Surprisingly enjoyable ‘popcorn’ films

You know – the sort that won’t ever win awards and kinda flew under the radar a bit.

Can I start with ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ – I watched it last night and found it great fun (with Samuel L Jackson stealing the show just bu being Samuel L Jackson, Motherf&^%$r). Some really funny moments and great action sequences.

The latest Roadhouse. It’s so over the top stupid that it’s enjoyable. This is coming from an absolute film snob.

“Nobody”, it’s a ridiculous load of nonsense, but my god is it good fun 🙂

The latest Mission Impossible. The train scene alone is just incredible, edge of the seat stuff – even if you know Ethan will manage, somehow to survive it all. Great film

Came here to say ‘Nobody’. @verses beat me to it

The latest Roadhouse. It’s so over the top stupid that it’s enjoyable. This is coming from an absolute film snob.

It starts of pretty good, then McGregor appears.

Easy to watch popcorn film:

Obvious choice is Top Gun: Maverick

Easy go to one The Gentleman

The Meg. Everything that you would expect in a film about Jason Statham and a giant shark.

+1 The Gentleman – great film.

The Gentleman 2024 TV Series is just as good.

The Meg was fun, not seen the sequel yet! Also really enjoyed The Beekeeper.

We watched Barbenheimer on a transatlantic flight, the first half was a great popcorn film, but the second act was pretty heavy going.

Brave creative choice.

Notable mention for all of the Fast and Furious films from 5 onwards.

And Cold Pursuit, the most fun of Liam Neeson’s Action Uncle series.

Extraction / Extraction 2 on Netflix.

Bullet Train

The Lost City (not usually a big fan of Daniel Radcliffe but enjoyed his performance in this)

Pretty much anything with Jason Statham. Remove brain, preferably pack it away somewhere under lock and key to keep it safe, and enjoy.

Kiss kiss bang bang

The nice guys

+1 for Bullet train

Notable mention for all of the Fast and Furious films from 5 onwards.

yeah, I love these. Ever since The Rock got on board, they morphed into silly-spy-caper style films, which just ratchet up the ridiculousness each time 😃

Some good suggestions so far, I’ll add Free Guy to the list, great fun, ridiculous but great fun 😀

Battleship. Awful film and stupid premise, makes the original Top Gun look accurate and well written.

But a guilty pleasure. Watched it only the other night and perfectly suits 4k on a big screen at home with a couple of beers.

Came to say Roadhouse too. Not as good as or really anything to do with the original but fun in a stupid way.

Brother in Law reckons it’s the most 80’s type action film since the 80’s. This is a good thing.

There are some films that, if I spot them in the schedule at 9pm, I’ll always end up watching them all the way through.

Edge of Tomorrow.

Captain America: Winter Soldier

Mad Max: Fury Road

Master and Commander

I always think Cruise works better in his ‘b’ movies than the blockbuster ones. I’ve switched off Mission Impossible films halfway through, same with the truly awful Maverick nonsense – they are just too overblown. But Edge of Tomorrow, American Made, Collateral and even Oblivion are all very watchable.

I also really like the Neil Blokamp movies – obviously District 9 but also Chappie and Elysium. All these are great for switch brain off don’t look too hard for plot holes approach!

@jeffl

Good call, I enjoy battleship too.

I’ll add Pacific Rim and Love and Monsters to the list too.

The Meg 2 is excellent. It lives up to what the first Meg promised but failed to deliver.

Cocaine Bear obviously. Wildly entertaining with a slightly undramatic ending. The opposite of Meg 2 which crosses into the realms of lunacy and keeps going.

District 9 is one of the most entertaining movies ever made, just for the repeated use of the word ‘prawns’ in the Saffer accent. 🙂

A lot of Cruise’s stuff pops up in my ‘brain out and enjoy’ category – Oblivion, as you say, MI3 (the best one in the series, IMO), Minority Report, even the Reacher ones, if you can get past the physical issues.

I love the first two Star Trek reboots as well, and I’ll always stick with ‘Star Trek: First Contact’ if that pops up.

I’ll add Pacific Rim

Good call. First one is great fun.

OP nailed it with Hitman for me – discovered it when MrsMC was flicking round the channels one evening and now one of our favourite “brain out” movies

Aliens, despite being a decent film also makes it into the brain-out fun ride category.

As a blast from the past – Tremors – ridiculous fun all the way!

It starts of pretty good, then McGregor appears.

Yes, but he’s so bad it’s good. It’s so ridiculously over the top. I can only assume they fed him more cocaine than a normal day then let him do whatever he wanted

And Cold Pursuit, the most fun of Liam Neeson’s Action Uncle series.

Came here to say this. Extremely dumb, does not **** around with subplots and artsy nonsense like that, just Liam Neeson on a single-minded mission of vengeance.

Edge of Tomorrow is fun, but it’s pretty high-concept compared to Cold Pursuit.

American Graffiti – touch of an imaginary nostalgia.

Ahh yes, Bullet Train – I must remember to watch that the next time my wife is out for the evening. I’d forgotten about it altogether.

+1 on We’re the Millers. Great Film.

Bad Teacher also very good.

Sing & Sing II are great animated films.

Along Came Polly is another of Jennifer Aniston’s films that is much more fun than it should be.

Bad Teacher also very good.

And The Bad Santa. And The Bad Lieutenant. And Bad Boy Bubby.

It starts of pretty good, then McGregor appears.
Yes, but he’s so bad it’s good. It’s so ridiculously over the top. I can only assume they fed him more cocaine than a normal day then let him do whatever he wanted

Is that what he actually sounds like when he talks  in real life?

The Lost City (not usually a big fan of Daniel Radcliffe but enjoyed his performance in this)

Taking of Radcliffe, I enjoyed Guns Akimbo.  It is utterly stupid of course, but it’s fun.

Boss Level and Guns Akimbo both delivered popcorn fun, a little under the radar due to covid / streaming only release.

Ooh! I’d forgotten about Boss Level, really good, Tomorrow War too.

There’s a film with Ryan Reynolds where he’s talking to the heads of Anna Kendrick and someone else in his fridge, can’t remember the name though.

6 underground, ludicrous, marvellous.

As already mentioned above

Boss Level – (John Wick meets Groundhog Day)

The new Indiana jones film – dial of destiny

Surprisingly good fun

I think it got slated by people who compared it to the original manga stuff, but I enjoyed Ghost in the Shell

And in a loosely similar vein; Alita: battle angel.

I liked “Upgrade”