10 Recent Movies NOBODY Expected To Be This Good
3. Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar
The marketing for Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar did it absolutely no favours whatsoever - the first trailer made an ill-advised gag out of concealing the faces of stars Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, leaving general audiences with no idea of what to think.
At the start of the year, Lionsgate cancelled the film's theatrical release, which for a Kristen Wiig-led comedy seemed like an admission that the film simply wasn't worthy of a theatrical release, despite being delayed out of 2020 due to the pandemic.
Mixed reviews seemed like the brightest prospect for the oddball comedy, then, only for it to land a healthy 80% Tomatometer score and earn favourable, justified comparisons to the Austin Powers franchise.
If the trailers failed to convince that Barb and Star was anything other than a broad, forgettable comedy caper, the end result was so, so much weirder and all the better for it.
In addition to the electric chemistry between Wiig and Mumolo, it gave us a tree-climbing Jamie Dornan performance for the ages.
In a year defined by so much global heartache, this unapologetically silly blast of a movie was just what the world needed.