Thursday Movie Picks:Movies You Thought You'd Hate But Ended Up Enjoying

That title was lengthy and it made me think....if you saw some fireflies flicker before they died, that was my brain cells....see, does that make any sense?  Anyways let’s get to it and then go and visit Wandering Through The Shelves and see what everyone else chose as their pleasant surprises. Here are my 3...or 4

1. SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION-1994

I can’t believe I actually didn’t care to see this film which means I was one of the many who was turned off by the title...ughhh was I wrong! This film is now one of my all time favourite films ever. It stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, whom you know is not guilty but is sent up the river to the horrible prison called Shawshank. There, he meets God....yes...God, you know, Morgan Freeman, who becomes his best friend  and we see how Andy calmly gives the finger to the bad cops especially the crooked Warden. To find out why Redemption is in the title is to give away the whole film but, once I saw it, I realized this is the best title this film deserved and it was robbed at the Oscars by the nice watching but insipid film, Chocolate boy aka ..Forrest Gump.

2. HELLBOY-2004

I hear there is a remake in the works this year and I will see it but I really enjoy this film and the sequels which surprises me because I made fun of this flick and now I am eating crow and feel humbled by my snootiness. This Stars Ron Perlman, who always played someone behind tons of makeup and is most famous from the TV Show, "Beauty and the Beast" where he played beauty..nyuck, nyuck. Where was I...oh yes, it starts off with the nasty Germans, aka Nazis, of course, who open a portal to bring some evil entity through, with the help of Rasputin, to this reality. Thankfully they are thwarted by the Americans but not before a cute little red demon baby comes through. The baby grows up knowing right from wrong and does what he can for good. Of course the evil Rasputin and the 2 main Nazi bitches are back but they have to go up against Hellboy and the other people with powers who are working for the good. Yes, this sounds like WTF?? But the director is Guillermo Del Toro and he creates quite a fun movie.

3.  DISTRICT 9-2009

I was asked to watch this by my niece and I did..begrudgingly but I was taken with the unique story and the message behind this story. A spaceship comes to earth and the aliens, really big flies that look quite ugly but are harmless, come to greet us but we, through fear and bigotry place them behind a huge chain link fence(do your best Trump impersonation) and they are kept within there where they are now living in a big slum. They become dependent on the humans and the humans look at them with contempt. There are police who go through this area and one is bit by an alien and he slowly mutates into one of them. As he mutates, everyone begins to shun him and his long held beliefs are slowly changing as a result. I found this film quite brilliant and worth a viewing.

4. THE TOOTH FAIRY-2010

There was nothing on the other night as I was making some cards and a scrapbook so I put this film on. Is it dumb? Oh yes it is, but I was surprised at how funny it was and engaging. Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson plays a down on his luck hockey player dating this wonderful woman, played by Ashley Judd, who has 2 kids. Anyway, his nickname is The Tooth Fairy since he separates the other hockey players' teeth from their mouths. He dashes the dream of one kid saying tooth fairies don't exist and he is now in deep doo doo with the tooth fairy world run by the elegant Julie Andrews. He is now a tooth fairy for 2 weeks much to his chagrin. It's predictable and won't win any awards but I was pleasantly surprised by how fun and endearing it is.

Which films did you think would suck or you thought you would dislike only to find the exact opposite?

Oh, My dad's birthday is today and he would have been 106 years old. Happy Birthday Daddy!