Most Surprising Film of the Year:

I didn't see a thread on this, and in a football forum I'm in, they had a thread going on this. What is one film that you came into with low expectations (or no expectations) and were pleasently surprised with how good it actually was this year?

For me it was the film "The Invisible".

I didn't see this movie in theaters, but I read the reviews for it, and it wasn't getting good reviews, when it came out I saw it and I actually was very impressed by it. It is a teen crime story, somewhat along the line of Brick in some ways. But there was enough else going on that it didn't focus only on solving the mystery but took time to develop the characters notably. And I was impressed by the acting in the film. For the most part it was not well known actors, but everyone in the film gave solid performances that made it a solidly entertaining film, and notably better then the crititcs said it was.

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"As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away."
-From Identity

I have read so many great reviews about the limitedly released film Juno. It is about teenage pregnancy and stars Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman. It has broken box office records and due to its success, the film will have a worldwide release this coming December 25, 2007.

I already saw Juno and it's every bit as amazing as those reviews would lead you to believe. It'll be expanding its release tomorrow so maybe you'll get a chance to watch it at the local cinema rather than having to drive all the way to the playhouse district to enjoy.

There were only two movies that really surprised me this year in terms of me thinking they'd be trash or at the very least a distant relative of trash, and turning out to be a whole lot of fun.

1408
I'm not a huge John Cusack fan. I've gotten burned more than once watching a movie just for him and I expected to get burned again here. Not to mention the last couple Stephen King movie adaptations were crap. Luckily I was wrong about the whole affair. 1408 was a great thriller/horror that had me half covering my face in dreadful anticipation, which is really the best case scenario going into that type of movie. Cusack was absolutely superb, essentially putting on a one man show, as he's stuck in a room with God-knows-what throughout the entire movie. Samuel L. Jackson does drop in early though to deliver the best line in the movie as only he can deliver it. There was a lot of deeper stuff happening in the movie other than frights and that's what'll really have me coming back to re-watch this movie.

Stardust
Someone in the advertising department really dropped the ball on this one because the studio had a real fantastical gem with this movie, but they didn't really push it out there and it came and went in theaters almost without my knowledge. Now that I've finally caught it on DVD, I can do nothing but positively rep that thing. Everything from Gaiman's novel (I read him almost religiously) which is about a young man named Tristan going into a magical kingdom to retrieve a fallen star for his one love, translated perfectly onto screen and some added stuff like the gay pirate actually proved to improve the piece overall! This movie was just a bucketload of whimsical fun and it's really a shame not a lot people got to see it in theaters.

I want to see all three of those badly. I was also disappointed with how Stardust was pushed, I thought that they did a poor job of it, and because I was cheap and no one I knew wanted to see it, I didn't end up seeing it in theaters. And 1408, I've heard good and bad reviews for it, but knowing what type of films the reviewers like and what I like, I think that it is a film that I would find really interesting and enjoy a lot. I'm a big Cusack fan as well, so in my opinion the film has that going for it as well. I've been waiting a while for a really solid Stephen King adaptation, and hopefully this is it.

Stardust for me as well. I think it was advertised quite a bit - the screen I saw it in was so packed we couldn't even get two seats together! But it did seem like it would just be silly, wheareas in fact it was good fun and quite affecting.

Stardust is certainly on my to do list in the next few days. Everything I have heard has been solid. As far as which film surprised me the most this year, I must say that it was Live Free or Die Hard. I had so many doubts about a fourth installment to this franchise, but I tell ya Bruce has still got it, and although the PG-13 theatrical cut did disappoint when the time came for Mclane's signature catchphrase, the unrated DVD more than makes up for it. Overall, this movie actually blew me away. I rank it as the second best of the series.

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Donnie, you are out of your element!!!

Waitress...loved it.

The most surprising film for me was Hairspray. I didn't even plan on watching it, but my daughter wanted to see it, so I ended up seeing it twice and found it totally joyous.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Transformer Pirates of the Caribbean 3 Spderman 3 Die Hard 4.0 Beowulf

The man meant "pleasantly" surprising...

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http://www.last.fm/user/diezelpower/

Thanks. Now I am really ecstatic to see this wonderful film.

For me, it'll be 30 Days of Nights. I've seen the trailer once and I thought, " not another flop horror movie", but boy was I wrong. When I watched the movie, at first it seemed pretty boring, but as the story goes, It became quite interesting. Actually the movie took place in a certain part in Alaska where the sun only rises after 30 days. Within that 30 days, you'll just find yourself in utter darkness.

And so, in the movie, it started with the last day of the sun. From then on, it started getting dark and vampires appeared out of nowhere. Well, I never thought this movie was about vampires. I just thought strange things just happened in the dark.

anyways, to make the story short, I really liked the movie. I recommend that you should watch it.

Live Free or Die Hard

1. The fact that they made it.
2. I watched it without having seen the other Die Hard movies and I enjoyed it.
3. It made me buy the first three Die Hard movies.

Murder Party (2007)

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Mine would have to be Wild Hogs. I was dragged into this movie, thinking it was going to be incredibly terrible. Through the pain of going, i spent the rest of the time laughin and feeling great about this movie. There is just so much to love about Wild Hogs and alot of it reminded me of my own father. Plus Marisa Tomei is still friggin cute!!

For me Transformer rocks, it really surprised me.. At first I was thinking that the movie will be just like the other ordinary movie.
But the movie prove me that I was wrong.. really liked it, I'm waiting
for the second part

We have the same opinion with regards to this film. I thought it will be a disastrous horror flick, but I am glad it did not turn out that way. I enjoyed watching it. I like the story and the end part is really very touching. Nice movie!

is this a korean remake of the film Jeni Juno?

No it is not.

I had heard nothing about Perfume: A Story of a Murderer before I watched it. Strange, but none of my friends had seen it before me, and I had missed any buzz about it. I was so enthralled with this movie, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. And the story! How unique it was, I couldn't believe how well it was told. So, the movie might not have been surprising to those that follow film, but it was a surprising movie to me.

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If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

Johann von Goethe