Reviews, Expectations, & Movies

[trying2learn]

This is inspired from watching Match Point for the first time last night. (I posted my thoughts in the thread in OOT.) All apologies if the topic has been covered before.

Anyway, the thread on that movie was negative to say the least, thus I expected to dislike the movie going in. How large of a factor is that point in regards to me really enjoying the film? I didn't think it should be up for Best Picture or anything, but I don't have many negative things to say about it at all.

Some other instances of this for me personally -

Zoolander

To say I normally hate this type of comedy would be an understatement. Sitting down to it I was so pissed off I was there, I seriously thought it would be close to the worst 90 min of my life and I laughed out loud numerous times, quote it often, and think it's f'n hillarious.

Jackie Brown

I couldn't wait for this movie to come out. Was at first showing of day one & walked out so down. I just didn't get it. Interestingly enough - after a rewatch a year or so ago I liked this film much more - though not nearly as much as I thought I would.

A History of Violence

Read a really bad local review (by a writer I normally agree with) but was with a group of others who wanted to go, so I went anyway. I left the theatre liking the film much more than any of my friends - some of whom hated it. Maybe my favorite movie of last year.

There are other obvious examples (Starwars 1-3), (M. Night's last couple pics), etc...


I almost feel like I should seek out movies I think are going to suck or hear bad things about more often than I do because of this trend...thoughts?

[Runkmud]

I always try to check the reviews on a movie before I go to see it, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't.

I went with two friends to see The Proposition, a old western set in Australia, starring Guy Pierce. The movie got fantastic reviews.


(Spoiler Alert)


The first 5 minutes were of an amazing gunfight, and I was pretty excited about where the movie was going. Right after that, it dropped off to nothing, and I mean nothing. It felt like the longest movie I'd ever seen, the pacing was murderously bad. Horrible attempts at great cinematography were wasted, and the acting, while not bad, was lost because of the horrible pacing.

About halfway through the movie, I was wondering if perhaps I was just not in the mood or something, perhaps I wasn't seeing the true vision that the critics saw. At that moment my two friends and I, coincidently, we were the only ones in the theatre, looked at eachother and just started cracking up. We all started a conversation about just how bad we thought the movie was.

Perhaps someone else could share a more positive view of this movie, but I felt like 3 hours had been sucked out of my life.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
This is inspired from watching Match Point for the first time last night. (I posted my thoughts in the thread in OOT.) All apologies if the topic has been covered before.

Anyway, the thread on that movie was negative to say the least, thus I expected to dislike the movie going in. How large of a factor is that point in regards to me really enjoying the film? I didn't think it should be up for Best Picture or anything, but I don't have many negative things to say about it at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

Found this post after just watching "A History of Violence" on DVD and wondering what Lounger's thought so I hit 2+2 Search. I liked Match Point a lot and checked it out because of the good reviews (e.g., on Rotten Tomatoes).



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Jackie Brown

I couldn't wait for this movie to come out. Was at first showing of day one & walked out so down. I just didn't get it. Interestingly enough - after a rewatch a year or so ago I liked this film much more - though not nearly as much as I thought I would.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought this one was fine, although my expectations weren't all that high. Don't remember if the initial reviews were good, except I think Ebert liked it.



[ QUOTE ]
A History of Violence

Read a really bad local review (by a writer I normally agree with) but was with a group of others who wanted to go, so I went anyway. I left the theatre liking the film much more than any of my friends - some of whom hated it. Maybe my favorite movie of last year.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very good movie IMO, went in directions totally unexpected. Acting was terrific, not one week spot.



[ QUOTE ]
I almost feel like I should seek out movies I think are going to suck or hear bad things about more often than I do because of this trend...thoughts?

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One point. If you go by reviews you really want to read more than one, even a favorite guy can be really off on a movie.

~ Rick

[Metric]

This phenomenon may partly explain why I found "The Descent" so underwhelming recently. I was quite excited to see it after reading reviews comparing it to Alien, The Ring, etc.