Never Advertised

A feature you ran into by accident. Good or Bad. Memorable or Forgettable. What did you blindly see with no warning whatsoever. What’s the verdict?

Marnie. Awful, boring movie with a terrific ending. Not one of Hitch’s best, but that ending…

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A lot of movies in my favorites list were initially blind pulls.

The oldest instance I can recall was Sneakers. To be fair, this has big names and had advertising… and, somehow, I remained completely oblivious and unaware. It’s a good movie (elevated to great if you dig geekery with your crime comedies).

The most recent instance was discovering Helen Keller vs Nightwolves. I honestly don’t even remember how the movie landed in my lap. If the title alone leads you to believe it’s garbage then you’d be right, but my heart has a soft spot for absurd, garbagey tomfoolery.

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Clue this one as advertised, but wasn’t on my radar.

During a period where I was in a bit of a funk, and really wasn’t paying too much attention to what was coming out, I just had a night where I felt like seeing a movie, the theater closes was a multiplex, saw a name that stood out, then the poster looked interesting and I saw a bunch of actors i thought would be interesting so went for it.

Right from the start when the music hit I was hooked, and absolutely loved the experience. Ended up going to watch it again a week later to try analyze and piece together things better, bought the soundtrack, and wondered how I hadn’t know about it before going to watch it the first time.

Honestly that helped shake me a bit out of that routine I was in, because clearly once I had seen it I realized that it had been promoted, I just hadn’t been paying attention.

The movie for the record:
Pulp Fiction

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That’s awesome, and it’s exactly my experience too! I went with a friend to Pulp Fiction, neither of us having heard of it, just walked in blind, which made for an amazing experience.

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Oh my gosh. That had to be GREAT!

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Interestingly enough I went to the movies with my mom to watch Inception. I had NO idea what it was, never heard of it, didn’t even know the title of it, I just thought “free movie, sure I’ll go!” And I was BLOWN away.

I think having no hype and not knowing what I was getting into make it an amazing experience.

So although it was advertised, I didn’t see any of it, didn’t know it even existed, and it was one of my favorie cinema experiences.

Also one scene made me think it was a horror film.

The scene where he’s going down the elevator and sees his late wife. I thought she was actually trapped inside his head and he was torturing her or something.

After seeing the movie, I went to my car in the parking lot, only to think for a split second I was in a dream which really tripped me out. I found a car that was the same make, model, year and color, but it has a bunch of different number stickers I didn’t have parked next to my car, and I assumed it was mine and tried to open the door with my key.

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I went into 28 Days Later knowing absolutely nothing about it.

And WOW, was I knocked for a loop by the experience!

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Big Bad Wolves (2013). I encountered it streaming and the description looked interesting. A mesmerizing thriller, both funny and unpleasant. Under the obvious themes about masculinity and vigilante justice I detected there was probably some subtext I would comprehend better if I were Israeli.

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Can I get away with The Matrix? I’m gonna try. I hadn’t seen squat about it, maybe half a cryptic commercial. Wasn’t sure what I was going to see, but went along for the ride. Came out of the theater, mind blown. I took a deep breath as I looked around and all I could say was, “Woah.”

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One of the people I saw it with told us seriously that he passed out from overstimulation during the lobby scene.

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I had the same experience. The advertising campaign for it was mysterious and I’m glad it was because wow!

The Matrix is the only movie I’ve seen five times in the theatre, first on my own then three times with friends and one more time with my mom (she’s big into sci-fi too)

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How tragic, or perhaps perfect.

There is so much to see in the movie, but the magic hinges on the “reveal.” When you go in cold, it’s just stunning.

I’d forgotten how I used to feel about this movie.

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To kids today I’m sure that sounds like movie audiences in the 1890s screaming and passing out because they were sure that train was going to flatten them.

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Me too. My father and I strolled into a local cineplex in March 1999 to catch this movie The Matrix (1999) starring Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. I gathered it might be Sci-Fi and that’s ALL I suspected walking in. The green, the coding of the titles, the scary gents in suits running after folks, this is as deep as I thought it would get. Man was I wrong. Joey Pants blurts “Kansas is going bye-bye” and literally it does. It might be the most blindsighted I was by a flick. The punchline smashed me over the head and I left the theater stunned, my head reeling, and burning to watch it again.

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Okay, no judgement here, but… Dudes and Dragons. My friends and I were watching a movie, and after it was over we were just scrolling through the available flicks on Amazon Prime and we came across this title card:


How could we pass it up? We groaned and screamed in rage all the way through it, and had a thoroughly grand time. And it was clear everyone who was a part of the movie had just as much fun making it. We looked it up afterward and turns out it was a crowdfunded indie film. Somehow they managed to get Luke Perry and James Marsters in it. (The former you might make it all the way to the end of the movie and go “Hey, wasn’t Luke Perry supposed to be in this!?” He’s in there, I promise.) I’m convinced they did it purely for the fun of it.

Verdict: Dreadful. Delightful. Terrible. Ingenious. Ridiculously awful. Everyone MUST watch it

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Hitch tripped on this. His age caught up with him. Hedren is too stiff, Connery too loose, and the writing is wooden. The close is the highlight and everything prior lacks punch. Save yourself the disappointment and watch Vertigo (1958) instead.

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