Shadow of the Vampire springs to mind. Great concept, and superbly scripted and acted. Possibly it gets unfairly pigeon-holed as a “twist” movie, but that’s not the point at all.
I also have a soft spot for Excalibur. It’s certainly flawed, but has a sense of otherworldly-ness and internal logic that so few fantasy films manage to capture. Nicol Williamson made an excellent Merlin. It’s the only serious treatment of the Arthur legend I find watchable.
Edited to add, Without a Clue and Ed Wood are great fun. I’m reading the thread with interest, as I’m looking for candidates for my rental list.
In most discussions of Coen brothers films, The Hudsucker Proxy gets reactions like:
“never seen it”
“never heard of it”
“didn’t like it”
“worst of the bunch”
etc.
But it is by far my favorite! So many great scenes and quotable lines. Plus the whole invention of the hula hoop montage set to the music of Khachaturian is inspired.
Stardust, more or less an adult fairy tail, totaly convincing, totally enjoyable, and the suspension of disbelief is total.
Also Point Blank (NOT Gross Point Blank), a very beleivable, albeit incredibly violent movie, where there are no happy accidents and no luck involved.
An incredible movie in spite of the fact that normally I can’t stand Lee Marvin.
A S. Korean movie , R. Point, very spooky, very creepy.
When it starts off you think that its a war movie .
It isn’t.
For best effect, watch it late at night , on your own, with the lights out.
Good call. Have you seen Spider Forest? Not the best Korean movie by a long shot but an effective psychological horror/ghost story that many probably haven’t heard of.
This is one of my favorite movies. Sexy and stylish and playful, and the music is terrific throughout. In addition to Brosnan and Russo being in top form, Denis Leary is really great as the weary police detective.
A couple of Peter Weir movies I think are underrated:
The Mosquito Coast - Harrison Ford gives one of his best performances, in a role that diverges greatly from his typically heroic characters. River Phoenix and Helen Mirren are heartbreaking as his family who become prisoners to his egomania.
*Fearless *- Jeff Bridges is, as usual, outstanding and Rosie Perez (who usually grates) is actually really good, too. An engrossing portrait of a man experiencing PTSD.
Now admittedly I haven’t actually seen 28 Days Later (did see Weeks though, honestly can’t remember a thing about it), but isn’t it one of the most well received horror of the entire decade? In fact wasn’t Weeks also really well revived when it was released?
While everything you say here is correct, I was referring to the average movie-going public. When the average person who is NOT a movie buff thinks of Hitchcock they usually think of “Psycho” and “The Birds” or “Rear Window.” I’ve discovered that while many average movie viewers know those I just mentioned, “Strangers On A Train” usually gets confused with “Throw Mama From The Train.”
Yeah, you’ve got that backwards. Danny Boyle made an exciting, vivid, frightening, tonally perfect, richly thematic film that happened to have an interesting modern riff on zombies. The sequel was uninspired.
A bunch of terrific movies already mentioned; so many, in fact, that I’d be quoting nearly half the thread just to say I agreed.
Stuff I think is under-rated (or at least, stuff that hasn’t exactly become ragingly popular as of now) that hasn’t been mentioned yet:
Santa Sangre - I know; I know… lots of people hate it, but I think it’s fucking brilliant Red Planet - sue me… I think this is an excellent SF movie Grandma’s Boy - possibly the best stoner movie of the last 25 years… it wouldn’t even be a contest except for Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle The World’s Greatest Lover - Gene Wilder, Carol Kane, Dom DeLuise… it’s freaking hilarious Spun - best movie about tweekers EVER Big Trouble In Little China - It’s all in the reflexes Strange Brew - Even fleshy-headed mutants should enjoy this flick Head - Brilliant. Astounding. Truly exceptionally genius movie-making. Death Sentence - Kevin Bacon really took a chance making this movie, and it paid off in spades Immortal - Too confusing for some, too weird for most, this movie is Enki Bilal’s art and fiction brought to life; it’s perfect in what it tries to be Michael Clayton - An amazing film that bores the shit outta some people Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Much better than it had any right to be, and downright ingenious in many ways
I could list lots more… I think a lot of terrific movies get overlooked by the general public for lots of reasons (marketing, a blockbuster that crowds other things out, etc.), but I like to see what other people post and I don’t want to hog the thread.
Looking at the credits part, I noticed a name. David Greenwalt. “THE David Greenwalt? From the Buffyverse, etc?” thought I. Indeed, twas the same. Why am I typing like that? Odd. Anyhoo, yes. Now I realize why I like it so much.
This is how much I love this movie. Pre online fanwanking, when I went off to college*, I met another girl that loved this movie as much as I did. We once had a spontaneous contest were we side by side recited it from memory for as long as we could. We got to over 30 minutes in before we cracked up and it ended.
And my number two–I mean the second: HawksHawks (1988) - IMDb
Confession–I have a thing for Timothy Dalton, and that’s why I watched this movie originally.
Not a perfect movie and a bit cheesy, but I’ve never shown it to anyone that hasn’t laughed their bahonkus off. I think that Anthony Edwards is an odd pick physically for the role he plays, but his acting is good. And Janet McTeer has won a Tony.
They’re 20 yr old movies but they’re very fun and except for that other chick, I’ve never met anyone that has heard of either of them. Everytime I’ve shown them to people, they laughed pretty hard. (I have Hawks only on some old tape I did off the tv back in the day. About three years ago I found a copy of American Dreamer still in it’s plastic wrap in a goodwill shop in Austin. IT WAS SQUEE TIME! Yes, I still have a DVD/VCR.)**