Fight Club - based on the commercials, I thought it was going to be a stupid movie about an underground streetfighting ring. I finally checked it out when it first came out on video and, whoa! Blew me away.

I saw The Matrix on its opening weekend, before the buzz on it got really huge. My friends and I had only seen a couple of commercials for it that looked kind of weird/cool, but we didn't really have any idea what to expect. Took us by surprise how cool it was, and everybody else in the theater seemed to have the same reaction, all these stunned smiles that said, "That was freakin' awesome!"

Hmmmm...For me It would most likely be The Rules Of Attraction and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
Others that really suprised me: Love, Actually , Gigli, Amores Perros, Lord of War, Dawn of the dead (Romero's version, Caught it on Cinemax one night in 97 or 98 when i was 10 or 11. Had no idea what it was about but gave it a chance and it became my no. 1 horror film ever.) , Do the RIght Thing (I fell in love with Spike Lee after this one.) , Rebecca, The Proposition, and The Ruling Class.

Probably Seven and L.A. Confidential.

Seven came out when I was in high school and just starting to get into movies. Didn't know anything about the movie, but some friends wanted to see it. Many of them were female, and I thought they just wanted to see it because Brad Pitt was in it. Seemed like a lame excuse that I somehow got dragged along into. That, and they described it more as a horror movie, which is genre I generally don't care for. Boy was I suprised.

L.A. Confidential came out when I was in college, and I think I was confusing it with Copland, which came out about the same time. Not that Copland was terrible, but I wasn't terribly enthusiastic to see it. What I got from L.A. Confidential was one of my all time favorites.

The Sweetest Thing...got dragged to by my gf at the time and thought I was walking into a total chick flick. Then it turned out to be a pretty crude film...with hot chicks. Always a plus.

among others...

Wanted
Serenity

surprised the hell out of me at how much i liked and continue to watch and like them.

I was married to a Japanese girl, so found an airing of a Japanese film one night on IFC or something that sounded fine enough just so she could get a taste of home. The movie started out slowly, but interesting, then went 540 degrees and left us both with our mouths agape and wondering what the hell was happening to us. The movie was Audition. Probably would never have played it for her if I had known about it, but we both agreed that it was excellent.

The only thing that made this thing not reach all mighty high on the scale of disbelief was Morgan Freeman explaining the jest of what they could do. The man can explain anything and make you believe it. Yeah, it was crazy but you believed in it cuz Freeman was in it and he explained it to you. He could sell me a bag of shit and tell me it's a good investment and Damnit...I'd have a hard time saying no to him.

I take it you saw Serenity before Firefly?

I saw the Sixth Sense towards the end of summer and somehow avoided the spoilers for it and was just blown away at the end. I definitely did not see that coming.

My friend and I picked up Oldboy for some reason, this was before it became well known and it wasn't recommended to us if i recall, and were both amazed by the movie.

Donnie Darko was a similar experience. Saw it before the buzz and loved it (although, now, not so much).

Probably the first experience I had like this was The Green Mile, December 1999. I reeeeeeeeeeeally wanted to see Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo which opened the same day, but my parents being adults and all wanted to see it. A three-hour movie set in the 30's? Jesus.

I was wrong. Dead wrong. It exposed me to Stephen King for the first time, and I don't know of any other film before seeing it that moved me so profoundly. Needless to say, I'm still thankful of my parents for dragging me to this to this day.

A few others:

Dawn of the Dead - both of them. The original was the first horror film I saw (aside from the original Halloween) that made me truly enthusiastic about the genre. Can still remember my one friend being flabbergasted by me, not really a horror fan, loving the hell out of this. And the remake, I remember seeing the first few minutes online and thinking it was decent, okay it's not going to be that bad. Once the opening credits started with Johnny Cash and the apocalyptic visions of doom, I was grabbed by the throat and it didn't let up till the end credits.

Face/Off - I was 9 when the trailer came out, and while now I think it's a great teaser, I thought at the time it looked like some stupid Twilight Zone episode. Then my cousin raved about it and I saw it with my parents in July of '97. I had loved Con Air (my first R-rated movie) earlier that summer, but little did I know I was about to be exposed to a certain insane Hong Kong filmmaker. For years, it was my favorite movie of all time.

Good Burger

I knew it was gonna be good when I went to see it, but didn't know it was destined to become an instant classic.

I had seen a couple of ads on TV for Election which made it look like some doepy Dude Where's My Car kinda flick. I barely remembered it until a year later when I caught it at a dollar theater and was blown away. One of my favorite movies now.

Zodiac.


I thought it was gonna be a waste of time, but I was dead wrong.
Script hitting all the right notes.
Performances rising and rising.
Fincher's brisk direction on where the camera should be and how the scene should start and end.
There could have been examples that would have derailed this movie (The cartoonist battling his commitment to the wife & family with as much devotion in discovering the identity of the killer. And with a lesser movie, those themes would have likely been more explored) Not in this case. Everything had cut-to-the-chase just the way I wanted it.

Fabulous film.

It's hard for me to pick out one movie over the course of my lifetime, but over the past 2 years it would be Other Voices. I expected almost nothing from this indie film as I never heard of it and IMDB doesn't even have a link to any reviews. But it turned out to be very dark, funny & twisted with a fantastic performance by Campbell Scott. The movie is not for everyone , as it may be too offbeat for some (especially Rob Morrow's performance), but this has the potential to achieve some kind of cult status.

For me this boils down to 2 movies. Both films i went to see without knowing anything about them at all really at the time. Both films played in rooms where there were maybe 5 other people with me (and in the the case of the second movie there was only 1 other person...this in a room that accomodates a good 600).

The Usual Suspects - Was playing as part of the Leeds film festival back in 95. It blew me away and when i left the cinema i could not wait to tell people to see this movie.

Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead - This was a movie i checked out on a Saturday afternoon at the same cinema, and there was only one other person watching it with me. It turned out to be a great film and i feel is still a gem that many have not discovered. I remember seeing the trailer for it and as soon as i saw Walken i was sold.

Both great movies and its a shame in a way that now with the internet people almost know the movie before they walk in to see it.

Mulholland Drive - I wasn't a huge Lynch fan when it was initially released, having only seen Lost Highway before it, and was blown away by it - it was almost interactive cinema, a puzzle in movie form.

Oldboy - I just wasn't expecting THAT, loved it.

Easy, the Matrix. This film changed the action genre and in some way established a new type of movie genre. I remember going in thinking 'why am I watching Johnny Mnemonic 2?' To quote Reeves - 'woah'.

Children of Men - I had no idea the movie would be so intense. I expected more sci-fi elements but it was an excellent post-apocalyptic movie.

and probably Legally Blonde. I thought it was going to be dumb, but ended up being one the sharpest, smartest comedies I've seen since Dumb and Dumber.

The Matrix always seemed really derivative to me (I always saw it as a cross between Dark City and Ghost in the Shell), but was a pretty decent flick (still dull in spots) and admittingly pretty influential. Just happy as hell bullet time finally went away.

Yeah...that shit got old quick after everyone and there mother was using it. UGHHHHH

Wow, going to date myself here but The French Connection (at a drive-in no less). Up until then I had never seen a movie end that way.

Another would be The Deer Hunter

holocaust? black and white? 3+ hours? assigned as homework?

for me, it's gotta be Schindler's List.

yes. bought Firefly after and still can't make it through the whole season. not bad, just not the same as movie.

Robocop.

I remember as a kid thinking the title alone was the stupidest name I ever heard. I didn't even want to see the movie, but a few of my friends dragged me to it and was completely blown away. This is pefect in every way. Best group of villains to ever be put on screen and the ending is just classis.

"Nice shooting son, what's your name"

Robo - Murphy..

END

I had never heard of "Napoleon Dynamite". Nothing. I bought it on dvd the week it came out only because I was killing time while waiting for my car to be serviced. I didn't read the back, or know the genre.

One night I popped it in and began laughing my ass off.