What is a movie that "looks like" it would suck, but actually is well written and acted and a good time?
-
Originally, Pirates of the Caribbean. A movie made because of a Disney ride seemed like a stupid idea.
The first one was fairly clever in that they had probably 50 years of collective ideas and inspiration to work off of. It's a story that needed to push no boundaries and hold to established tropes, with no expectations because it was a ride: perfect for Disney.
Now when Disney gets their hands on an established franchise full of expectations...
-
Which is precisely the problem: I am not, and not only was I mildly bored, I also found the narrative to be just plain incoherent. It was obvious to me the story was driven by some Reference Guide on RPG stuff, and not on captivating an audience.
I guess it hit every nail on the head. That's all it hit, actually.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Yeah, the entire story follows the major beats of a group of people playing DND. Everything that happens would be familiar to a player. Your party always gets captured and thrown in a prison from where you must escape. Dungeon Masters (the people running the game) will frequently introduce an overpowered "helper" NPC to move the party along in the right direction, but that character won't engage in the fights. Parties will find several puzzles that the DM has spent hours creating, only for the party to use some magic or tool in a creative way to bypass the entire puzzle.
To someone expecting standard fantasy storytelling, it's jarring and weird. The anachronistic language, the character decisions that don't make sense, the magic artifacts that seem to just happen to be exactly what the party needs in the moment, it's all stuff that would happen around a table in someone's basement. It helps to think of each character as a regular person you know today playing a game where they make all the decisions for the character. Convenient contrivances or frustrating failures are the DM having fun with the story. Sometimes the dice rolls 20 and you do something miraculous, and sometimes you roll a 1, trip over a pebble and stab yourself in the face.
You don't have to be a dnd player to enjoy the movie, but you do need to understand the lens through which you're watching it. Otherwise, the tone and pacing seem really strange.
-
I watched this movie when I was in middle school and thought it was badass. I completely forgot about it until your mention and now I gotta see if it holds up. All I remember is that it takes place in winter and Samuel L. says "Pussy is pussy " at some point.
Hilarious!
-
I'll start: "Happy Death Day"
Osmosis Jones.
A half-and-half cartoon and live action film with Chris Rock as the titular character from the late-90s/early-00s. The movie was a flop, but I think it had more to do with lousy marketing. It was actually pretty good and a fun way to look at how things affect the human body.
David Hyde Pierce as the enormous Pill was a great choice, and Bill Murray was hilarious.
-
For the direct sequel of the 1931 Dracula movie starring Nicholas Cage in a toxic boss/employee relationship in a gory B movie-esque film, I think it was pretty amazing !
Any movie where Cage "acts" mentally unstable is going to be the best fucking movie that year. I still can't get over his role in Color Out of Space.
-
I'll start: "Happy Death Day"
The Ice Pirates.
Ron Perlman and one of the funniest fight scenes from the 80s.
-
Not sure if this exactly fits the assignment, but most people think Silent Hill (first one) was a garbage movie that made no sense. And it was if you never played the games. If you did play the games though, you can see the movie is incredibly faithful to the atmosphere. They used a lot of the OST by Akira Yamaoka too, which is an amazing soundtrack. I really liked the acting as well (except for the little kid, but it’s rare to find convincing child actors anyway). Monster design was great. I think they combined cg and practical effects so it made some things a lot more convincing.
I liked the movie when it came out and can still enjoy it today. I think the monsters are some of the creepiest in any horror movie. The janitor scene gives me nightmares. However, there was a lot of fan service that didn't need to be included. Yes Pyramid Head is the most recognizable character in the series, but he really served no purpose being in the movie. Also, the design of the nurses being "sexy" doesn't make sense. They were designed that way for James in the second game. That was how he saw them. I think they did a really good job for what they managed to pull off from that movie though. I hope they do well with the new one.
-
There are so many movies I could list but for now I'll go with About Time (2013). Everything about it makes it seem like it would be a dumb sappy romcom but it manages to hit hard.
EDIT: This is the type of image they used to market the film, which is really misleading.
This was a great one.
-
I liked the movie when it came out and can still enjoy it today. I think the monsters are some of the creepiest in any horror movie. The janitor scene gives me nightmares. However, there was a lot of fan service that didn't need to be included. Yes Pyramid Head is the most recognizable character in the series, but he really served no purpose being in the movie. Also, the design of the nurses being "sexy" doesn't make sense. They were designed that way for James in the second game. That was how he saw them. I think they did a really good job for what they managed to pull off from that movie though. I hope they do well with the new one.
I generally agree, but the sexy nurse critique is hard to take honestly. Even the devs themselves reused the sexy nurse in future games because it became so iconic, even though they didn't make sense for those protagonists necessarily.
-
I never played d&d or any games of that style, and probably missed out on a bunch of the catered moments, but I still enjoyed it very much
It's very much worth watching the older dnd movies just to see how amazingly bad they were(i still like the first one they did but acknowledge how bad it is)
-
I generally agree, but the sexy nurse critique is hard to take honestly. Even the devs themselves reused the sexy nurse in future games because it became so iconic, even though they didn't make sense for those protagonists necessarily.
They also reused Pyramid Head. Silent Hill 2 became so iconic in the series that they just brought things specific to James's experience into other games. There's been a lot of criticism of that, but also a lot of fans dont seem to mind. Even the original designer of Pyramid Head was disappointed that the character was reused in later games because he designed the character to appear as a manifestation in James' mind specifically and so the final design was based on James himself. I personally still enjoy the later games myself, but after all of this was pointed out to me I can't not see it when playing the games or watching the movies lol
-
Mr. Brooks, it has Dane Cook in it but that doesn’t stop it from being amazing.
It also gratuitously uses scenery from Shreveport, Louisiana which is a very real place.
-
I'll start: "Happy Death Day"
First movie that comes to mind is the Power Rangers movie starring Bryan Cranston from like 7 or 8 years ago. Went fully expecting another Transformers-esque butchering of a nostalgic trip. Was delightfully surprised by the deep and relatable characters. I recommend it as an above-average super hero movie.
-
I'll start: "Happy Death Day"
The Jumanji sequels. You are going to take a cult classic and "revive" it by changing the premise to be a video game? Stupid. But, it was much better than it should have been.
-
Clerks. It should be some stoner Seinfeld flick but it actually lines up pretty well with La Divina Comedia and the dialogue, although sometimes a bit clunky, is very well written.
37?! Like, in a row?
-
"The Adventures Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" 1984
Great script, great cast, young Johnathan Lithgow and Christopher Llyod, Peter Weller in one of his best rolls, and bonus Jeff Goldblum as they new guy.
Whole thing is still a perfect package, looking like a B movie you'd totally skip.
I like to think of it as a sci-fi movie sequel/equivalent to the short story (but not the movie) "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."
-
There are so many movies I could list but for now I'll go with About Time (2013). Everything about it makes it seem like it would be a dumb sappy romcom but it manages to hit hard.
EDIT: This is the type of image they used to market the film, which is really misleading.
This is my favorite movie. It's the best that was ever written about mindfulness.
-
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Renfield were absolutely amazing and I think they fit the bill
Renfield
I'm perpertually locked in Cage but both my s/o and myself passed out on two seperate watch attempts 🫠
-
I think people are missing that this movie is spelled differently than "Star Trek First Contact".
Star Trek First CONACT was a cheap, B-movie knock-off straight to DVD movie that should have sucked, but didnt.
Angela Lansbury was not nominated for an Oscar for her preformance as the Captain, but Brooke Shields notably was also in the movie as an alien.
/s
Wait, what are you saying. There is.a.dooferent movie named "first conact"? (Google didn't help me)
-
The Jumanji sequels. You are going to take a cult classic and "revive" it by changing the premise to be a video game? Stupid. But, it was much better than it should have been.
The second one is more generic, but I agree with the first one
