[MechaGodzilla]

Kingdom of Heaven comes to mind. I saw the theatrical cut first, was very unimpressed but still decided to check out the director's cut as I'd always heard such good things about it. Still, going into it I thought to myself "even if it's an improvement, surely there's no way some reinstated footage can turn such a dull, mediocre film into a near-masterpiece?"

I was wrong.

[Hoke Moseley]

I'm not gonna say masterpiece, but here are some movies in recent years that I had low expectations for but ended up liking quite a bit:

Pain & Gain - Wasn't even interested in watching it, but a friend convinced me.
The Lobster - I really didn't care for Dogtooth.
Irrational Man - Thought it would be lesser Woody Allen.
The Gift - I liked the main trio in the cast, but had zero expectations for the movie.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - Had zero interest in it, enjoyed it a lot.

Also feel the need to clarify I wasn't expecting any of these to be horrible (I guess I don't really watch any movies that I expect to hate), but they were all pleasant surprises.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Deadpool. I thought this looked like one of the worst films ever made by the trailer and was blown away by how great it is when I decided to watch it and thank God I did.

Titanic. Didn't want to see this film at all and thought it was great when I did see it

[P-Rock]

From Dusk Till Dawn. Tarantino and vampire madness in one movie didn't gel with me, as he was known until that point because of his talky gangster flicks.

Lockout. It's a pure rip off from Carpenter's EFNY and after all the negative critique about said copying, I did go into it think it being a bad movie, but I enjoyed the hell out of it, mainly because of a hilarious Guy Pearce.

Alien 3. Has a bad rep because of the shit going on behind the screen and Fincher walking away from it. I saw it in the movie theatre when I was 13 or so and wasn't impressed. Years later I saw the Assembly cut and I... Oh no wait, this is still a pretty bad movie. Sorry!

[imsounoriginal]

Sherlock Holmes 2. Didn't care much for the first one, skipped Game of Shadows in theaters, but when I saw it I loved it.

[piebot56]

21 Jump Street definitely comes to mind. Looked like a shitty reboot of a random 80s show, turned out to be its own hilarious thing. It and the sequel, 22 Jump Street are both very solid modern comedies, and also awesome high school/college films.

[TheLaughingMann]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

Sherlock Holmes 2. Didn't care much for the first one, skipped Game of Shadows in theaters, but when I saw it I loved it.

Jared Harris playing Moriarty was a wise choice Mr Ritchie made.

[Visionist]

Well obviously Dredd. I knew it was coming out and had no interest. My friend (who had mercifully never seen the Stallone... "interpretation") expressed interest in a back-to-back with Lawless, also a brand new film which we both agreed looked promising. I went online to check out times and lo and behold, Dredd was a UK 18 rated film. Now I was interested, and of course the rest is history. To this day I will always fight for an R rating, voting with my wallet the way I did on that heady night of September 2012; if Dredd had been even a 15, I would have missed it, the best film of 2012 (I pretty much saw them all that year). Lawless is long forgotten.

I sat down to see The Island expecting to hate it, years after seeing the flashy trailer. I absolutely loved it, and thankfully I hadn't spoiled anything for myself.

[dgoswald]

Birdman. I assumed it would be pretentious, anti-populist condescension, but it was surprisingly non-hysterical. The headlines about its mean-spirited bashing of the comic book film genre was quite misleading. Instead it was a rather even-handed and honest, if highly stylised, look at the subject of art.

[stvn1974]

Probably Clerks for me. It just looked stupid from the trailers but my brother finally persisted and got me to watch it. I loved it and have seen it so many times I can quote from it now.

[Talleyrand]

Tough. I don't usually see movies with the expectation of them being "horrible," so this is a narrow category.

Some close enough examples:

I guess The Counselor could qualify; I thought the trailer looked good, then the reviews were just abysmal but I saw it anyway.Good thing, too; one of the greatest movies ever made. Even so, I expected to find it mediocre, not horrible.

I guess The Princess Bride; I had no idea what it was about the first time I saw it (this is a long time ago) and I assumed from the title I would hate it, but it's pretty good (not quite a masterpiece though).

[Galactus]

It's been awhile but the last time was The Lord of the Rings.

[Merlinpants]

John wick

[Member-244966]

I wouldn't go as far as masterpiece, but I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed Prometheus, after years of it getting trashed.

[headphones]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

Birdman. I assumed it would be pretentious, anti-populist condescension, but it was surprisingly non-hysterical. The headlines about its mean-spirited bashing of the comic book film genre was quite misleading. Instead it was a rather even-handed and honest, if highly stylised, look at the subject of art.

It was pretentious. But the performance by Keaton saved it. Should've gotten the oscar, but didn't.

Sad.

[TheLaughingMann]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

Birdman. I assumed it would be pretentious, anti-populist condescension, but it was surprisingly non-hysterical. The headlines about its mean-spirited bashing of the comic book film genre was quite misleading. Instead it was a rather even-handed and honest, if highly stylised, look at the subject of art.

Originally Posted by headphones

It was pretentious. But the performance by Keaton saved it. Should've gotten the oscar, but didn't.

Sad.

I found a disturbingly perfect parallel between Riggan's character at the point in his life compared to Michael Keaton at the point in his life. But it reminded me that Mike K can still act worth a damn.

[headphones]

Originally Posted by TheLaughingMann

I found a disturbingly perfect parallel between Riggan's character at the point in his life compared to Michael Keaton at the point in his life. But it reminded me that Mike K can still act worth a damn.

When was Keaton ever anti-superhero? He hopped onto spiderman as soon as he got the chance.

[Talal86]

Originally Posted by Hoke Moseley

Pain & Gain - Wasn't even interested in watching it, but a friend convinced me.

awesome movie