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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The Dungeon Of Underrated Movie Gems

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09:36 / 27.09.01

to my earlier list of:
Highway 61
Kissed
The Pillow Book,

I have to add:
The Wrong Guy
Caveman (with ringo starr)
TOP SECRET!
Strange Brew

09:36 / 27.09.01

quote:Originally posted by LyssaJonze:
Anyone seen Love & Death In Long Island? Both very homoerotic, and one of the greatest John Hurt performances ever. Little seen. Probably due to the fact that Jason Priestley is in it. I do however remember there being solid reviews when it first came out in selected cinemas. It's, to this day, one of my favourite movies ever.

Yeah, I saw that on TV last year.
It's great, isn't it?

I had fun trying to explain the storyline to my friends.

09:36 / 27.09.01

quote:Originally posted by kegboy:

Strange Brew

would that be the one staring "the two comedic geniuses of North American cinema in the 20th century .. Bob and Doug McKensie"?

I thought it was just made up.

uncle retrospective

10:13 / 27.09.01

quote:Originally posted by kegboy:

Strange Brew

Strange Brew ehy? Canadain ehy? I though it was really weird. A stoner movie about beer. Hum...

Lets not forget Braincandy the kids in the hall movie. A gem.
Top secret is still amazing.
Joan of Arc, for some reason people hated that film and it was amazing.

10:41 / 27.09.01

quote:Originally posted by Parliament of Fools:
Strange Days.

One of my favorite films ever.

12:39 / 27.09.01

I can't believe I forgot this earlier - 'The Day of the Beast' - a [Eddie Izzard impression] *fucking* funny [/Eddie Izzard impression] Spanish film about the birth of the anti-Christ.

12:54 / 27.09.01

I genuinely believe that 'Unbreakable' was an underrated mainstream gem. It *did*, as young runt puts it, 'rock my world'. The script was not 'laughable' - it was understated. I've never, that I recall, seen a mainstream film with so little dialogue, and certainly never seen one that did so very much with so little dialogue. The score was great, and eminently well suited to the film. The silences had depth, the characters were well developed, and it brought tears to my eyes more than once. It wasn't perfect, but name me a single film that is? It was a welcome and surprisingly subtle addition to the superhero 'genre', if it can so be called. I didn't even want to see it initially, so I wasn't exactly an easy audience...but, I loved it. And I remain unashamed to admit it.

14:29 / 27.09.01

Event Horizon was poo of the highest order. Some OK acting and concept spoiled by daft execution. Appalling.

16:08 / 27.09.01

quote:Originally posted by Johnny Mother:
There is only one Brain Dead isn't there?

Well, there's the American "Brain Dead" with Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton and whatsished from "Harold and Maude."

And then there's the Australian "Brain Dead" by Peter Jackson, which got retitled (more accurately, thinks I) "Dead Alive" in America.

They're both good, but Dead Alive is better known here in the US.

16:12 / 27.09.01

Oh, I was forgetting - most everything from John Carpenter.
"Underrated" must be the man's middle name.

16:46 / 27.09.01

Theatre of Blood.

I repeat...

Theatre of Blood.

Can't believe I forgot to mention it last time, it's fucking brilliant. Especially great if you're a Shakespeare buff...

18:15 / 27.09.01

Oh, those poor poodles!

20:40 / 27.09.01

i could name hundreds of art-house gems that i think may have been overlooked by the mainstream, such as henry fool (which for the record was pretty much universally aclaimed by the critics).

the films of wong kar wai being the most obvious choice that no-one seems to have mentioned.

...or my film of the year so far: together(swedish movie about a group of people living in a 70's hippy commune).

but if this thread is about naming a mainstream movie that was critically overlooked and a box office flop. i'm gonna have to go for L.A STORY. it gets me every time.

09:22 / 28.09.01

LA Story, yes agreed. "Oh pointy birds, oh pointy pointy..." I love that movie. I read Richard E Grants memoirs on it, ages ago. I must have seen that movie a whole bunch of times, and I never get sick of it.

gentleman loser

09:22 / 28.09.01

I've been thinking about this since I read this thread a few days ago. So, here's my rather long list in chronological order.

Dr Strangelove (1964)
The President's Analyst (1967)
I Love You Alice P. Toklas (1968)
Zardoz (1973)
Damnation Alley (1977)
Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams (1981)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
John Carpenter's The Thing (1982)
The Dark Crystal (1982)
Tron (1982)
The Survivors (1983)
The Hitcher (1986)
Return to Horror High (1987)
They Live (1988)
Hardware (1990)
Army of Darkness (1993)
Omega Doom (1996)
Homegrown (1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Bringing Out The Dead (1999)
Ravenous (1999)

Enjoy or not. Your mileage may vary.

09:22 / 28.09.01

quote:Originally posted by DrDee:
Oh, I was forgetting - most everything from John Carpenter.
"Underrated" must be the man's middle name.

I agree. They Live was fucking brilliant.

09:22 / 28.09.01

Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound
Greatest Frankenstien movie ever (next to Young Frankenstien, of course).

Mother Night
Makes you believe Nick Nolte can act.

Two great teen gang movies...
The Warriors
The Wanderers

The Return Of Rothkoid

11:20 / 28.09.01

quote:Originally posted by Paleface:
Event Horizon was poo of the highest order. Some OK acting and concept spoiled by daft execution. Appalling.You're forgetting the naked Sam Neill bit, too.

Fuck.

Speaking of Sam Neill, though, I'll have to add in Death In Brunswick. While I'm not actually convinced that he was as dorky as the role required, it's pretty good - understated stuff. And in the bugfuck realm, I have to add The Abominable Doctor Phibes; despite the sheer cheesiness of some of it, the weirdness involved in the Doctor's biblical revenge plans is just awesome. And it's Vincent Price, innit?

Oh yeah; there's a flawed, but great triple-bill of Poe stories called Spirits Of The Dead (in the US). It's adaptations of Metzengerstein, Toby Dammit and William Wilson - not the most well-known of Poe's works - as directed by Fellini, Malle and Vadim. And it's great. Featuring a young Joan Fonda, Brigitte Bardot and Terence Stamp as a showstealing ennui-filled socialite, it's worth hunting out. (Though to keep it suitably genre-based, Vincent Price fdoes the voiceover for it.) It's not as much fun as Hammer's Poe films, (like Ligeia, especially) but really worth a look. I first saw it at about 2AM on SBS in Sydney, and have been sure to catch it whenever it turns up, ever since. Not a lot of blood, but psychologically, quite disturbing.

11:42 / 28.09.01

And it's Vincent Price, innit? – Rothkoid

Yes Indeed!

Madhouse is another freaky Seventies film he did, it's quite strange because it not only pairs him with Peter Cushing in an AIP/Hammer double team, but it also re-hashes old AIP footage in "clever" ways. And the Spider Lady...

13:28 / 28.09.01

quote:Originally posted by Vitamin-C:
i'm gonna have to go for L.A STORY. it gets me every time.

Yes!

Can't believe I left this one out! By far Steve Martin's best film, and if I remember correctly the critics just didn't get it.

"What's that noise?"

"Irritating isn't it? It's my damn testicles."

19:08 / 28.09.01

Here's something that apparently disappeared after I saw it a long time ago (will have to check the IMdB about it).
The film was called (IIRC) "Society".
The idea being that the upper classes are actually a cannibalistic, shapeshifting alien race getting high on human misery and frustration.
One of the most subversive Hollywood products I ever saw.
Was there Rob Lowe in it? I can't be sure.

Watching it back to back with "They Live" must be shattering.

11:08 / 29.09.01

Slipstream, Absolutly class sci of the first order.
Big Trouble in Little China, John Carpenter does martial arts action movies better than John Woo.
Vidoedrome. Debbie Harry, Orgainc grenades, the weird and twisted mind of Croneberg, It donse't get any btter that this.

14:58 / 29.09.01

Oh, man...I remember 'Society'. That was disturbing and pretty sick... but I couldn't not watch it...

Jack The Bodiless

16:15 / 29.09.01

Jeffrey - Film of the play, Steven Weber, Michael Weiss (who's incredible - anyone remember him from The Pretender, the X-Files/Quantum Leap hybrid TV series?) and Patrick Stewart. Guy terrified of AIDS falls for a guy who has it. Funnier than it sounds by far.

Trigger Happy - Jeff Goldblum, Richard Dreyfuss, Gabriel Byrne, Ellen Barkin, Kyle MacLachlan and Burt Reynolds, and more, in a surreal gangster movie in which the story may be happening, or may be all in Richard Dreyfuss' character's head. It's funny as fuck, especially Byrne's 'Brass Balls' Ben London.

Quick Change - Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Randy Quaid. The heist's pulled off without a hitch in the first twenty minutes, for a change. Now all they have to do is get out of New York.

Mallrats - I know, I know. Let's not get into this again... But I love it, hardly anyone else seems to, so it fits the thread desacription.

Hudson Hawk - It's supposed to be shite! And plotless! And over-acted, implausible and goofy! It was Brooce's idea! It's great!

Midnight Run - Who would have thought De Niro and Charles Grodin would make such a perfect comic pairing? Popcorn, but fucking good popcorn.

Primal Fear - Not sure if this counts as underrated, bearing in mind that it's Ed Norton's debut... but what a gorgeous movie. Hairs rise on the back of my neck when Norton makes the switch. Every time.

The New Nightmare - Genuinely creepy, references the first movie perfectly, and actually manages to make Freddy Krueger scary again, while apologising for the unbearable shiteness of most of the other movies, and incorporating said shiteness into the plot. Let down by truly awful effects in the last ten minutes, unfortunately.

Fallen - if you ain't seen it, see it. It's luvverly. Denzel Washington in a nicely effective horror-lite thriller, with a couple of incredible scenes.

[ 29-09-2001: Message edited by: Jack The Bodiless ]

17:19 / 29.09.01

I'm not sure if we're talking "underrated mainstream" or "arthouse" anymore... but no one liked Toys but me and my parents, and I channel-flipped onto The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love at 3am and thought it was fun, but I don't know if it's little-known or not -- I hadn't heard of it, and it was on the artsy cable station, so maybe it is.

17:58 / 29.09.01

Deva- I'll back you up on Lair of the White Worm till my grave, dammit.

I don't know how the critics took it, but I really liked Blood and Donuts, which I'm pretty sure is Canadian in origin. I thought it was sweet.

A couple months ago I got to see a screener of Tremors III, I think. Direct to video, hysterical, I'm not going to say any more because any quoting would flat out wreck it.

Another one I haven't heard anything about but which I thought was great: Ginger Snaps. A little Harold and Maude, a little werewolf, it's super.

Earth Girls Are Easy. It was damned funny, and there were musical numbers.

Batman and Robin. Heh, had you there for a second.

09:53 / 30.09.01

Brown's Requiem

IMDB link

09:53 / 30.09.01

Grant, "Brain Dead" by Peter Jackson - I'm fairly sure Jackson is a Kiwi. He made another movie with Kate Winslett, can't remember what its called, but it was pure horror.

I must second "Glengarry, Glenross" - what great fucking dialogue . . . great blokey cast.

Also, "Hurly, Burly" with Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Meg Ryan.
"Network", although winning Oscars, is a brilliant movie, packing a satrical punch that few 'satires' get near.
Another great satire is "Heathers".
I really liked the 'Cube', although wouldn't like to be watching it in a dungeon!

The Return Of Rothkoid

09:53 / 30.09.01

quote:Originally posted by agapanthus:
Grant, "Brain Dead" by Peter Jackson - I'm fairly sure Jackson is a Kiwi.Yep. He is. I was actually pretty impressed by the Winslet movie; Heavenly Creatures, based on the '50s Parker-Hulme murder case in NZ. Teenage sexuality, fucked-up fantasy worlds, and a final fifteen minutes that is utterly, utterly tragic. Horrific, I guess, but I think it's great - if he can wrench that sort of emotion out of the upcoming three...

I caught Hurly-Burly too - thought it suffered a bit from the "was a stage play and now has been filmed" thing; but that's a minor quibble, I guess. It's good to see Meg Ryan get thrown out of a car, occasionally.

Based on some DVD watching tonight, I'd have to add Rushmore to the list. It's a really touching story; sort of like a loser Ferris Bueller-meets-Bill Murray movie. And it's awesome. Serpico the school-produced stage-play, love and handjobs turn up in it, with some of the most wonderfully understated performances I've ever seen. It's rock.

Ag: you seen Cube more than once? Loved it first time, but started picking holes a bit on the second and third...

I don't know how the press treated it in the UK - I'd imagine it got a fair bit of coverage - but I went to a preview screening of Stella Does Tricks in Sydney (I don't even know if it got a cinema release, finally, as the opening kept being shifted back) and felt like I'd been hit with an iron bar. Savage stuff; complete life-fucking on screen. Not good if depressed.

[ 03-10-2001: Message edited by: Rothkoid ]

Jack The Bodiless

09:53 / 30.09.01

Ummm...

Tromeo And Juliet. Sorry...

09:53 / 30.09.01

i think i was possibly the only person to really enjoy plunkett and maclean...

Jack The Bodiless

09:53 / 30.09.01

Nonononono! I loved it. I knew I forgot to mention something. L'esprit d'escalier, and shit. And of course there are bound to be more I've forgotten.

The Return Of Rothkoid

09:53 / 30.09.01

Another one I've forgotten: The Boys. Loosely-based on real life, it's a look into some really, really seedy family life in Australia. Incredibly oppressive, with an incredible performance by the lead. Whose name escapes me now, which is bad, as he's my friend's uncle. Hmm. Anyway - soundtrack's awesome, as well: The Necks turned in something that sounds like contained, bristling menace. Very worth watching - don't know if it got a wide release outside of Australia, though I have seen it available on video here. Brrr.

Jack The Bodiless

09:53 / 30.09.01

Oh, Christ... The Saint (recent version). Just because I'm the world's biggest Leslie Charteris fan, and there's never been even a half decent adaptation or TV series, and Val Kilmer came so close to giving us the real Simon Templar in (only) two scenes.

And... talking of the World's Most Pretentious Bad Actor (TM)... Tombstone. His performance as Doc Holliday was perfect. He'll never come close to that plateau of acting again, obviously, but...

I'll be yo huckleberreh...

09:53 / 30.09.01

Rothkoid, the lead in 'The Boys' is David Wenham - a great movie, spooky Necks, as you say, and total fuckin' evil.
David Caesar, who made "Idiot Box", recently put out "Mullet", which was unbelievably good, hope it comes your way - some scenes were filmed around Kiama, Gerringong, on the NSW South Coast (one of my favourite parts of OZ), including footage from the famous Mick Cronin pub in Gerringong - Go Parra (it's Grand Final day here in Sydney, Brisbane Lions having won the AFL flag against Essendon, in a second half walkover)

PS. Your package is on way!

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