Is there a gem of a movie you adore, and/or the critics loved it, but it did nothing at the box office? Is there such a movie that you would recommend, without reservation, to others who probably haven’t seen it (let alone heard of it)?
My vote goes to ED WOOD (1994). Critical raves, made received awards…and still made only 5 mil while in theatres. I tell others to rent it and when they do, they love it.
How about it?
I don’t know what the critics thought of either one, but my votes go to Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead and Shakes the Clown.
Both on my top ten movie list and nobody’s seen them. We’re not talking about obscure art films here either.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was canned majorly when it was released and I know for a fact that it’s one of the most popular teen films around. Many, many adults love it too, I’m 24 and I still love it.
Gatsby, you rock! Shakes the Clown is such an great comedy (love the mime-beating scene). You’re right, though; nobody’s seen it.
There’s a few I can think of: Six-String Samurai, Boondock Saints, The Tao of Steve, Being John Malkovich (did pretty well but should have done much better), and Man of the Century (nobody seemed to see this gem).
silent_rob, of your list I have seen only Boondock Saints, which kicked ass, but based on two common out of seven total, I think I got some renting to do.
“Fuckin’ Mimes! Get 'em! You silent motherfuckers!”
With that cast and script, how did Shakes ever fail?
A THOUSAND CLOWNS-1965. I remember saying, at the time, that is was “a PERFECT movie”.
ALFIE—why is it never on TV?
NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Claude LeLough’s Les Miserables (it’s NOT a Victor Hugo story) was simply wonderful but disappeared into obscurity, no doubt because it was french and subtitled. I stood and applauded at the end of it.
And of course Hudson Hawk rocked but so many people hate it.
After Life A Japanese movie about, well, the after life, with no special effects, that is better than any American movie ever made on the subject.
Leon: The Professional: The greatest action movie nobody has ever seen.
Searching for Bobby Fischer: It’s like pulling teeth to get my friends to watch a movie about a chess prodigy, but after they see it, they love it, even those who know nothing about chess.
The Emperor and the Assassin: Chinese. American movies like this usually get a dozen Academy Award nominations, and win most of them.
Killer Klowns From Outer Space: Not a good/bad movie, just a good movie. Seriously.
Lolita: Never released in theaters because it was a serious, well-made movie about a pedophile told from the point-of-view of the pedophile.
The Iron Giant: The best American made animated movie of the last decade. Wasn’t promoted, died at the box office.
Blind Fury: Rutger Hauer as a blind master swordsman.
There are so many great foreign language films that nobody ever sees because of the American phobia about subtitles. * Raise the Red Lantern, The Scent of Green Papaya, The Story of Qui Ju, Not One Less, Centre Stage*, and serious, adult (not porn) anime such as Perfect Blue and Grave of the Fireflies.
Great documentaries get overlooked too, but I’ll save that for another post.
Party Girl.
Fabulous movie. Simply fabulous. Loved it.
Seems no one else has ever even heard of it, and it often is not found for rental.
Fabulous movie though.
Exorcist II: The Heretic
The Emerald Forest
Having a Wild Weekend/Catch Us If You Can
Any other John Boorman fans here?
I was about to start this thread myself.
Showgirls. One of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. Like Starship Troopers, not many people ‘got’ that it was supposed to be funny.
hahahaha…I haven’t seen that movie in SO long. I think you are the first person to say it was a good movie too.
I have always been a big fan of Army of Darkness cause it is SO funny, and Bruce Campbell rocks. Also, I have always felt that Swingers is extremely underated…
Nothing about Verhoeven’s work was supposed to be funny – it’s merely inept – Ed Wood, with better special effects. (And the Nazi subplot Starship Troopers shows clearly he has no idea what the word “satire” means).
My choices:
Ishtar – a very funny film (especially when Hoffman and Beatty sing) that got trashed solely because of its price tag.
The Well – great little film on race relations, years ahead of its time.
A Midsummer’s Night Sex Comedy – People were under the impression it was a comedy. It wasn’t, but instead a fairly serious film about the impermience of relationships.
The Man Who Loved Women – Also falsely billed as a comedy, this was an interested exploration of the nature of love.
Deathwatch – excellent science fiction film about a man televising a woman dying. Barely released.
Black Moon – An idescribable film – more like a poem than a story – with some of the most unforgettable images in film.
Noises Off – Excellent farce about a group of actors performing a play. The characters’ lives intetwine with the parts they are playing.
The Ritz – Another fine farce, set in a gay bath house. Rita Moreno’s performance as Googie Gomez – the fiercely untalented singer – was a comic masterpiece (The original play was written after the author saw Moreno pretending to be Googie at a party).
Picking Up the Pieces – Woody Allen plays a Texas butcher who chops up his wife and, unfortunately leaves a few pieces behind. The hand – finger outstretched – starts working miracles – the blind see, the legless walk, and underendowed become . . . endowed. The cast is filled with surprising cameos.
I thought Suicide Kings was pretty darn entertaining. Starring that whack job of all whack jobs, Christopher Walken.
Combined, I have probably watched these movies a hundred times or more. Syndrome still scares the hell out of me.
There are a LOT of possibilities here:
The Adventures of Mark Twain – You can still find this in the “Children’s” section of video stores, but it’s not a kid’s movie. It’s a Will Vinton masterpiece done in “Claymation” (which is a copyrighted or trademarked term for Vinton’s process, not a genereic term). Everyone is (deservedly) making a big deal over Aardman studio’s work with “Wallace and Grommit” and “Chicken Run”, but the earlier work of Will Vinton is virtually ignored – and was pretty much ignored even when it first came out. This feature film is a case in point. It combines all or parts of “The Celebrated Jumping From of Calaveras County”, “Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven”, “The Mysterious Stranger”, “The Diary of Adam and Eve”, and other Mark Twain books, combined in a framing story where Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Becky stow away aboard Mark Twain’s balloon, which is riding to a rendezvous with Halley’s Comet. The animation is gorgeous and witty, and at times even moving. I’m a BIG fan of Twain, and of animation, and I hate to see this one so neglected.
Creator – I’ve mentioned this one frequently on the SDMB. Jeremy Leven’s screenplay, based on his novel. It’s the story of a Nobel Laureate in biology (Peter O’Toole) who is trying to clone his dead wife. For a change, a movie about cloning that’s not stupid. This one is literate and witty, with one heck of a supporting cast – Vincent Spano, Virginia Madsen, Mariel Hemingway, David Ogden Stiers. Science Fiction with no special effects. The only movie I’ve seen where grad school looks and feels like the real thing.
** Panic in the Year Zero** – early 1960s black and white film about a family’s attempt to survive the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Los Angeles. Concentrates on their solving problems to survive (How do you cross a highway filled with cars going OUT, and who have no intention of ever stopping to let you through?) Stars Ray Milland. It FEELS like good Heinlein, but has nothing to do with him.
** The Last of Sheila ** – Another one I’ve often mentioned on the SDMB. A murder mystery that gives you all the clues – but you still won’t get the answer. A beautifully layered mystery with interesting characters. Again, a good cast – James Coburn, Raquel Welch, Dian Cannon, Richard Benjamin, James Mason. Directed by Herbert Ross. Closing song by the not yet well-known Bette Midler. Screenplay by Stephen Sondheim (yes, the composer/songwriter) and Anthony Perkins (Yep, Norman Bates himself) !!! This film is the half-brother of Sleuth (which I also recommend), which was suppposedly inspired by Anthony Schaeffer’s visit to Stepher Sondheim’s game-filled apartment. TLOS, like Sleuth, features a group of people caught up in the machinations of a wealthy games-player, who especially likes setting up elaborate mind games and revenge.
Stealing Beauty ~ simple, lyrical, and great to just watch.
~t
I agree with some of the ones posted. Some that I haven’t seen posted yet:
Thoroughly Modern Millie. The best musical no one has seen. A kick from start to finish. Not great art, just fun, fun, fun.
Harry and Tonto. I first saw this sleeper in college. Art Carney, in the acting job of his career. This is a mood piece about a man going cross-country after being kicked out of his apartment. Sublime.
The Ambassadors. Paul Scofield and Lee Remick. They should show this one in acting school, just for the subtle by-play between these two.
The Duelists. Harvey Keitel and Keith Carredine, directed by Ridley Scott. See this one for the cinematograph, and the meticulous detail in the military costumes of the period, as well as the acting and the story.
I’ll stop now, but I could keep on going.
I recently saw The Shadow on video. Starts a bit slow, but has a great finish. According to the IMDb, the box office came up $8 million short. There’s also The Phamtom. Only took in $17.3 million in the US.