{"id":1086,"date":"2014-07-21T08:54:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T08:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.3.178\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2015-01-06T10:57:19","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T10:57:19","slug":"6-surprisingly-brilliant-movies-lego-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/07\/21\/6-surprisingly-brilliant-movies-lego-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Surprisingly Brilliant Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Admit it: who thought that a movie about Lego would be any good? We certainly didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>But then along came <i>The Lego Movie<\/i> and it was probably the most enjoyable 100 minutes we had at the cinema last year. If you haven\u2019t seen it yet, pick it up on DVD \u201d\u201c it comes out today.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s far from the only surprisingly brilliant movie to have come out though, as we\u2019re about to discover&#8230;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/hr>\n<h4>The Hangover<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vhFVZsk3XEs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nDespite spawning one of the biggest comedy franchises of the past 10 years, <i>The Hangover<\/i> was a surprise hit when it came out in 2008. No-one expected much from what looked like a pretty average gross-out comedy starring 3 relatively unknown actors.<\/p>\n<p>But the chemistry of Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galinfinakis and some of the funniest scenes this side of <i>American Pie<\/i> made <i>The Hangover <\/i>one of the highest-grossing comedies of all time.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, it was so good that the studio bigwigs decided to make the exact same film again for the sequel (but in Bangkok instead of Las Vegas). Unfortunately, that one wasn\u2019t so great. It\u2019s no surprise so many people <a href=\"http:\/\/192.168.3.178\/entertainment\/sell-dvds\/\">sell their Hangover DVDs to us<\/a>!<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/hr>\n<h4>Taken<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jZOywn1qArI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nWhen you think of Liam Neeson, you probably imagine a gruff tough guy capable of breaking someone\u2019s neck just by winking at them. That is entirely down to <i>Taken<\/i>, a relatively small French movie which transformed a 56 year-old Neeson into Hollywood\u2019s leading action hero.<\/p>\n<p>The film itself is pretty standard, but Neeson\u2019s performance takes it to a whole new level. His \u201d\u02dcI will find you and I will kill you\u2019 speech (which we&#8217;ve posted above) alone makes <i>Taken<\/i> a modern action classic.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/hr>\n<h4>Hot Rod<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8PlrxUzKYoI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe Lonely Island are best known for producing funny rap songs about owning boats and being a boss (pronounced bow-ss), yet it turns out they\u2019re also pretty good at making films too.<\/p>\n<p>Hot Rod is the tale of a young man who dreams of nothing but becoming a famous stuntman and beating his step-dad (played by Ian McShane) in a fight. Unfortunately, his step-dad is ill, so Rod organises his most dangerous stunt yet to pay for his treatment (so he can beat him up once he\u2019s better).<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s one of the silliest films we\u2019ve ever seen to be honest, but that\u2019s exactly why we love it.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/hr>\n<h4>Rise of the Planet of the Apes<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f8D2NIGEJW8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nAfter Tim Burton\u2019s rubbish remake of the original <i>Planet of the Apes<\/i>, most people thought the franchise was dead for good. So it was a surprise when <i>Rise of the Planet of the Apes <\/i>\u201d\u201c a prequel, no less \u201d\u201c turned out to be one of the best movies in the series.<\/p>\n<p><i>Rise&#8230;<\/i> is a rare example of an intelligent blockbuster, focusing on the ethical dilemma that arises from experimenting on animals to cure our own illnesses. It isn\u2019t all chin-stroking and pondering though, with some excellent action scenes keeping excitement levels high.<\/p>\n<p>The sequel to <i>Rise&#8230;, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes<\/i>, is in cinemas now and is receiving equal amounts of praise for its intelligent approach to what is (let\u2019s face it) a ridiculous concept.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/hr>\n<h4>Forgetting Sarah Marshall<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PyVEHIO6jZ0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nIt\u2019s a rom-com for blokes starring Russell Brand, who at the time was best known for presenting <i>Big Brother\u2019s Big Mouth<\/i>. So why is it so good? We still can\u2019t really put our finger on it, but Jason Segel\u2019s Hawaiian-based break-up comedy is very funny and surprisingly heartfelt too.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/hr>\n<h4>Frozen<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/moSFlvxnbgk\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nPixar dominated animation for years, taking the crown from their parent company, Disney (who probably weren\u2019t that bothered seeing as they made loads of money from Pixar\u2019s success).<\/p>\n<p>Still, Disney managed to reclaim the animation crown with the unlikely success of <i>Frozen. <\/i>As well as earning critical acclaim, <i>Frozen<\/i> is the highest-earning animated film of all time (beating the likes of <i>Toy Story<\/i> and <i>Shrek<\/i>). Never underestimate the power of animated snowmen, princesses and catchy songs.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/hr>\n<p>Have you ever expected a movie to be rubbish, only for it to end up being surprisingly brilliant? Let us know in the comments or on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/musicmagpie\">Facebook<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/musicmagpie\">Twitter<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Admit it: who thought that a movie about Lego would be any good? We certainly didn\u2019t. But then along came The Lego Movie and it was probably the most enjoyable 100 minutes we had at the cinema last year. If you haven\u2019t seen it yet, pick it up on DVD &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3327,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions\/3327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmagpie.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}