04-09-2010, 07:57 AM | #1 (permalink) | |
Groovy Hipster Nerd
Location: Michigan
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What Was The Last Movie You Saw Without Knowing Anything About It?
Source: io9
Quote:
On occasion, I will know a little about the plot and actors, but I try to avoid viewing trailers before going to see a movie. I watched a Shutter Island trailer and figured out what was going on before seeing the movie. |
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04-09-2010, 08:09 AM | #2 (permalink) |
warrior bodhisattva
Super Moderator
Location: East-central Canada
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A couple of movies I watched only knowing what the movie posters looked like: The Matrix and Fight Club. The former I thought looked really cheesy: ooh, a movie with black clothes and guns—yay.... The latter made me think, okay, a movie about fighting and soap, starring pretty boy Brad Pitt—yay....
Yeah, so I watched both of them and was pleasantly surprised with how cool they were. This was long after they came out on video.
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04-09-2010, 08:27 AM | #3 (permalink) |
Unbelievable
Location: Grants Pass OR
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I saw The Blindside, after the Academy Awards (to which I paid absolutely no attention), based solely on the fact that my brother said it was good. I knew nothing about the story, who was in it, or that it was based on a true story. I didn't realize it was based on a true story until the end of the movie.
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04-09-2010, 09:40 AM | #4 (permalink) |
Knight of the Old Republic
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
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I never do this because most movies suck donkey dick and I don't wanna waste my time with them. I only want to watch quality movies so I go by my favorite movie critic who I agree with probably 90% of the time.
Though I did see Avatar without knowing ANYTHING about it except the movie poster. Movie trailers are very rarely a good indication of how a movie is. They are made to get people in seats and that's it. I hate when people see a trailer and are like "oh I bet that will be good." Well no shit, they're not gonna make a trailer that makes you not want to see it.
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04-09-2010, 04:20 PM | #6 (permalink) |
The Reforms
Location: Rarely, if ever, here or there, but always in transition
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That's the only way I have actually found and watched films over the course of the past decade.
I'll say, of the 320+ films I've watched over the course of the past 3 years, about 45-60% of them I watched completely blind, save for the knowing the title of the film. I actually have made a habit of just scrolling through just film titles, and picking one that seems interesting, and pressing 'play'. No posters, no quick synposis, no nothing. Sometime word-of-mouth helps, but when friends recommend me a film (I usualy badger them to) they just tell me the title of it, and I go on my merry way to locate it. two notable examples: From Dusk till Dawn and Elephant I watched both films completely without any idea of what to expect, who was starring, and actually the genre of film it falls into, and in conclusion, I found it thrilling afterwards to remember the experience of not knowing what to expect at all, and really enjoyed both viewings. I don't know if anyone would have had the same emotional reactions as I did watching these two particular films, and then wiling out, pondering where the direction of the story is going, and then coming to the realizaion that "film A" relates to "real-life scenario B". Then again, my film-going is experience is not normal at all. I haven't been inside a cinema house since before Y2K, and I don't actively look to find "movie reviews" just to see if a film is worth it or not. I don't care all that much. Though, after just watching a film, I usually do hit up wikipedia or imdb a day after finishing it, and then start reading the plot and what the overall message and history to the film is, which usually prompts to watch the film again with some knowledge of what to look for, and what I might have missed.
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04-09-2010, 05:33 PM | #8 (permalink) |
Human
Administrator
Location: Chicago
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I saw The Matrix, American Beauty, Fight Club, and The Talented Mr. Ripley without knowing anything about them. I'm glad I did, because I think I enjoyed those movies even more because of it. More recently, it's hard for me to say... I don't go to a ton of movies. Oh, I didn't really know anything about Watchmen when I saw it in the theatre. Maybe that's why I enjoyed that one too
It's no coincidence that the first four movies I mentioned all came out when I was in high school, and when the internet was less mature. The information about the movies wasn't as easily accessible, I didn't have the time (or autonomy - I didn't have my own computer) to find out more about movies, and my friends and I would just go to whatever movie seemed like it might be good, even if we didn't know much about it. Now, I'm more picky about what I see in the theatre, and it's a lot easier for me to learn about a movie beforehand (both intentionally and unintentionally). I definitely think it makes a difference when you truly have no idea what's next. On one hand, I'd love to see more movies without knowing anything in advance, but on the other hand it's difficult to make that kind of time and money commitment these days if I'm not pretty sure it's worthwhile.
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04-09-2010, 07:59 PM | #9 (permalink) |
Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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I get invited to lots of screeners and I am lucky to get a blurb about them. Generally I don't bother to read the blurb, I look to see if I'm busy. If I'm not busy I'll book the time because it's a free movie. If I'm busy, I'll read the blurb to see if it is something of interest to see from director to actor to story line.
Many times, I'm going to just go because it's a free movie and generally, I'm entertained more often than not because I had zero expectations walking in. Avatar. I wanted to know as little about the film as I could.
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04-09-2010, 09:48 PM | #10 (permalink) |
With a mustache, the cool factor would be too much
Location: left side of my couch, East Texas
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The last movie I saw without knowing anything about it, other than the title, is "Blindness", starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.
I had an idea in my head what it would be about, but it was not close to the actual story. In my opinion, it was a bad movie. There were interesting parts to be sure, but on the whole, I was disappointed and a bit disgusted.
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04-10-2010, 03:49 AM | #11 (permalink) |
Addict
Location: Third World
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The Reader.
I had heard it was good, but nothing else before I saw it. When I saw the poster I had this idea that Winslet read books to the elderly/infirm/blind and the story would focus on the relationship between her and a/the listener. I was pleasantly suprised by the plot.
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"Failing tastes of bile and dog vomit. Pity any man that gets used to that taste." |
04-10-2010, 07:22 AM | #12 (permalink) |
...is a comical chap
Location: Where morons reign supreme
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Men Who Stare At Goats. I knew who was in it, but I didn't know anything about it. My dad took me to lunch and a movie, he suggested it and I was agreeable because I like George Clooney. It was ok, but I'm glad I didn't pay for it.
Before that, I'd have to say Pride and Prejudice, which came out in 2005. I "read" the book in high school - I HATED it, didn't finish it, and didn't remember a damn thing about it. However, I like movies with historical settings and had seen and liked other Jane Austen filmed works, so I saw it. I loved it. It's been a long, long time since I've seen a movie without knowing anything about it - who's in it, who directed, etc. Probably sometime in the mid to late 90's. I at least want to know who's in a movie before I see it, if not a very basic idea of what it's about. I'd be pissed if I accidently paid to see a romantic comedy because I didn't know anything about it.
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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king" Formerly Medusa |
04-10-2010, 09:33 AM | #13 (permalink) |
Delicious
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It's hard for me not to know a lot about a decent movie before seeing it. It's just a side effect of my job. I see a lot of movies I never heard of before but they're usually direct to video JCVD or Steven Seagal-like movies. If I ignore those, It'd probably have to be foreign film like Oldboy or Infernal Affairs, or a horror flick like Hatchet or Bug or both like High Tension or The Descent. I don't really even remember how much I knew about these films before watching them. It couldn't have been much because they were all surprising good.
Still, I didn't see any of these in the theater. I'm not rich enough to spend money on a theater visit to see a movie I've never heard of before.
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04-10-2010, 08:27 PM | #14 (permalink) |
Tilted
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That rarely happens with the internet, but I can say that I went online to look at Logorama when it won the Oscar for short film.
But I guess the full feature would be Star Trek. I know the basis duh!! but I tried to avoid all the info on the back story... and I still have to watch it (the bluray is next to the player) |
04-11-2010, 09:18 AM | #15 (permalink) |
Walking is Still Honest
Location: Seattle, WA
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Gran Torino.
I went with some friends to a pre-screening that we thought would be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, it was this instead. I knew not a single thing about this movie other than the name. I guessed that it would be something like The Fast and the Furious. Very very pleasantly, I was wrong.
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04-11-2010, 12:16 PM | #16 (permalink) |
Psycho
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I love to do this - going to a film knowing zero about it, if it's good, makes it even better. But because I'm a film fan this rarely happens as I generally like to keep up to date on movie news, etc. Smaller, foreign or old movies slip through though, and when they do it's excellent. The best instance I can think of of watching a film without prior knowledge was Tell No One. It's a French thriller from a few years ago and going in I didn't even know the title; luckily it was really really good and so intense that I had to drink some beers and watch a comedy film afterwards to calm down from it.
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knowing, movie |
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