And Andy Richter.
Yes, 1986.
I DVDed it off of cable last week, but it appears to have been panned and scanned by monkeys, so I’d almost rather not have seen it at all.
On that note, was the recent American Singing Detective any good? I’m a sucker for musicals, and after seeing Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, I’m in the mood for another good noir movie with Robert Downey Jr…
I’ve recommended a number of little-known films many times on this Board. Here they are again:
The Adventures of Mark Twain – Will Vinton Claymation film about the life and works of Mark Twain, in which they animate all or part of The Celebrated Jumping Frog, Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven, The Mysterious Stranger, and The Diary of Adam and Eve. Hilarious at times, but it can make you cry at others, a doesn’t overlook Twain’s dark side. James Whitmore is the voice f Twain. Highly recommended.
Mirage – thriller starring Gegory Peck as a man who’s lost his memory and also seems to lose floors in a building, and begins to nbeliev he’s paranoid. Walter Matthau plays the PI who helps him sort things out. Done by much the same rew that did the wonderful Charade, but this time it’ played for suspense. Great script by Peter Stone.
Panic in Year Zero. --Somebody – Russkis, presumanly, nukes L.A., and Ray Milland is the father trying to get is family out and ke them live through the ensuing panic. Surprisingly good film on a zero budget.
**Robinson Crusoe on Mars[/] – forget the stupid title. It’s surprisingly well done SF, although the ay the astronaut crash-landed on Mars extracts oxygen from rocks is pretty hrd to believe. Of course, without that trick, the film would be over as soon as his tanks emptied. Much more mature than ou’s expect, and they even manage to work in a Man Friday. (This film also marks the only time I’m aware of in a film where a “Self-Destruct Mechanism” is actually used intelligently, and not for cheap suspense.)
The Last of Sheila – Sleuth’s half-brother resembles that other film/play based on Stephemn Sondheim’s obsession with games, bt this one was actually written by Sondheim (witrh help from Anthony Perkins!). Jams Coburn plays he Andrew-Wyke-like ricj sadistic gamesplayer thi time, and his friends/victims are Richard Benjamin, Racquel Welch, James Mason, Dyan Cannon, and a few others. Superb mystery that gives you al the clues. An unknown-at-the-time Bette Midler sings the closing theme.
Creation of the Humanoids – I haven’t seen this in a long time, so I might be wrong and it might ctuallybe turkey, but I recall it being better than expected. I haven’ seen it or heard of it in a lonnnnnnngggg time. I as surprised to find that it was nominally based on Jac Williamson’s classc SF novel “The Humanoids”, which it doesn’t really resemble very closely.
Day of the TRiffids – not the Howard Keel circa 1964 movie, but the BBC prodution from 1981. Amazingly faithful to the John Wyndham book. The Triffids look Great! No dissolving in sea water this time.
Quatermass 2 and ** Quatermass and the Pit** (Enemy from Space and Five Million Years to Earth in their American incarnations). Surprisingly good British SF that['s still not sufficiently well known. The other Quatermass films (and their original TV precursors) are well worth seeing, but these two are my faves.
Fourthed. Or fifthed. Or whatever.
I’d also like to add You Can Count On Me, with Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo.
I’ll agree on Thief and Big Trouble, both really good movies. Never heard of Thief until I caught it on cable late one night.
I’ll put in Diggstown, with James Woods, Louis Gossett Jr, Oliver Platt, Bruce Dern, and a fresh faced Heather Graham. Not the best movie, but it’s a good enough con movie. I’ve always enjoyed it.
Sorcerer, the William Friedkin/Roy Scheider movie about men driving trucks loaded with dynamite, never did as well as it should have.
Speaking of Friedkin, To Live and Die in L.A. seems to have been totally forgotten. I haven’t seen it anywhere for years.
Manhunter was far superior to the crummy Red Dragon, no matter what the producers of that film said.
Hmm. Maybe stading on its own it might have had a better reputation. But as not-NEARLY-as-good remake of a masterpiece, it has pretty much always been dismissed.
I thought it sucked hard, but it’s hard not to compare it with the single best TV miniseries ever.
I’ll throw in a vote for Ugetsu. It’s more haunting than scary, but some of it will linger with you for a long time.
Another vote for Cobb. I’m not even a baseball fan, but just as a character piece and performance it’s great (and howlingly funny at times- that manic car ride down the mountain was hysterical).
Crossroads is so forgotten that the title’s been recycled several times, but it’s one of my favorite “little” films of the 1980s. I particularly love the evolution of the demonic character in it (his clothes, ride, etc.).
I’ve mentioned Creator on other threads as a 20 year old movie that would probably have done much better today than it did when it premiered, for now it’s very relevant. It’s the tale of a doctor obsessed with cloning his long dead wife (he saved some of her cells) and raising her as his child, but it’s not as cheesy as it sounds and it’s one of O’Toole’s better performances. (It’s pretty much name-only resemblance to the book it’s based on, incidentally.)
Masterpiece. #8 in my current life list.
Seconded. I shoulda remembered this one. It’s geat science fiction with real wit and no special effects.
It’s not fair to say that it has no resemblance to the book. It actually has quite a bit of resemblance, although it has certainly been changed. Author Jeremy Leven wrote the screenplay, so he certainly approved of the changes. And I can understand the need for a more "upbeat"endin to the film.
“How tall is King Kong?..” another vote for
The Stuntman, the idea that art (and life) are just an illusion.
Serial If you were an adult in the 70’s, you will laff your ass off at this satirical take on all of the fads of that decade.
The Warriors Walter Hill’s surrealistic modern update of the Forlorn Hope using gangs in New York. Well worth the rental to check out.
Repo Man Another surrealistic film about… wait for it… repo men.
I thought that was an HBO production, making it a “made for tv movie.”
Cobb isn’t an HBO movie, it was indeed a theatrical release. Nor was it a biography, it’s a fictional story that uses some biographical components to further the development. Still a great movie.
Here’s a vote for another somewhat overlooked movie, Red Dawn. I suppose it’s not a “forgotten movie” since it’s a full-on cult classic, but still a very enjoyable movie about refugees in a Soviet invaded Pacific Northwest. It won’t win any Oscars, but it’s certainly enjoyable to watch even 21 years later.
Did you really think you’d slip this list by without a comment on the inclusion of Showgirls? I mean, maybe it’s not as bad as people made it out to be, and it has some truly fun nudity, but you can’t seriously advocate that it needs a wider audience for petes sake.
I’ll second everything on lissener’s list. I haven’t seen everything on that list, but the ones I have seen I’ve loved, and anyone who puts The Passion of Joan of Arc at the top of his list can’t be too bad in my book. The experience of watching that movie for the first time is simply amazing.
One that not many people have seen (but should) is Billy Wilder’s A Foreign Affair. It hits a few frustratingly wrong notes, but what it does well, it does very well. I think of it as a kind of post-war Casablanca – not in plot, but in tone, atmostphere, and setting. I’m waiting for that one to come out on DVD.
I saw Frequency a while back, and was surprised that it’s not better known. It’s not a classic, but it is an enjoyable movie that deserves a wider audience.
Shadow of a Doubt may be familiar to some people here, but it’s an amazingly obscure picture, even to self-professed Hitchcock fans. Reportedly, it was his favorite of his own work.
Virtually all foreign language and “classic” films are forgotten by the general public, so you can take your pick from either of those categories. Among movie buffs Fellini is hardly “long forgotten,” but in case anyone hasn’t gotten around to seeing his movies, or just missed it the first time around, The Nights of Cabiria is a great place to start.
Freeway, with Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland. It will change Legally Blonde*'s place in your mental universe forever.
No, Cobb was a biography; much of it was based on Al Stump’s writings about his time as Cobb’s biographer (for instance, the trip to Reno was an article in Sports Illustrated in the 60s). Ron Shelton said the only thing he changed was the bit about the Cobb discovering Stump’s notes: Cobb never did, but the laws of drama required that he did in the movie. (I saw Shelton speak about it after watching it and he was quite adamant that, other than that, the film was completely factual.)
Of those mentioned, I’ll add my vote for The Stunt Man, Hearts of the West (which has my favorite movie quote of all time*), Second-Hand Lions, The Adventures of Mark Twain, Shadow of a Doubt (though I don’t think it really qualifies as being forgotten), **Sullivan’s Travels,**and Repo Man (“Plate of shrimp.”)
I’ll add a few more:
Deathwatch – Excellent SF film with Harvey Keitel as a reporter recording a woman’s death in a world where people don’t die.
The Well – Very good race relations film, far in advance of its time (1951). The Black and White communities of a small town nearly come to blows after a girl vanishes, but ultimately are able to work together to save her.
A Night in Casablanca – The Marx Brothers’ most obscure film. It’s their best later film, and the “packing/unpacking” scene is one of their funniest.
Picking Up the Pieces – a wildly funny film about belief and miracles. Woody Allen plays a Texas butcher (named “Tex”), who murders his wife (Sharon Stone) and chops her up. But there’s one piece missing, and it has the power to grant wishes. A great cast also includes David Schwimmer, Keifer Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Fran Drescher, Andy Dick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kathy Kinney, Cheech Marin, and Lou Diamond Phillips.
Soapdish – Entertaining fluff about a soap opera cast whose lives are as convoluted as any soap opera plot. Very funny.
Hearts and Souls – Robert Downey, Jr., as a man bothered by the ghosts of four people, who need to deal with unfinished business on Earth before they leave him alone. Charming and old fashioned, with good roles for Charles Grodin, Alfre Woodward, Kyra Sedgwick, and Tom Sizemore as the ghosts.
Only the Lonely – John Candy’s best role, as a Chicago cop romancing Ally Sheedy, and having to deal with his impossible-to-deal-with mother, Maureen O’Hara.
Adventures in Babysitting – nice little comedy with Elizabeth Shue as a babysitter whose ends up having to rescue a friend whose stranded in the worst neighborhood in Chicago. Great appearance by Albert King (“Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues.”)
*“Anyone can say he’s a writer, but when someone else says you’re a writer then you’re a writer.”