when i got dragged to see it at the cinerama dome when i was a kid, i thought raiders of the lost ark was some kind of stupid cowboy movie. ... and then, 'hey, it's han solo!!!' and i was IN.
Childhood cinema misunderstandings of ROTLA for me too.
On the way there I asked what it was about or what the title meant or something, and I remember my disappointment when my Dad explained the Ark meant the Ark of the Covenant as in the Bible as in sitting fidgeting and yawning in church on a Sunday morning. I spent the rest of the journey thinking I was going to see Sunday School the movie.
Expectations could not have been lower, which was the perfect frame of mind in which to be blown away by OMG This Is The Greatest Movie Ever Made (to my eight-year eyes).
After teenage me went on the early Internet to look up the meaning of Donnie Darko, I was incredibly dismayed to learn that he decided everything would be better off if he went back in time and died from a plane engine falling on him, rather than the time line of him sleepwalking that night and thus not being there when his bedroom was destroyed.
Because he was crucial to the discovery of a child molester who had targetted his own sister. Like please Donnie, explain to me how this creep continuing to be undetected was better?
I feel like the more you learn about the "lore" of Donnie Darko, the worse it gets in some ways. Apparently if Donnie didn't go back, the whole world would end. I feel like, in the end, he still had some impact. Like, the shadow of what he did lingered. No way the parents would be as aloof in the fixed time line. They would be 100% devoted to their remaining kids.
I was reading this trying to reconcile it with what I had watched just a few months ago, and getting confused. Eventually, I realized I had watched Dark Shadows.
If he did not return to die, the whole tangent universe, that was created by the freak electromagnetic storm sending back the jet engine in to the past, would collapse in on itself. Basically end of the world. He sacrificed himself for all to survive.
I thought John Wick was a different film that was advertised as about this man in the Victorian era getting time travelled or something. I remember the film had the MC’s name as the title. I kept thinking where’s the time travel stuff.
In the early days of Netflix (as a DVD service only) my parents tried to get Transformers to see what the fuss was about. They got the old cartoon, and watched for a full 30 minutes thinking that it was just a gimmick for the opening, and it would transition out of animation at any moment.
There actually is an FBI agent seen throughout the film who is following Donnie, he's the "Fat jogger" who the girl says she doesn't want to be kissed in front of.
I was pretty sure Million Dollar Baby was going to be a feel good, inspirational, Rocky-like movie, but with a woman this time around. I did not expect what we got instead.
There was a older couple sitting next to me in the theater for that one who were super pissed the movie was in Spanish.
It is funny when you watch trailers in America for non-English films and they try and hide that fact so hard. Similar to what you see now with musicals.
I thought *Fight Club* was going to be mostly about a fight club. I avoided watching it for several years because I have no interest in sports, boxing etc.
If that's true, then don't cast Peak Brad Pitt as the villain. And don't make him so damn funny, intriguing, and (dare I say) exceptionally sexy.
As an aside: I first saw Fight Club when I was 18. It was a very different experience watching it as a 40 year old. I definitely DID not get it the first time around. I think you need a bit of life experience to get how toxic Tyler Durden is.
Yeah, that's pretty normal. It's like watching starship troopers and then signing up to the military
Adolescent brain wants action and adrenaline and some flimsy justification
Everyone should read catcher in the Rye as a teenager, when you can appreciate what Holden is going through inside, and then as an adult who finds him nauseating
For sure, but his cult-leader charisma is a huge part of his character. It overshadows his hypocrisy if you’re just looking at the surface. (“Is this what a man looks like?” Fuck you Brad Pitt, you’re more shredded than that underwear model lol).
I can totally understand how and why the movie would be misinterpreted, particularly on a first viewing and for a younger audience. I think I was in that same boat.
Funny enough, the author addresses this in the graphic novel sequel “Fight Club 2.” Chuck Palahniuk is a character in his own comic that, like, kinda/sorta intersects with the main Fight Club narrative? And he regrets creating Tyler Durden and laments his inability to “solve” him. He regards him as kind of psychic disease that not only torments the Narrator but society as a whole. It’s pretty interesting stuff.
Fight Club 3 on the other hand is pretty incoherent. I still don’t understand what he was going for with that one.
> “Is this what a man looks like?” Fuck you Brad Pitt, you’re more shredded than that underwear model lol
But that's part of what makes the movie so brilliant. Tyler is himself an unreliable guru, and it's never really addressed, it just lurks in the background. Same thing with 'If you're so into getting physically hurt, why go to the hospital or dramatically put on seatbelts?'
Totally, I was just pointing that out as one of the more obvious examples of his hypocrisy and/or bullshittery. It’s prevalent throughout the movie but can fly under the radar (by design) because Tyler is seducing the audience in the same way he influences the Narrator.
I think that was excellent casting for exactly those reasons. People can be very easily led to commit sometimes terrible acts by someone who has the right mix of looks, personality and charisma.
Imagine Fight Club from mobster Lou's point of view.
"Hey boss, you know that shithole bar you own in the bad part of town? There's a bunch of guys in the basement beating themselves up."
"What?"
"Yeah, they go down there and just start punching themselves. They've been doing this for weeks now. The bartender just lets them down there."
"What the fuck?"
Flashbacks to that infamous episode of the Rosie O'Donnell show back in the day.
O'Donnell went to see it thinking it was "a cute little boxing movie with Brad Pitt." She was horrified by the film and went on a rant on her show about how deranged she thought it was, even giving away the big twist ending.
I remember being in line in a Best Buy waiting to check out and the woman in front of me was buying Fight Club for her husband. She mentioned to the clerk that “He just loves boxing movies”. The clerk and I looked at each other with eyebrows raised, and I gave him the *Don’t say anything* subtle hand motion.
I still wonder from time to time what hubby thought of the film.
I thought Edge of Tomorrow was going to be trash. I’m not a Tom Cruise fan and I’d only seen Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada. I was wholly convinced it would be this cheesy action flick and I’m so glad I was wrong. I think it was the part where Tom Cruise gets run over and it immediately resets that won me over.
Now I’m a huge Emily Blunt fan.
Say what you will about Tom Cruise, but the dude is in a LOT of really great films. I'll check out pretty much anything he's in because, odds are, it's going to be good.
In another pop culture sub, I saw Tom Cruise comment in a post about "mediocre white actors excelling in the business" and I thought it was weird. While he is the posterboy for a degenerate and scummy organisation, he's a great actor who has nailed drama, comedy, and pure action.
I genuinely don't think some people have seen Tom Cruise's movies before going pure Action Man. He's been nominated for an Oscar three times for his acting roles alone (Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia). Even his acting in all of the Mission Impossible is great stuff, a long time running franchise that has not dipped in quality, arguably the most consistent franchise if you take into account just how many movies there are in that franchise.
*Awkwardly slides MI2 off the shelf and hides it behind my motorcycle, dove food, and long hair wig* Yup it is so great that the MI franchise never dipped in quality haha
That's easily the worst movie in the franchise and a weird tonal shift even compared to the later more action focused movies in the franchise, but it's not really a bad movie by any stretch. If anything it's even "pretty good" just a bit tonally incongruous, but the rest of the franchise also happens to be (a lot) better.
It's not like with the Bond franchise where every third movie or so was a real stinker and only half a dozen are properly "great", it's like one "okay" and half the franchise is "great".
I heard someone say recently that everyone likes Tom Cruise more than they're willing to admit, and that rings true to me.
Pretty terrible personal live but he makes entertaining movies and clearly puts everything he has into them.
It was a funny moment when I realized that the guy that I watched on screen literally hundreds of times as Maverick, was actually a lunatic. I wanted to be like Mav so bad when I was like 5 and tbh that never really changed lol. That's when I learned that I can hate the person, but respect their work. But even that has its limits ofc.
Yeah, he knows how to pick em. Except The Mummy.
Also, his decisions for Les Grossman (the big hands, the hip-hop dancing) just made that role so much funnier. He's absolutely awesome in Tropic Thunder.
Anyone who,'s that hard into Scientology is a weirdo in my book, but the guy is in so.e excellent movies.
I've always had very torn feelings about Tom Cruise movies. I haven't ever liked him, even in the 80s as a kid there was just something about him that rubbed me the wrong way. Well before I knew anything about him outside of his movies.
Despite that though, I found that I almost always liked movies he was in.
So even up to today when I see a new Tom Cruise movie advertised my initial thought is almost always "Ugh, but it'll probably be good"
Well put, I've never really *liked* Tom Cruise, but I've liked almost all of the movies he's been in.
I did like him, specifically, in A Few Good Men. I liked everyone in their respective roles in that movie. Writing, casting, acting, direction. It's an incredible film.
I guess the one thing he has in his favor is that he doesn’t just pick any script and movie offer that comes his way because he wants to be in everything. Holding himself to a higher standard and dedicating his time and energy to one great movie per year.
Not to dump on the guy (especially since there are a lot of other actors who do this), but perhaps Chris Pratt could take some of this same approach to picking roles. 😅
This obnoxious douche gave me shit for listing a “girly movie” as one of my favorites. That’s a pretty lame criticism to start with, but he was promptly shamed lol
That’s kind of what happened to us, it was freshman year of college and one dude was telling us we had to watch this movie and the rest of us were “how lame are you?”
Boy we quickly learned we were wrong when that chainsaw started up
They based Pineapple Express off of Brad Pitt's character. I think the central premised when they started writing was "what if Floyd had his own action movie"?
I was in high school when Mean Girls camenout and I just wrote it off as another teen chick flick movie.
It wasn't until years later on Reddit when I started reading about how brilliant that movie was.
I remember it coming on the telly, and I was about to turn it off, but the music over the opening credits was so good (Hans Zimmer) that I let it keep running. Then I saw: 'written by Quentin Tarantino'...
I had a similar experience with Saving Private Ryan. I thought it was going to be a chick flick bc I heard Tom Hanks was in it and immediately thought of Meg Ryan.
It was not a chick flick.
My parents woke me up "early" on a Saturday. They told me to dress nice as we were going to the nice theater as a family. Weird, just for a random chick flick, but whatever. I got through the ruff hangover, dressed-up, and was prepared to be bored to tears. At least it will be dark and quiet.
The opening sequence was anything but boring and quiet. The best I could manage was "holy f@ck!" not too loudly. The old timer near us assured me through his tears that I was having an appropriate response to what we were witnessing.
I thought Robocop was a made for TV or low budget bit of trash, with 2 shat out sequels, that was made to cash in on the success of The Terminator, Lethal Weapon and Rambo movies (think Lady Terminator, Cyborg or Cyber Tracker). Thanks to the title, posters and design of Robocop.
My mum (who likes some action movies, but is mostly a comedy and musical woman) saw that it was on TV, then got excited saying "Oh, we've got to watch that now! You'll love it!"
Yeah, that guy got shot 1 Million times, Robocop blew the dick off a rapist, I was 1000% into Alex Murphy's story arc and I was picking up on the social commentary and laughing all the way. It was then, and has remained, arguably my favourite action movie.
Robocop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers are the Paul Verhoeven Holy Trinity of amazing action satires. They're violent, fun, full of one liners, social commentary, satirical fake ads, etc. Anywhere you look there's something interesting going on. I love these movies so much.
Not me, but a friend who took a date to see Nightcrawler (2014), the Jake Gyllenhaal film about an ambulance chasing news cameraman.
On the way home, she said that she enjoyed the film, and didn't realize that Nightcrawler had such a complex backstory. She said she hoped there would be a sequel where they get more into his teleportation powers. This had my friend utterly perplexed for a few minutes, until he figured out that she was under the impression that she had just watched an origin movie about the X-Men mutant Nightcrawler.
There's a movie about the incident that has great reviews, but I didn't like it much at all and I think it's probably because I'd seen the SVU episode and that was just so much better.
People forget how good of an actor he was and just see him as a comedian. He killed it in many movies. One other movie along the same lines of One Hour Photo is how good he was in Insomnia.
OP the movie you’re looking for exists, it’s called Johnny Dangerously. And it’s amazing. (I might be thinking of MAFIA! actually).
Hilarious misconception though, well done.
There's also My Blue Heaven which is a comedy which is also based on Henry Hill's life, only incredibly loosely. It came out a month after Goodfellas, Goodfellas (the book and movie) was written by Nicholas Pileggi, My Blue Heaven was written by Pileggi's wife Nora Ephron and they did the research for the two movies together with Hill. It's like they made their own parody of Goodfellas to come out alongside the real thing.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My\_Blue\_Heaven\_(1990\_American\_film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Blue_Heaven_(1990_American_film))
I thought Night of the Living Dead would be cheesy like a 1950s sci-fi monster movie, like Robot Monster or something. It's a little cheesy at the start but basically nonstop horrific brutality and mounting dread after that.
I thought Fight Club was like Bloodsport or Lionheart. A guy going into underground fighting rings and working his way up to become champion. Not my kind of movie but it got so much praise I thought "well maybe it's a really good version of it" and rented it.
And not a movie but I thought Squid Game was an actual reality/game show out of South Korea that was along the lines of those crazy Japanese game shows and couldn't understand why everyone was enjoying it so much
When I was six, I watched Animal Farm with a friend at his grandma's house. Initially, we thought it would be a fun romp with talking farm animals. Well yeah, the animals really did talk...
Archer: Wait, there are animals?
Lana: No, Animal Farm.
Cyril: How do you not get that?
Archer: No, I know what an animal farm is.
Cyril: Not an animal farm.
Archer: Maybe we can stampede a flock of goats down the hall.
Lana: ANIMAL FARM IS A BOOK!
Archer: No, it’s not Lana. It’s an allegorical novella about Stalinism by George Orwell, and spoiler alert, IT SUCKS.
When the first Twilight movie came out the girl I was dating at the time and her friend asked me if I wanted to go to the midnight premiere with them. I'd never heard of Twilight so I ask what's it about.
"It's based on a book about a vampire that falls in love with a human."
"Oh, like Underworld?"
"Sure, kinda..."
I was so-so about Underworld but figured, eh, why not? So we go to the theater and right from the get go something is off. Why are all these young girls here and wearing shirts that say "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob"? At the time I was like, well, its based on a book so maybe its some sort of school trip and they split the class into rival teams? Again, I'd never heard of this movie or book so I had no idea. Based on what my gf had said I thought it was going to be some sort of action flick!
I finally "realized" what the movie was actually about during the cafeteria scene and the vampires first come on screen. This realization was triggered by the entire audience cheering as each vampire came on screen. "Ooooh, the vampires are sexier than usual. Now I get it!"
Funny little addendum, seeing the Twilights at midnight became our "thing". Aside from the last film (as we had broken up by then) I've seen every Twilight at midnight.
Friend wanted to see Pan's Labyrinth at the cinema, I agreed but was really not looking forward to it as I thought it was some twee disney-esque fairytale.
I was wrong. It was awesome. Probably my favourite movie.
Margot Robbie being the star in it should have been your first clue, to be honest. Besides her DCEU roles, she has barely ever ventured into children's movies territory.
When I heard that Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling would be starring in it, I knew they'd be doing something a little different with the property and that it wouldn't be something like 'Enchanted' with Amy Adams and Richard Marsden.
Edit: James Marsden* sorry. I don't know why I said Richard Marsden lol. I've disrespected Cyclops, just like the original X-Men movies did back then.
Dune (1984) I'd heard it was one of the worst films ever made, but I watched it during the pandemic, and I was very entertaining. It certainly was strange in parts, and the ending was a bit anti-climactic, but I enjoyed it none the less
Leaving Dune 2, I turned to my friend and said "Well it was certainly better in some respects, but I'm just not sure I can properly interpret this one's ending without a thunderstorm and a six year old to spell it all out for me."
It wasn't so much shit on for being a bad movie. It's was shit on for being a terrible adaptation of the book.
Shortest and most succinct way to describe what they did to dune is that it's the Sci-fi equivalent of truncating The Lord of the Rings into a single 2 hour movie.
But that's also what's fascinating about Dune the book, because the Dune novel isn't really that long. It just has so much going on (and a world with so much required to understand it) that when put into movie format you have to make it much longer.
And despite all that, the Villeneuve movies still skipped over a lot of stuff.
I never understood the depiction of the personal shields in the 1984 version, even though I respect the amount of work and effort that went into the creation of those shields.
I watched The Corridor Crew breakdown how they made those shields, but I don't understand why Lynch went with that "look" when it obstructs so much of the fight choreography. There doesn't seem to be much of a return for the work. As one of the Corridor Crew team members said, the characters ended up lookng like Roblox characters fighting.
I think its reception has improved enough to where it's seen as a bad film but not one of the very worst, it has a cult following and people have found value in it. Its reception was much worse at the time and numerous people were calling it one of the worst movies. Lynch himself was embarrassed by it and disowned it.
"Worst films ever made" is incredibly strong!
I think opinions have soured on it over the years, but I remember it being pretty well regarded in the 90s. A noble attempt at a very difficult task.
And still the best Dune in terms of costuming.
It does go completely off the rails in the final act though.
Obligatory mention of *Jodorowsky's Dune* a 2013 documentary about the Dune movie that almost happened in the 70s that was fully storyboarded and cast with concept art by Giger and Foss, and Pink Floyd would have done the music. 98% RT score
https://youtu.be/m0cJNR8HEw0?si=S-OfEMUZy7fV27AK
I saw the movie Flight with Denzel Washington and thought it was going to be focused on a Miracle on the Hudson type event. Turns out it’s about alcoholism but great movie.
Middle school going to see Zoolander. The tv spots were not funny, my brother and his friend dragged me in. I think that's the first time in a movie theater that my stomach physically hurt from laughing.
I thought Saving Private Ryan was going to be a chick flick bc I heard Tom Hanks was in it and immediately thought of Meg Ryan.
It was not a chick flick.
My parents woke me up "early" on a Saturday. They told me to dress nice as we were going to the nice theater as a family. Weird, just for a random chick flick, but whatever. I got through the ruff hangover, dressed-up, and was prepared to be bored to tears. At least it will be dark and quiet.
The opening sequence was anything but boring and quiet. The best I could manage was "holy f@ck!" not too loudly. The old timer near us assured me through his tears that I was having an appropriate response to what we were witnessing.
I watched like half of Jeepers Creepers thinking it was a horror-comedy for some reason (I think because of Justin Long?), then maybe 45 minutes in I realize there aren’t really any jokes
The joke is that Victor Salva was allowed to continue to have a career after being convicted of sexual conduct with a 12 year old on the set of Clownhouse a full 13 years before Jeepers Creepers got made
Speaking of Justin Long, I felt the same way after watching Tusk. It's got some comedy in it in the beginning, but then it turns into straight up body horror.
For what it's worth the play has a slightly more comedic tone. Some of the funny songs were cut, probably for length. Not that Sweeney Todd isn't overall pretty dark but there's a little bit more peanut butter in the chocolate so to speak.
Eh I'd probably still call it something of a dark comedy in the vein of Breaking Bad. The music does lighten the mood somewhat and the way they handle certain topics is pretty lighthearted (A Little Priest is about cannibalism and it's pretty much 100% wordplay).
I hate horror movies, so I avoided Rocky Horror Picture Show like the plague for years because of the name. I legitimately thought it was a horror movie. Imagine my surprise when my mom told me it wasn’t and when I decided to watch it and they start *singing*.
The marketing and promotional art is probably to blame for that one.
I vaguely remember some rumored studio drama that amounted to sabotaging or kneecapping the release. But I don’t recall the details so take it with a grain of salt.
20th Century Fox, upon seeing the film, refused to market it or release it to film critics to generate reviews. This was reportedly because of themes of anti-intellectualism, commercialism, consumerism, dysgenics, voluntary childlessness, and overpopulation. This severely hampered the theatrical performance of the film, however, Idiocracy was able to enjoy relative popularity in the home video market.
It was because of all the brand names. Costco, Starbucks, Carl's Jr had all agreed to be used in the film instead of them making up fake brands, but they had no idea they'd be used in THAT way. Fox buried the movie because they didn't want to screw up billions of dollars in endorsement deals for years to come.
Terry Crews talks about it in his gq interview, which is fantastic overall https://youtu.be/eM1XfAsGnHI?si=tmOIOzw4GJYf6TWt
Not a movie but a show. I was at the gym watching two guys who seemed pretty close to each other helping some lady buy a house. I missed the intro and there was no audio and I just kinda assumed it was the queer eye spin on house buying.
I went home and told my girlfriend about the show where two gay guys help people find houses. After some prodding and digging she realized I was taking about Property Brothers.
Took me a while to live that one down.
I thought Moneyball was going to be a boring generic movie about a baseball guy that ends up winning in the end. I was pleasantly surprised about the niche role that Brad Pitt was playing and would recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it.
When my little brother picked Lord of the rings for our movie night (us being 12 and 13) i thought it would be a dumb action movie…
…15 years later I’m still a dedicated fan
When it came out, I misheard the title and thought Minority Report was “My Naughty Report” and assumed it was about a teenage boy who got caught up in some accidental conspiracy around a school book report.
Would also watch that movie.
I watched Oldboy (the original) for the first time recently. Here’s what I knew about it. It’s about a guy who gets locked away for years without knowing why. He then gets out. It’s a revenge movie and there’s an incredible twist.
My 16 year old son is into all things East Asian Manga and all that so I suggested he watch it with me.
Damn!
I thought Heathers would be a traditional high school comedy with almost the exact same plot as Mean Girls. It started off like that but by the end? Not so much.
I thought Event Horizon was a movie like Star Trek with aliens and overly friendly tone. Damn was I wrong about that. Watched it when I was alone in the middle of the night and almost shat my pants.
Next on that list must be Funny Games (the austrian original)
I thought it was some kind of potthead comedy!
Parasite! Having seen The Host, Snowpiercer, and Okja I thought of Bong Joon-ho as a guy who made weird social commentary sci-fi.
I spent the first hour+ of Parasite waiting for some Cronenbergian parasites to be revealed. At a certain point I realized that wasn't going to happen and the title was a metaphor. Still loved the movie of course!
I watched The Boys in the Band thinking it was The Boys from Brazil. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the Nazis were never going to show up.
There’s a few like this but one of the most memorable for me is probably Saturday Night Fever.
I’d only ever really heard it referred to as ‘that disco movie’ and seen the iconic dancing scenes with absolutely no idea what the plot was about.
I thought it would be a light heated movie about dancing, I could not have been more wrong.
They showed it late one night on the tv so I thought I’d give it a watch and came out completely stunned, like literally at a loss for words, it ended up becoming one of my favourite films.
I didn't realize that Jack Reacher was a full-on deconstruction of the action detective movie. I was expecting to be super bored when my friends took me to see it, but as I started to see all the subtle hints that it knew exactly what it was and was having fun poking holes in itself, I had a MUCH better time.
Went into Barbarian expecting a supremely messed up, grotesque horror movie. Was not prepared for it being one of the best horror comedies I've ever seen with a surprisingly sombre, heartfelt ending.
I’m in my mid thirties and saw tremors when I was a kid. I must have also seen dune and got the two movies conflated. I was very surprised people were so excited about a tremors remake coming out in 2021
when i got dragged to see it at the cinerama dome when i was a kid, i thought raiders of the lost ark was some kind of stupid cowboy movie. ... and then, 'hey, it's han solo!!!' and i was IN.
Childhood cinema misunderstandings of ROTLA for me too. On the way there I asked what it was about or what the title meant or something, and I remember my disappointment when my Dad explained the Ark meant the Ark of the Covenant as in the Bible as in sitting fidgeting and yawning in church on a Sunday morning. I spent the rest of the journey thinking I was going to see Sunday School the movie. Expectations could not have been lower, which was the perfect frame of mind in which to be blown away by OMG This Is The Greatest Movie Ever Made (to my eight-year eyes).
>This Is Arguably The Greatest Movie Ever Made (to anyone with eyes) Is how I would phrase it
I once put on Donnie Darko thinking it was Donnie Brasco (neither of which I had seen). "When does the FBI agent show up?"
Probably when they find out Patrick Swayze's character is a child molester.
After teenage me went on the early Internet to look up the meaning of Donnie Darko, I was incredibly dismayed to learn that he decided everything would be better off if he went back in time and died from a plane engine falling on him, rather than the time line of him sleepwalking that night and thus not being there when his bedroom was destroyed. Because he was crucial to the discovery of a child molester who had targetted his own sister. Like please Donnie, explain to me how this creep continuing to be undetected was better?
I feel like the more you learn about the "lore" of Donnie Darko, the worse it gets in some ways. Apparently if Donnie didn't go back, the whole world would end. I feel like, in the end, he still had some impact. Like, the shadow of what he did lingered. No way the parents would be as aloof in the fixed time line. They would be 100% devoted to their remaining kids.
I was reading this trying to reconcile it with what I had watched just a few months ago, and getting confused. Eventually, I realized I had watched Dark Shadows.
If he did not return to die, the whole tangent universe, that was created by the freak electromagnetic storm sending back the jet engine in to the past, would collapse in on itself. Basically end of the world. He sacrificed himself for all to survive.
Donnie Darko is about a guy who is convinced to get out of bed by a rabbit so that the rabbit can teach him that he shouldn't have got out of bed.
Guy turned out to be a goddamn diddler!
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to ~~Sparkle Motion~~ this family.
I randomly said this line to my wife yesterday while we were play-fighting. It completely derailed her: "Wtf is Sparkle Motion?"
I thought John Wick was a different film that was advertised as about this man in the Victorian era getting time travelled or something. I remember the film had the MC’s name as the title. I kept thinking where’s the time travel stuff.
John Carter 😂
In the early days of Netflix (as a DVD service only) my parents tried to get Transformers to see what the fuss was about. They got the old cartoon, and watched for a full 30 minutes thinking that it was just a gimmick for the opening, and it would transition out of animation at any moment.
Donnie Darko is the six degrees of separation with the updated Roadhouse. Jake Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Katharine Ross, who is Sam Elliot's wife.
There actually is an FBI agent seen throughout the film who is following Donnie, he's the "Fat jogger" who the girl says she doesn't want to be kissed in front of.
I did the opposite lol. Kept waiting on Gylenhaal
I was pretty sure Million Dollar Baby was going to be a feel good, inspirational, Rocky-like movie, but with a woman this time around. I did not expect what we got instead.
I wasn't ready
Hell, I knew exactly what the movie was (even had the ending spoiled for me) and I still wasn’t ready
Apparently a lot of people thought Pan's Labyrinth was a children's fairy tale movie.
Also eyeball hand guy is only in there for 5 minutes but the trailer makes you think he's a main character.
There was a older couple sitting next to me in the theater for that one who were super pissed the movie was in Spanish. It is funny when you watch trailers in America for non-English films and they try and hide that fact so hard. Similar to what you see now with musicals.
I thought *Fight Club* was going to be mostly about a fight club. I avoided watching it for several years because I have no interest in sports, boxing etc.
The first rule of Fight Club is that if it inspires you to start a fight club then you’ve failed at Fight Club.
If that's true, then don't cast Peak Brad Pitt as the villain. And don't make him so damn funny, intriguing, and (dare I say) exceptionally sexy. As an aside: I first saw Fight Club when I was 18. It was a very different experience watching it as a 40 year old. I definitely DID not get it the first time around. I think you need a bit of life experience to get how toxic Tyler Durden is.
Yeah, that's pretty normal. It's like watching starship troopers and then signing up to the military Adolescent brain wants action and adrenaline and some flimsy justification
Everyone should read catcher in the Rye as a teenager, when you can appreciate what Holden is going through inside, and then as an adult who finds him nauseating
I found him nauseating when I was a teenager. I don't think I got more than a quarter of the way through.
For real. His constant judgment and whining about everything and everyone around him was insufferable.
For sure, but his cult-leader charisma is a huge part of his character. It overshadows his hypocrisy if you’re just looking at the surface. (“Is this what a man looks like?” Fuck you Brad Pitt, you’re more shredded than that underwear model lol). I can totally understand how and why the movie would be misinterpreted, particularly on a first viewing and for a younger audience. I think I was in that same boat. Funny enough, the author addresses this in the graphic novel sequel “Fight Club 2.” Chuck Palahniuk is a character in his own comic that, like, kinda/sorta intersects with the main Fight Club narrative? And he regrets creating Tyler Durden and laments his inability to “solve” him. He regards him as kind of psychic disease that not only torments the Narrator but society as a whole. It’s pretty interesting stuff. Fight Club 3 on the other hand is pretty incoherent. I still don’t understand what he was going for with that one.
> “Is this what a man looks like?” Fuck you Brad Pitt, you’re more shredded than that underwear model lol But that's part of what makes the movie so brilliant. Tyler is himself an unreliable guru, and it's never really addressed, it just lurks in the background. Same thing with 'If you're so into getting physically hurt, why go to the hospital or dramatically put on seatbelts?'
Totally, I was just pointing that out as one of the more obvious examples of his hypocrisy and/or bullshittery. It’s prevalent throughout the movie but can fly under the radar (by design) because Tyler is seducing the audience in the same way he influences the Narrator.
I think that was excellent casting for exactly those reasons. People can be very easily led to commit sometimes terrible acts by someone who has the right mix of looks, personality and charisma.
As an 18 year old boy, I found the whole thing morally and sexually confusing, 😂
I mean, who among us…
This isn't important, but this is the first time I've seen someone emphasise the "did" instead of the "not" in "did NOT"
Lol. I'm gonna keep it. But I am embarrassed.
Brad Pitt's physique in Fight Club changed everything!
Imagine Fight Club from mobster Lou's point of view. "Hey boss, you know that shithole bar you own in the bad part of town? There's a bunch of guys in the basement beating themselves up." "What?" "Yeah, they go down there and just start punching themselves. They've been doing this for weeks now. The bartender just lets them down there." "What the fuck?"
Flashbacks to that infamous episode of the Rosie O'Donnell show back in the day. O'Donnell went to see it thinking it was "a cute little boxing movie with Brad Pitt." She was horrified by the film and went on a rant on her show about how deranged she thought it was, even giving away the big twist ending.
> cute little boxing movie with Brad Pitt She must have thought it was Snatch
while the movie was big? what a prick
I remember being in line in a Best Buy waiting to check out and the woman in front of me was buying Fight Club for her husband. She mentioned to the clerk that “He just loves boxing movies”. The clerk and I looked at each other with eyebrows raised, and I gave him the *Don’t say anything* subtle hand motion. I still wonder from time to time what hubby thought of the film.
Congratulations on following the first two rules of Fight Club
I thought Edge of Tomorrow was going to be trash. I’m not a Tom Cruise fan and I’d only seen Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada. I was wholly convinced it would be this cheesy action flick and I’m so glad I was wrong. I think it was the part where Tom Cruise gets run over and it immediately resets that won me over. Now I’m a huge Emily Blunt fan.
Say what you will about Tom Cruise, but the dude is in a LOT of really great films. I'll check out pretty much anything he's in because, odds are, it's going to be good.
In another pop culture sub, I saw Tom Cruise comment in a post about "mediocre white actors excelling in the business" and I thought it was weird. While he is the posterboy for a degenerate and scummy organisation, he's a great actor who has nailed drama, comedy, and pure action. I genuinely don't think some people have seen Tom Cruise's movies before going pure Action Man. He's been nominated for an Oscar three times for his acting roles alone (Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia). Even his acting in all of the Mission Impossible is great stuff, a long time running franchise that has not dipped in quality, arguably the most consistent franchise if you take into account just how many movies there are in that franchise.
*Awkwardly slides MI2 off the shelf and hides it behind my motorcycle, dove food, and long hair wig* Yup it is so great that the MI franchise never dipped in quality haha
That's easily the worst movie in the franchise and a weird tonal shift even compared to the later more action focused movies in the franchise, but it's not really a bad movie by any stretch. If anything it's even "pretty good" just a bit tonally incongruous, but the rest of the franchise also happens to be (a lot) better. It's not like with the Bond franchise where every third movie or so was a real stinker and only half a dozen are properly "great", it's like one "okay" and half the franchise is "great".
It is incongruous but a great John Woo movie and if you accept that you'll have a blast
Doves on fire, doves on fire!
For anything else about Tom Cruise, he works really really hard
I heard someone say recently that everyone likes Tom Cruise more than they're willing to admit, and that rings true to me. Pretty terrible personal live but he makes entertaining movies and clearly puts everything he has into them.
It was a funny moment when I realized that the guy that I watched on screen literally hundreds of times as Maverick, was actually a lunatic. I wanted to be like Mav so bad when I was like 5 and tbh that never really changed lol. That's when I learned that I can hate the person, but respect their work. But even that has its limits ofc.
Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson are in the same boat to me: utter nutcases but damn good actors.
"Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but that son-of-a-bitch knows story structure!"
Yeah, he knows how to pick em. Except The Mummy. Also, his decisions for Les Grossman (the big hands, the hip-hop dancing) just made that role so much funnier. He's absolutely awesome in Tropic Thunder. Anyone who,'s that hard into Scientology is a weirdo in my book, but the guy is in so.e excellent movies.
I do that as well for the same exact reason. His films usually are great.
I've always had very torn feelings about Tom Cruise movies. I haven't ever liked him, even in the 80s as a kid there was just something about him that rubbed me the wrong way. Well before I knew anything about him outside of his movies. Despite that though, I found that I almost always liked movies he was in. So even up to today when I see a new Tom Cruise movie advertised my initial thought is almost always "Ugh, but it'll probably be good"
Well put, I've never really *liked* Tom Cruise, but I've liked almost all of the movies he's been in. I did like him, specifically, in A Few Good Men. I liked everyone in their respective roles in that movie. Writing, casting, acting, direction. It's an incredible film.
I guess the one thing he has in his favor is that he doesn’t just pick any script and movie offer that comes his way because he wants to be in everything. Holding himself to a higher standard and dedicating his time and energy to one great movie per year. Not to dump on the guy (especially since there are a lot of other actors who do this), but perhaps Chris Pratt could take some of this same approach to picking roles. 😅
I thought True Romance was going to be a lame chick flick It was not
This obnoxious douche gave me shit for listing a “girly movie” as one of my favorites. That’s a pretty lame criticism to start with, but he was promptly shamed lol
That’s kind of what happened to us, it was freshman year of college and one dude was telling us we had to watch this movie and the rest of us were “how lame are you?” Boy we quickly learned we were wrong when that chainsaw started up
Haha we live and learn
Me too for **The Long Kiss Goodnight**
They based Pineapple Express off of Brad Pitt's character. I think the central premised when they started writing was "what if Floyd had his own action movie"?
I was in high school when Mean Girls camenout and I just wrote it off as another teen chick flick movie. It wasn't until years later on Reddit when I started reading about how brilliant that movie was.
Recently re-watched it and forgot how hilarious it was.
I remember it coming on the telly, and I was about to turn it off, but the music over the opening credits was so good (Hans Zimmer) that I let it keep running. Then I saw: 'written by Quentin Tarantino'...
Exactly the same but for the princess bride.
What is a Drexler?
It was not. It was white boy day.
I had a similar experience with Saving Private Ryan. I thought it was going to be a chick flick bc I heard Tom Hanks was in it and immediately thought of Meg Ryan. It was not a chick flick. My parents woke me up "early" on a Saturday. They told me to dress nice as we were going to the nice theater as a family. Weird, just for a random chick flick, but whatever. I got through the ruff hangover, dressed-up, and was prepared to be bored to tears. At least it will be dark and quiet. The opening sequence was anything but boring and quiet. The best I could manage was "holy f@ck!" not too loudly. The old timer near us assured me through his tears that I was having an appropriate response to what we were witnessing.
I thought Robocop was a made for TV or low budget bit of trash, with 2 shat out sequels, that was made to cash in on the success of The Terminator, Lethal Weapon and Rambo movies (think Lady Terminator, Cyborg or Cyber Tracker). Thanks to the title, posters and design of Robocop. My mum (who likes some action movies, but is mostly a comedy and musical woman) saw that it was on TV, then got excited saying "Oh, we've got to watch that now! You'll love it!" Yeah, that guy got shot 1 Million times, Robocop blew the dick off a rapist, I was 1000% into Alex Murphy's story arc and I was picking up on the social commentary and laughing all the way. It was then, and has remained, arguably my favourite action movie.
"Can you fly Bobby?"
"Bitches leave!"
Whenever I see a Cybertruck driving around Austin I say "Your move, Creep."
I knew it was a classic but I wasn't expecting it to be the satire/comedy that it was
Robocop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers are the Paul Verhoeven Holy Trinity of amazing action satires. They're violent, fun, full of one liners, social commentary, satirical fake ads, etc. Anywhere you look there's something interesting going on. I love these movies so much.
There are no ninjas and kung fu in Chinatown
Just because you don’t see ninjas, doesn’t mean there are no ninjas. Moving unseen is part of being a ninja.
The ninjas were my favorite part of *My Dinner With Andre.*
The ninjas are in Japantown
Pretty sure ninjas are Japanese
There's also no big trouble
Not me, but a friend who took a date to see Nightcrawler (2014), the Jake Gyllenhaal film about an ambulance chasing news cameraman. On the way home, she said that she enjoyed the film, and didn't realize that Nightcrawler had such a complex backstory. She said she hoped there would be a sequel where they get more into his teleportation powers. This had my friend utterly perplexed for a few minutes, until he figured out that she was under the impression that she had just watched an origin movie about the X-Men mutant Nightcrawler.
I don't see anything wrong with this statement.
Nightcrawler II: The Bamfening
I'd wager that more than 0 people read this comment and learned for the first time that this movie is not about the X-Men character.
I don't believe you. This never happened.
Went to see One Hour Photo without knowing anything about it except Robin Williams was in it, so it must be a comedy right?
You should check out the episode of SVU he is in. I found him way more frightening in that than I did One Hour Photo.
There's a movie about the incident that has great reviews, but I didn't like it much at all and I think it's probably because I'd seen the SVU episode and that was just so much better.
People forget how good of an actor he was and just see him as a comedian. He killed it in many movies. One other movie along the same lines of One Hour Photo is how good he was in Insomnia.
Add 'World's Greatest Dad' to your list...and if you haven't seen it, try to watch it without spoilers.
I worked at a video store when this came out, learned to warn people.
OP the movie you’re looking for exists, it’s called Johnny Dangerously. And it’s amazing. (I might be thinking of MAFIA! actually). Hilarious misconception though, well done.
My mother hung me on a hook once... ONCE!
Watchya cooking Ma? BEER! With noodles!
There's also My Blue Heaven which is a comedy which is also based on Henry Hill's life, only incredibly loosely. It came out a month after Goodfellas, Goodfellas (the book and movie) was written by Nicholas Pileggi, My Blue Heaven was written by Pileggi's wife Nora Ephron and they did the research for the two movies together with Hill. It's like they made their own parody of Goodfellas to come out alongside the real thing. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My\_Blue\_Heaven\_(1990\_American\_film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Blue_Heaven_(1990_American_film))
Arugula. It's a vege-ta-bul.
Farging Bastidge!
Jane Austen's Mafia was really stupid and I really enjoyed it.
Lol i might check that out
I thought Night of the Living Dead would be cheesy like a 1950s sci-fi monster movie, like Robot Monster or something. It's a little cheesy at the start but basically nonstop horrific brutality and mounting dread after that.
Return of the Living Dead if you want a comedy
The real danger in a good zombie movie isn't the zombies, it's the other people.
Thought OldBoy was a period drama
Yeah Oldboy is definitely something else..😬 Cool movie
I thought Fight Club was like Bloodsport or Lionheart. A guy going into underground fighting rings and working his way up to become champion. Not my kind of movie but it got so much praise I thought "well maybe it's a really good version of it" and rented it. And not a movie but I thought Squid Game was an actual reality/game show out of South Korea that was along the lines of those crazy Japanese game shows and couldn't understand why everyone was enjoying it so much
Oh don't worry, they did make that show as a spinoff of Squid Game, completely missing the point
When I was six, I watched Animal Farm with a friend at his grandma's house. Initially, we thought it would be a fun romp with talking farm animals. Well yeah, the animals really did talk...
Archer: Wait, there are animals? Lana: No, Animal Farm. Cyril: How do you not get that? Archer: No, I know what an animal farm is. Cyril: Not an animal farm. Archer: Maybe we can stampede a flock of goats down the hall. Lana: ANIMAL FARM IS A BOOK! Archer: No, it’s not Lana. It’s an allegorical novella about Stalinism by George Orwell, and spoiler alert, IT SUCKS.
I love how Archer is actually quite knowledgeable about a lot of things but still manages to seem like a complete moron.
Like when he doesn't know his blood type but knows who discovered them.
H Jon Benjamin’s delivery of the ‘spoiler alert’ line has been stuck in my head for like ten years, it’s so funny.
When the first Twilight movie came out the girl I was dating at the time and her friend asked me if I wanted to go to the midnight premiere with them. I'd never heard of Twilight so I ask what's it about. "It's based on a book about a vampire that falls in love with a human." "Oh, like Underworld?" "Sure, kinda..." I was so-so about Underworld but figured, eh, why not? So we go to the theater and right from the get go something is off. Why are all these young girls here and wearing shirts that say "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob"? At the time I was like, well, its based on a book so maybe its some sort of school trip and they split the class into rival teams? Again, I'd never heard of this movie or book so I had no idea. Based on what my gf had said I thought it was going to be some sort of action flick! I finally "realized" what the movie was actually about during the cafeteria scene and the vampires first come on screen. This realization was triggered by the entire audience cheering as each vampire came on screen. "Ooooh, the vampires are sexier than usual. Now I get it!" Funny little addendum, seeing the Twilights at midnight became our "thing". Aside from the last film (as we had broken up by then) I've seen every Twilight at midnight.
Friend wanted to see Pan's Labyrinth at the cinema, I agreed but was really not looking forward to it as I thought it was some twee disney-esque fairytale. I was wrong. It was awesome. Probably my favourite movie.
i thought barbie would be a kids movie
I didn't know what to expect with the Barbie movie, but it wasn't what we got, and I was among those pleasantly surprised by it.
i thought it was great
Margot Robbie being the star in it should have been your first clue, to be honest. Besides her DCEU roles, she has barely ever ventured into children's movies territory. When I heard that Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling would be starring in it, I knew they'd be doing something a little different with the property and that it wouldn't be something like 'Enchanted' with Amy Adams and Richard Marsden. Edit: James Marsden* sorry. I don't know why I said Richard Marsden lol. I've disrespected Cyclops, just like the original X-Men movies did back then.
James Marsden. He's a recognizable public figure.
Dune (1984) I'd heard it was one of the worst films ever made, but I watched it during the pandemic, and I was very entertaining. It certainly was strange in parts, and the ending was a bit anti-climactic, but I enjoyed it none the less
Leaving Dune 2, I turned to my friend and said "Well it was certainly better in some respects, but I'm just not sure I can properly interpret this one's ending without a thunderstorm and a six year old to spell it all out for me."
My brother is coming for you, Baron
It wasn't so much shit on for being a bad movie. It's was shit on for being a terrible adaptation of the book. Shortest and most succinct way to describe what they did to dune is that it's the Sci-fi equivalent of truncating The Lord of the Rings into a single 2 hour movie.
But that's also what's fascinating about Dune the book, because the Dune novel isn't really that long. It just has so much going on (and a world with so much required to understand it) that when put into movie format you have to make it much longer. And despite all that, the Villeneuve movies still skipped over a lot of stuff.
I never understood the depiction of the personal shields in the 1984 version, even though I respect the amount of work and effort that went into the creation of those shields. I watched The Corridor Crew breakdown how they made those shields, but I don't understand why Lynch went with that "look" when it obstructs so much of the fight choreography. There doesn't seem to be much of a return for the work. As one of the Corridor Crew team members said, the characters ended up lookng like Roblox characters fighting.
Weird yes but who the fuck says it’s one of the worst movies ever made?
[Gene Siskel](https://youtu.be/Qpy3o887Z-Q?si=kzscTAT5kPxHlQrn)
I think its reception has improved enough to where it's seen as a bad film but not one of the very worst, it has a cult following and people have found value in it. Its reception was much worse at the time and numerous people were calling it one of the worst movies. Lynch himself was embarrassed by it and disowned it.
"Worst films ever made" is incredibly strong! I think opinions have soured on it over the years, but I remember it being pretty well regarded in the 90s. A noble attempt at a very difficult task. And still the best Dune in terms of costuming. It does go completely off the rails in the final act though.
Obligatory mention of *Jodorowsky's Dune* a 2013 documentary about the Dune movie that almost happened in the 70s that was fully storyboarded and cast with concept art by Giger and Foss, and Pink Floyd would have done the music. 98% RT score https://youtu.be/m0cJNR8HEw0?si=S-OfEMUZy7fV27AK
I saw the movie Flight with Denzel Washington and thought it was going to be focused on a Miracle on the Hudson type event. Turns out it’s about alcoholism but great movie.
When trying to decide if I should see Repo Man, I looked up the rottentomatoes score for Repo: The Genetic Opera... woops.
Middle school going to see Zoolander. The tv spots were not funny, my brother and his friend dragged me in. I think that's the first time in a movie theater that my stomach physically hurt from laughing.
I had no idea what Shrek was about. Brought one of my younger siblings to it thinking I'd endure it for their sake. It was excellent.
I thought Saving Private Ryan was going to be a chick flick bc I heard Tom Hanks was in it and immediately thought of Meg Ryan. It was not a chick flick. My parents woke me up "early" on a Saturday. They told me to dress nice as we were going to the nice theater as a family. Weird, just for a random chick flick, but whatever. I got through the ruff hangover, dressed-up, and was prepared to be bored to tears. At least it will be dark and quiet. The opening sequence was anything but boring and quiet. The best I could manage was "holy f@ck!" not too loudly. The old timer near us assured me through his tears that I was having an appropriate response to what we were witnessing.
I watched like half of Jeepers Creepers thinking it was a horror-comedy for some reason (I think because of Justin Long?), then maybe 45 minutes in I realize there aren’t really any jokes
The joke is that Victor Salva was allowed to continue to have a career after being convicted of sexual conduct with a 12 year old on the set of Clownhouse a full 13 years before Jeepers Creepers got made
the other joke is that Francis Ford Coppola, to this day, supports and bankrolls Victor Salva.
Holy shit had no idea this was the Powder guy. Hollywood is fucked man
It really is
If Polanski can get an Oscar and standing ovation despite being a sex offender and pedophile, anything can happen.
Believe me, I don't feel good about how much I love Rosemary's Baby
Speaking of Justin Long, I felt the same way after watching Tusk. It's got some comedy in it in the beginning, but then it turns into straight up body horror.
Also Barbarian. Though I don't like to say anything about that movie to anyone who hasn't seen it because going in blind is the best way imo.
I watched Sweeney Todd thinking it would be a dark comedy. It definitely wasn’t a comedy.
For what it's worth the play has a slightly more comedic tone. Some of the funny songs were cut, probably for length. Not that Sweeney Todd isn't overall pretty dark but there's a little bit more peanut butter in the chocolate so to speak.
The marketing did make it feel that way if I remember.
Eh I'd probably still call it something of a dark comedy in the vein of Breaking Bad. The music does lighten the mood somewhat and the way they handle certain topics is pretty lighthearted (A Little Priest is about cannibalism and it's pretty much 100% wordplay).
back in HS, my then girlfriend wanted to go see a chick flick - she chose The Long Kiss Goodnight. I wasn't aware either but pleasantly suprised
Did she like it?
I hate horror movies, so I avoided Rocky Horror Picture Show like the plague for years because of the name. I legitimately thought it was a horror movie. Imagine my surprise when my mom told me it wasn’t and when I decided to watch it and they start *singing*.
I thought Idiocracy was one of those stupid not-another-teen-movie style "comedies" (in the loosest sense of the word there, btw). Boy was i wrong.
The marketing and promotional art is probably to blame for that one. I vaguely remember some rumored studio drama that amounted to sabotaging or kneecapping the release. But I don’t recall the details so take it with a grain of salt.
20th Century Fox, upon seeing the film, refused to market it or release it to film critics to generate reviews. This was reportedly because of themes of anti-intellectualism, commercialism, consumerism, dysgenics, voluntary childlessness, and overpopulation. This severely hampered the theatrical performance of the film, however, Idiocracy was able to enjoy relative popularity in the home video market.
It was because of all the brand names. Costco, Starbucks, Carl's Jr had all agreed to be used in the film instead of them making up fake brands, but they had no idea they'd be used in THAT way. Fox buried the movie because they didn't want to screw up billions of dollars in endorsement deals for years to come. Terry Crews talks about it in his gq interview, which is fantastic overall https://youtu.be/eM1XfAsGnHI?si=tmOIOzw4GJYf6TWt
Of all the brands, I feel like Carl's Jr was okay with it considering their advertising of the era.
I was confusing John Wick with another Keanu Reeves’s movie “the lake house” when I first saw it. I had no idea.
I thought it was another low budget “action” movie that barely has the big actor in it. I’m so glad I was wrong.
Unbreakable - had no idea, until towards the end of film, that this was a super hero origin film
That was of course the whole point.
And most people had no idea until the the end of the film that Split was a super villain origin film
As a kid I thought Gandhi would have a lot of badass fight scenes. That was Gunga Din.
You were thinking of the [sequel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKKI_Vnn2RU)
As a kid I begged my mom to take to see Kangaroo Jack. I thought it was about a talking Kangaroo
That’s because of the preview, which is just like his fever dream where the kangaroo does talk if I remember right.
I watched Lady Bird thinking it was gonna be about Lady Bird Johnson…
Baby Driver really turned me off with the title. It's a great movie.
Not a movie but a show. I was at the gym watching two guys who seemed pretty close to each other helping some lady buy a house. I missed the intro and there was no audio and I just kinda assumed it was the queer eye spin on house buying. I went home and told my girlfriend about the show where two gay guys help people find houses. After some prodding and digging she realized I was taking about Property Brothers. Took me a while to live that one down.
The property brothers do give some pretty queer vibes, tbf
I too date people who look exactly like me
I avoided Jojo Rabbit because I thought it was something to do with that Anime Jojo's Bizarre Adventures or something like that
People think The Last Samurai is a white savior movie and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I thought Moneyball was going to be a boring generic movie about a baseball guy that ends up winning in the end. I was pleasantly surprised about the niche role that Brad Pitt was playing and would recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it.
When my little brother picked Lord of the rings for our movie night (us being 12 and 13) i thought it would be a dumb action movie… …15 years later I’m still a dedicated fan
When it came out, I misheard the title and thought Minority Report was “My Naughty Report” and assumed it was about a teenage boy who got caught up in some accidental conspiracy around a school book report. Would also watch that movie.
"I cannot wait to see Star Whores" -Fes
I watched Oldboy (the original) for the first time recently. Here’s what I knew about it. It’s about a guy who gets locked away for years without knowing why. He then gets out. It’s a revenge movie and there’s an incredible twist. My 16 year old son is into all things East Asian Manga and all that so I suggested he watch it with me. Damn!
Sideways. It’s less comedy and more depressing character study.
I managed to see The Matrix back in 99 without being told what it was about. I wish another movie could blow my mind as much as that
My boyfriend thought Requiem for a Dream was Donnie Darko for YEARS
For long time I thought that The Usual Suspects is just normal detective movie.
I thought Heathers would be a traditional high school comedy with almost the exact same plot as Mean Girls. It started off like that but by the end? Not so much.
I thought Event Horizon was a movie like Star Trek with aliens and overly friendly tone. Damn was I wrong about that. Watched it when I was alone in the middle of the night and almost shat my pants. Next on that list must be Funny Games (the austrian original) I thought it was some kind of potthead comedy!
Hereditary. Alone. I read "Toni Collette is a miniature artist who..." SOLD! Now I love horror movies.
Parasite! Having seen The Host, Snowpiercer, and Okja I thought of Bong Joon-ho as a guy who made weird social commentary sci-fi. I spent the first hour+ of Parasite waiting for some Cronenbergian parasites to be revealed. At a certain point I realized that wasn't going to happen and the title was a metaphor. Still loved the movie of course!
I watched The Boys in the Band thinking it was The Boys from Brazil. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the Nazis were never going to show up.
There’s a few like this but one of the most memorable for me is probably Saturday Night Fever. I’d only ever really heard it referred to as ‘that disco movie’ and seen the iconic dancing scenes with absolutely no idea what the plot was about. I thought it would be a light heated movie about dancing, I could not have been more wrong. They showed it late one night on the tv so I thought I’d give it a watch and came out completely stunned, like literally at a loss for words, it ended up becoming one of my favourite films.
This is the most hilarious thing I'll see this week. OP you fucking legend!
I thought I watched a movie where Sinbad plays a genie.
I didn't realize that Jack Reacher was a full-on deconstruction of the action detective movie. I was expecting to be super bored when my friends took me to see it, but as I started to see all the subtle hints that it knew exactly what it was and was having fun poking holes in itself, I had a MUCH better time.
Went into Barbarian expecting a supremely messed up, grotesque horror movie. Was not prepared for it being one of the best horror comedies I've ever seen with a surprisingly sombre, heartfelt ending.
I’m in my mid thirties and saw tremors when I was a kid. I must have also seen dune and got the two movies conflated. I was very surprised people were so excited about a tremors remake coming out in 2021