The Best Movies You Didn't Know About

reply to post by IronNuts


Oh god, A Scanner Darkly...

Yeah, RDJ was the only good thing about that horrible, horrible movie.

I was about to say Office Space but again, like with most movies, even if I haven't seen them I've heard of them and if I have seen them eventually, they're still fairly well known (at least to me and from what I know)

50/50 trailer is on just about every tv channel, its pretty popular.

This is a grate F%#kin movie that hardly any one knows about 300k
www.youtube.com...

reply to post by chissler


Little Big Man sending Custer off to his doom

I am a movie buff, and one that has always stuck with me is "Sin Nombre". An amazing indie film. If subtitles don't bother you , please check it out. Great acting, beautiful story and superb human drama.

One of my favorite movies would be Donnie Darko. It has one of those messed up storylines that you need to watch more than once to get the understanding of it.

I don't know why I can't come up with some right now, off the top of my head...but I enjoy looking at the on demand movies, and finding such gems.

It's amazing how many movies are made, with big name actors, and you never even hear about them. Or, amazing the movies that are nothing but no-names, but end up being great films.

I love the Australian Movie, The Castle... It's a sweet comedy about a family whose home is their castle and the corporate litigation that tries to take their home away... I love to watch it again and again.

Highlights:

reply to post by Gazrok


Agreed. As soon as I read your post I thought of this movie.

Reservation Road - (6.7 on IMDb)

Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo star in it. Joaquin's son is killed in a hit and run, a vehicle driven by Mark Ruffalo. The two come from a small town and don't know each other, but in the aftermath of the loss of his son their lives begin to tangle as Phoenix tries to figure out what happened to his kid. It's a great movie.

Repo Man (1984): Cult classic, so it's not unknown. One of the funniest, most insightful and well acted movies and one of my all-time favorites. It stars Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton. The story revolves around a Chevy Malibu with alien corpses in the trunk. Various groups are trying to get the car either for the corpses or the $20,000 bounty on the car. It's weird and hilarious.

Wild at Heart: The forgotten David Lynch movie. I don't know why Lynch fans don't dig it. It has plenty of the strangeness and discomfort that can be found in all of his other movies, it's just that some Twin Peaks silliness seeped in. Nicholas Cage and Laura Dern are lovers who hit the road. Dern's mother hires hitmen to kill Cage. Also features Willem DaFoe, Harry Dean Stanton and a cameo by Crispin Glover.

The Man Who Fell to Earth: Mid-'70s arthouse movie starring David Bowie and Rip Torn. Bowie is an alien who has come to Earth to take water back to his planet. Naturally, while he's here he succumbs to a range of vices. There's not a lot of plot and everything kind of meanders, but it creates this kind of hypnotic experience. It's a lot like an Altman film where characters are set down and you just watch them exist. If you're okay with that and editing that doesn't hold your hand (and a lot of nudity) then this is a great movie.

El Topo/Holy Mountain: The surrealist of the surreal. After you watch these movies the word "weird" will be redefined. Crammed full of symbolism and bizarre imagery you'll constantly be asking yourself what you're watching. Again, full of that '70s arthouse nudity, but also imagery that can at times be blasphemous or uncomfortable. Incredible movies, there's nothing else like them.

Secret Honor: One man (Philip Baker Hall) on one set playing one character (Richard Nixon). It sounds like it would be boring to watch one person talk for the length of a movie, but Hall's drunken and defeated Nixon is compelling, funny and so effective you almost feel sorry for the man. Even if you don't get half the references to what he's talking about (I didn't), you still understand everything. The ending is so great that I was almost cheering Nixon on.

The Wrong Guy: A movie no one noticed in the first place. Hilarious comedy starring Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall, NewsRadio). Dave Foley finds his boss/father-in-law murder and thinks he'll be blamed for it so he goes on the run. The police are well-aware Foley didn't do it. They aren't looking for him, they don't even think about him. The jokes are weird and clever and Dave Foley is always awesome. After you watch it you'll wonder why it's barely known.

reply to post by chissler


My wife won tickets to the premier of this film and we wound up sitting one seat in front of Jennifer Connelly. Great movie, all you heard the entire time was the sobs, sniffles and weeping of everyone in the audience. A movie about the death of a child is a tough one to watch but my wife and I had fits of giggles throughout the film because, every so often, I'd lean over to her and, in a weepy (I was) voice, I would express my utter shock that the contest was run by a group called divalicious moms. that's right, the movie about a guy who runs over another family's young son was the prize held by a group set up by mothers of young children.

The irony was wicked.


Check out "The Lookout" with JGL:
www.imdb.com...

Great film.

Suicide Kings:
www.imdb.com...

Also great.

Older - The Pope Of Greenwich Village.
www.imdb.com...


I could do this all day long and come up with a thousand titles at a minimum. There are so many great films that received critical acclaim and died a quick death.

The Villian
Starring Anne Margret, Kurt Douglas, and Arnold Schwartzeneggar.
A western comedy basicly set up like a sexully charged road runner & coyote film.
Arnold name in this flick is Hansome Stranger- he was named after his father- whom he never met. It goes downhill from there, but if you embrace the suck, you could laugh off vital pieces of anatomy.

reply to post by Crakeur


The Lookout is one I've meant to watch for sometime now. It's going to the top of my queue.

I came across the movie Melancholia before it came out and I eventually forgot about it. When it finally did come out I decided to check it out and I am so happy I did. It is such a depressing movie to watch.

www.imdb.com...

I've heard plenty of mixed reviews with the biggest complaint being that the story's first half is so slow, but that's the beauty of it. The first half really got you acquainted with the main characters. And whether you like them or not, towards the end you'll be crying for them.

reply to post by SaulGoodman


The man who fell to earth......class, how did i foget that one?

For some reason, Cat People (with John Heard, Nastassja Kinski, and Malcolm McDowell) fell off the radar screen very early on. It's a gothic horror movie, set of course in New Orleans, with such an original story and so well acted, with an outstanding music score by Giorgio Moroder. Title song is sung by the one and only David Bowie:

www.imdb.com...

Perhaps the best noodle movie ever made is Tampopo, from Japan, with subtitles in English:

www.imdb.com...

Resurrection, with Ellen Burstyn and Sam Shepard, about a woman who returns from being clinically dead only to discover she now has healing powers. Great writing and outstanding acting save this story from what could have been melodrama in less gifted hands:

www.imdb.com...

Released in 1994 and then apparently sent to oblivion despite its stellar cast, The Paper is a gripping look at 24 hours in the life of the employees of a major US city newspaper:

www.imdb.com...

Ran across this little gem that basically is a casual, slow paced movie mostly with conversation, but the subjects of discussion, when viewed from opposite perspectives, make for a real illuminating and humanistic feel.
Spring Forward with Ned Beatty and Cambell Scott

The Box is one I would have skipped over because I thought the story had been done before and I'm not a fan of Diaz in serious roles, but, this movie is a wonderful blend of drama and sci-fi, with some really unique plotting. It was directed by the guy who did Donnie Darko.
The Box


Peace,
spec

Excellent thread!

A few personal favorites that don't seem to garner much attention:

Ronin starring Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Jonathan Pryce and Sean Bean. I'm not really an enthusiast of movies featuring explosions, car chases and intrigue -- but honestly, this has one of the best car chase scenes ever.

Requim for a Dream starring Jennifer Connelly, Jared Leto and Marlon Wyanans. Fringe type of movie centering around drug addiction. Really difficult to watch. Once was enough for me, but worth the time.

The Hot Rock starring a young Robert Redford, George Segal and Zero Mostel. Afghanistan Bananastan -- enough said.

The Search for John Gissing starring Alan Rickman, Jeanne Garofalo and Mike Bender. Fast paced comedy from 2001.

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


The Box?

The accent they gave Cameron Diaz in that is awful, almost as equally as bad as the movie.

Mr.Nobody..

One of the best movies I've ever seen and has to do with "Alternate realities" which is a theory I very much believe with all my heart. If you guys love movies like Butterfly Effect or Donnie Darko, you will LOVE this movie.