You know that awesome feeling you get when you put on a jacket or a pair of pants you haven’t worn in a while… then you go out and at some point you stick your hands in the pockets and to your surprise you discover there’s a $20 bill in there that you totally forgot or didn’t know about? That’s the same kind of feeling I get whenever I go see a film that I don’t really think will be any good… but then ends up being much better than I thought it would be.
So in this season of year end lists (We’re still going to do Most Disappointing, and Most Overrated lists this week), I thought we’d share our top ten surprising films of the year.
HOW THIS LIST WORKS
The #1 film on this list is not necessarily the “best” film on the list… just the one that has the biggest gap between how bad I thought it would be, and how good it ended up being. So #5 might be the best film on the list… but if it was only 27% better than I thought it would be, then the film that wasn’t as good, but was 75% better than I thought it would be would rank higher. Got it?
THE MOST SURPRISING FILMS OF 2007
1) MR. BROOKS
2 words ladies and gentlemen.. Kevin… Costner. Really, that name sends negative connotations rushing through your head, but this brilliant film ended up very nearly making my top 10 films of the year list. The scenes between Costner and William Hurt were some of the most compelling character interactions on screen this year. Awesome movie, and easily my biggest surprise of 2007.
2) STARDUST
The only reason this film isn’t #1 is because the presence of Michelle Pheiffer, Rpbert De Nero and Claire Danes gave me some hope even though it was one of the worst marketing campaigns of all time. This film did end up on my Top 10 Films of the year list.
3) NEXT
i thought this would be worse than garbage, but I actually ended up mildly enjoying this little flick. The premies was very good, Cage was actually very funny in it and oddly enough I loved the ending.
4) TMNT
Wow, I preached for about 4 months about how awful this movie was going to be. I warned everyone to have no hope for it at all. However, while TMNT certainly didn’t end up as a classic… I had fun with it and had to eat my words to a lot of people.
5) REIGN OVER ME
Little throw away film that I thought MIGHT have some potential… but WOW this movie ended up being fantastic. Came very close to cracking my top 10 list, but it certainly made the top 15. I think Adam Sandlers best performance of his career, and yes that includes Punch Drunk.
6) WAITRESS
Kerri Russell’s career had been pretty much dead since she cut her hair, so this little indy film didn’t look like it had much potential… and to be honest the only reason I went to see it was because Fox invited me to a screening and I really wanted to see the Fox Lot. Once again, ended up in my top 15 and almost on the top 10. Russell is back, Fillion is great as always and the story is just pure sweet as pie. Loved this movie.
7) LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD
I knew the film had some potential, but I don’t think anyone thought it would end up quite as good as it was. Many thought that being rated PG13 instead of R would ruin the film… it didn’t
8) HAIRSPRAY
A bad looking musical ends up being remarkably charming
9) DISTURBIA
We all knew this “Shia” kid was going to be in Transformers, but most of us had no idea if this kid could actually act (who knew… now it looks as if he’s the next Tom Hanks)
10) OCEAN’S THIRTEEN
Never count out a cast like this or a director like this… so I did have some expectation for Ocean’s Thirteen… but with the disapointment of Ocean’s Twelve those expectations weren’t very high. Glad to say this one built on all that was good about the first one instead of all that was bad about the second one.
Mr.Brooks was good, but my Uncle Matt haha told me it was a horror movie so I was a little disspionted it wasn’t, but as a thiller I liked it.
Agree with Die Hard 4, i was pleasantly surprised and loved it. As well as Mr. Brooks too! No one believed me when I said “Dane Cook is actually not that annoying in this film” Anyways, hell yeah! Can’t go with you on Ocean’s 13 though.
the most surprisng thing about stardust about robert deniro. i have never seen him in the role of gay
First of all I just want to thank John for shitting all over Rod.
Die Hard 4 sucked? Cmon dude! This was not a great year for movies. I mean in the same year movies like: Fantastic 4 part 2, Ghost Rider, License to Wed, and Daddy Day Camp came out you should give Die Hard 4 a oscar.
I agree with just about every thing on your list John except Next. I went into that movie knowing I was going to hate it because Nicholas Cage looks way too old next to Jessica Biel. I mean he is like 44 and she is like 25. The movie was not all bad but, I just could not get over that one thing.
My top 5 good suprises from 2007 are:
Disturbia, Waitress, Once, Die Hard 4, and Gone Baby Gone.
My top 5 bad suprises from 2007 are:
I now pronouce you chuck and larry, Fantastic 4 Part 2, Ghost Rider, War, and Shrek 3.
Kind of an interesting objection from someone whose blog tagline is “the official home of correct movie opinions” ;)
Seriously though, I’m not bagging on your list (which is fine), but rather on Die Hard 4 (which is the opposite of fine). I did honestly scroll back up to make sure I didn’t misread the title of the post though. For me, Die Hard 4 was every bit as awful as I expected and worse.
I was expecting a brainless action flick that was needlessly watered down to get a PG-13 rating. I got that, but also I got one of the most technologically silly plots since Hackers, incredibly poor story-writing, way over-the-top action scenes (he launches a car into a helicopter, and then later attacks a jet with a piece of road), and a generally tiresome and repetitive ‘buddy’ movie (“It’s called [blah], kid – ever hear of it?”).
I loved Die Hard 1 and 3, but nobody was clamoring for a fourth, and it was pretty damn terrible. I watched this movie with morons, and even they thought it was terrible.
Die Hard 4 commits one of the worst offenses a sequel can commit: it actually ruins the prior movies. Next time you watch Die Hard 1 and McClane has to fight a bunch of generic thugs, try not to wonder to yourself why he’s sturggling to fight the guy when the 90 year old version of him is able to dispatch a ninja monkey in a cooling room with relative ease.
John, many thanks for recommending Stardust.
When it came out in theatres, I was completely turned off by the ad campaign. I watched it tonight on DVD thanks to you. What a wonderful, funny, tremendous movie. Wow, that was great!
Ipecac
If you had no idea that Shia could act you surely haven’t seen “The Greatest Game Ever Played”. I avoided that flick for years because I thought it to be a sweet, sugarcoated Disney movie… but darn it, it really is a gem and Shia is wonderful in it.
Die Hard 4 was terrible. Cant compare it to the others or any good action flick period. Next was a joke. Nicolas Cage needs to go back to movies like Leaving Las Vegas. And wow Oceans 13!! Did you watch this with your mother? Cause thats the only person i could see watching these movies. 35-55yo married women who dream about the cast being inside them.
Next? Really? I thought the ending was a giant cop-out as were many parts of the movie. Solid premise, poor execution.
DH4 was better than I expected, so I’m with you on that. I’d have to throw Across The Universe on the list because even though I thought it might be good, I was blown away by it.
The only one that i would disagree with you John is Die Hard 4. I thought that sucked. Overall, it was by no means terrible, it was average summer action at best. But, when you throw in the absurd action sequences, the location incongruities, the weakness of Olymphant as a villain (who i love as an actor), and the fact that they removed the “fucker” from the tagline that made this franchise… sucked.
(I by no means NEED profanity in my movies, however when the line that is now famous reads “Yipee-Kay-Yay motherfucker”, you damn well better keep it that way. Yipee-Kay-Yay mother-BANG” is just lame.)
Tranformers was my biggest surprise. I never played with the toys (I was 16 when they came out), read the comics, or see the cartoon. I only saw it because Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay was involved. It ended up being the most fun I had in a theater this year.
TMNT was easily the best comicbook based movie of the year(and better then X3 and Superman Returns), hopefully a director’s cut will be available with the stuff that was left out of the final cut.
I agree with your list wholeheartedly John with one exception. Live Free or Die Hard. I have loved the Die Hard franchise from the very beginning and John McClane is one of my all time favourite movie characters. Even though DH4 was a great stand alone movie, it doesn’t live up to the previous installments. I had great expectations for the flick, and upon seeing it, I was disappointed.
The plot was too grand and complex for a Die Hard movie. They should have stuck with a simple story rather than a huge and complex tech plot. While I enjoyed the exchange between Willis and Long, I think it could have been acheived in different ways.
The whole scene with the jet and the tractor trailer made me cringe. Not even McClane should have been able to survive that.
Although I did like the ending, the whole movie was just a little bit too much for a Die Hard flick.
Dont get me wrong, I still liked it. I just wish that they had approached it in a different way. And because I think they did it wrong, I don’t it it should be on a list like that.
But it’s your list, so it’s all good. Keep up the good work.
Indeed, I found DH4 the second best Die Hard after the original. So there you go.
Yeah Rod, you have a fantastic site but don’t be an ass sir.
I would have to add Beowulf to this list. In the months before release i was really dreading it. The CGI humans seemed to have taken a step backwards from The Polar Express and after that film, who could blame me for expecting crap. But what a ride it turned out to be.
i was surprised at tmnt…..i thought it was gonna be kiddie and boring but it gave me memories of the old cartoon and movie, didnt see any of the other ones
mr brooks – could have been great if they had only 2 storylines
Next – shite story and nice tits and Moores Jaw
Oceans 13 – was this a fantasy film?
Reign over Me is the best surprise, and I agree with John and Doug that Sandler should stop the comedy stuff, check out Spanglish, it’s okay
Mr Books and Stardust, yes.
The rest were rather predictable.
Bridge to Terabithia was surprisingly good, especially considering the screwjob Disney tried with the marketing campaign.
“Next” was the big surprise for me…and yes, the ending to that film is thoought provoking and unexpected (I didn’t see it coming-and when I thought it cheated, the “next”minute before the credits roll, it shows it played fair.
What is interesting is the majority of the gems here in your list (and, for the most part, mine as well) suffered from a lack of studio support and/or promotion. That is especially true on ‘Stardust’, no question about it.
I have not seen the remake of Hairspray yet. Nor have I seen TMNT yet. Everything else I have seen and with the exception of Die Hard I agree with you here.
Here’s my “three” other surprises:
Shooter
Sunshine
Blood & Chocolate
Hey John, cool list. I really look forward to your most disappointing list. There you can really lay into Spiderman3.
I live in the UK and Mr.Brooks was barely advertised. I really wanted to see it and was suprised that with such a big name like Costner attatched to it that it didn’t get more buzz. It sounds like a great idea for a film. Do you know when it comes out on DVD? Has it already come out in the US or is it very soon?
I have to disagree with TMNT. Like you i was not looking forward to this at all, and whilst i maybe had a little bit of fun with it, for me it was a horrible mess of a film. I didn’t like it and i was suprised that you had fun with it. With Disturbia and Reign Over Me I totally agree. Shia LaBoeuf is awesome in that film.
Stardust shocked the HELL out of me. I saw that with four friends on a whim since it was at the discount theater, and you could not erase the smiles off our faces after that movie was over. We were literally skipping to the car, we were that happy. Just a magical, MAGICAL movie. I love that movie like fat kids love cake.
Hey Rod,
You know what really pushes my buttons? When people who think they know better than everyone else say “your opinion or list is INVALID” because it doesn’t match up with their own opinions.
For the record, Live Free or Die Hard has an 80% Critics rating and a 79% viewer rating.
You don’t like it, and that’s totally cool. But don’t be so pompous to call other people’s opinions as “invalid” because it doesn’t line up with what you think
This list is fully invalided by the presence of Live Free or Die Hard.
That movie was terrible from start to finish. When I saw that, I actually scrolled back up to see if I had misread the title of the article.
Disturbia… really…. i thought it was shocking. Shia can play one role “surprised/shocked kid”.. yes he’s big at the moment but I don’t really think disturbia demonstrated his talent.. i think the jury’s still out on him.
p.s. **SPOILER** how terrible was the script… I mean he told the girl he was basically stalking her, and then she kissed him… I DON’T recommend that line in real life!