# Underrated movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 12, 2000, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145 "2000-02-12T21:35:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/41 "2000-02-17T00:06:00Z")
Damn you Az for beating me to this one: _ **Strange Brew** _ with the MacKenzie Brothers. _ **What Dreams May Come** _, a great visual and emotional bouquet. _ **Gattaca** _, great sci-fi that relies on storytelling instead of sFX. _ **Heat** _, top notch cops and robbers with the all time greatest gunfight scene, purely awesome in THX surround. _ **Sliding Doors** _, unique style and a twist ending, everyone who’s seen it loves it, but it has gotten very little press. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/42 "2000-02-17T00:38:00Z")
Definitely **Jacob’s Ladder** with Tim Robbins and Elizabeth Pena. A very well crafted and thoughtful movie. Also, however, very unsettling, which I think accounts for its low status. I looked in video stores for a year and couldn’t ever find it. When I finally asked about it (hey, I’m a guy!) it was in the HORROR section! No, no, no, no, no! Not a horror movie! A movie about horrifying things, perhaps, but not a horror movie. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be schizophrenic, here’s your answer. * * * well well said the royal desiccation my political opponents back home always maintained that i would wind up in hell and it seems they had the right dope Don Marquis _archy interviews a pharaoh_ ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/43 "2000-02-17T01:08:00Z")
Ditto on Jacob’s Ladder. Pluto, I remember several years ago (1992?)HBO showed the directors cut of this. Ever see it? Very unsettling. ---
**Author:** ![Babar714](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Babar714](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babar714)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/44 "2000-02-17T04:11:00Z")
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and two more Tim Robbins flicks: Erik the Viking and The Hudsucker Proxy. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/45 "2000-02-17T06:32:00Z")
## Manhunter Repo Man Pi The Big Blue Swimming to Cambodia Try our fried pies. ---
**Author:** ![froololly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/87869e/32.png) [@froololly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/froololly)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/46 "2000-02-17T07:37:00Z")
forgive my lack of capitisation… one of my more irritating quirks… no one else ever likes “my” movies: tank girl leonard part 6 gattaca (adored it) hudson hawk (worship it) the favor, the watch, and the very big fish raising arizona (son, you got a panty on yer head) willy wonka and the chocolate factory there are really too many to list… * * * “…for i am always a lady, archy… always a lady. i did not do anything vulgar. i simply removed his right eye with my left claw.” mehetibel the cat on the subject of marraige ---
**Author:** ![froololly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/87869e/32.png) [@froololly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/froololly)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/47 "2000-02-17T07:41:00Z")
posted before i finished reading… nothing on earth like a good “jacob’s ladder” fix… (when the kids are asleep, anyway!!) * * * “…for i am always a lady, archy… always a lady. i did not do anything vulgar. i simply removed his right eye with my left claw.” mehetibel the cat on the subject of marraige ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/48 "2000-02-17T07:47:00Z")
**Swimming to Cambodia** and **Monster in A Box**. Spalding Gray is a great storyteller. ---
**Author:** ![craven\_moorehead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@craven\_moorehead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/craven_moorehead)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/49 "2000-02-17T07:53:00Z")
Better off Dead Eating Raoul both very funny * * * ‘only the good die young…the bad like it that way’ ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/50 "2000-02-17T22:21:00Z")
Lots of good ones mentioned already, Lone Star, Gattaca, Baghdad Cafe. “Pecker”. That movie cracked me up and it was very touching too. As embarassed as I am to admit it, I also love low-brow yukfests. “The Waterboy”. I know there’s only one joke in the whole thing but it’s so damn funny I laugh at it everytime they do it. “Duece Bigalow Male Gigolo”. The title is so funny. I mean, they chose his last name just so it would rhyme with gigolo. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/51 "2000-02-17T22:24:00Z")
One more: **The Thing** – As re-made by John Carpenter (Kurt Russell starring). This has to be one of the creepiest science fiction movies ever made. I love the original black-and-white version too, but I have to say that the re-make is a much scarier film. It also stays much closer to the original short story upon which both films were based. (“Who Goes There?” – can’t remember the author. By the way, this is one of the three or four best science fiction short stories ever written, too, IMHO.) * * * –Love ya. Mean it. ---
**Author:** ![PTVroman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bb73d2/32.png) [@PTVroman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PTVroman)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/52 "2000-02-17T22:58:00Z")
Ed and His Dead Mother - Steve Buscimi (sp?) and Ned Beaty. 'Nuf said. The Shawshank Redemption. Digstown * * * _“The large print givith, and the small print taketh away.”_ Tom Waites, “Step Right Up” ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2000, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/53 "2000-02-18T01:12:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by spoke-: > (“Who Goes There?” – can’t remember the author. By the way, this is one of the three or four best science fiction short stories ever written, too, IMHO.) ## John Campbell. Official winner of [Bricker Challenge #5](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/004959.html). ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2000, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/54 "2000-02-18T01:57:00Z")
Count one more vote for **Hudson Hawk** Most of Ken Branagh’s movies, especially **Peter’s Friends** and **Much Ado About Nothing** Oh, and \*“I’m getting that **Barton Fink** feeling again!” * * * …but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans! ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2000, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/55 "2000-02-18T02:42:00Z")
Starship Troopers? There is something so unsettlingly weird about this movie. I must have seen it a dozen times. Hate to keep bringing up “Entertainmen Weakly”, but in their video review of S.T. it was the first film to which they were unable to give a grade! ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2000, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/56 "2000-02-19T15:36:00Z")
Good one, I loved _ **Starship Troopers** _, much to the confusion of most who I tell this to. It is just such a good movie. The sFX are top notch, the right dash of uncommonly attractive people getting naked on occasion, and a incredible story that didn’t take itself too seriously. the best part however was the biting satire which seemed to be the entire point of the film. Mocking everything from the genres of film and the typical Sci-Fi flick, and within the movie the tore into the military’s embellished recruitment ads, to the abusive drill sergant with no grasp of civil rights, and the vulturous media coverage. The entire package is right up my alley. ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2000, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/57 "2000-02-19T17:37:00Z")
I loved ST, that scene where they dumped out the cockroaches so the schoolkids could stomp on them to “do their part” was hilarious. About what I think of 99% of nationalism ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2000, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/58 "2000-02-27T23:01:00Z")
OldBroad, Do you mean _The Draughtsman’s Contract_? GuanoLad, I still want to know if you were serious about _The Phantom Menace_? ---
**Author:** ![brdrcolle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ebca7d/32.png) [@brdrcolle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brdrcolle)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2000, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/59 "2000-02-28T00:10:00Z")
_A Simple Plan_ _Swimming with Sharks_ (I think that is the title - dark comedy with Kevin Spacey as a Hollywood shaker - need I say more?) ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2000, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145/60 "2000-02-28T06:03:00Z")
**Creator** with Peter O’Toole, Yes it’s manipulative, but I like it. **The Last American Virgin** I love this movie. typical teen T&A fest, but funny parts and the courage to take the movie in a different direction. **Blow Out** John Travolta and Nancy Allen in a mystery with a shocking ending. \*\*Flashpoint[/] Kris Kristofferson stars in one of my all time favorites. If you rent it- **DON’T LOOK AT THE VIDEO BOX!!!** It gives away the entire move on the front of the box. ARRRG! ## **Used Cars** The whole movie is ROFLMAO funny. Cecil said it. I believe it. That settles it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-movies/14145.md?page=4)