A recent movie for me I had hopes for, was Shawn of the Dead. After all I always wondered why zombies who walk so slow and can be killed by blunt trauma to the head would be so scary to people. Zombie comedies are not my usual cup of tea, but it was a decent turn considering recent zombie movies.
For one of my all time favorite movies I walked into knowing nothing about Dark City. It was pushing the animation and ideas of the time.