Name a movie you thought you'd hate...but loved!

[CaveGirl]

Okay, I'm just gonna admit it. I always thought the French had little or no sense of humor. Though I loved Jerry Lewis, still...their reverence for him seemed a bit over the top.

 

Consequently for years and years and eons even, I resisted seeing any Jacques Tati films thinking "Oh crap...he's French, and I just know I won't like his films." Even photos of him in scenes were a turn-off to me so I stayed nescient for many moons.

 

Then one day...I saw a Criterion dvd of one of the Monsieur Hulot films and thought, "I'm gonna hate it but I still owe it to cinema knowledge to give it a chance, but I'm still gonna hate it."

 

The movie starts...two boys playing a prank on an unsuspecting workman. So funny I start lauging out loud. Still expecting this might be an isolated instance, I don't give in but as the film progresses I can't stop laughing.

 

I figured out why the French love Jerry Lewis. He mines the same field of visual humor and scenes wholely worked through strange sound effects, like eating corn on the cob and all the bits in TNP.

 

So...what was your epiphany in film that surprised you?

[misswonderly3]

Yes, Jacques Tati is gently hilarious. I've always loved his work.

 

Well, the only film I can think of offhand that I expected to dislike and absolutely loved, was, I'm afraid, a quite recent one. (I say "I'm afraid" because I suspect you're thinking mainly of "old" movies, and I can't bring to mind any that fit your description at the moment.)

 

Anyway, I've always semi-disliked Wes Anderson's films. He's an interesting director, but many of his movies strike me as too deadpan and quirky for their own good.

So a year or so ago a friend dragged me to see *Moonrise Kingdom*. I fully expected to be rolling my eyes throughout the screening, but ended up being utterly seduced by it. Yup, there's still plenty of quirk (or quark, or quack), but the film is so charming and sweet without any cinematic sugar spike that I was totally won over.

 

So: *Moonrise Kingdom*. Loved it, Wes Anderson's particular brand of eccentricity notwithstanding.

[CaveGirl]

Being that I trust your judgment, I shall look for that one, Miss Wonderly as I do tend to focus so often on only the old films.

 

I personally have seen Anderson films I liked, but can't see he's a fave so this will be interesting.

 

Merci!

[kingrat]

I expected to hate Jean Eustache's *The Mother and the *****--an unappealing title, over three and a half hours long and mainly about a man and the two women he's sleeping with. Oh, and Cahiers du Cinema voted it the best film of the 1970s. Sounded like a film I was going to hate.

 

And I loved it. The deadpan wit, the Zen nihilism. Because Jean-Pierre Leaud plays the main character just as he played leading roles for Truffaut and Godard, and the character is a shallow, narcissistic pseudo-intellectual who lives off an older woman while he pontificates and chases other women, the film seems to be a criticism--make that an evisceration--of Truffaut and Godard as well.

 

In the theater this might seem a long slog, but it was perfect in two viewings on VHS. Yes, VHS, it's still not available on DVD. Yo, Criterion, get with the program!

[HoldenIsHere]

One movie that I expected to not like at all (for a multitude of reasons) but ended up enjoying immensely was HELLO, DOLLY!

 

I saw it for the first time when TCM aired it recently.

 

I'm not sure what some people were talking about when they said Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau had no screen chemistry. Perhaps the two did not get along in real life, but they certainly worked well together in that movie.

[DownGoesFrazier]

If I think I'm going to hate a movie, I won't see it, so there ARE none.

[misswonderly3]

But fi, one should always go by the true filmlover's aphorism, "you never know", which applies as much to life in general as it does to movies.

 

Maybe something you'd thought you'd hate you'd like if you'd stop hating the idea, and started liking the possibility. I hope I made that as confusing as possible, that was my aim.

 

Blathering aside, I've discovered many things -including movies - that have enriched my life, because I embraced this "you never know" philosophy.

(one exception being shrimp- hate shrimp, hated it before I tried it, hated it after I tried it.)

[DownGoesFrazier]

I just do something else. I have such a wide range of interests.

[misswonderly3]

Like making salads? (Hope you never add shrimp to them.)

[vickix33]

One movie I thought I wouldn't like was The Bicycle Thief. At the time, I was just taking an introductory course in film and didn't know a lot about foreign film. Before watching the movie I thought how interesting could a story about a man losing his bicycle and trying to find it be. However, as I began to watch the movie I became very mesmerized by the story. The movie just looked so realistic to me and I had never seen anything like that prior to it. Another thing that made me love this movie was the actors they used for the father and son in the story. I really liked watching their relationship as the story unfolded.

 

Edited by: vickix33 on Sep 17, 2013 4:54 PM

[LonesomePolecat]

I have a good one and I JUST watched it yesterday--

 

*WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?*

 

Not that I thought I would hate it, but I was kind of sure it would traumatize me, since it did so to my sister to the point that she will never see it again. But perhaps knowing about Jane serving rats to Blanche prepared me for what would have been the most horrifying part. I finally watched it for the first time yesterday when I was the only one in the house and I found myself loving it! It was so much fun-- suspenseful, exciting-- like all great Halloween-type movies. Loved it!

[Kid Dabb]

Hayao Miyazaki?s Spirited Away

 

I had never watched Japanese animation other than Saturday morning fare, Dragon Ball Z, etc., and the old Speed Racer and Astro Boy (my favorite). When TCM ran a series a few years ago, my first thoughts were "Oh, great. I'll have to find something else to watch." I couldn't imagine two hours of Dragon Ball-like animation, which involves quite a bit of a kind

of freeze-framing. As I began to look for other entertainment, I left my tv on TCM in the back - ground as the first film was being introduced. Catching a glimpse of the begining, I sat down and didn't move a muscle until it was over. That film blew me away.

[hamradio]

"Hello Dolly" (1969)

[roverrocks]

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire musicals until I went out of my way to actually watch their glorious and magical films. I've almost always hated musicals/dance movies and avoided such. It's a stupid guy thing I guess. I still don't care for 95% of all musicals but I would walk through a blizzard to watch the magic of a Rogers/Astaire movie now. "Why they's angels. Angels just like up in Heaven".

[starliteyes]

This is going to date me, but anyway - I was a freshman in college when "Bonnie and Clyde" came out and was not all that anxious to see it since I had heard that there was a lot of graphic violence in it, which is something I really don't care for. However, my friends persuaded me to go and I ended up loving it. Thought that it was a very well made movie and that it would achieve classic status one day.

[FlyBackTransformer]

Carl Reiner's The Comic from 1969.

[DownGoesFrazier]

...and looking at the photos in Glamour magazine.

[jakeem]

I thought I was going to hate "Arthur." It just looked like a dumb movie.

 

It just goes to show you how wrong you can be. It was a delightful film that went on to earn several Oscar nominations, winning in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Sir John Gielgud) and Best Original Song ("Arthur's Theme: Best That You Can Do" by Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, Christopher Cross and Peter Allen).

[DownGoesFrazier]

The fact that there is a great song in a movie says nothing about the quality of the movie. Speaking of Bacharach, his arguably best song ever, "The Look of Love", was from CASINO ROYALE.

[lavenderblue19]

Hey, c'mon, jakeem didn't say the quality of the movie was based on having a great Oscar nominated song in it. He liked the film , because he liked the film. The icing here was that it did receive some Oscar nominations and not just for the song.

 

I have the the much overplayed cd of Casino Royale, it's a favorite of mine. Silly film, great songs. ( although the costumes in Casino Royale are some of my favorites in a '60's film, and I'd wear any one of those beautiful dresses today.)

[jakeem]

All I know is that I smile whenever I hear *"Arthur's Theme."* That says a lot about my memories of the movie.

 

Also, below is Bacharach and Hal David's best song, used very effectively -- 44 years after it first charted -- in the 2012 Steve Carell-Keira Knightley film *"Seeking a Friend for the End of the World."*

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkK04szvPf8

[traceyk65]

My son conned me into watching In Time a while back. I thought it was going to be one of his explosion-ridden action movies, but it was actually sort of clever and we had a great discussion afterwards on the growing gao between the have and have nots in this country today.

 

The Lovely Erin (aka, my daughter) got me to watch The Great Gatsby recently as well. I really didn't like the 70's version with Mia Farrow and Robt Redford. It should have worked, based on the casting, but somehow, didn't--don;t know why really. Anyway, the more recent version--I was avoiding it because of the way I felt about the earlier one and was pleasantly surprised. It was a bit over the top (it was directed by Baz Luhrman after all) but wasn't bad at all. It was pleasantly entertaining and the sets and costumes were absolutely gorgeous.

[AndyM108]

Easy: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Given my general opinion of musicals made after about 1933, that must have been a 100 to 1 shot entering the starting gate. But I loved it the first time I saw it in the 70's, and I loved it even more when TCM ran it on Catherine Denueve's SUTS day.

 

But I don't think that that sort of openmindedness is ever going to work with Jerry Lewis.

[lavenderblue19]

Andy, 100% agreement here about *The Umbrellas of Cherbourg* , had exactly the same reaction as you did I loved it when I first saw it in the '70's, forgot all about it and didn't think I'd have the patience to sit thru it when TCM aired it during the Denueve SUTS day. I did and I fell in love with this film all over again, and now being about 40 years older than when I first saw the film, like you, loved the film even more this time around

[vickix33]

I just recently watched Bonnie and Clyde in one of my film classes. Before seeing the film, I was apprehensive too because of all the violence. Also I didn't know if I was going to be interested in learning and watching the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. However, while watching the film I became so interested in what was going on. I thought the movie was really good and had such great performances.