# What's the most underappreciated movie you've seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 6, 2001, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024 "2001-04-06T04:09:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/1 "2001-04-06T04:09:59Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Gatsby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@Gatsby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatsby)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/2 "2001-04-06T04:21:57Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![ism](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3e96dc/32.png) [@ism](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ism)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/3 "2001-04-06T04:31:33Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![silent\_rob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@silent\_rob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silent_rob)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/4 "2001-04-06T04:52:28Z")
**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). ---
**Author:** ![Gatsby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@Gatsby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatsby)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/5 "2001-04-06T05:48:28Z")
**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? ---
**Author:** ![exchicagoan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/0ea827/32.png) [@exchicagoan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/exchicagoan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/6 "2001-04-06T06:09:32Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![dpr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@dpr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dpr)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/7 "2001-04-06T06:25:47Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/8 "2001-04-06T06:48:41Z")
_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. ---
**Author:** ![bwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@bwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bwk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/9 "2001-04-06T07:45:42Z")
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. ---
**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:** [April 6, 2001, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/10 "2001-04-06T08:26:20Z")
Exorcist II: The Heretic The Emerald Forest Having a Wild Weekend/Catch Us If You Can Any other John Boorman fans here? ---
**Author:** ![riley\_dieffenbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@riley\_dieffenbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/riley_dieffenbach)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/11 "2001-04-06T11:46:00Z")
I was about to start this thread myself. 1. Citizen X - Please rent this. Simply the finest thriller of the decade. Made for HBO and seen by very few people. 2. Clockwatchers - For anyone who has ever been an office temp. A fantastic cast to boot. 3. Starship Troopers - Yes I know I’ll get flamed for this but let me explain. Sure it made a lot of money, but the subtext of this movie went completely unnoticed. Try watching it thinking of the “heroes” as a fascist army and the bugs as the persecuted minority. Manipulates the viewer into cheering for the fascists. Besides Doogie in that black trench coat is priceless. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/12 "2001-04-06T11:57:57Z")
Showgirls. One of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. Like Starship Troopers, not many people ‘got’ that it was supposed to be funny. ---
**Author:** ![Evnglion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f04885/32.png) [@Evnglion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evnglion)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/13 "2001-04-06T12:29:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Number Six \* > **_Killer Klowns From Outer Space_: Not a good/bad movie, just a good movie. Seriously.** 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… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/14 "2001-04-06T13:05:42Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Scarred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@Scarred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarred)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/15 "2001-04-06T13:07:39Z")
I thought _Suicide Kings_ was pretty darn entertaining. Starring that whack job of all whack jobs, Christopher Walken. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/16 "2001-04-06T13:13:20Z")
1. _The Conversation_ w/ Gene Hackman & Harrison Ford 2. _Hopscotch_ w/ Walter Matthau & Glenda Jackson 3. _The China Syndrome_ w/ Jack Lemmon & Jane Fonda Combined, I have probably watched these movies a hundred times or more. _Syndrome_ **still** scares the hell out of me. ---
**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:** [April 6, 2001, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/17 "2001-04-06T13:49:28Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![PolishSausage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@PolishSausage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PolishSausage)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/18 "2001-04-06T13:58:10Z")
Stealing Beauty ~ simple, lyrical, and great to just watch. ~t ---
**Author:** ![dlb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@dlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dlb)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/19 "2001-04-06T15:14:20Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2001, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024/20 "2001-04-06T15:58:50Z")
I recently saw [The Shadow](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0111143) 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. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-underappreciated-movie-youve-seen/61024.md?page=2)