2016 Movie Forum Retrospective: Surprisingly Good Films

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2016 Movie Forum Retrospective: Surprisingly Good Films, New Feature! Which Films of 2016 Took You Utterly By Surprise?

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UltraCruelSummer View member profile	17th December 2016, 02:19 AM Post #1
It's a cruel summer. Joined: 26 May 2014 Posts: 35,256 User: 20,947	Hello and welcome to a brand new feature of the movies forum which will occur over the next couple of weeks, a 2016 Movies Forum Retrospective! From the films released in 2016, to movie news, to the community here, prepare for loads of threads and talking points going up over the next few days so would be great to see lots of people commenting! Hope you like the logo also! So let's start with the films that took you by surprise in 2016, and this is referring to films you are surprised you are enjoyed/didn't expect to love so much and has nothing to do with box office! Were there any films that surpassed your wildest expectations? A film not even on your radar that became one of your favourites of the year? Please comment and will be interesting to see if people agree/disagree with each other!


Severin View member profile	17th December 2016, 10:22 AM Post #2
Mansonette Joined: 3 November 2009 Posts: 6,921 User: 9,872	I was genuinely surprised at just how good Arrival was. I expected it to be decent but it was very well done and much smarter than it had any right to be


J❄️hq View member profile	17th December 2016, 12:40 PM Post #3
my anxiety attacks Joined: 15 April 2009 Posts: 30,754 User: 8,674	Is 10 Cloverfield Lane horror-y enough to be put in that genre? Either way, I wouldn't have expected myself to go and see something like that, and enjoy it so much! X-Men: Apocalypse. Hadn't seen a X-Men movie prior to this but I LOVED it, one of my favourites of the year and the superhero genre can be a mixed bag for me. Nocturnal Animals. The trailer was confusing me, I wasn't that taken in by the sound of it but gave it a chance and BAM. This is going to be in my top 10 of the year, it was so good.


JackTheeStallion View member profile	17th December 2016, 01:33 PM Post #4
BuzzJack Legend Joined: 15 March 2006 Posts: 48,135 User: 223	Doctor Strange is a film I wouldn't normally enjoy but it completely took me by surprise!


365 View member profile	17th December 2016, 05:20 PM Post #5
BuzzJack Legend Joined: 11 October 2013 Posts: 31,025 User: 19,931	Nerve for me! It looked too tacky but was fantastic, fun and gripping with a tongue in cheek social pulse.


Jade View member profile	18th December 2016, 05:26 PM Post #6
Alone and wounded Pronouns: She/her Joined: 18 January 2011 Posts: 60,156 User: 12,810	Alvin & The Chipmunks 4 A total guilty pleasure and I'm not even sorry. 'The Secret Life Of Pets' was more enjoyable than I was expecting too based on reviews that I had read!


Tafty³³³ View member profile	18th December 2016, 06:08 PM Post #7
I found the love, I found the love in me Pronouns: He/Him Joined: 13 December 2007 Posts: 87,447 User: 5,042	For me: 'Room' - When I saw reviews and things, I was thinking it was going to be a standard, mediocre Oscar-filler movie. I think I said to Joe at some point that I wasn't sure whether I was going to watch it or not. I'm SO glad I took the plunge and watched it. Such a great, powerful and emotional rollercoaster of a movie. 'Conjuring 2' - I was anticipating this a lot, due to being a huge fan of the first, but I was dubious because horror sequels are 9 times out of 10, completely pointless, worthless and just shit. But this was the complete opposite! So excited to watch it again! 'Sausage Party' - Wasn't expecting to like this anywhere near as much as I ended up doing so. It IS just your standard Seth Rogen comedy, in animation form really. Crude, nonsensical, slapstick humour. But such a unique concept, that it feels pretty fresh. The last 10 mins or so had my mind blown. Just as you thought you'd seen it all.... 'Goosebumps' - I was excited at the prospect of this, then the trailer happened. Refused to watch it for so long because it just seemed silly, more than "entertainingly creepy" like the old TV show! But I ended up loving this a lot more than I had expected. It's actually a very decent family-friendly film! 'Ghostbusters' - Two words. Melissa. McCarthay. I was so NOT here for her. Ugh. And although it's far from my favourite film of the year, it really surprised me! I thought it'd just be another 'Bridesmaids', overrated and unfunny (for the most part). But it was actually pretty funny and the story was pretty decent too. Definitely not as bad as what the 3k+ voters on IMDB thought about it, before the film was released....


J❄️hq View member profile	18th December 2016, 06:14 PM Post #8
my anxiety attacks Joined: 15 April 2009 Posts: 30,754 User: 8,674	And with that, Ghostbusters becomes the first movie to be mentioned in both the 'surprisingly good' and 'most disappointing' thread


Josh! View member profile	18th December 2016, 07:30 PM Post #9
c: Joined: 12 March 2014 Posts: 13,152 User: 20,692	Quite a few films took me surprise this year and ended up being WAAAY better or at least more fun that I expected. First of all, I absolutely adored Gods of Egypt. After the absymal reviews, I was kind of dreading going to see it but it was so colourful and vibrant and silly and I had such a good time watching it. There's something about watching visually enlarged Gods turning into animals and things that was just so much fun - Another one I wasn't expecting to be as great as it was is Eye in the Sky, I was kind of expecting it to be pretty boring actually and none of the stars were huge draws for me but it was SO intense from the beginning and it all paid off at the end too. Wish that was more of a contender this awards season because it was really worthy, imo.


DalekTurret32 View member profile	21st December 2016, 05:32 PM Post #10
FIVE YEARS OF THE TURRET 15-20 Joined: 12 March 2015 Posts: 4,754 User: 21,666	I expected Dad's Army to be a solid [7.0] remake of the original TV series (which was hilarious), but when I got to see it, I actually loved it [9.5].