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What's Your Favorite Underappreciated Movie? 2141

Posted by Cliff from the future-cult-classics dept.
Moses Lawn asks: "With the impending re-release of Spirited Away, I've been wondering about this. There are a lot of movies I love that no one else seems to know about. Some of them disappeared from theaters within a week, some came out years ago and seem to have been forgotten. Here are a few of my favorites: The Hot Rock, The Pope Must Diet (formerly 'The Pope Must Die'), They Might Be Giants, and The Big Hit. Maybe you like these, too. Maybe you think they stink up the joint. So what are your favorite forgotten movies?"
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What's Your Favorite Underappreciated Movie? More

What's Your Favorite Underappreciated Movie?

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  • A lot of these movies are worth forgetting really...

    Can anyone think of any anime that actually made it to theaters and was promptly forgotten? I want to say metropolis, but I know that did well.

  • Hudson Hawk (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HeyBob! ( 111243 ) on Wednesday March 26, 2003 @10:50PM (#5602446)
    Didn't anyone get it? - it's a farce!
  • What Mr. Jackson was doing before he got interested in Hobbits.
    • Of Peter Jackson films, I like Braindead the most. It's one movie with more outlandish gore than anything I've ever seen, and yet Peter is still able to make it into a romantic humorous love story! How often do you get to see someone mowing down a huge crowd of zombies with a lawn mower strapped to his chest?
    • Bad Taste!

      What Mr. Jackson was doing before he got interested in Feebles!

  • 'nuff said

    • That movie was terrible. You obviously don't read enough Operation Clambake. [xenu.net]

      Course, I probably just got trolled...
      • SEE! Underappreciated, just like he sed. Of course, I wouldn't expect you, the simple minded audience member to realize the secret Genius of the film. The fact that you hated it only proves that it was made by a true movie god and that you are just a simple-minded fool!

        NOTE: the above was meant to be humorous, not a personal attack on benzapp. Of course, this will soon be modded as troll anyway. Oh, well.

  • Robocop [imdb.com] has some great social and political satire in it.

    "You crossed my line of death!" BOOM! Play global war with the whole family!

    • Actually, Robocop, Total Recall and Satrship Troopers (all directed by Paul Verhoeven) all have a lot to say about soceity, corporations and how power can be abused.

      And if you want to get turned on there is always Basic Instinct as well.
      • To the Parent Post: Yeah, but Total Recall was written by Peirce Anthony, one of my favorite Fantasy/SciFi authors. So Paul Verhoeven has little to do with the political messages in that one.

        To the Grandparent Post: Wait, since when was robocop underapreciated. I mean, some people really like it, and the rest realized it was a horrible action flick. In order to be under-appreciated, it must first deserve appreciate and then not recieve it. Robocop was appreciated just fine, and doesn't deserve any more app

  • Titanic (Score:3, Funny)

    by CaptainSuperBoy ( 17170 ) on Wednesday March 26, 2003 @10:51PM (#5602461) Homepage Journal
    Oh, wait.. no.

  • I would guess, that under-appreciation varies from place to place. Some American stinkers never even make the theatres elsewhere on the planet and I guess that only a really small number of foreign films have any kind of success in America. My favourite film at the moment is Rushmore [imdb.com], a relatively popular film in English-speaking countries, but not even dubbed to German as far as I know. The Filthy Critic [bigempire.com] has been an invaluable guide to find Films that would otherwise not have been noticed by me and avoid o

  • With Rutker Hauer (I can't spell his name, sorry). I'd bet any amount of money the Doom developers got ideas from this movie, especially the name "BFG".

    • Ahem. "Rutger".

      Split Second is one hell of a romp. Formative of my childhood. Best part is Hauer's nebbish partner transformed by seeing the thing.

      "We need big fucking guns!" (Examining an auto-shotgun.) "Too fucking small! Bigger!"

      Fun fun fun.

  • Transformers: The Movie (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lu Xun ( 615093 ) on Wednesday March 26, 2003 @10:53PM (#5602487)
    Definately. Orson Wells, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack, Eric Idle; an all-star cast!

    Come out, Autobot. We all must die sometime.

    That's deep. And the first appearence of the Matrix! Whoa.
    • Transformers: The Movie

      Agreed, that was a good one.

      A bit off-topic but I'd also like to see the following television shows return:

      -Dr. Who(specifically the Tom Baker years)
      -GeForce(aka Gatchaman, an early japanime cartoon series which aired in the late 70s and early 80s)
      -Neutron Man(Japanese live-action show, like godzilla)
      -Dungeons and Dragons(the cartoon, aired in the early-mid 80s)
      -Starblazers(japanime cartoon series)

    • I know I already posted this on another thread, but it still makes me laugh:

      Optimus Prime is Fighting in Iraq
      http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=38 2 8

      There's a picture of both Optimus Primes (Optimii Prime?) on the site.

      National guardman changed his name to a toy

      CUYAHOGA FALLS -- A member of Ohio's 5694th National Guard Unit in Mansfield legally changed his name to a Transformers toy.

      Optimus Prime is heading out to the Middle East with his guard unit on Wednesday to provide fire protecti
  • By far one of my favorites. I waited for a long time for the sequal, "Buckaroo Bonzai vs. the Crime League" (or something like that) but it never materialized ;-(

    Another favorite of mine was a movie that Bruce Lee orginally wrote called Circle of Iron. However, since he died, his part was played by David Carradine. Also an excellent movie.

    Remember, no matter where you go, there you are!
  • Anyone remember that scifi movie Supernova? That was a really cool movie. A freaky horror plot, a good cast, a cool ship, and everything else that makes great scifi. Unfortunately it only showed once a week in my area at Sunday night at 22:00, and this was the only theater out of 20 around here that even bothered showing it. It was posed to be a major success ... but what happened?! Like, nobody ever saw it. Not just here; most places. Anyway, I definitely recommend renting it.
  • Peckinpah: Straw Dogs, Wild Bunch. (violence)
    Wilder: Sunset Blvd, Double Indemnity. (film noir)

    Everybody should check out the AFI Top 100 List [afi.com].
  • Brokedown Palace is an awesome movie. Without revealing much, two girls go to Thailand for their high school graduation, only to be arrested for smuggling drugs. I really don't want to say much, as it's much better if you don't know anything ahead of time. I guess I'd classify it as "Drama," but it's extremely good. By the way... It's made by one of the major entertainment companies (I can't remember which, and I'm not sure where it is right now...); it's not some obscure movie. But every single person I'v

  • OT: Music tie-in (Score:2, Interesting)

    by onemorehour ( 162028 )
    Huh. I think it's interesting that of the four underappreciated movies listed, two of their titles have been referenced by bands (They Might be Giants is, of course, a band; The Hot Rock is the title of my favorite Sleater-Kinney album).
  • You just can't beat a movie whose entire soundtrack is an AC/DC album :)
  • This movie has a small but vocal fanbase. Of course, it's not one of those movies you can actually dress up and go to conventions and stuff, but nevertheless, I think it is one of the top 10 animated films ever.

    The story is simple and sweet, and although it uses cliches a bit, it has a good sense of history and how absurd (or maybe not that paranoid) back in the 60's.

    If you're bored one night, try to pick it up. I think you'll know what I mean after you see it.

  • Brought to us by Danny Boyle, the same director who did Trainspotting, The Beach presents a great existential look at human nature in the modern world. While Trainspotting showed the human adaption to the nihilism of the modern world, The Beach is about the escape from the modern world.

    It really is a beautifully done movie. The scenery alone makes it worth while. That french actress is also perhaps the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. New Order did their first new song since 1993 for this movie, a
    • And New Order also had a reprise of "Blue Monday" (of sorts) on Power, Corruption and Lies called "The Beach." Trainspotting featured the creepiest riff on "Temptation" as well.

      Still, I can't agree on this one. "The Beach" is a rotten movie. If you want an unappreciated Boyle flick pop on over and see "Shallow Grave". "I don' 'ave da time."

  • Wim Wenders film: Wings of Desire [imdb.com]

    Two and half hours of truth, beauty and love. Of course any film by him is really good, but highly overlooked.

  • Brazil is arguably the most poignant and relevant piece of work to come from (some of) the people who brought us Monty Python.

    Animation/graphics by Terry Gilliam. Leads include Robert de Niro in a surprise role, and Michael Palin as the arch-evil government interrogator (Ministry of Information Retrieval officer).

    Definitely a canonical hymn of the individual's struggle against the machine.

    Shamefully, some US releases of the film omitted a decisive final scene (which totally changed the meaning of the fil
  • Brother is a mafia-type movie about a ex-Yakuza gang member who came to america and started a new gang. Its a great movie, and my friends and I all place it up there with other gang classics like godfather (1) and goodfellas

  • Forgotten (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ipxodi ( 156633 )
    Ice Pirates [imdb.com]. Space Herpies!
    The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension [imdb.com]Geeky, yet delightful.
    Zardoz [imdb.com] John Boorman and Sean Connery. Yeah!
  • starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowall. Not really unknown but I find my myself watching it over and over and over and over and over and over and over
  • Equilibrium, I mean, come on. I realize people like to whine that it's unoriginal or crap, cause of the similarities to 1984/Farenheight 451. It's still an amazing movie.
  • Barb Wire is the most awsome mainstream movie ever!

    It is, sadly, underappreciated because so many people in the US are so sexist. The world needs female superheroes too!
  • It's a bit long, but this is a fantastic, hypnotic sci-fi movie. William Hurt is great and the premise is cool. I've been waiting for this one to come out on DVD for ages. Movie info [imdb.com]
  • The Big Hit: I've seen better film on teeth.

    The Bastard's Can't Go Wrong Underrated Film List:
    * Bachelor Party (Bad USA Up All Night movie done right)
    * Fear of a Black Hat (Rap mockumentry... damn funny)
    * Fandango / A Perfect World (yes, they have Costner, but he's damn good in both... shoot me)
    * The Italian Job (majorly appreciated in the UK, hardly anyone knows of it here in the states)
  • It's got everything [imdb.com]: Charlie Sheen as a vengeful teen back from the dead, Sherilyn Fenn as his uber-hot love interest, Randy Quaid as a laconical sheriff, scenery-chewing villianry from Nick Cassavetes, the hilarious tag-team duo of paint-thinner chuggers Skank and Gutter-Boy ("man, that stuff's got some kick!"), and even a memorable role for Clint Howard! Plus a rockin' 80's metal soundtrack, gorgeously filmed Arizona scenery, pumped-up would-be muscle cars like the Shelby Daytona, and of course, the Turbo
  • Richard E Grant and the crap Doctor who getting up to all sorts of adventures in the countryside. Famous for the drinking game associated with the movie which is best played with an ambulance on the way.
  • Many people don't know that Megan the river witch at the "Prince oF Darkness's" castle swamp was the same guy that played the doctor on Star Trek Voyager. While this movie has some real campiness, it has the coolest, best acted "Devil" in any movie I have seen. Although I like Al Pacino in Devil's Advocate too.

  • The Last Starfighter (Score:5, Funny)

    by brianjcain ( 622084 ) on Wednesday March 26, 2003 @11:05PM (#5602647) Journal
    "You have been recruited by the Star League to defend against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada."

    "You're my Juliet... *kiss* my Venus... *kiss*...Do you want me to talk dirty to you now?"

    "Do you smell something?"
    "Like what?"
    "Like a Xa--forget it."
  • The Ruling Class [amazon.com] has Peter O'Toole as the insane heir to a large estate and title in England. He thinks he is Jesus Christ, the god of love. You can imagine where it goes from there. Good luck finding it at the local Blockbuster.
  • Underappreciated indeed, Miller's Crossing [imdb.com] is a great, fun film. One of the Coen brothers' best. Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro, and Albert Finney. Great script. 'Nuff said.

    Too bad it's not available on DVD. (Yet! I just learned (via IMDB) that this film, released in 1990, is coming to DVD in May. Yipee!)

  • Local Hero - 1 big star, 0 explosions great performances.

    Breaking Away - 1 future star, great story, bikes.

    There's more, but when people say "whatchawannawatch?" I suggest these. They likely haven't seen them, and they come away with a smile.
  • Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell's finest work. I proudly own this one.

  • Hype! (Score:2)

    by skt ( 248449 )
    Great documentary and soundtrack.. a must for anyone interested in the Seattle rock scene in the late 80s.
  • Tim Robbins, Jodie Foster. Tim Robbins first movie, actually. Nothing says fun like penguin stomping [imdb.com].

    On second thought that might not play so well here...

  • Tetsuo: Iron Man [imdb.com] was one of those movies a few friends and I just picked up at the video store one night when we couldn't find anything else. I think the box says "A Japanese surrealistic nightmare" and that doesn't begin to describe it.

    I dared a roomate to watch it one night. The entire time he was viewing this video the only words that came out of his mouth were "What.. the.. fuck?" in a half-scared, half-interested tone.

    Not to be watched with the kids.. or the parents. Do not view Totsuo: Iron Man wh

  • The Butcher Boy [warnerbros.com] without a doubt has to be my all time favorite, relatively unknown movie.

    It revolves around a boy named Francy Brady (Anti-hero?) who grows up in a home with a mother who constantly tries to commit suicide and a father who drinks like a fish.

    He has one friend throughout the whole movie, and his arch nemisis's (the nugents) constantly remind him that he is low class trash. The best part in the movie is when Francy starts having delusions of the Virgin Mary (played by Sinade O'Conner) They
  • Let's build a snow man!

    SHUT THE F*CK UP! *blam*
  • Countryman
    http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/6074/mo v cm.htm [geocities.com]
    Countryman is about a rastafarian super-hero, of sorts, named Countryman. From holywood.com, "A peaceful Rastafarian fisherman becomes an unwitting player in an international political scheme when an airplane crashes into a nearby swamp. Later, when violence breaks loose, he displays an almost magical ability in hand-to-hand combat." With a soundtrack featuring Bob Marley and many other big names in reggae, Countryman is THE all time clas
  • Fantastic cast, characters, and story.
    Well acted and directory.

  • Limiting my list to ones I like so much, in contrast to most people, that I own copies:

    About A Boy
    The Big Lebowski
    Falling Down
    Heathers
    Human Traffic
    Kelly's Heroes
    Office Space
    The Opposite of Sex
    The Prophecy
    Ronin
    Sliding Doors

    Nearly all of these require an explanation every time I have company.
  • This is a Disney 'cotton candy' movie, light and entertaining.

    Where else can you get Leprechauns and Sean Connery at the same time?
  • The Way of the Gun [imdb.com] , written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie (who also wrote The Usual Suspects) is one of the most underappreciated modern crime movies. It also happens to have some of the most intricately choreographed and expertly filmed on-screen gunfights I've ever seen, as well as one of the most original car chases you'll ever see in a movie. I highly recommend it.
  • Top Secret, starring a young Val Kilmer as Nick Rivers, an elvis-style heartthrob who scored a pop hit for his song "Skeet Surfin' USA" about skeet shooting whilst surfing. Invited to an East German "cultural festival", he rapidly gets entangled in espionage, and winds up trying to help the French Resistance bust a captured physicist out of the sinister Flurgendorf Prison. Will our hero foil the Germans? Will he get the girl, or will she return to her childhood crush? Will somebody tell me what the Fren
  • Ok, so I already posted one (Until the End of the World), but The Mission [imdb.com] has a great cast (Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro), beautiful cinematography, a fantastic score (Ennio Morricone), and a story that is a captivating meditation on Christ's exhortation to turn the other cheek. Timely viewing. :-)
  • The Stoned Age [imdb.com] came our around the same time as Dazed and Confused but is the much better movie IMHO. Best soundtrack of all time as well

  • Mine? (Score:4, Informative)

    by B3ryllium ( 571199 ) on Wednesday March 26, 2003 @11:12PM (#5602733) Homepage
    The Big Hit was good, but I think my all-time favourite "underrated" movie was:

    The Boondock Saints

    It rocks :)

    As for underrated TV shows, my all-time favourite is Vengeance Unlimited, with Firefly being a close second. I heard a rumor that Firefly is coming out on DVD! woo!

    • Werd (Score:3, Interesting)

      by EvilAlien ( 133134 )
      Absolutely! Boondock Saints is an excellent movie, well worth seeing and owning if you have a collection that includes Satch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and other films of that ilk. I was commenting on this flick myself and got the good ol' "you suck because someone already said this" /. error.

      Firefly on DVD? I'll be all over that like a fat kid on a smartie.

  • This movie was hillarious! (genius in some respect) It spawned a sequel and cartoon + 2 Nintendo games. Anyone remember any of those?

    I think the best scene from the movie is when "the opposition" infiltrates the Tomato Camp. He's dressed up like a giant tomato while sitting around a campfire roasting hotdogs on a coathanger discussing war strategies. He says, "Could someone pass the ketchup?" They say "Huhhhh?" And roll over him!

  • A Midnight Clear [imdb.com]

    ...so many good movies listed (but Space Truckers? Poor, poor, sick bastard ;). A Midnight Clear is not exactly Brazil, Hudson Hawk or Buckaroo Bonzai... but those of you who like FILMS should see this one! It's on par with Shawshank [imdb.com] IMHO!

    Oh... and far from under appriciated (per its sceen showing at the Oscars) is A Fish Called Wanda [imdb.com]!

  • Electric dreams is about an architect who tries to organize his life with a computer. His computer becomes sentient (due to an overdose of information from the company mainframe and subsequent dousing with wine) and they both fall in love with the woman (a cellist in the local symphony) upstairs.

    It's got some laughs, lots of old computers, and rather decent 80's music.

    It's hard to find now, but since I work for a video chain I was able to get one old copy from their warehouse recently.

    -Adam
  • Dark Star [imdb.com]. I saw it as a 11-year old and it simultaneously twisted me into the weird cynical person I am and made me into a true SF fan. (No, wait, that's redundant.)

    Who can forget the crew (even the dead but cryo-preserved skipper) arguing with the AI of a planet-buster thermonuclear bomb
    warning: gratuitous anti-MS jab
    (probably Microsoft Bomb (tm)). Trying to convince it not to blow up, when that's the sole and total purpose of existence. Just because it couldn't detach from the bomb rails.

    They just do

  • Buckeroo Banzai (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TheWanderingHermit ( 513872 ) on Wednesday March 26, 2003 @11:15PM (#5602771)
    The Adventures of Buckeroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

    It's a definate original. If only they had been able to make the planned sequal.

  • Dark Star (Score:3, Informative)

    by sonofepson ( 239138 ) on Wednesday March 26, 2003 @11:23PM (#5602876)
    My vote has to go to John Carpenter's 'Dark Star'. Ultra low budget and very fuunny, it is unlike anything else I have even seen by Carpenter. It would not surprise me if it was the inspiration for 'Red Dwarf'.
    Four guys on a small ship for 20 years in deep space looking for unstable planets with the ever complaining Pinback, the alien beachball and of course a deep philisophical argument with a bomb.

  • Kentucky Fried Movie (Score:4, Interesting)

    by miracle69 ( 34841 ) on Wednesday March 26, 2003 @11:30PM (#5602967)
    Has to be Kentucky Fried Movie [imdb.com]

    "This requires total concentration."

    "Aries should expect the unexpecte...urrghhh"

  • The Boondock Saints (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FreeMath ( 230584 ) on Wednesday March 26, 2003 @11:39PM (#5603071) Homepage Journal
    Great movie. I have yet to find more than a few people who have seen it, and appreciate it.

    While we're at it, I have yet to find someone who truely appreciates Fight Club on the same level I did.
    • Boondock Saints is exelent but if you are going to watch it. Watch the Canadian version, they had to cut out lots of the American version to keep it from getting an NC-17 for violence.

  • Amelie (Score:3, Interesting)

    by swordgeek ( 112599 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @12:07AM (#5603386) Journal
    OK, so it was nominated for a billion awards. More people have seen it than most of the movies in this list.

    But how many have watched it...twice? Three times?

    As popular as it was, I call it underrated because not enough people know how UTTERLY BRILLIANT it is! The massive 5% zooms, the monochromatic scenes (except for one item), the jokes that you don't realise were jokes until the next day, the mood, the characters, the...oh man, the everything. Having watched it about 10 times on DVD, I'm only BEGINNING to see the real detail that went into this work of art.

  • Miracle Mile (Score:3, Insightful)

    by corebreech ( 469871 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @12:48AM (#5603749) Journal
    Great soundtrack, appropriately depressing, and so they don't air it nor let you rent it anymore.

  • The Man in the White Suit (Score:5, Interesting)

    by epeus ( 84683 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @02:46AM (#5604603) Homepage Journal
    Ultimate geek movie, starring Alec Guinness as the man who invents a fabric thta repels dirt and won't wear out.

  • Dr. Strangelove (Score:3)

    by aldjiblah ( 312163 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @07:42AM (#5605772)
    ... or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. [imdb.com]


    Not exactly forgotten perhaps, but strangelovely few people I've talked to have seen this classic - now even relevant today with mad generals on the loose throughout!


    Favourite quote: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room!"

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