# Underrated, Unsuccessful or otherwise Unknown films you love. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 6, 2004, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935 "2004-06-06T10:15:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2004, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/21 "2004-06-06T23:11:46Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I can say with a straight face that, IMO, [The Stoned Age](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111293/) is the greatest film ever made. It’s my Citizen Kane, my Godfather, my Shawshank Redemption if you will. Sounds like **Cisco** has had a little too much of the schnappster (ping!). **Vision Quest** was a mild hit, but it never gained “80’s Classic” status like some other lousy films from that decade. Loudin Swain was my Holden Caulfield. And while not obscure in any way, **Almost Famous** and **Out of Sight** are two of my favorite movies, but they hardly made a dent at the box office. Few people I know has even seen them. ---
**Author:** ![BonoVox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@BonoVox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BonoVox)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2004, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/22 "2004-06-06T23:23:42Z")
Kikujiro East/West ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/23 "2004-06-06T23:44:09Z")
I love, of the films already mentioned: [ul][li]Showgirls[/li][li]Gates of Heaven[/li][li]Brother from Another Planet[/li][li]About a Boy[/li][li]Ghost Dog[/li][li]Dead Man[/li][li]Resurrection[/li][li]Stevie[/li][li]Comfort and Joy[/li][li]Days of Heaven[/li][li]The Inlaws[/li][li]Apartment Zero (especially the towel scenes)[/li][/ul] And I’ll add: [ul][li]Made in Heaven (B-grade script rescued by A-list director, with Debra Winger as god and Ellen Barkin as Satan in a red dress, and some of the greatest cameos since It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.)[/li][li]The Hidden (Everyone gets to play the monster; the alien, who has a thing for Ferraris and heavy metal music, possesses nearly everyone in turn. This is the movie where Kyle McLachlan’s FBI-agent-from-another-planet originated.)[/li][li]The Borrower (Another grotesquely violent scifi comedy, like The Hidden, wherein everyone gets to play the monster. In this one, it’s because the alien must keep donning new heads, as previous borrowings malfuntion.)[/li][li]Miami Blues[/li][li]Q[/ul][/li]Waylotta more; will post again. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/24 "2004-06-07T00:23:58Z")
_Wild Wild West_ - I don’t care what anyone says, it’s funny, clever, and most importantly it looks _great_! Oh, and if you pause the DVD at the right spot in the opening sequence, you can see Will Smith’s testicles (despite what the guy on the commentary says). ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/25 "2004-06-07T00:30:30Z")
Another lost gem, from 1977: [Madame Rosa](http://imdb.com/title/tt0076348/), or _Vie devant soi, La_, its original French title. > [@](#): > > Simone Signoret gives perhaps the finest performance of a distinguished career, unafraid to let the ravages of time and hard living show. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/26 "2004-06-07T00:33:08Z")
_A Boy and his Dog_ - Don Johnson at his finest. Another nod to _Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai_. Simply brilliant. _The Kentucky Fried Movie_. All (good) modern comedy movies must bow to this one. _Burnt by the Sun_. Russian flick, so I don’t know if it qualifies, but a great movie nonetheless. It’s really ‘slavic’, tells a good story, and has great characters. [The Bridge](http://www.ihffilm.com/512-es.html) is among my favorite movies of all time, but again, a foreign film, which would explain its underappreciation over here. [Come and see.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/) Another foreign flick. Not for the squeemish. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/27 "2004-06-07T00:34:31Z")
Damn, I almost forgot! [Videodrome.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086541/) James Woods at his finest. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/28 "2004-06-07T03:24:26Z")
**The Lost Misile** – 1950s SF film that virtually never shows up on anyone’s list of 1950s SF filmd, good or bad. Yet it was, AFAIRecall, a pretty decent low-budget effort. Written by SF short story writer Jerome Bixby, who had already given us “It’s a _Good_ Life”, although it hadn’t yet been mde into a Twilight Zone episode. A little later Bixby gave us: **It! The Terror from Beyond Space** – another low-budget SF film, but this one has gotten more recognition, if only because Alien ripped it off so blatantly. For my money, ITTFBS has better plotting. **The Adventures of Mark Twain** – people had raptures over Aardman Animation’s Chicken Run, but ignored this wonderful Will Vinton Claymation effort. Truly wonderful stuff, adapting or referencing the Twain stories “The CElebrated Jumping Frog”, “Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven”, “The Mysterious Stranger”, and, most notably, “The Diaries of Adam and Eve”, the end of which brings a tear to my eye. Vinton’s pallette has lots brighter colors than Aardman’s, too. **Panic in the Year Zero** another virtually forgotten SF classic. Ray Milland is a father trying to save his family after someone (The USSR, although they’re not named) nukes LA. Again, a low budget, but very well done. **Creation of the Humanoids** – supposedly based on Jack Williamson’s novel “The Humanoids” (which is the little-recognized sequel to his classic short “With Folded Hands”), this movie isn’t up to the standard of the novel, but is still better than you’d expect, and better than the general run of circa 1960 SF. ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/29 "2004-06-07T03:41:22Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I can say with a straight face that, IMO, [The Stoned Age](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111293/) is the greatest film ever made. It’s my Citizen Kane, my Godfather, my Shawshank Redemption if you will. Those are all great films but none of them compare to Hubbs and Joe, ridin’ around Torrence, trying to get drunk stoned and laid. Ha Ha! I was watching it this afternoon. Joe and Hubbs, they’re just these dudes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go get an OX-45. Dude, a tall! ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/30 "2004-06-07T04:32:40Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > Damn, I almost forgot! > > [Videodrome.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086541/) James Woods at his finest. OMG God! Thank you! I was beginnng to think that I only hallucinated that film (I was ~13 and on pain meds after getting stung by a catfish). It’s nice to know that someone else saw this movie. I should hunt down a copy and see it as a sober adult. ---
**Author:** ![Revedge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@Revedge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revedge)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/31 "2004-06-07T04:42:48Z")
For those of you that were adult age in the 70’s: _Serial_. Martin Mull and others send up all of the screwball ideas and fads that became all that during the time. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/32 "2004-06-07T10:22:16Z")
[Exorcist II: The Heretic](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076009/combined) : Producer/Director John Boorman turned down the first _Exorcist_, and despite the warnings of Stanley Kubrick, decided to make a non-gory, imaginative, intelligent sequel. It’s far from perfect, and some of the ideas are not-so-well-executed, but I still think it’s pretty damn good. [Barnacle Bill](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050168/combined) : Also known as Out to Sea. I caught this little Ealing Studios comedy on Turner Classic Movies last year–it’s not available on video. Alec Guiness plays the last in a long line of Royal Navy officers who retires from a career testing seasickness remedies and buys a broken-down amusement pier. Warm and funny. [Call It a Day](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028679/combined) : Another discovery on TCM. Based on a play by _101 Dalmations_ creator Dodie Smith, the various members of a London family have varied encounters with love on the first day of spring (a premise similar to _Moonstruck_). Olivia de Havilland and Bonita Granville play two of the sisters. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/33 "2004-06-07T12:08:33Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#): > > [Housekeeping](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093225/): Bill Forsyth’s 1987 picture… My favourite Bill Forsyth movie is [Local Hero](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085859/maindetails). ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/34 "2004-06-07T12:56:22Z")
Orgazmo, written, directed and starring Trey Parker from South Park. Once you start with a main character whos a mormon, martial arts expert, porno star, super hero, you just can’t go wrong. ---
**Author:** ![TommyTutone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/35 "2004-06-07T13:17:59Z")
Loved **Orgazmo** as I do most things Matt & Trey. They had a couple of internet cartoons that were supposed to launch a website, I think the cartoons were called Precious. The duo had a stipulation that there be no limits to what they could do with their flash animation and the web company (foolishly) said ‘go for it’. The stuff that came out of that was hilarious, but oh so wrong. If you haven’t seen them, you should. My vote though is for **Six String Samurai** , kind of a Hope/Crosby film meets a nuclear war. Bascially a Buddy Holly lookalike must travel through a post-apocalyptic US to compete in a battle of the bands. Armed with only his guitar case (that carries his guitar and his sword), he faces Russians, mad bowlers, cannibals, and Death himself (who has his own band). Great music, unusual plot, and great cinematics. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/36 "2004-06-07T13:58:13Z")
I really hope Ball of Fire makes it to DVD at some point. I was fortunate enough to find it for the purposes of my movie-watching list … (on VHS, I believe) … but it was a chore. Six String Samurai is classic… Orgazmo likewise - another I hope will be coming to DVD. (It may have been on DVD before, but I can’t find it.) I need MST3K : The Movie on DVD as well. Just sayin’. Hudson Hawk is probably my pick though - almost everyone reviles this movie. I think it’s hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/37 "2004-06-07T14:06:11Z")
**Breaking In** A John Sayles movie about an old crow thief (Burt Reynolds) and a young thief he takes under his wing. Actually, an IMDB search to check my facts indicates Sayles wrote it but Bill Forsyth ( **Being Human** and **Comfort and Joy** which some of you listed) directed it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/38 "2004-06-07T14:32:02Z")
Thanks, **Trunk** ; I’d forgotten about _Breaking In_. A definite item on my list. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/39 "2004-06-07T15:21:13Z")
Every time a thread like this comes along, I start off recommending my favorite movie: _Bottle Rocket_ Others: 2 young DiCaprio flicks: _This Boy’s Life_ _The Basketball Diaries_ Also: _Go_ _Immortal Beloved_ _In the Company of Men_ _Kalifornia_ _Night on Earth_ _The Sweet Hereafter_ And the best acting I’ve ever seen (by Nick Cage): _Vampire’s Kiss_ ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935/40 "2004-06-07T15:28:27Z")
Let me add **And God Spoke** , a hilarious flick about two clueless guys who decide to film the Bible despite knowing nothing about it or good filmmaking. Great cameos by Eve Plumb as Noah’s Wife and Soupy Sales as Moses. Another early Tom Hanks movie is **Everytime We Say Goodbye** , a very good romance. Oh, and **The Last Dragon** , the best karate musical ever produced by Motown staring a former Prince lackey-chick. Just look at my sig. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underrated-unsuccessful-or-otherwise-unknown-films-you-love/248935.md?page=3)