Well, since you asked:

The Sixth Sense: Went with a friend to the movies and we didn't even know what to see. I had heard it was a good movie but didn't know what it was about or what to expect, I didn't even know Bruce Willis was on it. And that's how I learned that the less you know about a movie, the more you will enjoy it.

The Man with the Iron Mask: I'm not really a fan of DiCaprio, but fortunately, I don't judge a movie by its actors so I really enjoyed that movie.

Mr. Brooks: I knew what the movie was about, but I really liked how unexepcted everything was.

Pulp Fiction: I saw it once and I didn't like it. That was after my brother told me to watch it and I said to him that the movie was crap. He told me to see it again, and somehow, I liked it. Don't ask me why, but somehow I was able to enjoy it. I guess since that day, I've been able to understand Tarantino's style.

The Unbreakable: What I liked about it is the fact, that it is possible that real superhuman heroes exist.

Star Trek Into Darkness: Somehow seen how awesome Khan is made me like the movie a lot.

Just to name a few.

The Hot Chick (2002)

At first i was thinking it would be a disaster considering low ratings but the movie turned out way better than i expected, i think i re-watched it like 10 times by now. One of my fav comedies.

I'm now definitely going to check out The Sting and possibly Brazil too thanks :) Especially since I enjoyed Redford's performance in another drama film from around that time, All The President's Men.

And yeah, some of Sandler's stuff is quite alright like The Waterboy, or even really good like Big Daddy.
I especially enjoyed how he dealt with Dane Cook. Kevin Costner can be really great as a bad guy, or even a somewhat bad guy like in A Perfect World and Open Range.

- Dredd
- The Last Stand
- Zombieland
- The Conjuring
- The Witch

Most of the Odd numbered Star Trek Movies and Nemesis.

I expected The Motion Picture, Search of Spock, The Final Frontier, Generations, and Nemesis to be utter travisties.

And to my surprised I thought they were OK. Some of them really good like Search for Spock and Generations.

The only weakest one I can admit to is Final Frontier.

Brazil is one of my favorite movies of all time. The Sting is great.

If you haven't seen these, I recommend them too:

Anything Terry Gilliam!! Baron Munchausen, 12 Monkeys, and the rest!

Cool Hand Luke - some of Paul Newman's best, and that's saying a lot.

Zoolander might be something I could contribute to this thread. The problem for me is that when I go to start a movie, I really try to remove all expectation and go in with an open mind and clean slate. For Zoolander, I stayed away from it for years after it was released, figuring it was just another stupid comedy in the ever growing sea of stupid comedies. Finally, someone whose movie opinion I highly respected said "no, you should watch it", so I did, but, as I said, as I went to watch it, I removed expectation and went in open-minded. It's quite good and funny. Intelligent humor is hard to come by, imo, and it was smart all over the place. My issue with comedies a lot of time is that they think being stupid and making stupid decisions is funny inherently, and I just find it stupid. With Zoolander they actually use that idea smartly. MALE MODELS ARE FRIKKEN DUMB idea, and it uses their stupidity smartly in the writing. I'm slightly curious about the sequel.

Similar things have happened to me with some movies over time. Most notabely: Rocky Horror Picture Show.

I was excited to see it when I first rented it and put it on, but was quickly turned off and didn't really enjoy it at all/thought it was mleh on my first watch. But a couple months later I said to myself "you know, I think there's something there that I missed and wasn't able to appreciate for reasons and I should really give it a 2nd look." So I rented it again, gave it a watch with a clean slate and open-mind, and now I LOVE it. It's also one of my favorite movies of all time.

I love the part where Butch shouts "Get to the choppaaaa baby..."


No, actually, he says It's a chopper, baby :)

I like that part.

One of my favorite movies.

Agreed! I've not seen Open Range (it's now moved wayyy up my "to watch" list, now that I know he directed it), but Dances with Wolves and The Postman are very good. I just watched The Postman again for the first time in probably 13+ years (having seen it 3 times before that), it holds up very well!

Postman get's some unfair hate sometimes, though I'll admit it is kinda silly, but I'll be damned if I don't love the post apocalyptic feel of it. Dammit it, I want a Costner directed, Costner starring post apocalyptic survival film! (Waterworld didn't really work for me)

Edit : and thanks for the recommendations, I'll check them out. The only Paul Newman film I believe I've seen was The Verdict which was brilliant. Next on my list at the moment is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
One of the best gunfights I've ever seen, and I especially loved that bar scene! I thought the way they shot if was incredibly effective at portraying the raw power of that rifle.

Batman and Robin took everything that people had hated about Batman Forever and tripled down on it. I tend to agree with Breja that it was a throwback of sorts to the '60s era campy portrayal. And I'll without the charm.

The gunfight was superbly shot. And yet the scene I remember probably the best is buying chocolate before the fight. There was just something lovely offbeat, and yet absolutely right about it.

I always considered The Postman an underrated gem. Not a perfect movie, but I like very much. I love how grand it is, and unashamed of some of it's pathos, and I just loved seeing a story of a post-apocalyptic word that's a massage of hope rather than a celebration of misery. It's very earnest, and I enjoyed that spirit. I was really surprised, after watching it the first time, to learn how bad the majority opinion of it is. Although, there has been a noticable shit there, it seems more and more people are reappraising it recently.

Dances with Wolves is one of my favourite movies ever. It's a damn masterpiece, a golden miracle of a movie.

Yeah, Open Range was far better than it was expected to be. Agreed on it being well made. Extended takes, wide shots. Wide shots! Wow. Remember those? Movies usually benefit from not having jump cuts and smash closeups in every scene. Costner has some skill behind the camera. Can't say as much for the current crap-wheel-of-doom that is Hollywood.

Love Actually- I was dragged to see it and ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

The thing (remake/prequel)- I thought it would be another crappy remake of a great classic but it turned out better than expected.

Cabin in the woods- I had heard so many good things about the film and had very high expectations about it. It still managed to surpasse them.

Doom- A videogame adaptation that I didn't hate.

Waterworld- I don't know what all the fuss was about, I loved it.

Edit: typo

People love to hate, I think. I don't think it's exceptional, but it is a good and different action movie. Mad Max on water, really.