"Better TV/Movies Than They Have Any Right To Be"

[Lanefan]

Better than they have any right to be:

Jumanji (the Dwayne Johnson version, never saw the original). Dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers premise but it flat-out works. The sequel's also not bad.

Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, in particular movies 1 and 3. They pulled all this goodness and hilarity out of a theme park ride???

Just about the entire Marvel universe so far, from Iron Man on down. There's been a few bits that lived down to expectations e.g. roughly the whole second half of Agents of Shield, but in general the whole lot has been unexpectedly excellent - even Agent Carter, which other people tend not to like but I'm not other people: I thought it was wonderful.

 

[Mercurius]

Curb Your Enthusiasm. An insufferable rich guy, surrounded by other insufferable rich guys, getting into the same type of situations again and again, with largely improvised dialogue. Yet it is one of the greatest comedies shows of all time.

Rocky. An actor with limited range in a very cliche story, yet it remains one of the most heart-felt films in cinematic history.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The social commentary and satire is a big part of why it's still a better watch than the po-faced Statham remakes. That and this exchange:

Special agent: You know, Mr. VeTurbo, as a representative of Mr. President's government, I happen to hold the power of life and death.

Machine Gun Joe VeTurbo: Yeah? Well I happen to hold the clam sauce.

- Death Race 2000. Classic sci-fi story. David Carradine and Sylvester Stalone. Social commentary that ages so much better than anyone could have expected.

I would posit the original Night of the Living Dead as being better than it had any right to be. Budget of $114,000. Romero had never made a full-length feature film before. Filmed in Northwestern Pennsylvania. And yet it has arguably had one of the biggest impacts on pop culture of any film. It had a total box office earning of $30 million. And it is still incredibly good, incredibly relevant.

 

[embee]

Is Demolition Man good though? It's certainly enjoyable . . . can a film be not-good yet enjoyable? If so, that's Demolition Man!

Most Wesley Snipes movies are, from an artistic standpoint, bad. However, from a pure popcorn movie enjoyment standpoint, most Wesley Snipes movies are extremely fun.

Demolition Man is a stupid movie. Mind-numbingly stupid. But it's a fun movie to watch. In no small part because of Wesley Snipes.

Blade is a very enjoyable comic book movie. The writing is complete garbage but Wesley Snipes and Donal Logue brighten the entire endeavor. Blade II is fun but also stupid. But it has Wesley Snipes delivering a daywalker flying elbow drop which by itself redeems the entire movie. Blade III is pure garbage. But it's still not utterly terrible provided you are adequately high.

White Men Can't Jump is a truly fun movie. It's a relic of its time but it's a fun movie to watch. Passenger 57 is a pretty standard 90s action movie of the same calibre of Executive Decision or Under Siege 2. But without Snipes, it would have been unbearable.

If Snipes is in a movie, I know two things about that movie: the script is beyond stupid and it will be fun to watch.

 

[Zardnaar]

Just rewatched Blade2 last week. Fun movie lol.

Demolition Man still fun.

Yeah they're stupid but entertaining enough. Haven't seen Passenger 57 since 94/95 but it's fun.

Snipes is past his best before date but when he was good his movies were fun.

 

[Ryujin]

Just rewatched Blade2 last week. Fun movie lol.

Demolition Man still fun.

Yeah they're stupid but entertaining enough. Haven't seen Passenger 57 since 94/95 but it's fun.

Snipes is past his best before date but when he was good his movies were fun.

Maybe you need to see "Coming 2 America" then

 

[Stalker0]

I wouldn't put any of the pixar movies on the list by default. Kids movies can have wild and crazy concepts and still work really well, and they aren't that outrageous compared to the successful Disney movies before them.

I would pick:

Orville: This looked terrible when I saw the trailers. Star Trek with toilet humor? And yet...this show has the heart of Star Trek more than any show since Voyager to me.

Rocky: Its an action movie about a bum who is a bad boxer, one that Stallone scrapped together on nickel and dimes, and it launched him to stardom.

The 100: Ignoring the horrendous finale season, the 100 was the CW show that broke the CW mold for me. I go in expecting Teen drama in space, and yet I'm hit with the impacts of genocide, real life or death consequences for the main characters, dealing with suicidal depression...holy crap this show had some deep stuff!

Riverdale: This is one of those very polarizing shows. Some people completely deplore this show, but for those who like it, it should not work, its crazy....bonkers really, with a plot that looks like three writers got black out drunk in a room one night and then picked up the pieces of the stuff they thought was too out there. And yet....its just works somehow, and its insanely engaging. Its very hard to explain.

 

[Mercurius]

The Dark Knight: Mediocre director, no-name composer who doesn't know how to make a moving score, a bunch of poor actors, and boring "superhero" and villain with no actual powers, yet it still managed to be OK, I guess.

 

[Imaculata]

Jumanji (the Dwayne Johnson version, never saw the original). Dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers premise but it flat-out works. The sequel's also not bad.

You owe it to yourself to watch the original. The CGI may be a bit dated now, but it is a fantastic movie. Robin Williams is great in it, and the movie has a lot of heart. In comparison, the Dwayne Johnson movie is a lot weaker. Not terrible, but it relies too much on just its gimmick. What especially makes the original so good, is that the problems created by the game affect the real world, and they keep adding up. The longer you play it, the more chaos the game creates in real life. It only goes away if you finish the game.

The sequel Zathura is also alright. It also has a lot of heart, but the chaos is toned down considerably.

 

[rgoodbb]

Oh!

Dragonslayer
Tremors

Yeah. Tremors was ridiculous and great. It had no right to be an enjoyable movie at all. But it was.