Pleasantly Surprised.

[Instant K4rma]

Last night, I was searching for something to do. Flipping through channel upon channel looking for anything to watch and to no avail. I decided to browse the On Demand section, and saw that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was available. Having never seen it, and having heard only good things about it, I decided to give it a shot. I went in expecting a decent movie with some righteous video game references. By the end of it all, my expectations were blown out of the water. The movie was incredible, far more than I had initially given it credit for (one of my favorite films of the year).

So my question to you, Escapist, is this: When was the last time you were pleasantly surprised or had your expectations exceeded?

 

[Marter]

No Strings Attached was surprisingly funny.For those wondering why I haven't reviewed it yet...I'm saving it for my Valentine's Week special. It will lead that off on February 7th. I quite enjoyed it, and was glad I went.

 

[WrongSprite]

Agreed, best of last year that.

Things I was pleasantly surprised by? I'm going for Perriers Bounty, watched it expecting an average film, found it fantastic

 

[Radeonx]

Sonic Colors.
It really revived Sonic and was a fantastic game, despite the less then good track record Sonic is used to.

 

[ActionDan]

I watched it in the cinema, and genuinely loved it. Great humour in places, and kept me interested enough to care about the Scott Pilgrim and his story. A lot of people who talk about this film label it as "Hipster trash." Who gives a shit honestly? I didn't notice any annoying "hipster" characters. People are so quick to judge this film and they probably haven't even seen it.

 

[Flamezdudes]

I totally agree.

I unfortunately didn't get a chance to watch it in the cinema's when it came out because I was too busy and never had time. Eventually my friend bought it a few days before New Years Eve and on the New Years Eve night, my nerdy friends and I all watched it and absolutely loved it. It's one of our favourite movies.

I then went and bought the film for myself.

Well, I was very suprised by how amazing Old Boy was. My brother was telling me about how brilliant it was, unfortunately something was wrong with the subtitles the first time I tried to see it and then stopped watching it.

Then I saw it with working subtitles and I was blown away as I really wasn't expecting something so good.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

For me, Tangled. It wasn't a fantastic movie, but it was better than I thought it'd be. Glad I saw it.

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

Scott Pilgrim is my favourite movie of all time. I wasn't surprised that it was good, but I was surprised that it was that good.

I was pleasantly surprised by Metro 2033 recently. I was expecting it to be average, but I really enjoyed it, and it has amazing tension in some places. Great survival horror, especially when played on the hardest difficulty where ammo is scarce.

 

[TriggerHappyAngel]

I never really liked Science Fiction in general (chrome, virtual displays and plasma beams everywhere), but man; Mass Effect is awesome! (so I was suprised when I first played it I guess).

 

[Avaholic03]

On a whim, I recently watched Despicable Me and Megamind. It's nice to see that animated movies are becoming better for all ages. I never really felt like I was watching some lame kiddie movie. Pixar really paved the way there, but the other studios are following suit nicely.

 

[Dango]

Men Of War.

It was some cheap RTS on Steam that I was expecting nothing out of, but turned out having some of the best multiplayer I've ever seen.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Daybreakers. I was expecting a pretty good movie, but instead I got something better: I got a spectacularly bad movie. Seriously, I have never laughed at a movie as much as I laughed at Daybreakers. Not even comedies. It was.....It was great. Ah, good times.

 

[BanthaFodder]

Season of the Witchwith Nick Cage. I saw it with about 6 friends and we were the ONLY ones in that theater. we laughed our asses off and had a GREAT time. if they (the film makers) had taken the movie a bit more seriously, it wouldhave turned out REALLY good. it had a decent story and okay acting and special effects, whereas I was expecting SyFy (pronounced, "See Fee" apparently) levels of hilariously bad. it was actually an OKAY movie

 

[Swaki]

Black swan, after the first review i read i really wanted to see it, but it took its sweet time getting to Denmark, and by then i had heard so much about it and how good it is and bla bla, and when it finally did arrive i really didn't want to see it, i have been down that road too many times, a movie gets over hyped and when i finally see it it turns out to be just a decent popcorn flick (my experience with scott pilgrim), but it really did live up to its hype, and even managed to surprise me, i will say i don't think Natalie Portman deserves a oscar for it, not by a long shot, but it really is a great movie.

Other than that i am rarely pleasantly surprised, most the time i leave thinking "WTF, people go crazy for this".

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

The Damned Things.

A band with members of Anthrax, Every Time I Die and Fallout Boy. Granted, I fucking love Anthrax, but I've never really liked the other two bands and it seemed like an odd combination.

But they're bloody awesome, and Keith Buckley can sing really well. Just hope it doesn't slow down a new Anthrax album even more.

 

[Irridium]

Ninja Blade

Its a generic action game on the 360 about ninja's and has lots of quick-time events.
Its also totally fucking awesome.

I really should hate this game, but its so damn fun I can't help but love it.

 

[RemytheNinja]

Dexter. I refused to watch it because i thought it was glorifying serial killers. Then my friend suggested and I didn't want to argue so we watched it and it's now my favorite show.

Also Sherlock Holmes directed by Guy Ritchie

 

[SturmDolch]

Black Swan

Seriously. I expected it to be good. I saw the MovieBob review before I saw it. But I hadn't really seen any trailers, so all I knew is that it was a ballet film with psychological thriller/horror elements.

I did not expect it to be a perfect film in every single aspect. I can't think of a single flaw with it. The story, the cinematography, the direction, the acting, the casting, the music, the editing, the horror, the sense of wonder, the characters, the setting, the ... *ahem*

It's probably the first movie I've thought about every day for over a week after seeing it. I saw it a week ago on Friday, but I still think about that movie. It stays with you. There are so many interpretations.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I'm starting to think this could be my favourite movie of all time.

 

[Woodsey]

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

I didn't expect to not like it, but that film has had an appallingly small amount of coverage ever since it came out, in spite of it being fucking fantastic.

 

[Flamezdudes]

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

I didn't expect to not like it, but that film has had an appallingly small amount of coverage ever since it came out, in spite of it being fucking fantastic.

Oh yes, this.

My brother suggested we watch a Western one night and I wasn't expecting much but as the film started and we kept watching, it realised that it was a brilliant film. Very suprising.