The Wizard of Speed and Time – A one-man special-effects tour-de-force. You’ve never seen stop-motion effects this good. And it’s sweet and funny to boot.
Equilibrium echoes Farenheit 451. I like some of the action scenes better than The Matrix. Yeah. The first one.
If you liked The Usual Suspects (one of my favorite movies), you might like Deceiver Chris Penn (RIP), Michael Rooker, Tim Roth, great flick.
I guess more people know about The Boondock Saints than I thought, but not enough. Again, one of my favorites. “Fuck! Ass!” 
Hard Boiled is IMO one of John Woo’s greatest works. Chow Yun Fat is awesome (how can you not be when your charachter’s name is Tequila?). Many, many, many people get shot in this movie, hundreds. Tons of “dual .45s blazing while diving sideways over a table” stuff too.
Also ** Buffalo '66, Existenz, American Movie, Wet Hot American Summer, Cabin Fever, Where Eagles Dare, and Ernest Goes To Hell**.
[sub]okay, I made that last one up[/sub]
RealityChuck
You and I have very similar tastes. Comfort and Joy, AFAIK, is not available on DVD, which is a shame. I would not say that every last one of that list of movies is unknown (most kids born in the 80’s/90’s know Sandlot), but many of them were definitely unappreciated.
Loved loved *loved * Dick.
“Did you bring the…cookies?”
What Exit
Enjoyed The Secret Of Roan Inish.
Anyone who especially enjoys heist movies would (or should!) know about Le Cercle Rouge–but it’s always interesting to see how few people actually do know about this daddy-of-'em-all movie.
Amazon Women On The Moon. And I work at a large mortuary, but evidently I’m the only one who’s ever seen the classic funeral roast.
I remember Scavenger Hunt. Starring the Dr. Pepper guy, right?
Saw them both at the Seattle International Film Festival and thought they were great. Never heard them mentioned again anywhere.
At least two (Existenz, Buffalo 66) of the movies you listed are on my personal least favorite movies of all time list. I’m not saying this to be a jerk, but because I thought it worth pointing out that even so, they’re films a person should see at least once, because they seem to be either loved or hated.
I also wanted to comment on a couple others you mentioned: Equilibrium is a very interesting failure of a film, IMO. It has the right parts in the engine but it just don’t ever go. Nevertheless, I found it highly enjoyable to watch, and the gun kata stuff is golden, of course. Plus wasn’t William Fitchner in it? Can’t go too wrong there. 
I haven’t seen Boondock Saints yet, but I have seen a documentary about it called Overnight about its making, and, in part, the stunning amount of egotism and nastiness that the promise of fame brought out in the creator. Boondock Saints, of course, was born under a bad moon, and vanished just as quickly as it was hyped, but the reasons for this have little to do with the film’s quality, and everything to do with the personalities involved. Definitely worth a look for fans of the film and anyone else interested in the industry.
Oh, and I wanted to agree about maybe liking Equilibrium better than the first Matrix. The latter didn’t fail, in that it did live up to its own potential and came together into a working whole, but Equilibrium had more substance and ambition.
I’m pretty sure Blood Simple would hold that title. I have seen it several times but even supposed Coen brothers fans that I know have “heard of it but never seen it.”
Terrence Malik’s Badlands and Days Of Heaven seem to have escaped most movie watchers.
And among Wilder’s works I find Ace In the Hole also known as The Big Carnival to be the least well known great movie.
These were all great movies. My sisters and I can have each other in tears, quoting Noises Off!
I’d also like to add these two:
Texas Across The River
High Strung
Tough Guys Don’t Dance: OK, it’s not my favorite. It actually kinda sucks, but there’s something terribly watchable about the way the acting and the plot and the story development and the ending just trample all over your visual and logical senses like a half-blind retarded elephant. If I see this movie on TV, I just have to watch. I can’t help it.
Be glad you don’t know about this one.
Geez, youse guys are merciless.
I coulda mentioned Frankenhooker, another great Joisey movie. Made just down the block from me, practically, in Ho-Ho-Kus . (link included just in case you never heard of the place)
I’ll go with Lone Star State of Mind (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0269483/). Low-key but absolutely hilarious. Also, who knew John Mellencamp could be so damn funny? “Smyrna, Earl’s kissin’ his sister again!”
Much of my collection consists of relatively unknown films. I own many of the films listed here.
I saw this one on the big screen, and I have it on VHS.
I’ll only list the first one of my collection to come to mind: A Bucket Of Blood. Lots of great lines in that one. ‘You’re just a simple farmboy. The rest of us are sophisticated beatniks!’ for example.
Oh, I gotta call BS on these as “unknown.” I saw “Local Hero” and “Roan Inish” on cable not too long ago, and “Clerks” is CURRENTLY on cable. I don’t think you can call something “unknown” if it is or has recently been in rotation on the cable premium channels.
EC that is cool, I had never seen Roan Inish on Cable or TV. I bought it used from a video store 10 years ago for $2.99 and that was the first time I saw it. I have only seen it get mentioned rarely by anyone. What channel was showing it?
As far as Local Hero, I have noticed a much higher percentage of posters seem to know of it however.
As to Clerks, I think we have now established, it is extremely well known on the Dope and elsewhere at least. Hell, they made a cartoon of it.
Jim
Michael pare was one mean dude in Streets of Fire. And I like RAN
Frailty. Loved the ending.
Equilibrium. Awesome action sequences and again, a great and slightly ambiguous ending.
Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead.
Boy, I could list a whole page. Most of the films I watch are imports which have not had a U.S. release. Or a very limited one. Here are a few of my favorites:
All of the links contain my full-length review, if you scroll down a bit. This list could easily be 20 or more films.
I’m sure I could come up with more in a less-tired state, but this is the only one I can think of:
Hero at Large
I’m sure no one thinks this is high art, but I enjoyed it and I don’t know anyone who’s even heard of it. John Ritter, Anne Archer, Burt Convy. Ritter’s a New York actor picking up extra cash appearing in spandex at movie theaters showing the new Captain Amazing movie and signing autographs (the ad agency has hired a small army of Captains). On his way home from work, wearing the suit under an overcoat, he’s in the local store when it’s held up. He takes off the coat and chases the bad guys away. New York goes wild trying to find the ‘real Captain Amazing’ while Ritter starts looking for more chances to save civilians.
Yeah, I’ll always give a lot more benefit of the doubt and suspension of disbelief to anything with heroes in it.