Another nod to Black Dynamite (though what I saw of the TV show was terrible), Boondock Saints and Defendor.
The thread on it had mixed feelings but I’ll add Snowpiercer.
I suppose, technically, that one Seth Rogan North Korea comedy I already forgot the name of applies.
The ones on that list I’ve seen are Frozen (Emma Bell!), Splinter, Trick 'r Treat and The Children. All horror movies, and all pretty good.
My own list turns out to be a rough approximation of my actual favorite movies list regardless if they opened in theaters or went direct to video:
Coherence (Only played in 2 theaters.)
Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.
Time Lapse
Three friends discover a mysterious machine that takes pictures 24hrs into the future and conspire to use it for personal gain, until disturbing and dangerous images begin to develop.
Triangle
The story revolves around the passengers of a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on the open seas.
Extraterrestrial
A group of friends on a weekend trip to a cabin in the woods find themselves terrorized by alien visitors.
Honeymoon (Only played in 3 theaters.)
A newlywed couple finds their lake-country honeymoon descend into chaos after Paul finds Bea wandering and disoriented in the middle of their first night.
V/H/S and V/H/S 2 (Only played in 19 and 12 theaters respectively.)
VHS1: When a group of misfits is hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.
VHS2: Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into his house and find collection of VHS tapes. Viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they realize there may be dark motives behind the student’s disappearance.
It may be worth mentioning that I thought VHS3 was unwatchable garbage.
Boxofficemojo lists Snowpiercer as earning $4.5 million after playing in 356 theaters.
Assuming you mean the Matt Dillon / Steve Zahn picture, yeah, I liked that quite a bit. (As opposed to the Dane Cook / Jessica Simpson abomination.) Not only did I really like the movie, but (perv warning) it had a wonderful stripper scene with Fiona Gubelman, who played the hot neighbor chick in Wilfred. Both a super funny scene, and boobies!
Umm… yes I liked the Dane Cook one. Cant say I’ve seen the other. Its funny because it takes place in a Costco and the characters do funny things. No boobies but it does have a midget.
Its interesting that 2 movies with the same title came out only 2 years apart.
I’ve seen Boondock Saints, and of the DC animated movies I’ve seen Batman: Under the Red Hood, Batman: Year One, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman/Superman: Apocalypse, Batman/Superman: Public Enemies, Superman: Doomsday and Superman vs The Elite.
Boondock Saints is good. Under the Red Hood and Year One are good. The Dark Knight Returns had some nice moments, but was also obnoxiously stupid seemingly for the purposes of pro-fascism propaganda. Apocalypse I enjoyed, but that might have more to do with Wonder Woman and Big Barda getting a fight scene than the quality. Public Enemies wasn’t bad. Doomsday is stupid. Superman vs. The Elite pushed a shitty aesop.
I’m confused. The Dane Cook movie had a decent budget, a major marketing campaign and a wide release, shown in 2579 theaters. It was even successful, generating $28 million on a $12 million budget. It’s pretty much the opposite of Direct to Video.
The Matt Dillion one was never released in theaters.
Cooties, is the best horror/comedy flick I’ve seen since the Evil Dead series came out.
Ok I was confused to. I thought the Dane Cook movie was DTV.
The Lion King 1 1/2 was hilarious.
To be accurate, the movies should really be movies made with the intention to only come out on DVD or video.
I don’t think that’s fair. Sometimes a movie gets made with the best of intentions, only to have the producers find that they have a dog on their hands…in those cases, they might go ahead and release it DTV, though sometimes after some brief obligatory theatrical showings. I think those should count.
I can’t get to the list here at work so I don’t know what’s listed there.
I saw this when it first came out on DVD years ago and really liked it.
I kind of liked this movie, got to have a bit too much going on for me to try and figure everything out. It was good, just not fully for me.
I just saw this a couple of weeks ago. I liked this movie, really interesting and well done.
This movie didn’t really do it for me. Might have been when I watched it, but I don’t really remember it.
I keep seeing these on my Netflix recommendations, I might have to give them a try.
I guess Tucker and Dale vs Evil wasn’t direct to DVD, but was only released on 30 screens in the US. I thought it was a hoot.
I enjoyed Stake Land, not the most original movie, but still fun.
Housebound is also a really good flick. Started off slow but got a lot better.
I’ve seen all of these on Netflix, and it seems I’ve been watching a lot of horror movies lately.
For a cutoff on what “direct to video” means, how about it showed on fewer than 50 screens as listed by Box Office Mojo?
Tucker & Dale vs Evil is a great pick, and at only 44 screens (according to boxofficemojo) that seems reasonable as qualifying for direct to video.
Another one that occurred to me is neither a horror movie nor about time travel. It’s cute and sweet, not great but kind of fun, and is currently in heavy rotation on cable:
Two Night Stand (Played in 5 theaters)
A snowstorm forces two people who made an online connection to unwillingly extend their one-night stand as the blizzard goes through the night.
Good pick. I loved that movie. (Showed in 5 theaters.)
Seconding:
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
Interstate 60
Black Dynamite
Adding - Trollhunter. More of a foreign film then DTV, so I am not sure it counts, but very interesting and hilarious in places.
I really liked Kenneth Branagh’s Love’s Labours Lost, which got next to no release in the US. It’s the Shakespeare play as a 30s musical, and it’s delightful, the soundtrack (using songs by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, and Irving Berlin) is wonderful.
I’m also a big fan of Screen Door Jesus. I saw it in a film festival, but it did terribly in theaters.
Ohhh I’ve been wanting to see that movie. The Ray Bradbury story it’s based on is one of my favorites of his.
Going off on a bit of a tangent, but I was going to nominate Man Up – rom/com with Lake Bell and Simon Pegg. I just saw it on a plane, enjoyed it quite a bit. I’d never heard of it, so I assumed it went DTV. I just checked IMDB, and it apparently hasn’t been released yet (Nov 13).
How is it possible that a movie can be seen on a plane before anywhere else?
Apparently it was released months ago in the UK.
I forgot about Coherence so I will second it. That was also worth seeking out. I even started a thread on it here at the time about it.
Tremors 3 – not quite as good as the sequel Tremors 2 (and, of course, to the original), but this one still manages to stay faithful to the concepts of the original, coming up with yet another variation on the creatures from Tremors. It’s clearly done on a low budget (and only Michael Gross returns in this one), but definitely worth watching. A heckuva lot better than the short-lived series (or the third sequel).