Going into a movie blind

[foxhot]

Of all the 1150 movies I've seen in a theater, the ONLY time this ever really happened for me was with SURVIVAL QUEST in 1989. I had nothing to go on except the movie ad which read ''starring Lance Henriksen and Mark Rolston.'' That's why I went. The ad only showed dense forest, leading me to expect a DELIVERANCE-style thriller. In the end it was somewhat more light-hearted, but it was still an action thriller and not knowing in advance was a refreshing experience.

[TenLubak]

Zombie land was one my girlfriend made me buy tickets to, and if it was a better time in out lives i would have enjoyed it more, was shooting up and broke and trying to finish college while maintaining a habit, and stressing about my girlfriend whoring around for drugs sort of ruined that expierence for me tho.

Then she made me watch District 9 on the little computer she downloaded it illegally, that was good. Even in such bad times!

And I'm sure when times were good my dad would go get VHS taps from The Movie FActory he rented and pop em in when i was kid. I mean I didnt know what most of em were about half the time, but not really going to the theatre blind that much. I do like to know as little as possible about books and records tho alot before getting into em!

[Robert Maxwell]

The most recent one I can think of is Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

I saw a trailer for it, looked like a crappy romantic comedy, so I wasn't going to bother. Then my friend asked me if I'd see with her. I figured what the hell, went and saw it, loved it, bought the graphic novels. Now I'm a big fan. Sometimes, you are surprised!

On the other hand, one time I was invited to watch Dragonfly with my family, and I knew nothing about it so I naively agreed. Kevin Costner could die in agony a thousand times and he will still not have paid for the thousands of hours of my life that "movie" took from me.

[cultcross]

I've done it twice in recent years. Never Let Me Go, which was an unmitigated disaster, and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which was a pleasant surprise all round. So, mixed opinions on seeing movies blind!

[Harvey]

With the exception of a few preview screenings I attended last year as part of a programming job, I've never gone to a movie in the theater without reading a few reviews and/or seeing a trailer first. It's just too expensive to get into the habit.

I have watched a number of things through Netflix and On Demand based on nothing more than the one or two-line description and the cast and crew listed. As you might expect, this has been a mixed bag, but not entirely without unexpected surprises (Hopscotch, which I caught recently, was rather good).

[Gaith]

I don't like going into movies cold - I'm always distracted by wishing I had a sweater.

Hey, thanks, really, I'll be here all night!

I never see a movie without checking Metacritic or, when that's not possible, skimming through a few reviews at least, though I'm very careful to avoid as much as possible about movies I know I want to see. I don't think I was sure that Gwyneth was in Avengers, for instance, and I didn't know that Judi Dench was in the new Jane Eyre. (I did accidentally learn of the big cameo in X-Men: First Class, which pissed me off, though it hardly ruined the movie, and at least there was the other cameo to enjoy.) Apart from the director, stars, and plot era, I knew next to nothing about the story of Atonement, which I frickin' loved. It could conceivably be neat to see a movie I know I hadn't seen before totally blind, but I'd have to really trust the selecter's judgment.



... Anyhow, I was once (long ago) stuck in a house with next to nothing to do, and pretty much the only VHS (whose box was an awards consideration packaging, thus revealing almost nothing) was this:

Happily, it turned out to be a darn good movie. And a rather the sexy one, too! Alas, the unrated cut, with a bit more nudity and a great minute-long coda, is not on dvd. Or blu! Which makes me blue. A semi-blue movie likes this deserves better. 'Cause it doesn't blow.

... I'll show myself out now.

[SiorX]

I used to do this all the times as an undergrad. I had a 12-month cinema pass, and didn't own a TV or read entertainment magazines. My friend and I would just rock up to the cinema and pick a title that we'd never heard of. We got pretty good at not even looking around at posters inside the cinema (which might have given us genre clues as well as info on who was in it).

One of the most fun parts was trying to gauge what kind of film was about to start based on the audience demographic and the trailers.

I saw some good movies that way. And a lot of utter rubbish. I'd love to take the hobby back up if I can ever afford a pass again.

[Dac]

I was pretty unspoiled about The Cabin In The Woods when I saw it. All I knew was there was a bunch of kids, it was written by Joss Whedon and there was a giant forceshield involved (I saw the back end of a trailer once).

I was absolutely mind blown by it, one of the best movie experiences I've ever had. It doesn't hurt that the film itself is great and right up my alley when it comes to what I want out of a movie, and that I've never seen a film go full crazy like that before.

[Timelord_Victorious]

All the time.

We have a series here at our local theatre called Sneak Peek.

You never know what movie they will play, just that it's a premier and undubbed (Germany here).
So I end up seeing a whole lot of movies I've never seen trailers or other promotional stuff or even heard of before.

There are a few stinkers in there but also a lot of at least good movies I'd never would have picked deliberately. So that balances out I guess.

[Alidar Jarok]

Owain Taggart wrote:

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But on the other hand, I've come to realize that if they hardly talk about the movie itself, that something sounds wrong. For example, when Harrison Ford was promoting Indy 4 and doing the publicity tour, I remembered watching him on a talk show and while they had spent a lot of time on him, he hadn't talked about Indy 4 or given any details about it other than it was coming out.

Well, to be fair, Harrison Ford has always seemed to hate interviews. I'm sure he would have been as stingy with details for Star Wars had he been asked.

ETA: If I include Netflix, I can add a couple more (Snatch is one of the top of my head), but I generally read the description of the movie, at least.

[foxhot]

If you go to a movie after seeing the trailer, that probably doesn't qualify as blind. I'd call it such if the newspaper ad didn't disclose the plot but only the actors, as in my case. There were no apparent trailers for SURVIVAL QUEST.

[Starbreaker]

The only thing I knew about Fellowship of the Ring going into the movie was that 9 dudes walked up a mountain, as seen in the first teaser.

[foxhot]

Not cold or blind enough. They gave you a brief moving visual.

[Alidar Jarok]

Eh, as long as you have no idea what the movie is about, that's fine.

[tomalak301]

I think the last movie I went in not knowing much was earlier this year when The Descendants game out. I had seen some of the trailer and thought it was a comedy, and I knew George Clooney was in it. Boy I was wrong on the Comedy bit because it ended up being one of the more depressing films I've ever seen.