My Blue Heaven, in a similar vein.
I don’t think these are listed above:
Creation of the Humanoids – badly acted, but intriguing low-budget SF
The Last of Sheila – my all-time favorite mystery movie
Panic in Year Zero – low-budget SF movie about family escaping nuclear attack on LA
The Quatermass Xperiment/The Creeping Unknown
Quatermass 2/Enemy from Space
Quatermass and the Pit/Five Million Years to Earth – Nigel Kneale’s BBC TV serials from the 1950s got turned into movies in the 1950s and 60s. Highly recommended.
The Adventures of Mark Twain – Will Vinton’s only Claymation-only feature-length movie. Excellent.
The Lost Missile – almost totally forgotten 1950s SF movie by Jerome Bixby (whose better-known film It! The Terror from Beyond Space I also recommend) about a runaway Cold-War missile causing havoc.
Operation Moonbase – you’ll alternately cringe and cheer at this movie cobbled together from an aborted TV series written by Robert Heinlein (against his objections). It presents the best and the worst of his writing. The guys at MST3K covered this in their KTLA days, but get the un-hectored edition if you can.
Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders – TV-movie adaptation of Robert van Gulik’s T’ang dynasty detective, produced by the King of TV movies, Nicholas Meyer. well worth watching.
“Wait. You dropped your phony dog poop.”
Top Secret, another cult classic.
I LOVE My Blue Heaven ! Steve Marin as a gangster in Witness Protection.
“It’s the shoes, right? The shoes are tragic!”
I was thrilled when I added this to my DVD library. Too bad it isn’t available on Blu Ray. It is strangely overlooked for a Scorsese movie.
FTR the My Blue Heaven screenplay was based on the information provided to Nicholas Pileggi for the book ‘Wiseguy’ AKA Goodfellas.
Don’t know if these quality as cult films:
*The Endless Summer
Blow-Up*
Both were made in 1966 and portray the era in ways that never was.
“5 o’clock Christmas morning, I run downstairs and look under the tree and what do I find? Uncle Alfresco, dead on the floor, shot through the back of the head. Plus no bicycle. It was a disappointing Christmas on many levels.”
Love that movie!
Looking at my handful of Western movies:
Caveman
Creepshow
Creepshow 2
Easy Rider
Rollerball
The Andromeda Strain
Two Lane Black Top
Vanishing Point
Wizards
Probably only Caveman and Creepshow / Creepshow 2 are appropriate for casual viewing. The others are sit down movies.
I like Legend, an early, lesser-known Ridley Scott film. Fairies, elves, a Satan-esque Tim Curry, and a young unknown Tom Cruise. Lots of fun.
I have to also recommend Two Lane Blacktop. I was waiting to see if anyone else would.
It is a sparse movie about a couple of drifters in a '55 Chevy hot rod who are travelling the country, racing at local drag strips for money, with no particular place to go. None of the characters have names, The Driver is James Taylor (yes, the singer), The Mechanic is Dennis Wilson (The Beach Boy).
They meet a guy driving a new 1970 GTO Judge (Warren Oates), and along the way they pick up The Girl (Laurie Bird). The GTO and the '55 Chevy decide to race across country to Washington DC for pink slips (car titles) along old Route 66.
The interaction between the 4 main players and the friendship or whatever it is that develops along the way is the story. James Taylor couldn’t act his way out of a wet paper bag but Warren Oates, seriously, should have at least been nominated for an Oscar. It also has Harry Dean Stanton is a brief spot as a gay hitchhiker.
It is in the Library of Congress National Film Registry as culturally historically, or aesthetically significant. It also has one of the best ending scenes in film. Hard to find the movie unless you buy it.
In the West, the term “Western movie” means a movie set in the American Old West:
Not exactly a movie but probably overlooked by many:
Going Postal (2010)
While it’s a solid recommendation worthy of a look, I’m not sure it meets the OPs criterion
I don’t know if The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T is considered a cult classic but it’s definitely unusual. A Dr Seuss screenplay staring Hans Conried as the Dr, it’s worth a watch even if it is aimed at the younger set.
Island of Doomed Men (1940)
Peter Lorre runs a penal colony and utters classic line: “Keep that monkey away from me!”
Rope of Sand (1949)
Burt Lancaster’s least favorite of his own movies has interested parties – including Lorre, Rains and Henreid from Casablanca – after a hidden trove of diamonds in S. Africa. Great cast, action and dialogue most of the way.
The Magic Serpent (1966)
Outlandish Japanese fantasy.
Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976)
Blind master seeking revenge on one-armed man who killed his students beheads all one-armed men he meets. Fun and amazing.
Buddha’s Palm (1982)
I’m not going to try to describe this one:
Dog Day (1984)
Elegy to the American gangster stars Lee Marvin as heist man on the lam in France getting involved with family of degenerates.
Sonny Boy (1989)
Stolen baby is brutally raised to be a killer by small-time crime lord. Very perverse black comedy.
Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane (1998)
Extremely low-budget tale of losers at car lot involved with criminals in hunt for car.
Sharkskin Man and Peach Hip Girl (1998)
A gangster and a girl go on the lam. Wild and wacky. See also: Adrenaline Drive (1999).
SLC Punk! (1998)
Punks in Utah.
Sugar Town (1999)
Interrelated stories of LA music scene has-beens and wannabes.
The Woman Chaser (1999)
Car salesman makes a bitter movie in 1950s Hollywood.
Buffalo Soldiers (2001)
Soldier Joaquin Phoenix scams in West Germany just before the Wall falls.
*Returner *(2002)
Cute girl from the future enlists a triad gunman’s help to prevent future aliens vs. Earthlings war.
Dog Soldiers (2002)
Army unit vs. werewolves in Scotland.
*Crime Spree *(2003)
Ensemble comedy of incompetent French crooks in Chicago.
Phantom of the Paradise was pretty enjoyable. Directed by Brian de Palma, Narrated by Rod Serling, and starring Paul Williams, it had some surprisingly good music in it, along with a whole lot of amusing ludicrousness.
The Duellists. Ridley Scott’s first film, based on a Joseph Conrad story. Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel play two soldiers in Napoleon’s army, who spend twenty years trying to murder each other, like proper gentlemen.
Children of the Revolution. Australian comedy about Joseph Stalin’s love-child. As he gets older, he begins to resemble his father in hilarious but slightly scary ways.
House and House II: The Second Story. Two horror/comedies, produced by the same crew, but otherwise unrelated, except for the generic haunted house meme. The first one is slightly scarier. The second one is mostly comedy.
Soldiers of Fortune vs Third World Dictators:
The Wild Geese
The Dogs of War
The way this worked was: Qad up there mentions Phantom of the Paradise, one of my favorite hidden gems. That leads me to fun quotes “I know the difference between drug real and real real!” Which led me to Gerrit Graham, who played “Beef.” Gerrit reminded me of another quirky movie - Used Cars. In which Gerrit co-starred with Kurt Russell, who was also in Captain Ron. Which is why my cocktail of choice this evening is a daiquiri, Hemingway-style.
Maximum Overdrive