Movies that really surprised you...

[judge death]

 We talk about bad movies (Duh!) and we talk about good movies, but how about movies that are really surprising?

 Most movies are either predictable, or throw in plot twists as "surprises" that make no sense and are done just to make sure the audience is still awake.

 But some movies manage to genuinely surprise, not just startle, people and those are so rare as to be worth talking about, yes?

I'd like to say that I was utterly astonished by a movie so surprising I still can't believe it. It was called "Munchhausen"  and it was made in nazi germany in 1943.

The things about it so amazing as to be astonishing are that it was in color, and was one of the few movies to be made using the color process that was used on it, and the color looked quite good for 1943, nearly equal to "GWTW" in fact.

 The other huge astonishing surprise was that it was in fact a very nice, gentle, polite movie that really had no trace of nazi politics or ideology in it, and I was looking for it. I wanted to see how the nazis would make it into a propaganda film, and to my astonishment they simply didn't.
   
 I'd watched another nazi made film a few weeks earlier called "Titanic" and it was a black and white piece of steaming nazi propaganda from first to last frame that  had the titanic's loss chalked up to greedy jews and their english vassals who lacked the courage to defy their masters. The characters were all stereotypical arrogant, cold blooded jews, groveling, pompous english types and so on, except, OF COURSE!, for a lone nobel, heroic german officer who is always right but ignored by his superiors. While all others flee in panic, our gallant deutschlander saves as many lives as possible. Yeah, right. THAT was a movie I could believe the g-dd-m nazis made, all right...

But Munchhausen was utterly different. It was much more like something I'd expect from, say, disney that a film company under the rule of  Joseph Goebbels.

 There were some racial/ethnic stereotyping in some ways, but more like what we'd see in a disney movie, with turks all wearing turbans and beards in addition to robes. Indeed, I'd seen less racial stereotyping in Munchhausen than I did in movies made in the 60's and 70's.

 There was no anti semitism at all, and in fact in one scene a turk sultan tells Munchhausen that "all people are alike, really." HOLY XXXX!!! This was a NAZI movie?!?!?!

 Asides from some bare breasts (europeans see little need to shelter their children from some of the nudity that sends america parents into paroxysms of righteous outrage) I'd say Munchhausen would be a G rated movie by most standards, there ceretainly was no hate in it per se, no racism, no paopaganda, etc. Munchhausen  occasionally displayed a dismissive attitude towards women in some cases, but that was par for the course in 1943.

The filming and effects were absolutely nothing short of incredibly, considering germany was getting xxxxhammered in the war by 1943, how did they afford to make this under such conditions?

 While some may instamatically hate and avoid this film due to it's origins, I's day it defies and rises above it's origins much like a rose blooming from a pile of manure.

 Students of film making should watch this to see the amazing quality of it's color and cinematography. Students of history should watch this to see an amazing anomaly in the usual tide of hate films excreted by the german film industry under joseph goebbels.

The thought that this movie was made by the same regime that produced filth like "The eternal jew" and "triumph of the will" is almost impossible to accept, but it's true.

So, there's a movie that just left me astonished because it was so incredibly surprising. Any movies really surprise you?

[Jack]

I'd watched another nazi made film a few weeks earlier called "Titanic" and it was a black and white piece of steaming nazi propaganda from first to last frame that  had the titanic's loss chalked up to greedy jews and their english vassals who lacked the courage to defy their masters. The characters were all stereotypical arrogant, cold blooded jews, groveling, pompous english types and so on, except, OF COURSE!, for a lone nobel, heroic german officer who is always right but ignored by his superiors. While all others flee in panic, our gallant deutschlander saves as many lives as possible. Yeah, right. THAT was a movie I could believe the g-dd-m nazis made, all right...

Sounds like your typical Hollywood movie except with the roles reversed.

One that really surprised me was Wild Things.  I just bought it because it looked like it had sexy babes in it, and other than that I wasn't expecting much at all.  But the plot - to say anything about it would spoil the surprise for anybody watching it, but it was probably the most interesting and clever movie I've seen in a very long time.  The characters were fantastic, cinematography was amazing, even the theme music was top notch.  Oh, and it definitely did not disappoint on the sexy babe front either 

[Trevor]

The one film I saw this year and that surprised the hell out of me was Uwe Boll's Darfur which, as a bad movie buff, I was expecting to laugh at. Instead, the movie upset me terribly and I cried at the end of it. After seeing this film, I will never say a word against Uwe Boll ever again. For him, yes, but against him, no. 

[Skull]

I have been watching horror films since I was 2 years old. My mother told me that I was worried about the girl being chased in the water from the Creature from the Black Lagoon (which was 1972/73). I think the only horror film that surpries me is Re-Animator (1985) ~ the ending when Hill's head was licking the naked Megan. It impressive surprise for me because there isnt many horror films that would attempt this kind of envelope pushing.