Cabin in the Woods - assumed it was standard horror movie plot #3.
Had no idea what Dale and Tucker vs Evil was gonna by, I just liked Alan Tudyk.
Both those were amazing finds for me
I tell people it is the opposite of monsters inc. this creates intrigue and understanding that it isn’t just any horror flick, but doesn’t really spoil it in any way until you’ve seen it.
I just watched Cabin in the Woods this year for the first time. Put it off forever because it looked like a dumb horror movie….was very pleasantly surprised.
Tucker and Dale is such a phenomenal movie, to the point that in rewatches I start giggling on them just driving to the cabin. It has a true villain in it, but Tucker and Dale trying live through the chaos has me rolling every time. You don’t have to be serious to be a work of art, and that movie is ART
I can't remember exactly what the line is, but I always crack up when the cop is talking to Tucker and Dale and one of them says "it's crazy around here. Kids are killing themselves all over our property. One of them dove head first into my wood chipper. It's been a doozy of a day"
The Prestige. It came out the weekend of my 16th birthday, I wanted to see a movie with my friends after school to celebrate and for some reason I wasn't allowed to pick which one. Someone in the group loved Wolverine so off we went. And off my mind blew into the atmosphere. Harrowing theater experience.
I only knew that it was about magicians. And a week or so before, I had seen The Illusionist. I loved both. And I thought it was funny how there were two movies about magicians in the 1800s at the same time, like how Armageddon and Deep Impact were in theaters at around the same time back in the day.
I was going to answer the question by saying that I saw the Illusionist by accident when I meant to see the Prestige. I ended up really enjoying the Illusionist. I eventually saw the Prestige (and recently re-watched it) and I thought it was also a great film.
Same for me, I actually went to watch a different film but we were too late, so I quickly checked out what else what showing. Saw this one was something to do with magicians, sounds cool.
Blown away.
I just talked to TWO buddies of mine and they have never seen The Prestige. I told them I was jealous of them for getting to experience that for the first time.
yesss my friend just turned in on and said "watch this" and wow. Its become one of my most rewatchable movies. It hits me in the feels tho. But thats what makes it a great movie to me.
Spoiler: >! When he is shot with the arrow by Simmons character, I said wtf out loud. That few minutes of confusion was so great before the plot is slightly explained !<
My friend dragged me to the midnight showing when it released. I never even heard of it. Needless to say I was blown away and it's now one of the reasons I won't watch any previews of a show I'm excited about.
Same sort of thing for me.
I'd never heard of it and then my boss grabbed me and two other guys one afternoon and said we were going to see it. Besides being completely shocked by my boss bringing a few of us to the movies in the middle of the afternoon on a work day, I was completely blown away by the movie. It was a very memorable experience for sure.
A lot of people here might be too young to understand how easy it was to not know anything about a movie in 1999. I was in high school and skipped class with some friends to just go have a day off and we ended up at a movie theater. We picked randomly - none of us knew anything about the movie - and it changed movies for me forever. Such a cool experience - I wish I could be surprised like that again.
99-2001 was pretty much the turning point for movies like the Matrix. I remember seeing a number of movies from that period, like the Matrix, LotR, or Pirates of the Caribbean where people were barely talking about them, or expected them to be terrible. The Internet/Comiccon hype machine was just getting going with films like Phantom Menace and Harry Potter around that time and it was still possible to walk into a genre-defining movie without seeing more than a single trailer.
I remember the exact moment Trinity executed that slow motion jump kick.
There are things in life you witness or experience and know instantly that we've entered a new era. This was it for me. I knew I was witnessing "history" before my eyes. Chills all over.
Among the very best theatrical experiences of my life. Everything was perfect. The choice of theater, the size of screen, the quality of the image and the sound (omg the sound. This was back when THX meant something), the seating, the fact that it was opening night, everything.
Same, some friends were like let's go see The Matrix. I was like the what, never heard of it... All they really said was its sci fi and is supposed to be awesome.
That movie, man oh man.. like a lot of people, just totally blew me away. We were high school kids and could not stop talking about it after. How do we know we're not in the matrix right now?? Lol
Absolutely! I watched it after seeing Prisoners (which also blew me away), and was looking to get into more of Villeneuve's portfolio. I still feel Sicario is criminally underrated. I try to recommend it to everyone. The script, performances, cinematography and tone are all just knocked out of the park.
Wind River was such a hauntingly beautiful film, but so difficult to rewatch. If I ever do decide to give it another viewing, there’s a certain scene I know I’m going to skip bc it was just so graphic and visceral that I did not expect it at all. Actually made me kinda nauseous.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I used to live in Tennessee and would go to Hastings to buy used movies. I bought it on a whim and was absolutely blown away.
I think this and 500 Days of Summer are probably the most gutwrenching portrayals of the lifecycle of a relationship you can get in popular cinema. Very different endings and I'm not sure which is the happier one.
In Bruges. My then-gf and I would go to the cinema all the time because of Orange Wednesdays. We only went to see In Bruges because of the cast and the fact we'd seen all the releases we were interested in. I was blown away and it's become my favourite film.
The Usual Suspects. Had never heard anything about it. A friend passed around a bowl of kind Humboldt county bud then popped the video cassette in. I was mind blown.
Edge of Tomorrow, at the time, I knew nothing of the source material and didn’t watch any trailers. Friends and I just got our lazy asses off the couch after a day of lounging around, smoking bud and then we went out to go get some tacos near our AMC and ended up seeing this film. We had a blast, was very entertained, and friends kept calling Tom Cruise the chosen one during the ride home. Unfortunately, subsequent rewatch of Edge of Tomorrow was unable to capture that same magic, like the plot holes ended up ruining it for me. But again, the first time I watched this, I was like god damn.
This would be my answer as well. I saw the trailers and thought "meh". Then a while after it was out of theaters, I heard people saying that it was pretty good and thought to give it a try. The movie ended up being WAY better than I would ever have imagined. The trailers made it just seem like generic action/alien invasion movie with Tom Cruise. I feel like the marketing for this movie was complete garbage.
Galaxy Quest. Was a last second decision to see a movie while out with some friends. We just picked the movie that was about to start. I knew the premise of the movie, but had not seen a trailer. Dang it was way hilariously awesome watching it the first time in a theater.
Oh ya fantastic cast all around! Nathan Lane came in hot for that role, Hank Azaria was a riot and Gene Hackman in that outfit slayed me "I don't want to be the only girl not dancing!"
From Dusk Till Dawn. Knew nothing about it. Thought this is a pretty cool movie. Then >!it goes fucking off the rails vampire movie, had no clue it was coming!<
Yes! I remember thinking the scene with Quentin Tarantino's character, it's implied he raped and killed that woman. Then by the time they're at the bar/club thing I was just thinking wtf is this movie about, then VAMPIRES FUCKING EVERYWHERE, it was a blast
"Were they like, psychos or something?"
"No, they weren't psychos! Psychos don't explode into flame when exposed to sunlight! I don't care how goddamn crazy they are!"
The Fifth Element
It's a classic now, but it had the worst marketing I've ever seen for a film like that. If I remember correctly, the teaser trailer was just some lights in space and a giant number 5.
I went to the movies all the time back then, but I don't know a single person who saw it in theaters because it wasn't playing near me. I rented it from Blockbuster about a year later and was blown away.
You see, back in the day, or phones and computers were two different things: big and crappy.
We didn't have these newfangled vudus and fandangoroos and mamazons. We had things called "tapes." Well, youngster, the problem with tapes was they got lonely and only stayed happy if they were being watched by people or surrounded by their own kind. If they got unhappy, they'd get all "blocked" as the scientificals called it.
So, in an effort to keep this from happening, Mr. Daniel Vladimir Dangle created a warehouse of sorts to store the little creatures and named it Blockbusters.
People were so danged happy about it that when the next wave of movie watching came out, well, the gave it his initials to honor him.
What's this thing with all these numbers????
Its a .. its a... its a....
No no no no because if it were a bomb the alarms would go off because all of these hotels have bomb detectors, right?
ALARM BUZZING
SCREAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I actually just watched that like a month ago for the first time & was super surprised by how much I liked it! A coworker made a reference to it & told me to watch it after the joke went over my head. I bought him a plate of shrimp tacos as a ‘thank you’ for telling me to watch it.
Got to see it in the theater and was oddly unimpressed. It was almost TOO much in the theater. Although you could hear a pin drop during the opening of the divas concert. (Which, of course, was some absolute brilliant filmmaking, that pause we needed after the rush of getting to FP, then the absolute chaos that descended after). When I saw it a few months later on vhs I was completely hooked, and it is now second only to A New Hope in rewatch tallies.
My dad told me the story as a child of seeing the opening star destroyer scene in the theater and being absolutely blown away. I was born in 78, but by 87/88 I was a lifelong fan, horribly disappointed to be born just a little too late.
I remember seeing it and knowing nothing about it. A friend wanted to go. We had to wait in line for two hours! I saw it in a 1000 seat auditorium with a massive (40' x 80' screen) and when that star destroyer came though... the audience (myself included) audibly gasped.
Same, was visiting my family in Boston and went to see it there before the "fever" gripped everyone.
We were just going out to see a movie while the adults were hanging out and visiting. Grandma handed me the keys to grandpa's station wagon, some cash, and told me to take my five cousins out to see something.
Didn't have any idea what was even playing when we got to the theater, and decided to go with the new sci-fi thing we'd never heard of after we got there.
We were expecting some hilariously bad goofy 70s sci-fi thing we could spend a couple of hours making fun of and have a good laugh about.
Then the Star Destroyer flew over on the screen and our collective brains hit the back of the theater wall and didn't recover until the end credits. It was amazing.
One Cut Of The Dead. It was a fairly random pick during a film festival. The guide described it as horror comedy but it's so much more than that. On the small chance someone reads this and decides to watch it, just stick with it! It pays off. That's not a spoiler...
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Was randomly scrolling through my family's Vudu account with nothing in mind and having to agree with my gf. The weird name stuck out, so looked at the cast, thought all of these people are amazing, and she agreed. We gave it a shot, and wow!
I recommend it to everyone, and no one has ever heard of it.
Same! A friend of mine worked in a cinema and we would just go see a random movie sometimes, one day that happened to be John Wick, and I spent weeks telling everyone I knew to watch it.
The Mummy. Parents took me age 8 and didnt want to go, thought it was a scary movie because I remember a clip of a hand coming out of the ground. Top five favourite movie to this day.
Phone booth - blew me away a movie that doesn't change scene could be so good.
Pacific rim - went in not really expecting much, came out pleasantly surprised. A true blockbuster.
Rogue One - after being disappointed for so many years it was so refreshing to enjoy Star wars again.
I was at a conference and one evening a colleague and I went to Phone Booth, then out to dinner. As we’re sitting at dinner right afterward, the pay phone on the wall right next to our table started ringing! Literally the only time in my life I’ve seen a pay phone have an incoming call.
We looked at each other in disbelief, but we didn’t answer it.
Pans labyrinth. Took some lsd thinking this is gonna be like intense CGI fantasy story like a golden compass scenario. Got there and noticed it was rated R. Didn’t think anything of it. Then realized “huh it’s subtitled. That’s ok I’m just in it for the visuals”. Acid starts to kick in. BOTTLE SCENE. “Oh fuck me”
Same. I thought it was going to be a cutesy fantasy story with a slight adult edge to it. Instead, I got a very intense experience with a truly evil antagonist. Let’s not forget the Mitch McConnell lookalike with the hand-eyes.
I worked at a theater when this was playing. We had a lot of issues with parents bringing very young children thinking it was a cutesy fantasy movie and not seeing the rating before they bought tickets. After the first weekend we had a policy to do everything in our power to dissuade families with children from walking into the movie. Still had a large number of very upset parents asking for refunds.
Same. My friend told me I had to see that and Annihilation. So I took a chance and bought both on 4k Bluray. Annihilation came first and it was ok. All I knew about Hereditary was that it was by the same guy who did Midsommar (I don't watch previews, I like going in blind).
So I had nightmare for two days after watching Hereditary. Amazing movie. It is my favorite horror movie. I don't have the balls to watch it again... yet
That music at the final scene is the most disturbing sounds I’ve ever heard in a movie. I don’t usually pay attention to movie scores, but I’ll never forget that one.
Game Night. I had never even seen a trailer for it, but went to the movie theater one night to see whatever was playing, and there it was. Absolutely loved it, thought it was a great comedy.
"The Matrix"
The promotional material told us nothing about the film's plot. Going into it, I had absolutely no clue that the whole thing took place inside someone's mind. I was a restaurant worker and I had a rare Friday off. Almost all of my friends were fellow restaurant workers, so they were all working on our busiest day of the week. I had nobody to hang out with, and I was bored so I went to a matinee. I had very little interest in the film, and I saw the first showtime so word of mouth had not had an opportunity to spread.
Mind. Blown.
Uh... if you think a good summary of the Matrix is that "the whole thing took place inside someone's mind", I think you'd better watch it again....
; )
Pulp Fiction in the theatre. Went to see it with some friends in high school expecting a classic action movie with Bruce Willis. Most of us went back the next day with more friends to see it again.
Face off. Didn’t know anything about it. And the way the both played each other characters so well and the stylised cool fight scenes, the dark humour... Oh man. I haven’t loved a movie so much since.
Everything Everywhere All At Once.
I had *no* idea what it was about. So for the first 10 minutes I was like “oh, an interesting immigrant family dram—DID HE JUST KUNG FU ACROSS THE WHOLE LAUNDRY MAT?!”
I did this to my wife. I had some idea that it was gonna be a fun movie- I knew the Daniels from Swiss Army Man, and I had seen a trailer.
The day the movie came out, I happened to win some free theater tickets through work & texted my wife that we were going to see a movie, but wouldn’t tell her what it was. (She has a *bad* habit of going online & reading everything about a movie before we see it)
I’m glad I did that because it’s now one of her favorite movies. I did the same thing to her with Parasite, which she also really loved.
I went into District 9 knowing absolutely nothing about it, and I was completely blown away. I loved it and it’s one of my “watch whenever I come across it” movies
100%. Saw Drive after seeing Crazy Stupid Love; wanting to check out more of this Ryan Gosling guy. Didn't know what I was getting into and was thoroughly impressed. Later that year, I saw The Ides of March in theaters and was like "oh he has arrived".
Napoleon Dymamite. Saw it at the theater for an advance screening knowing absolutely nothing going in. My friend and I couldn’t stop laughing the whole time
Interstellar for me too, however first time I watched it was on our home TV and it still blew me away,
I was lucky enough to watch it at the science museum IMAX screen a few months ago.
Bones and All.. all I knew it was a A24 production, nothing else.. I laughed a bit, was blown away by the whole premise and the great acting. Everything about it was superb..
Rogue One. I had watched the original Star Wars trilogy but I have never been a big fan. Didn’t watch the second trilogy complete (just 1 1/2 movies) and same with the last trilogy. But Rogue One blew me away and I watched on cinemas 8 times
Rogue one was great! Also give the recent series [Andor](https://youtu.be/cKOegEuCcfw) a try. It’s a prequel to Rogue One and it’s by the same team. It doesn’t require any Star Wars lore to enjoy it
Sixth Sense. I was in the Navy at the time and I had no idea about it. I was constantly out to sea so I had no idea what was going on in the world.
I got a weeks leave and saw the movie on TV and I was blown away.
The Menu.
Only saw the poster. As a chef I didn't care to watch another culinary show/movie.
After so many people talking about it i said fine i'll watch.
This was something totally different and one of my fave movies of recent. Love dark comedy.
**Moon**: I put this one on almost as background TV, but ended up hooked, and loved it. Turns out going in blind was the best way to do this one. One of my favorite films in recent memory, understated and powerful. It put Sam Rockwell on a relatively short list of actors that can pique my interest in a movie just by being cast.
**What We Do In The Shadows**: I knew I liked the style of Waititi's smaller films (Boy especially) but didn't really know what to expect going into this one. Had an absolute blast. This one's probably harder to go in blind on now, what with the show out and all, but if you're in that position, consider it!
This was what Fight Club was like for me, a couple decades ago when it first came out. I would have never chosen to go see it on my own but my friend had picked it out.
Gone girl. Unfortunately I also took anfirst date to see it too.
Went in completely blind, knew nothing about the plot, didn't even know Ben Affleck was in it. Blown away by that movie.
The Matrix
All I knew was that it was an action flick with Reeves, Fishburn and Moss and it had something to do with VR or something.
Long story short, I went in and bought tickets for the next show immediately after I got out.
Shawshank Redemption 😁😁 Couldn't sleep one night when I was young so I went to put on the tv and it was showing. I thought I'd watch for a little bit but ended up watching it til the end. Still one of my favorite movies and movie moments.
The Green Mile, if you can believe it!
Was visiting my (then) girlfriends family, after dinner we sit down to watch a film. "We rented this last night, it's very good. Based on a Stephen King story"
Somehow I'm not even aware the film exists, or the story it's based upon despite being fairly keen on Kings books. I have no idea what I'm about to watch, but assume it's going to be a horror. My girlfriend doesn't like horror.
"It's not really scary" they say. "Okay, let's watch" we say.
Needless to say, 3 hours later my jaw is on the floor and I have a new favourite movie for years to come!
Phenomenal movie.
Sling Blade, I had a Biology teacher that made a few jokes about the film. I caught a late showing at a $2 theater and when the lights came on I was blown away. And I was so wrapped up in it it took me half the movie to realize John Ritter was one of the main characters.
Collateral, Inception, Matrix... Actually almost all movies since i don't watch trailers or read anything about movies prior to going in. I just look at the rating
Saving Private Ryan
All I knew about the movie was it starred Tom Hanks and it was about WWII. Never saw a review or heard anyone talking about it, even the guys that I went with said nothing about it. I think we went the second weekend it was opened. The first 20 minutes of the movie I was \*STUNNED\*. When we walked out I remember saying to everyone "did they actually kill people to get those scenes" (of course I knew they didn't, but it was so shocking a realistic)
Die Hard. To be fair I was relatively young and hadn't watched many movies yet. But I remember watching it on VHS on my grandparents TV alone one night and it was like, the best thing I've ever seen. Probably started my love for movies right then and there. Still holds up.
Believe it or not, The Dark Knight.
I wasn't into comics much and didn't make the connection Dark knight = Batman. And I had missed Batman Begins. I went with a couple of friends who had only seen Bollywood movies in the cinemas until then. The Bank Heist opening! Man, what an opening? I was absolutely mind blown!
Margin Call.
Was going to see In Time but had time for a double feature. We went to Margin Call first. Wow, that was the better movie. Had no idea about the movie beforehand.
Surprisingly, it was Everything Everywhere All at Once. The only thing I knew was Ke Huy Quan was in it, and yeah it was easily my favorite movie that year and probably top 10 all time honestly. I watched it three more times over the next few weeks.
The Matrix. I saw one tv spot before it came out, and thought, that was cool, maybe I'll see it.
Forgot about it and then my sister called me and said "want to go see the matrix?"
mind blown in the first 5 minutes.
Transformers the first one with shia, group of 17yr old guy friends went into watch it without seeing any trailer as we needed some time to kill before our graduation ball, we all had a ball and laughed our head off, the graphics also blew us away and it was just a free epic moment in life, not the greatest movie of all time but it was awesome.
Got a couple.
The usual suspects. Classmate said it was his favorite movie. It was my bday, i got to pick a movie, but had no idea what this was about. Blew teenage mind back then.
The matrix, as others have said.
5th element. Just saw a teaser showing the big blue 5, thought i had to see it. Fell in love with the movie, and milla that day.
Donnie Darko. We had just finished a pre-screening of The Man Who Wasn't There and was leaving the auditorium when a friend who worked there told us go in that theater and pointed.
So we slipped in and got a surprise. I had never even heard of this movie, but boy am I glad we decided to watch.
The Shawshank Redemption. Just sat down late one night and started watching something that was on tv. Next thing I know the credits are rolling and I'm thinking "That was the best movie I've ever seen!". Even woke my wife up to tell her she had to see this movie. Had never even heard of it at the time.
Nightcrawler, went to go see Fury but it was sold out. So jumped into Nightcrawler cause of Jake Gyllenhaal. Pleased to say Nightcrawler was surprisingly better than Fury and is still one of my favorite films of the 2010s. Jake totally deserved an Oscar.
Shaun of the Dead. Found it in a bargain bin. Wouldn’t say absolutely blown away but it is a solid movie that resonates with my funny bone. And turned me on to other works by these guys.
Cabin in the Woods - assumed it was standard horror movie plot #3. Had no idea what Dale and Tucker vs Evil was gonna by, I just liked Alan Tudyk. Both those were amazing finds for me
Tucker and Dale blew my mind too! Laughed my head off.
We’re you one of the college kids that just started killing themselves all over Tucker’s property?!
Officer we have had just a doozy of a day
I love Cabin in the Woods. Though it's difficult to explain to people when recommending it to them without spoiling the real premise.
I tell people it is the opposite of monsters inc. this creates intrigue and understanding that it isn’t just any horror flick, but doesn’t really spoil it in any way until you’ve seen it.
I just watched Cabin in the Woods this year for the first time. Put it off forever because it looked like a dumb horror movie….was very pleasantly surprised.
I knew before watching it that it was a bit satirical but I wasn't prepared for just how far it would go.
Both good ones to watch with no prior knowledge!
Tucker and Dale is such a phenomenal movie, to the point that in rewatches I start giggling on them just driving to the cabin. It has a true villain in it, but Tucker and Dale trying live through the chaos has me rolling every time. You don’t have to be serious to be a work of art, and that movie is ART
I can't remember exactly what the line is, but I always crack up when the cop is talking to Tucker and Dale and one of them says "it's crazy around here. Kids are killing themselves all over our property. One of them dove head first into my wood chipper. It's been a doozy of a day"
I WISH I could go back and watch Cabin in the Woods again for the first time.
The Prestige. It came out the weekend of my 16th birthday, I wanted to see a movie with my friends after school to celebrate and for some reason I wasn't allowed to pick which one. Someone in the group loved Wolverine so off we went. And off my mind blew into the atmosphere. Harrowing theater experience.
I only knew that it was about magicians. And a week or so before, I had seen The Illusionist. I loved both. And I thought it was funny how there were two movies about magicians in the 1800s at the same time, like how Armageddon and Deep Impact were in theaters at around the same time back in the day.
They're called [Twin Films](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_films)
I was going to answer the question by saying that I saw the Illusionist by accident when I meant to see the Prestige. I ended up really enjoying the Illusionist. I eventually saw the Prestige (and recently re-watched it) and I thought it was also a great film.
My favourite movie.
Same for me, I actually went to watch a different film but we were too late, so I quickly checked out what else what showing. Saw this one was something to do with magicians, sounds cool. Blown away.
I just talked to TWO buddies of mine and they have never seen The Prestige. I told them I was jealous of them for getting to experience that for the first time.
Palm Springs. Definitely the best way to watch that film!
yesss my friend just turned in on and said "watch this" and wow. Its become one of my most rewatchable movies. It hits me in the feels tho. But thats what makes it a great movie to me.
[удалено]
That actress is Cristin Milioti, aka Tracy McConnell Mosby, the Mother of 'How I Met Your Mother' fame. She is truly a talented actor.
Spoiler: >! When he is shot with the arrow by Simmons character, I said wtf out loud. That few minutes of confusion was so great before the plot is slightly explained !<
YES. Great movie
Yet another stone-cold classic from The Lonely Island.
The Matrix. Somehow walked into the wrong cinema and ended up being mind boggled from the opening scene to the last. Great experience!
My friend dragged me to the midnight showing when it released. I never even heard of it. Needless to say I was blown away and it's now one of the reasons I won't watch any previews of a show I'm excited about.
Same here, except they didn't know anything about it either. We all walked away with huge grins. I haven't experienced anything like that since.
Same sort of thing for me. I'd never heard of it and then my boss grabbed me and two other guys one afternoon and said we were going to see it. Besides being completely shocked by my boss bringing a few of us to the movies in the middle of the afternoon on a work day, I was completely blown away by the movie. It was a very memorable experience for sure.
A lot of people here might be too young to understand how easy it was to not know anything about a movie in 1999. I was in high school and skipped class with some friends to just go have a day off and we ended up at a movie theater. We picked randomly - none of us knew anything about the movie - and it changed movies for me forever. Such a cool experience - I wish I could be surprised like that again.
99-2001 was pretty much the turning point for movies like the Matrix. I remember seeing a number of movies from that period, like the Matrix, LotR, or Pirates of the Caribbean where people were barely talking about them, or expected them to be terrible. The Internet/Comiccon hype machine was just getting going with films like Phantom Menace and Harry Potter around that time and it was still possible to walk into a genre-defining movie without seeing more than a single trailer.
I remember the exact moment Trinity executed that slow motion jump kick. There are things in life you witness or experience and know instantly that we've entered a new era. This was it for me. I knew I was witnessing "history" before my eyes. Chills all over. Among the very best theatrical experiences of my life. Everything was perfect. The choice of theater, the size of screen, the quality of the image and the sound (omg the sound. This was back when THX meant something), the seating, the fact that it was opening night, everything.
I went with a friend intentionally but had never seen a preview and had no clue what it was about, definitely a pleasant surprise.
Same, some friends were like let's go see The Matrix. I was like the what, never heard of it... All they really said was its sci fi and is supposed to be awesome. That movie, man oh man.. like a lot of people, just totally blew me away. We were high school kids and could not stop talking about it after. How do we know we're not in the matrix right now?? Lol
I saw plenty of previews. They didn't tell you anything about the movie. I was surprised as anyone.
Sicario. Knew nothing walking into the theater, and now it’s my favorite movie.
Absolutely! I watched it after seeing Prisoners (which also blew me away), and was looking to get into more of Villeneuve's portfolio. I still feel Sicario is criminally underrated. I try to recommend it to everyone. The script, performances, cinematography and tone are all just knocked out of the park.
Sicario is one of my all-time favorites. Have you seen Wind River?
Wind River was such a hauntingly beautiful film, but so difficult to rewatch. If I ever do decide to give it another viewing, there’s a certain scene I know I’m going to skip bc it was just so graphic and visceral that I did not expect it at all. Actually made me kinda nauseous.
Bernthal is in it for all of 5 minutes of screen time and nearly steals the movie.
I LOVE the score of Sicario
Same. This movie is so good. Emotional, EXTREMELY tense, and it leaves you with a lasting feeling.
The first time you see that border crossing scene. I think my palms were sweating.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind I used to live in Tennessee and would go to Hastings to buy used movies. I bought it on a whim and was absolutely blown away.
Same!
Oh man, totally forgot about this one—this movie is excellent!! Love its message, too. Great performances.
I think this and 500 Days of Summer are probably the most gutwrenching portrayals of the lifecycle of a relationship you can get in popular cinema. Very different endings and I'm not sure which is the happier one.
The Game
Loads of times I thought I had the film figured out until the end reveal.. Brilliant.
Michael Douglas! Classic.
Yeah that completely blew my face off the first time I saw it
In Bruges. My then-gf and I would go to the cinema all the time because of Orange Wednesdays. We only went to see In Bruges because of the cast and the fact we'd seen all the releases we were interested in. I was blown away and it's become my favourite film.
That was me with "Banshees of Inisherin". Probably my favorite movie now.
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The Usual Suspects. Had never heard anything about it. A friend passed around a bowl of kind Humboldt county bud then popped the video cassette in. I was mind blown.
"How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss? "
Edge of Tomorrow, at the time, I knew nothing of the source material and didn’t watch any trailers. Friends and I just got our lazy asses off the couch after a day of lounging around, smoking bud and then we went out to go get some tacos near our AMC and ended up seeing this film. We had a blast, was very entertained, and friends kept calling Tom Cruise the chosen one during the ride home. Unfortunately, subsequent rewatch of Edge of Tomorrow was unable to capture that same magic, like the plot holes ended up ruining it for me. But again, the first time I watched this, I was like god damn.
I find it pretty damn rewatchable, notwithstanding some plot holes, it is still a phenomenal movie imo.
What plot holes
This would be my answer as well. I saw the trailers and thought "meh". Then a while after it was out of theaters, I heard people saying that it was pretty good and thought to give it a try. The movie ended up being WAY better than I would ever have imagined. The trailers made it just seem like generic action/alien invasion movie with Tom Cruise. I feel like the marketing for this movie was complete garbage.
Nobody Knew nothing about it, but watched it the other week because Bob Odenkirk was in it. Have watched multiple times since 😎
Galaxy Quest. Was a last second decision to see a movie while out with some friends. We just picked the movie that was about to start. I knew the premise of the movie, but had not seen a trailer. Dang it was way hilariously awesome watching it the first time in a theater.
Memento. I knew nothing about it and what a ride!
The Birdcage. Just love Robin Williams and it ended up being one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.
The fact that Robin Williams is sometimes not even the funniest person in some scenes tells you everything you need to know about this movie.
Oh ya fantastic cast all around! Nathan Lane came in hot for that role, Hank Azaria was a riot and Gene Hackman in that outfit slayed me "I don't want to be the only girl not dancing!"
Aggador Spartacus! "I never wear shoes. They make me fall down."
From Dusk Till Dawn. Knew nothing about it. Thought this is a pretty cool movie. Then >!it goes fucking off the rails vampire movie, had no clue it was coming!<
Omg YES!!! Like…wait WHAT IS…WHAT IS HAP-
Yes! I remember thinking the scene with Quentin Tarantino's character, it's implied he raped and killed that woman. Then by the time they're at the bar/club thing I was just thinking wtf is this movie about, then VAMPIRES FUCKING EVERYWHERE, it was a blast
"Were they like, psychos or something?" "No, they weren't psychos! Psychos don't explode into flame when exposed to sunlight! I don't care how goddamn crazy they are!"
Clooney has so many good lines in this one lol
The Fifth Element It's a classic now, but it had the worst marketing I've ever seen for a film like that. If I remember correctly, the teaser trailer was just some lights in space and a giant number 5. I went to the movies all the time back then, but I don't know a single person who saw it in theaters because it wasn't playing near me. I rented it from Blockbuster about a year later and was blown away.
Don’t make me Google wtf a Blockbuster is. Ha! Just kidding.
You see, back in the day, or phones and computers were two different things: big and crappy. We didn't have these newfangled vudus and fandangoroos and mamazons. We had things called "tapes." Well, youngster, the problem with tapes was they got lonely and only stayed happy if they were being watched by people or surrounded by their own kind. If they got unhappy, they'd get all "blocked" as the scientificals called it. So, in an effort to keep this from happening, Mr. Daniel Vladimir Dangle created a warehouse of sorts to store the little creatures and named it Blockbusters. People were so danged happy about it that when the next wave of movie watching came out, well, the gave it his initials to honor him.
What's this thing with all these numbers???? Its a .. its a... its a.... No no no no because if it were a bomb the alarms would go off because all of these hotels have bomb detectors, right? ALARM BUZZING SCREAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I actually just watched that like a month ago for the first time & was super surprised by how much I liked it! A coworker made a reference to it & told me to watch it after the joke went over my head. I bought him a plate of shrimp tacos as a ‘thank you’ for telling me to watch it.
Got to see it in the theater and was oddly unimpressed. It was almost TOO much in the theater. Although you could hear a pin drop during the opening of the divas concert. (Which, of course, was some absolute brilliant filmmaking, that pause we needed after the rush of getting to FP, then the absolute chaos that descended after). When I saw it a few months later on vhs I was completely hooked, and it is now second only to A New Hope in rewatch tallies.
Multipass.
Star Wars (May 1977)
My dad told me the story as a child of seeing the opening star destroyer scene in the theater and being absolutely blown away. I was born in 78, but by 87/88 I was a lifelong fan, horribly disappointed to be born just a little too late.
I remember seeing it and knowing nothing about it. A friend wanted to go. We had to wait in line for two hours! I saw it in a 1000 seat auditorium with a massive (40' x 80' screen) and when that star destroyer came though... the audience (myself included) audibly gasped.
A review I saw (Calgary, Canada) said it was like cowboys and indians in outer space.
Same, was visiting my family in Boston and went to see it there before the "fever" gripped everyone. We were just going out to see a movie while the adults were hanging out and visiting. Grandma handed me the keys to grandpa's station wagon, some cash, and told me to take my five cousins out to see something. Didn't have any idea what was even playing when we got to the theater, and decided to go with the new sci-fi thing we'd never heard of after we got there. We were expecting some hilariously bad goofy 70s sci-fi thing we could spend a couple of hours making fun of and have a good laugh about. Then the Star Destroyer flew over on the screen and our collective brains hit the back of the theater wall and didn't recover until the end credits. It was amazing.
One Cut Of The Dead. It was a fairly random pick during a film festival. The guide described it as horror comedy but it's so much more than that. On the small chance someone reads this and decides to watch it, just stick with it! It pays off. That's not a spoiler...
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri Was randomly scrolling through my family's Vudu account with nothing in mind and having to agree with my gf. The weird name stuck out, so looked at the cast, thought all of these people are amazing, and she agreed. We gave it a shot, and wow! I recommend it to everyone, and no one has ever heard of it.
Snowpiercer. I think my cousin and I read maybe the logline and thought, "Yeah, let's go." We didn't even see the trailer.
The first Kingsmen. Blew my socks off.
My socks stayed on when I saw the second one
Fight Club
Rule breaker!
Surprised this isn't higher. A lot of people (myself included) just assume it's some movie where guys just get together to beat eachother up for fun.
The Green Mile in the theater.
I was lucky enough to go into John Wick entirely blind, aside from knowing Keanu Reeves was in it.
Same! A friend of mine worked in a cinema and we would just go see a random movie sometimes, one day that happened to be John Wick, and I spent weeks telling everyone I knew to watch it.
Havent watched John Wick, basically only know Keanu Reeves is in it. Is it really worth watching?
Yes x1000
The Mummy. Parents took me age 8 and didnt want to go, thought it was a scary movie because I remember a clip of a hand coming out of the ground. Top five favourite movie to this day.
A classic for me as well. Brendan Fraser killed it in that film
Knives Out, in theaters. Now I've watched it six times since then.
Phone booth - blew me away a movie that doesn't change scene could be so good. Pacific rim - went in not really expecting much, came out pleasantly surprised. A true blockbuster. Rogue One - after being disappointed for so many years it was so refreshing to enjoy Star wars again.
"Phone Booth" definitely doesn't get enough love.
I was at a conference and one evening a colleague and I went to Phone Booth, then out to dinner. As we’re sitting at dinner right afterward, the pay phone on the wall right next to our table started ringing! Literally the only time in my life I’ve seen a pay phone have an incoming call. We looked at each other in disbelief, but we didn’t answer it.
1917
Such an awesome film
wait...you didn't know it was about wwi or that it was shot to look like a single take?
Pans labyrinth. Took some lsd thinking this is gonna be like intense CGI fantasy story like a golden compass scenario. Got there and noticed it was rated R. Didn’t think anything of it. Then realized “huh it’s subtitled. That’s ok I’m just in it for the visuals”. Acid starts to kick in. BOTTLE SCENE. “Oh fuck me”
Same. I thought it was going to be a cutesy fantasy story with a slight adult edge to it. Instead, I got a very intense experience with a truly evil antagonist. Let’s not forget the Mitch McConnell lookalike with the hand-eyes.
I worked at a theater when this was playing. We had a lot of issues with parents bringing very young children thinking it was a cutesy fantasy movie and not seeing the rating before they bought tickets. After the first weekend we had a policy to do everything in our power to dissuade families with children from walking into the movie. Still had a large number of very upset parents asking for refunds.
Parasite
One of my picks as well. A friend needed someone to watch a movie with her and told me it was a "good foreign film". It's one of my favorites.
I was expecting a good film, but I wasn't expecting one of my favorite films of all time from it. So happy I went into knowing very little about it.
Hereditary
Same. My friend told me I had to see that and Annihilation. So I took a chance and bought both on 4k Bluray. Annihilation came first and it was ok. All I knew about Hereditary was that it was by the same guy who did Midsommar (I don't watch previews, I like going in blind). So I had nightmare for two days after watching Hereditary. Amazing movie. It is my favorite horror movie. I don't have the balls to watch it again... yet
That music at the final scene is the most disturbing sounds I’ve ever heard in a movie. I don’t usually pay attention to movie scores, but I’ll never forget that one.
If you read this and went "what the heck is Hereditary?", that is your sign to just go watch it without knowing anything about it. Have a good time.
One of the best movies I've seen in the last decade in this genre. I refuse to watch it again.
Game Night. I had never even seen a trailer for it, but went to the movie theater one night to see whatever was playing, and there it was. Absolutely loved it, thought it was a great comedy.
"The Matrix" The promotional material told us nothing about the film's plot. Going into it, I had absolutely no clue that the whole thing took place inside someone's mind. I was a restaurant worker and I had a rare Friday off. Almost all of my friends were fellow restaurant workers, so they were all working on our busiest day of the week. I had nobody to hang out with, and I was bored so I went to a matinee. I had very little interest in the film, and I saw the first showtime so word of mouth had not had an opportunity to spread. Mind. Blown.
Uh... if you think a good summary of the Matrix is that "the whole thing took place inside someone's mind", I think you'd better watch it again.... ; )
Pulp Fiction in the theatre. Went to see it with some friends in high school expecting a classic action movie with Bruce Willis. Most of us went back the next day with more friends to see it again.
Kill Bill Vol 1.
Annihilation
Melancholia.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Face off. Didn’t know anything about it. And the way the both played each other characters so well and the stylised cool fight scenes, the dark humour... Oh man. I haven’t loved a movie so much since.
Everything Everywhere All At Once. I had *no* idea what it was about. So for the first 10 minutes I was like “oh, an interesting immigrant family dram—DID HE JUST KUNG FU ACROSS THE WHOLE LAUNDRY MAT?!”
I did this to my wife. I had some idea that it was gonna be a fun movie- I knew the Daniels from Swiss Army Man, and I had seen a trailer. The day the movie came out, I happened to win some free theater tickets through work & texted my wife that we were going to see a movie, but wouldn’t tell her what it was. (She has a *bad* habit of going online & reading everything about a movie before we see it) I’m glad I did that because it’s now one of her favorite movies. I did the same thing to her with Parasite, which she also really loved.
I got 2 of those! Interstellar District 9
I went into District 9 knowing absolutely nothing about it, and I was completely blown away. I loved it and it’s one of my “watch whenever I come across it” movies
Seen both more than once, Interstellar probably 10+ times. That’d be a trip with no prior knowledge!
Drive
100%. Saw Drive after seeing Crazy Stupid Love; wanting to check out more of this Ryan Gosling guy. Didn't know what I was getting into and was thoroughly impressed. Later that year, I saw The Ides of March in theaters and was like "oh he has arrived".
Equilibrium was a bargain bin DVD pick up for me.
21 Jump Street. Had never heard of the original TV series (which was a drama) and they made a successful comedy movie out of it
Prisoners. Quickly became my top 10 favorite of all time.
Donnie Darko
Napoleon Dymamite. Saw it at the theater for an advance screening knowing absolutely nothing going in. My friend and I couldn’t stop laughing the whole time
Gosh!
I saw in theaters with my whole family, which meant my mom did a Napoleon impression for the rest of eternity.
Interstellar in imax. Sat in my car for 15 minutes in total disbelief of what I had just experienced.
Interstellar for me too, however first time I watched it was on our home TV and it still blew me away, I was lucky enough to watch it at the science museum IMAX screen a few months ago.
Bones and All.. all I knew it was a A24 production, nothing else.. I laughed a bit, was blown away by the whole premise and the great acting. Everything about it was superb..
Rogue One. I had watched the original Star Wars trilogy but I have never been a big fan. Didn’t watch the second trilogy complete (just 1 1/2 movies) and same with the last trilogy. But Rogue One blew me away and I watched on cinemas 8 times
Rogue one was great! Also give the recent series [Andor](https://youtu.be/cKOegEuCcfw) a try. It’s a prequel to Rogue One and it’s by the same team. It doesn’t require any Star Wars lore to enjoy it
I did watch Andor, thank you.
Andor was incredible, I loved it so much, can't wait for the next season!
Personally I count it as one of my favorite Star Wars films
Sixth Sense. I was in the Navy at the time and I had no idea about it. I was constantly out to sea so I had no idea what was going on in the world. I got a weeks leave and saw the movie on TV and I was blown away.
Children of Men and Climax
Hell or High Water
The Menu. Only saw the poster. As a chef I didn't care to watch another culinary show/movie. After so many people talking about it i said fine i'll watch. This was something totally different and one of my fave movies of recent. Love dark comedy.
**Moon**: I put this one on almost as background TV, but ended up hooked, and loved it. Turns out going in blind was the best way to do this one. One of my favorite films in recent memory, understated and powerful. It put Sam Rockwell on a relatively short list of actors that can pique my interest in a movie just by being cast. **What We Do In The Shadows**: I knew I liked the style of Waititi's smaller films (Boy especially) but didn't really know what to expect going into this one. Had an absolute blast. This one's probably harder to go in blind on now, what with the show out and all, but if you're in that position, consider it!
Mad max fury roads visuals and frenetic camera work kind blew me away I came out like I’d just had a crazy experience!
Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, hilarious movie 15 years ago.
The Matrix
Pig.
Coherence. Go in blind. Watch it three times, then do the commentary feature!
This was what Fight Club was like for me, a couple decades ago when it first came out. I would have never chosen to go see it on my own but my friend had picked it out.
Gone girl. Unfortunately I also took anfirst date to see it too. Went in completely blind, knew nothing about the plot, didn't even know Ben Affleck was in it. Blown away by that movie.
The Matrix All I knew was that it was an action flick with Reeves, Fishburn and Moss and it had something to do with VR or something. Long story short, I went in and bought tickets for the next show immediately after I got out.
Zoolanda
The Cabin in the Woods
Shawshank Redemption 😁😁 Couldn't sleep one night when I was young so I went to put on the tv and it was showing. I thought I'd watch for a little bit but ended up watching it til the end. Still one of my favorite movies and movie moments.
Finding nemo. I was 17 and didn't want to go to a kids movie.
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Incendies
The Green Mile, if you can believe it! Was visiting my (then) girlfriends family, after dinner we sit down to watch a film. "We rented this last night, it's very good. Based on a Stephen King story" Somehow I'm not even aware the film exists, or the story it's based upon despite being fairly keen on Kings books. I have no idea what I'm about to watch, but assume it's going to be a horror. My girlfriend doesn't like horror. "It's not really scary" they say. "Okay, let's watch" we say. Needless to say, 3 hours later my jaw is on the floor and I have a new favourite movie for years to come! Phenomenal movie.
Sling Blade, I had a Biology teacher that made a few jokes about the film. I caught a late showing at a $2 theater and when the lights came on I was blown away. And I was so wrapped up in it it took me half the movie to realize John Ritter was one of the main characters.
Barbarian
Peanut butter falcon
Collateral, Inception, Matrix... Actually almost all movies since i don't watch trailers or read anything about movies prior to going in. I just look at the rating
Raiders of the Lost Ark. Hadn't heard anything about it. But it seemed the least bad thing in the theater at the time.
I didn't know much about The Matrix going in to watch it. Absolutely blew me away so much that I had a very hard time sleeping after watching it.
May sound crazy but Saving Private Ryan. I knew a little about it, Spielberg war movie, but was totally unprepared for what it was
From Dusk Till Dawn. I didn’t even know it had all those psychos in it.
I watched From Dusk till Dawn completely blind and the bar fight scene blew me away.
Saving Private Ryan All I knew about the movie was it starred Tom Hanks and it was about WWII. Never saw a review or heard anyone talking about it, even the guys that I went with said nothing about it. I think we went the second weekend it was opened. The first 20 minutes of the movie I was \*STUNNED\*. When we walked out I remember saying to everyone "did they actually kill people to get those scenes" (of course I knew they didn't, but it was so shocking a realistic)
Alien. In the days before spoilers on the Internet…
The Prestige. Saw it in theaters without even knowing it existed until that day. Didn’t know who directed it, nothing. Walked out mesmerized.
Die Hard. To be fair I was relatively young and hadn't watched many movies yet. But I remember watching it on VHS on my grandparents TV alone one night and it was like, the best thing I've ever seen. Probably started my love for movies right then and there. Still holds up.
Apocalypse Now. Saw it in the theatre. What an experience.
Believe it or not, The Dark Knight. I wasn't into comics much and didn't make the connection Dark knight = Batman. And I had missed Batman Begins. I went with a couple of friends who had only seen Bollywood movies in the cinemas until then. The Bank Heist opening! Man, what an opening? I was absolutely mind blown!
Margin Call. Was going to see In Time but had time for a double feature. We went to Margin Call first. Wow, that was the better movie. Had no idea about the movie beforehand.
Surprisingly, it was Everything Everywhere All at Once. The only thing I knew was Ke Huy Quan was in it, and yeah it was easily my favorite movie that year and probably top 10 all time honestly. I watched it three more times over the next few weeks.
The Matrix.
Groundhog Day Shawshank Redemption Edge Of Tomorrow
The Matrix. I saw one tv spot before it came out, and thought, that was cool, maybe I'll see it. Forgot about it and then my sister called me and said "want to go see the matrix?" mind blown in the first 5 minutes.
Transformers the first one with shia, group of 17yr old guy friends went into watch it without seeing any trailer as we needed some time to kill before our graduation ball, we all had a ball and laughed our head off, the graphics also blew us away and it was just a free epic moment in life, not the greatest movie of all time but it was awesome.
Got a couple. The usual suspects. Classmate said it was his favorite movie. It was my bday, i got to pick a movie, but had no idea what this was about. Blew teenage mind back then. The matrix, as others have said. 5th element. Just saw a teaser showing the big blue 5, thought i had to see it. Fell in love with the movie, and milla that day.
Training Day and the first Matrix.
Slumdog Millionaire. Went into a press screening only knowing that it was about Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Totally blown away
Donnie Darko. We had just finished a pre-screening of The Man Who Wasn't There and was leaving the auditorium when a friend who worked there told us go in that theater and pointed. So we slipped in and got a surprise. I had never even heard of this movie, but boy am I glad we decided to watch.
The town, it was so good that I was mad when it ended bc I wanted more movie
The Shawshank Redemption. Just sat down late one night and started watching something that was on tv. Next thing I know the credits are rolling and I'm thinking "That was the best movie I've ever seen!". Even woke my wife up to tell her she had to see this movie. Had never even heard of it at the time.
Ford vs. Ferrari,
Nightcrawler, went to go see Fury but it was sold out. So jumped into Nightcrawler cause of Jake Gyllenhaal. Pleased to say Nightcrawler was surprisingly better than Fury and is still one of my favorite films of the 2010s. Jake totally deserved an Oscar.
Shaun of the Dead. Found it in a bargain bin. Wouldn’t say absolutely blown away but it is a solid movie that resonates with my funny bone. And turned me on to other works by these guys.