“It’s one of my favourites of the year and a reminder of just how great an actor Michael Caine is.”

—kathryna456a720b8

2. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

“Trailers made it seem like a nice, pleasant, feelgood movie. I was not prepared for how emotional the film was and how much I’d be bawling throughout it. Stuck with me for a long time afterwards. Jim Broadbent was just amazing in it.”

—cheesywotsits

3. Love and Monsters

“I really didn’t have much in the way of expectations for this film. I watched it primarily just to watch SOMETHING. I still can’t quite be sure what I loved about it so much. No idea why that kind of story would resonate with me in particular. None at all. I’m just stumped.”

—dingospleen

4. The World’s End

“My husband is a huge fan of the cornetto trilogy, and when we started dating I had only seen Shaun of the Dead. I expected it to be a typical comedy about guys getting drunk, but it was way more involved (and heartfelt) than that!”

—sondheimgeek

5. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

“It exceeded my expectations and has no right being as good as it is. Best thing about it for me has to be the characters, all of them are memorable in their own way and the animation is brilliant. And lest we forget the interactions between Jack and the bug!”

—hobbitgirl96

“10/10, one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.”

—foundmyguy307

6. PAW Patrol: The Movie

“If you didn’t know it was a kids TV show, you could easily pass it off as a DreamWorks film. Very cute and lots of fun!”

—nicolabishop

7. The Blackening

“I rented it twice in one weekend! HILARIOUS! Definitely didn’t know what to expect, but I damn sure wasn’t gonna skip it.”

—amjones

8. Uptown Girls

“It was much better than I expected.”

—jordanperartillasantos24

9. Haunted Mansion (2023)

“Mind you, the bar was pretty low from the last Haunted Mansion movie attempt, but Lakeith Stanfield made all the difference. It had some really funny moments but also dove into how people handle the loss of a loved one. I was bummed it didn’t do well at the box office.”

—buttercupbailey

10. Barbie

“I didn’t have super high hopes, but I loved it. It was funny, real, and made a lot of social commentary.”

—kelligraceh

11. The Adjustment Bureau

“I did not have high hopes for a movie with such a boring title, and just bought a movie ticket because there was nothing else to watch. I was pleasantly surprised to see good chemistry between the leads, a nice and compelling story that I got invested in early in the movie, and a satisfying ending. I left that movie with a smile on my face and a recommendation for my friends.”

—superpickles

12. Happy Death Day

“I was expecting a standard slasher trying to copy Scream but I was so wrong. It was quite entertaining and funny.”

—jshaqui27

13. Pleasantville

“A friend and I went to see it in the theatre one night out of boredom because we thought it was going to be some kind of cheesy nostalgia trip. We tossed out the occasional quip for about the first fifteen or twenty minutes, but after that we started to sense something bigger was going on with the film. By a third of the way in we were spellbound. One of my favourite movies to this day.”

—mikefalkstrom

14. Trolls Band Together

“I honestly had zero expectations going in and I bought a ticket just to have something to watch because I was bored. I ended up really enjoying it and being engaged in the story, which was surprisingly heartfelt and well written. The soundtrack was banging too.”

—ravenbard

15. King of the Hill

“I read a review of it, and it sounded interesting. It is STUPENDOUS, one of my all time favourites.”

—bravesgirl21

16. Avatar: The Way of Water

“I wasn’t planning on going because I had heard it was boring, but everything about the movie was great! Even though it was a long movie, the time just flew by.”

—avkirk000