Well among the big budget movies, you aren’t missing too much. None are really worth seeing. At least not unless you have a sense of humor about them all, that’s when most of the funny stuff happens to come along, coming from the movie itself, or the people you’re watching it.
Matrix (all)
Harry Potter (all)
X-Men (all)
Spiderman (all)
Pirates of the Caribbean (all)
Kill Bill (all)
Pulp Fiction
Fight Club
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Saw (all)
just a few
Huh. Now, see, I’d advise people to skip the Matrix sequels like the plague. They were just dreadful. Proof that a good idea can be stretched way too thin.
Also X-Men 3. The first two were good but not “snob conversion” material, the third was pretty dreadful.
It’s not big budget, but had big stars and a wide release: Sin City. Incredibly stylish ultranoir.
All three Saw movies combined cost less than $30 million. Horror movies in general are dirt cheap and rake in the cash, being one of the the most profitable genres. The Blair Witch Project was the ultimate example, but all the torture flicks (like Saw, The Hills Have Eyes, etc…) have seven digit budgets and eight digit box offices.
Also, I’d be surprised if Pulp Fiction cost much at all. (They show it on IFC fer cryin’ out loud.)
Your list is interesting in that it seems the younger the demographic, the more money gets dumped into the budget. Lots of kid-friendly titles. (Comic books, animated features and swashbuckling make up over half the titles, and the other half aren’t even all big budgets.)
yeah i should have removed
fight club and pulp fiction
A lot of recommendations in this thread seem to be straying away from Hollywood blockbusters, so I’ll suggest City of God if you haven’t seen it. Not to be missed.
I have no idea if these fit your taste but “The Emperor’s New Groove” is an a really fun movie. Disney managed to tap into what made the 40s Looney Tunes so great. At 100 megadollars to make it qualifies. And don’t worry, it’s not a musical.
And why not “Galaxy Quest” which is also really fun.
But it’s quite likely our tastes just don’t match.
I don’t know what the typical budget of an episode of *Firefly *was but Serenity, its movie sequel, was about $35M.
Really low for a major studio sci-fi movie but I personally couldn’t tell.
And to actually answer the OP – looking at my four and five star rankings on Netflix and keeping it limited to major studio American movies made since 2006 with budgets over $50M (according to IMDb), I managed to come up with these:
Fight Club
After the Sunset *****
*Batman Begins *
*Big Fish *
*The Bourne Identity *
*Catch Me If You Can *
*Collateral *
The Devil’s Advocate *****
*The Green Mile *
*Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring *
*Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King *
*Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers *
*Ocean’s Eleven *
*Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl *
*V for Vendetta *
X2: X-Men United
Way too many of the previous listed, while good movies, aren’t the big budget Hollywood pictures you asked for in your original post
***** You can probably feel free to automatically discount these as I may be the only person to like either ever.
These aren`t within your time frame but ANGEL HEART ,will appeal to snobs but is an incredibly suspenseful film. An oldie 60s movie POINT BLANK,very chilling thriller .of course SAVING PRIVATE RYAN realistic and exciting war film and I enjoyed TRAFFIC about drug running but every one Iknew slated it !Oh and SCHINDLERS LIST though I suppose that would count as a snob film AND a big budget movie.
I defy you to find me one “movie snob” who will defent this movie.
A masterpiece: op-art noir. John Boorman’s only truly great movie.
Irresponsible propaganda; war porn.
Not bad; Out of Sight is way better. WAY.
The Holocaust denier’s favorite WWII movie.
“We owe a lot to veterans of the second world war” is irresponsible propaganda? I beg to differ. Personally, I’d turn the film off after they got off the beach, but that’s because it turns into an utterly typical war flick. Not “war porn”.
It didn’t do all that much for me (although I admire it on a technical level), but I personally know several people who were able to really connect with the horror of the Holocaust on a more personal level because of this film. I don’t know where you’re coming from with this comment.
For anyone who hasn’t seen the powerful and moving Omaha Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan - Here it is. It’s fair use, so no need to worry about the copyright.
Really?
The reviews i’ve read of this film, mainly by folks who consider themselves serious movie critics (rather than just quote whores) have been decidedly lukewarm.
I want to third the suggestion of Batman Begins. I was surprised by how good it was – it actually had depth to it.
I agree; way better than it needed to be.
Also, just watched A Prairie Home Companion. (Will be rentable on Tuesday.) Pretty dang good, and I’m not a fan of the radio show. Altman–when he’s good–is a very oldfashioned director. You can’t multitask watching an Altman movie, because there’s so much going on. With most modern movies, you can fold your laundry and do your homework while you’re watching, because the movie will grab your ass when it needs your attention. Movies nowadays are pretty much ALL “made for TV,” with the eventual rentability in mind ('fyask me). *APHC *rewards involvement, attention. Plus, it’s entirely about death, which is interesting.
Has anyone mentioned Unforgiven yet? A little out of your time frame but a good hollywood movie.
Not Hollywood, but how about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? And then there are the various Bond movies.
Great movie, although i think Christian Bale is great in just about anything.
I haven’t seen him in Reign of Fire yet, though, which apparently sucked.
Good silly fun.