Films/records that surprisingly were well reviewed

When I saw the trailer for Kung Fu Panda I heard Jack Black's voice and immediately thought "oh christ, another Dream Works piece of garbage." However many months later when the film came out the thing was surprisingly well reviewed.

And looking back the Al Franken SNL movie Stuart Saves His Family also got critical raves. How the hell did that happen? What other books/films/records looked clearly like crap at the time, but you found out much later were considered alright/good/great even?

forgetting sarah marshall -- nauseating marketing campaign, decent movie.

see i sorta found the movie equally nauseating!

The first few Sting records?

St. Anger - at least by many. I think a lot of critics (and fans) were so enticed by the idea of the return of hard/fast Metallica, that they wanted so bad to like the album more than they actually did.

I remember seeing a trailer for Ratatouille and thinking it was gonna be shit, and was v. surprised when it came out and everyone was raving. Still haven't seen it tho.

Ratatouille really is a bit overrated to be honest. Compared to gems like Toy Story, Shrek, Incredibles etc.

No way. Ratatouille is phenomonal. Did you like The Iron Giant or The Incredibles? Brad Bird is where its at. (that said, I think Wall-E is the best Pixar film thusfar).

Ratatouille is pretty great, yeah -- if it's overrated compared to other Bird and similar films, I'd guess that's because the concerns and setting are much more adult and picturesque. (I.e., it's set in an old-storybook France and it's about art, as opposed to the kid-like feel of Toy Story, the suburban-family Incredibles, etc. . . .)

Also! Not that it really came into people's reviews, but Ratatouille is the first CGI film I've seen set itself up to be all about really organic objects and motions -- I mean, chopping vegetables, pouring wine, pots boiling! -- and it looks fantastic, like some insane leap beyond the usual framework of those things. It's practically worth it just for the grain of the produce.

But this is coming from someone who watched Bee Movie the other day and couldn't work out why everyone hated it so much.

I had avoided Ratatouille on account of being sick of snarky cartoon animals and disliking the Incredibles. I ended up watching it the other night and thinking it was pretty great--very funny and charming, with thankfully very little snark or Poochieness.

New Stones albums

Mew Macca albums.

But this is coming from someone who watched Bee Movie the other day and couldn't work out why everyone hated it so much.

― nabisco, Wednesday, November 12, 2008 6:22 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

maybe this will help explain it to you:

Shrek is not a gem. It's anti-little people! (bizarrely for a somewhat kid-geared blockbuster)

SM, If I recall accurately, very little snark in Ratatouille. And no poochieness whatsoever. You will like, then, yes?

shrek is some old bullshit imo

xp to ian: It'd be benevolent to chock it up to adolescence, but I'm pretty sure that kid is FFL (fucked for life)

I have no sound and am scared to watch that.

Also I am probably dumb enough that "hahaha it's Jerry Seinfeld, only he's a BEE" is sufficiently funny to me.

(And in the parts that aren't funny, you get to do some WTF-were-they-going-for thinking about the whole man-made beehives = concentration camps aspect.)

bees aren't that smart, and they're not even that strong

"i'd like to see it done."

The Austin Powers movies

i maintain that the 2nd austin powers movie is AWESOME.