15 Upcoming Movies That Might Be Surprisingly Awesome

Everyone and their uncle is convinced they know which movies are going to succeed and flop, but isn't it such a pleasant surprise when a movie you expected to be a dud actually ends up being awesome? Sure, it's not all that common given how predictable Hollywood's production line is, but sometimes strong acting and superlative filmmaking skill can overcome a terrible series of trailers and torrent of negative publicity pre-release. It's fair to say that nobody would be surprised if any of these 15 movies were widely panned, but each also has enough of a glimpse of greatness that it's not outside the realm of possibility that they end up being unexpectedly enjoyable, even awesome. When the deck is stacked, talented filmmakers step up and surpass what anyone could have anticipated: hopefully that should happen to at least a few of these easy-to-mock movies. From a video game adaptation trying to make everyone take the medium seriously, to classic children's products getting wildly unnecessary movies, and sequels and remakes nobody really asked for, each of these 15 movies might stink, but they also might be surprise hits...

15. Goosebumps

Release Date: October 16 (US), February 5 (UK) Why It Could Suck: Where to begin? It's from the director of Gulliver's Travels, and is written by the guy behind the worst Shrek film, Jack the Giant Killer and Turbo. Also, the trailer suggests some pretty poor visual effects and a relatively moldy attempt to revive the classic series of children's books with more of an emphasis on goofy comedy over horror. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cn716jv61s Why It Might Be Surprisingly Awesome: The film's biggest win is surely that it's based on a large number of Goosebumps tales rather than staking everything on just one. This allows the filmmakers to cherry-pick the creepiest and most entertaining aspects of R.L. Stine's huge mythos, and frankly a throw-everything-at-the-screen approach just might work for something this inherently silly and ridiculous. The best thing the film can do is have those who grew up with the original books pining for those days once again, and if the nostalgic quality wins out, this could be one of the year's big surprises.