Movies that were surprisingly better than expected
Sometimes there are movies that turn out to be better than what I expected when I started to watch. No particular order...
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- DirectorSylvester StalloneStarsSylvester StalloneJason StathamJet LiA CIA operative hires a team of mercenaries to eliminate a Latin dictator and a renegade CIA agent.6,5/10 - no real expectations, but it turned out to be a nice action movie that was fun to watch.
- DirectorRuben FleischerStarsJesse EisenbergEmma StoneWoody HarrelsonA shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, a gun-toting bruiser in search of the last Twinkie and a pair of sisters striving to get to an amusement park join forces in a trek across a zombie-filled America.7/10 - when I saw the dvd cover and the genre I didn't expect such a fun movie, but it was.
- DirectorWolfgang BeckerStarsDaniel BrühlKatrin SassChulpan KhamatovaIn 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.7/10 - normally I don't watch movies that are from Germany, but I thought the story was kinda nice. It's about the last days of the DDR (GDR), a mother that fell into a long time coma, woke up, but the shock of the end of the DDR would've been a way too big shock for her, so her children made it look like nothing had change. And I was surprised, the movie actually worked, it was a nice story with a good cast.
- DirectorJames McTeigueStarsHugo WeavingNatalie PortmanRupert GravesIn a future British dystopian society, a shadowy freedom fighter, known only by the alias of "V", plots to overthrow the tyrannical government - with the help of a young woman.8/10 - why? Because I didn't really like it the first time I watched it! It was really hard for me understand the "V" character, and the story seemed a bit strange. But when I saw it 2 months ago it made click and I could really enjoy it, Natalie Portman did a good job, and V was so cool. The atmosphere was great, the story interesting, I'm glad it hit me the second time.
- DirectorEthan ManiquisRobert RodriguezStarsDanny TrejoMichelle RodriguezRobert De NiroAfter being set-up and betrayed by the man who hired him to assassinate a Texas Senator, an ex-Federale launches a brutal rampage of revenge against his former boss.7,5/10 - when a friend of mine told us to go to the cinema, we had a couple of movies to chose from. I didn't like the other suggestions, so I said: Okay, let's watch "Machete". I hoped that it would be a decent action movie, cos the director is not a stupid kinda Bay guy and yes, it was fun, over the top, but a really nice action movie, even better than the typical Hollywood blockbuster hero/beautiful girl action thingy.
- DirectorMark WatersStarsReese WitherspoonMark RuffaloDonal LogueA lonely landscape architect falls for the spirit of the beautiful woman who used to live in his new apartment.7,5/10 - beautiful movie. When I read the story, I was really sceptical: A man falls in love with a women, that is almost dead, that means she became a ghost? Argh, the script writer should get sued. Big but: Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo as the main characters. That definitely was a big, not to say huge plus, they had chemistry, Reese was lovely, Mark did not a great acting job (I think he's not a great actor), but he was highly likeable, I'm not a fun of so-called RomComs, that's always the same story with diffrent actors, but this one was different, not a masterpiece, but far from being just another stupid man loves girl thing.
- DirectorZack SnyderStarsGerard ButlerLena HeadeyDavid WenhamIn the ancient battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fight against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. They face insurmountable odds when they are betrayed by a Spartan reject.6/10 - oh boy, I was so ready, so prepared to bash the shit outta this piece of crap! I'm not a fan of the so-called "effect-porn" genre, where CGI wins over a halfway decent story. Absolutely not, that's not my world. But I liked it. Don't really know why, it was fun to watch, the action was exaggerated, the style Sin City like strange, but it was not bad, it was absolutely okay for me.
- DirectorJohn G. AvildsenStarsSylvester StalloneTalia ShireBurt YoungA small-time Philadelphia boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight the world heavyweight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.8/10 - Sylvester Stallone is not know for his great acting skills. A many years old movie about a boxer who becomes the champion? Nah, sounds not promising. Yet it convinced me, I liked how the director took the time to show how the life of Rocky was like, in what position he was in, why he became a boxer. It gave the character depth, Stallone did a decent performance, then the boxing scenes came, were nicely filmed, thrilling and in the end I could celebrate a good movie - absolutely worth the 3 bucks I invested.
- DirectorGary WinickStarsKate HudsonAnne HathawayCandice BergenTwo best friends become rivals when they schedule their respective weddings on the same day.5,5/10 - only reading the film title gave me shivers. Could this be a halfway decent movie at all? A movie where 2 girls fight a bitchfight about a wedding date? Yes, it could. Though it was no war, not at all, it was nice to watch, and Hathaway and Hudson were not only eye candy and beautiful, they were nice to watch. The story was neglectable, but the vibe was good, you can watch it for one time without any side effects. Okay, let's say: without too many side effects.
- DirectorRon ClementsJohn MuskerStarsAnika Noni RoseKeith DavidOprah WinfreyA waitress, desperate to fulfill her dreams as a restaurant owner, is set on a journey to turn a frog prince back into a human being, but she has to face the same problem after she kisses him.8/10 - watched it in cinema, I'm not the biggest Disney fan, they had some great movies in the past, but I don't like all of them. But this was not only the return to the classic hand-drawn Disney-film, it was different and had good mood cos of the great jazz music featured. It really surprised me, maybe 8 points is too much, but I liked it.
- DirectorRawson Marshall ThurberStarsBen StillerChristine TaylorVince VaughnA group of misfits enter a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament in order to save their cherished local gym from the onslaught of a corporate health fitness chain.7,5/10 - okay, I know what I liked, I know what I hate, but I'm not sure if this rating is accurate?! Anyway, when I watched for the second time I could enjoy it not only in English (saw it in Cinema the first time), I found it really entertaining, the story is stupid, of course, but it made me laugh many times, the characters were likeable, even if it's only a 6 out of 10 movie, it's still better than similar movies.
- DirectorSteve BendelackStarsRowan AtkinsonWillem DafoeSteve PembertonMr. Bean wins a trip to Cannes where he unwittingly separates a young boy from his father and must help the two reunite. On the way he discovers France, bicycling, and true love.8,5/10 - Rowan Atkinson is a very intelligent man! Maybe I liked Mr. Bean when I was much younger, today I think it's okay, but not my type of humour. And yet I gave it a chance and it really hit me! Not only was it funny, it was intelligent and had a really, really wonderful story, Mr. Bean's travel through France was beautifully filmed and very charming and just so much fun to watch. Respect, that was really great!
- DirectorThomas CarterStarsJulia StilesSean Patrick ThomasKerry WashingtonA white midwestern girl moves to Chicago, where her new boyfriend is a black teen from the South Side with a rough, semi-criminal past.8,5/10 - remove up to 1,5 points and you get the actually deserved movie. When I hadn't seen that many movies and didn't write comments or kept a log, I rated some movies wrong. The fact still remains, that this movie surprised me, it was written intelligently, Julia Stiles was wonderful, I liked that they didn't concentrate on the colour of the skin of the main character, I can't really remember the story that good, but I like what they did with the starting point, with the not really new main plot.
- DirectorIain SoftleyStarsKate HudsonPeter SarsgaardJoy BryantA hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.7,5/10 - I'm not into the horror genre at all, I find those movies stupid and ridicolous, but this one hit a nerve. Cast was good, the story dark and evil, that's all I can remember and the good ending, always great if you expect nothing and get something.
- DirectorBenny ChanStarsJackie ChanNicholas TseCharlie YeungA hero cop accidentally leads his team into a trap from which he is the only survivor. Drowning his guilt in booze, he is eventually assigned a new younger partner who turns out to have his own secrets.8/10 - maybe 7 would've been a fairer raiting. "New Police Story" was not that great to me the second time I watched it some weeks ago, but it was still a good action smasher with a really interesting story, better than what we normally get when we read the summary of a Jackie Chan movie. I liked how Jackie was not really the great hero, he had a tragic side, he was the tragic hero, and that made not only his performance special, it gave the movie more depth. Of course there were some obvious flaws, but some impressing action secquences like the desctruction of million m² of glass or the fights in the lego-apartment were just great.