Top movies With High Expectations and Over-Delivered

[Erick Estrada]

Matrix, several Tarantino movies (Pulp Fiction maybe tops of them), Alien, 300, Terminator 2, Jaws, Jurassic Park, The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, Seven. Lots more that just aren't coming to mind this moment.

[Ashartus]

The Fellowship of the Ring for me. I went in with huge expectations, but the movie blew me away. The scenes in Moria in particular on the big screen left me in awe.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

LOTR and T2 fit this category perfectly.

[Coach]

LOTR
Inception
Barbie
Jojo Rabbit
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Infinity War/Endgame

[KTrain]

Jurassic Park. I didn't see it the first couple weeks in theatre and everyone was saying it was amazing. It definitely lived up to the hype.

[White Out 403]

Jurassic Park is another great one.

[Harry Lime]

Interesting to see Top Gun Maverick on this list. For me, it was the opposite. I heard how good it was, and it was a long time being hyped. When I saw it, the visuals were absolutely amazing, but the story was a pale vapor compared to something like Iron Eagle 2.

Also, I had high hopes for Knives Out, based on the trailer. Really badly written movie, at it's core. It's basically an excuse to get a bunch of actors in a room, the murder movie equivalent of Expendables.

[Jiggy]

T2
Toy Story 1

[Harry Lime]

Sorry that last message was negative!

I'll throw Snatch out there. The trailers made it look like a madcap continuation of Lock Stock, but it turned out to be so much more in reality, and stand completely on it's own, and surpass Lock Stock.

Also, the Last Samurai. It had everything that I look for in a trailer, and it's always a treat to get a high quality samurai movie that is in english. Ken Wantanabe just elevated this movie beyond reason, and an amazing supporting cast top to bottom. Cruise actually acted, which he is capable of. That movie is still great, in my estimation.

[pylon]

T2 was a mind blower, never left the theater feeling more like I got my money's worth ever since. An incredible spectacle and true game changer for its day.

Heat. Over the years, it has slowly worked its way to #1 on my favorite film list.

The Matrix was a close second to T2 for innovation and moneys worth.

Honorable mention to Tron: Legacy. Paper thin plot, but the movie was artistically gorgeous, and the Daft Punk soundtrack was eargasm. I never really expected a super deep plot, as the original was pretty thin too, so it never bothered me as much as it did others.

As for unexpectedly awesome, Oblivion was a really nice surprise. It was a 'Whatever I'm bored' kinda movie. Seeing as it's the same director as Tron, maybe I just like the Kosinski aesthetic.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Yeah I don’t care what anyone says about the last samurai being a noble savage or white saviour or whatever kind of movie. It’s ####ing fantastic.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by fotze2

You guys are devolving into movies that are great but you didn’t expect to. Haha. That list is a thousand long. I was thinking of carving out that top part. Marketed great but we’re better.

There is not many!

No one was posting about that new pulp fiction movie. Can’t wait for that one with John Travolta???? But he’s not a total garbage weirdo.

Just to clarify my original post a bit, I think Fury Road and There Will Be Blood both qualify because others had crazy high expectations, I just wasn’t one of those people.

PTA and DDL together? That movie was expected to be an Oscar nominee and it wins BP in any other year No Country isn’t nominated too.

Same with Fury Road. I know lots of people were salivating at the next instalment from George Miller but I never really liked the original Mad Max movies so while I understood the hype, I wasn’t one them.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

The ultimate challenge is what in the last 15 years fits the bill.

Going way back to the classic blockbusters is too easy.

[DownInFlames]

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three: I love heist movies and this has a stellar reputation but I didn’t know it was such a perfect mix of action and laughs.

Zodiac: Fincher’s best. A serial killer movie where the cops and journalists trying to catch him are way more interesting characters.

Eyes Wide Shut: I’m a Kubrick fan but I wasn’t sure Tom Cruise could carry a film like this. He definitely can.

[#-3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...xpensive_films

In terms of hype, you could look at what someone was willing to spend making the movie as a measure of how much the market valued it before seeing it.

From this Wiki article, the movies where I would guess they didn't waste much money in terms of the final product quality, I'd probably put

Infinity War
Rouge One
C.A. Civil War
The Avengers
Spiderman 2
Armageddon
The Dark Knight
Back to the Future 3
Back to the Future 2
Superman

Generally a lot of sequels, because by my measure that's where the budgets and hype really comes in, when there is a follow up to an already successful product.

*I didn't look at the stuff older than '78 in this article, because I haven't seen enough of them to judge quality, and I haven't seen M.I. Dead Reckoning I or the past few Fast movies because I'll watch M.I when it's on streaming, and I don't care about the Fast movies anymore. So I may not be a good judge of their quality, but I'm sure a pieces of art, they are not worth want was spent, even if they are as commercial products.

[Locke]

Rogue One is an interesting one for me.

Because...its Star Wars, so the expectations are always high, but I cant say that mine were. As more of a 'Seasoned' Star Wars fan, you kind of know the Canon, know the end result, etc. and why should I care about a movie that I already know how it ends?

But man did that movie blow me away.

[undercoverbrother]

All of those that said T2, to marks.

I can't believe I didn't say that.

That movie was hyped to hell.

I remember a bunch of us going to see it.

It was balls to the wall good.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by fotze2

No one was posting about that new pulp fiction movie. Can’t wait for that one with John Travolta???? But he’s not a total garbage weirdo.

I disagree. There was a lot of hype around Pulp Fiction. Reservoir Dogs had gained a decent following and people were excited to see what Tarantino could do with a bigger Hollywood budget. It had won the Palme d'Or at Cannes earlier that year and was getting a lot of mainstream press attention because of Travolta's comeback performance after his career had seemingly moved into playing the dad in family comedies like the Look Who's Talking films.

I saw it opening night at Southland and the theatre was packed.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

Interesting to see Top Gun Maverick on this list. For me, it was the opposite. I heard how good it was, and it was a long time being hyped. When I saw it, the visuals were absolutely amazing, but the story was a pale vapor compared to something like Iron Eagle 2.

Also, I had high hopes for Knives Out, based on the trailer. Really badly written movie, at it's core. It's basically an excuse to get a bunch of actors in a room, the murder movie equivalent of Expendables.

For myself and I think many others, the sell was the Cinematography that was veing hyped for Top Gun. I'm not sure many were hyped on the story.

Bah, in any case, the hype was insane and the Cinematography blew everything away.

[dammage79]

Also, yes the Last Samurai, brilliant movie.

Sometimes ppl need to suspend their political ideology or moral compass and just take a movie for what it is.

Last Samurai is just a re fresh of other white man gone native movies.

Speaking of, Dances with Wolves was hyped to heck and it overdelivered too.