Top 5 Surprises of 2008?
 

so feeding off JR's thread, what are the movies that you were surprised you enjoyed so much this year?

"Step Brothers"
"Snow Angels"
"Wanted"
"Redbelt"
"The Bank Job"

* "Felon" (honorable mention)

i mean these were movies that i didn't not expect to like, but was pretty much blown when i enjoyed them so much.

Cloverfield
You Don't Mess With the Zohan
Get Smart
The Dark Knight (I was worried due to so much hype)
Untraceable

5. Iron Man (I trusted in Downey and Bridges, but it's still a total crap shoot with the first entry into a comic book franchise)

4. Ghost Town (very generic plot, but Gervais made it actually funny)

3. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (the trailers looked like shit but it was far and away my favorite comedy of the year until Zack & Miri came out)

2. Let the Right One In (a film about teenage vampires? Sounds horrifyingly familiar. Yet it succeeded on every level that Twilight failed. Moving, intelligent, and surprisingly real)

1. In Bruges (this is the fucking champ of surprises. Remember how awful and confusing those trailers were? AND it had Colin Farrell? Then it turned out to be awesome. This was the "Once" of 08 for me).

^ Zohan, Untraceable, and Get Smart sucked IMO.

Top surprises Robert Downey, Jr. comeback.

Heath Ledger's Joker

James Franco prob playing one of the best stoners since Spicoli

SPEED RACER
In Bruges (only because I hadn't heard much about it when I saw it at the theatre)
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Young People Fucking
The House Bunny

(although to the OP, I'm sure you'd like most movies if you were BLOWN during them ;) )

In Search Of A Midnight Kiss surprised me. I had no idea it was going to be that brilliant and nuanced.

Can't say I have five.

http://www.reelmovienews.com/wp-cont...685e-320pi.jpg

"You forgot to say away..again"


1. Cloverfield (by a HUGE margin)
2. Vicky Christina Barcelona
3. Son of Rambow
4. In Bruges
5. Nick and Nora
6. Young People Fucking
7. In Search of a Midnight Kiss

Whatever.

One of my favorite flicks this year.

Cloverfield and Speed Racer were surprisingly enjoyable.

wanted
iron man
speed racer

"In Bruges" is hands down my favorite of the year. But I wasn't surprised by it because I read several glowing reviews before going in. So I knew going it I'd love it. And it's my type of film. So that said, my Top 5 surprises are:

1) "Rock N Rolla" - Guy Ritchie is BACK! Great acting, action and music.

2) "The Bank Job" - Finally a movie where Jason Statham acts. I love his other films. But this is his finest hour.

3) "Iron Man" - Was never a fan of Jon Favreau's directed films. But he did a fantastic job here. And it's one of my favorite movies of the year.

4) "Hamlet 2" - Hate the title and concept. And a friend dragged me to see it. I laughed my ass off from start to finish. Funniest film of the year IMO.

5) "Tell No One" - French thriller. Very gripping from start to finish. And it's the second best film I've seen this year. Almost tied with "In Bruges"

Re: "Run Fatboy Run". Scott1598 might have been blown by it. By I felt fucked by it.

Rock N Rolla -- A film just as good as Snatch... did not expect that.

In Bruges -- Checked this out because it had Colin Farrell in it and ended up being my favorite movie of the year.

The Dark Knight -- Surpassed the hype.

Tropic Thunder -- Didn't expect much from a Ben Stiller movie... but it was the funniest movie of the year.

And I can't think of any other films I saw. Iron Man was good but I expected it to be, Wanted would probably fall under one of the most disappointed.

1. Redbelt - Went into this movie with no expectations and it fucking blew me...away. One of the best films of the year IMO.

2. The Dark Knight - Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker is the reason why I've seen this film 5 times and am watching again tonight.

3. Tropic Thunder - Funniest movie of the year. Period.

4. Young People Fucking - I never would have guessed that this movie would have surpassed Pineapple Express, Zach and Miri Make a Porno and Forgetting Sarah Marshall as the 2nd funniest movie I've seen this year. I never laugh out loud at movies but this movie made me legit lol 3-4 times when I watched it for the first time.

5. Let the Right One In - Went into this without seeing any trailers or reviews, only thing I saw beforehand was the poster. Ended up loving it.

I have In Bruges and Hamlet 2 but haven't watched them yet. Looks like I have to watch them now.

Ballast. Movie looked interesting, had good reviews but I didn't expect it to be so good, and so true. It almost seemed like a documentary.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall. To be honest I really like, but don't love, Apatow's comedies. This one floored me.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Due to Cruz, I went to see this, eventhough I've not seen a Woody Allen movie I've liked. This is the first.

Cloverfield. Was not expecting a lot. The end result was pleasant and was probably had some of the best pre-monster sequences of any monster movie.

Wanted. I didn't think much of this but once I saw it was in theatres for over a month and had legs, I decided to check it out. Really fun movie. On my "surprise" list not because it's good, but I expected it to be very, very bad.

rotfl

i really got to seek out this "YPF" seems very interesting now.

In Bruges
Ballast
Repo! A Genetic Opera

these three because I knew really nothing prior seeing and were in different ways awesome.

Role Models-because I thought it looked generic but was really funny and had a decent story

Kung Fu Panda-because I can't stand Dreamworks Animation but enjoyed it enough to buy the BD

Kung Fu Panda
Wanted
Cloverfield
Son of Rambow
Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Speed Racer- I just went because id seen everything else. No nothing about speed racer other than the jokes on Family Guy, really dont like Emile Hirsch, but walked out thinking it was a great popcorn movie. Didnt take itself seriously, great colors, fun little story

Hulk- I easily rank the last one as one of the worst summer movies ive seen. I was drug to this kicking and screaming. Actually dug it alot.

The Fall
The Bank Job
In Bruges
My Name is Bruce
Blue State
Snow Angels

1. Vicki Cristina Barcelona
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
5. Choke

Speed Racer: Went to see this with a friend in the middle of the day at the $3 theater to mock it. We were the only ones in there and within 20 minutes were shocked to find ourselves thoroughly enjoying it.

Twilight: Much better than I imagined. Probably one of the best 'teen marketed' films I've seen in a decade.

Kung Fu Panda.i mean the trailer looked really rubbish but when i saw it...wow

Kung Fu Panda
Tropic Thunder
Iron Man
Rock n Rolla
Twilight

These are the 5 that surprised me the most... For example, I really thought Twilight was going to suck pretty bad, but it ended up at least being entertaining. I also expected TT to be an unfanny mess, but turned out to be the funniest of the year for me. And Iron Man, RR, and KFP could have easily went either way, but they ended up being better than I had hoped for.