10 Recent Movies NOBODY Expected To Be Good

The low expectations for Guy Ritchie's The Covenant weren't so much a result of questioning Ritchie's talent, but him seemingly being totally unsuited for a serious-minded war film.

Given that the director's career is largely defined by blokey crime comedies, there was a perception that he'd struggle to rein his cheeky instincts in and land the sort of tone needed for this movie to work.

But what a pleasant surprise it was that The Covenant is ultimately so unlike anything Ritchie has produced before, enough that one can scarcely believe he actually made it.

Without even a hint of snark, The Covenant is an earnest, dead-serious war film with a genuinely jolting emotional core, girded by sharp visuals and two excellent performances from Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim.

Few believed Ritchie capable of such comparatively restrained, sober filmmaking, which combined with MGM's weak marketing campaign for the movie, suggested they most likely had a dud on their hands.

Though The Covenant flopped at the box office - in large part due to that pathetic aforementioned marketing - one suspects it's going to have a long tail on streaming.