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Best movie to walk into blind, knowing nothing about the premises or the plot. You're permitted to understand and recognise genre tropes, but you should NOT know any specific things, including what genre the movie is, before you sit down in a dark room with popcorn to watch it.
My contribution: Dark City.
Yours?
(Of course, you should not explain WHY your movie is The Best Movie To Walk Into Blind. That would kinda defeat the purpose.)
Second-order question: What if you're allowed knowledge of previous movies in the series or by the same director, but must walk in blind to the current iteration? For that, I suggest T2: Judgement Day.
My contribution: Dark City.
Yours?
(Of course, you should not explain WHY your movie is The Best Movie To Walk Into Blind. That would kinda defeat the purpose.)
Second-order question: What if you're allowed knowledge of previous movies in the series or by the same director, but must walk in blind to the current iteration? For that, I suggest T2: Judgement Day.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 01:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 02:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 02:22 am (UTC)I walked in to the movie only knowing this: the title and that it was in English, in an area where seeing a movie in English is a rare event. And it turned out to be a really, really good movie.
So why was walking in on this movie blind was a good thing? Because I had no expectations and no preconceptions, either of which may have discouraged me from bothering to go see it at all.
For the second order question: rejected. If I know a movie is a sequel to something I've seen and remember, or if I have an idea of the type of product to expect from a director, I am not walking in blind to see that movie. That is not much different from going to see the Lego movie after seeing a few ten second clips and a few blogs from people claiming to have enjoyed it.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 02:39 am (UTC)Another one, to a smaller degree: "No, Luke. *I* am your father."
It's about movies where there's a surprise, best experienced blind, either predicated on what you know in advance or surprising *even though* you know what you know in advance.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 03:12 am (UTC)... I'm trying to think of a sequel that has no bearing at all on what occurred before... Maybe Highlander? Pitch Black? Aliens?
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-29 07:44 pm (UTC)Also Phantasmagoria 2, moving to video games.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-29 12:24 am (UTC)Hmm, I never thought about it like that. That definitely makes it more interesting.
I also wish they hadn't cut this part:
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 02:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 02:40 am (UTC)Holy crap, I hate that trailer.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 02:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 02:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 08:52 am (UTC)There were a bunch of us in town for a wedding - mostly geeky, gothy sorts. We had an afternoon free, and someone said "Hey, let's go see that new Keanu movie - the costumes look pretty slick."
And so off we went, in our Docs and trenchcoats full of high-tech devices, knowing nothing more than that the poster was pretty cool.
Turned out that a bunch of other geeky gothy types in town had all had the same idea, so it was pretty much a cinema full of the ideal target audience, most of whom were coming to it with no expectations. At the end, when Neo does the jump inside Smith and explodes him, someone yelled out "Telefrag!" and the enitre theatre exploded with laughter.
One of my friends was even carrying a Nokia 8110 (which doesn't actually pop open like the one in the movie does, although Nokia fixed that in the 7110, which was my favourite phone ever).
It remains the best cinema viewing experience I have ever had.
(And stands in stark contrast to the viewing of Star Wars Episode 1, which was pretty much the opposite. Such high expectations. So very, very let down.)
Also, as a footnote, most of us had seen Dark City, and later on during coffee discussion, someone said "That was the film that Dark City wanted to be." I like Dark City, but I kinda agree.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-29 12:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 08:05 am (UTC)Not sure I can pick the best one.... but I sort of want to pick one with a twist (What a twist!) ... Options would include
12 monkeys
Sixth Sense - I actually went in with no idea what it was about, and quite enjoyed it.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 01:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 08:17 am (UTC)This made the entire movie exponentially better.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 09:07 am (UTC)Fight Club.
Children of Men.
Being John Malkovitch.
And, for "knowledge of previous movies by same director," Brazil.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 09:12 am (UTC)So I'll just say Unbreakable.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 03:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 06:29 pm (UTC)He also did After Earth, which, on reflection, goes a long way to answer part II of the question. See it if you haven't yet.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 06:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 07:31 pm (UTC)(Which doesn't explain After Earth. Maybe there's a cure?)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-29 12:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 09:28 am (UTC)Which also works for your second-order question, since Psycho was a very different kind of movie than Hitchcock's others, and basically anything useful you (thought you) knew about a Hitchcock movie also gets covered by "genre tropes" and "the title of the damn movie"
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 10:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 12:32 pm (UTC)It's immeasurably improved if you've zero knowledge of either the film itself or of the first film.
(Note, it's still not a good film, but it's a lot better if you know nothing about the first film.)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 03:39 pm (UTC)The Spanish Prisoner.
For Number 2:
Aliens
If you go in to it after seeing the first, with no prior knowledge, you are not expecting the balls-to-the-wall action flick you get.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-29 12:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 04:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-29 12:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 04:41 pm (UTC)Warm Bodies (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588173/)
and of course Amélie
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 06:55 pm (UTC)Other possibilities:
Destiny Turns On The Radio
City of Lost Children
Oh, and FWIW, the first time I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark I had no idea of its plot, genre, etc. I walked into it knowing the following things: Spielberg. Lucas. Ford. That's it.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 11:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 11:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 11:20 pm (UTC)Holy crap, Upstream Color is the perfect movie for this question.
I've already said too much.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 11:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-28 12:28 am (UTC)Branded. OMFG, you have to see Branded!
The second one is trickier. I suppose for maximum distance between versions, Desperado applies. Kind of a remake of El Mariachi; kinda not.
For movies by the same director, though, Spy Kids. Definitely. Unexpected.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-28 01:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-29 12:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-29 09:54 am (UTC)I understand that many people hate it, but they are wrong.
(Also, reading Richard E. Grant's "With Nails" makes it clear just how much of the stuff I love about it was a combination of pure chance and a really good editor.)
But I can't pay the rent!
Date: 2014-03-29 07:49 pm (UTC)The whole production/budget/promotion thing being a boondoggle didn't help, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-29 04:48 am (UTC)I mean, it's a cartoon movie. About bunny rabbits. We all know what to expect, right?
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-29 09:57 am (UTC)Akira.
Imagine walking in to see that, no knowledge of anything about it, and all you know about anime is having watched Robotech on Saturday morning cartoons for a few years.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-31 01:19 am (UTC)Slipstream (though not a stupendous movie, I think I'd have enjoyed it more if I hadn't seen the cheesy trailer)
...and maybe Cabin In The Woods? I'm open to rebuttal. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-04-10 01:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-01 11:44 pm (UTC)