overlooked/underrated gems

[ToyMan]

knowing you guys, we can think up some real doozies, here.

personally, right now, i'm thinking of "lifeforce". it certainly has it's weak spots, but i love how it blends aliens, vampire, and zombies. it has a few really great special effects sequences, and the small roles played by patrick stewart and aubrey morris are enough to make any film geek perk up. oh, did i forget to mention the near-flawless beauty of mathilda may? how silly of me.

[akiratubo]

The last hidden gem I saw was Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburg.  There is no bloodsucking, nor pharaohs, but it does take place in Pittsburg.  It's a gore film but with Airplane!/Naked Gun-style comedy.  It's actually a very good movie, good acting, surprisingly good plot, some of the gags had me laughing my ass off, good gore.  No nudity, though several scenes would seem to be set up to provide it, but that's fine with me.

Plus, Veronica Hart plays a fairly large role.  If you ever snuck a peek at your Dad's or older brother's porno movies in the 80s, you might have had a crush on Ms. Hart.

[Mr_Vindictive]

How about all of Uwe Boll's flicks?  And no, I'm not just talking about the video game films.

I will now run before the badmovies mob hunts me down and tortures me.

[odinn7]

Equilibrium
This movie didn't get near the respect it deserved.

[BeyondTheGrave]

odinn7 Wrote:
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> Equilibrium
> This movie didn't get near the respect it
> deserved.
>
>

Very true. I rented this one not to long ago because of what people here on the board were saying about it. I really liked it myself.

A reason why I don't think it got alot of respect it because it came out during the the Matrix craze were movies were starting to copy cat it. This one got chalked up as a knock off and basically no one saw it. I still don't know alot  people besides the board who have seen it.

[dean]

Ha! As I was reading the name of the thread, my first thought of an underrated gem was also Equilibrium!

Must be true then...

[Neville]

I can think of several noirish films I've recently added to my collection.

1) Cop (1988), an adaptation of the novel "Blood on the Moon" by James Elroy, much before he became famous with "L.A. Confidential". Elroy's book is an attempt to build a rogue cop a la Dirty Harry, and the plot anticipates many of the traits of the Cop vs. Psycho that would appear like rats after Thomas Harris' success. The movie is more a vehicle for James Woods, who plays the main character, but it is as trimmed, morally ambiguous and nasty as any film of this kind can be. Woods is fantastic, and the 80s cinematography and music add a lot to the film.

2) "Heaven's Prisoners", a 1996 film starring Alec Baldwin as a retired cop  who needs to get back into the streets of New Orleans to find out what's hapenning around him. It's not a perfect film, as it is, for instance, a bit too long, but it is otherwise a very competent adaptation of the James Lee Burke novel in which is based. Dialogues are fantastic.

3) "Twilight" (1998), another noirish film, this time starring an aged Paul Newman as a PI who keeps an eye on a couple of old friends, only to find himself into trouble again. The plot is standard Marlow fare, but the cast is great (the film also features Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, James Garner and Reese Witherspooon) and the direction is also very good. Watch for some great dialogue as well, specially the final exchange between Newman and Garner.  

[BoyScoutKevin]

My list of overlooked/underrated gems comes courtesy of America's film critics. Each of the films listed made both the critics' "10 Best Films of the Year" and "10 Worst Films of the Year" for the year in which they were released.

And in the order in which they were released, from newest to oldest . . .

Brotherhood of the Wolf
Moonlight Mile
O Brother, Where Art Thou
Snow Falling on Cedars
Beloved
Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas
Bram Stoker's Dracula
The Fisher King
Vampire's Kiss
Lair of the White Worm
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Mission
Return to Oz

[ToyMan]

BoyScoutKevin Wrote:
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> O Brother, Where Art Thou
> Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas
> Bram Stoker's Dracula
-------------------------------------------------------

those three stuck out as films that really wouldn't fit on the list, in my opinion. i don't think it's really fair to call any of them "overlooked" or "underrated".

[Mofo Rising]

My vote goes to a movie called ANGEL OF THE NIGHT (or NATTENS ENGEL), a Danish vampire flick from the improbably named director Shaky Gonzalez.

Put simply, the film is what the FROM DUSK TILL DAWN sequels should have been; fast, funny and violent.  The dubbing is pretty bad, but the film looks surprisingly good, considering what the budget must have been.

I picked it up off the shelf knowing nothing about it and was surprised by how much I enjoyed the damn thing.  Usually when I do that I predict pain, so it was a pleasant surprise.  I don't know anybody else whose seen this movie.

[Dr. Whom]

What about Event Horizon. Sure it had a pretty dodgt premiss (hell dimensions with warnings in Latin are more something for Buffy that for SF). However, it was convincingly creepy and both Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne were quite good. Also, the ending wasn't your average ghost ship story.

[akiratubo]

People keep telling me Event Horizon was atypical in some way, but I found it to be an incredibly typical sci-fi horror movie.  There was not one moment I didn't know exactly what was going to happen, I knew exactly who would survive at the end, and I even knew they'd stick on the dream just before the credits.

If anything, IMHO, Event Horizon is an *over*-rated movie.  It isn't bad per se, just more of the same with nothing to especially recommend it.  (Except Sam Neil.  Anything with Sam Neil is worth seeing once.)

[Neville]

Maybe it's not original, but I found it to be far more effective (specially on the big screen) than many people say. It's not a personal favourite, but I think it's underrated myself.

[ToyMan]

i just saw "dreamcatcher" on television yesterday, and i thought it was surprisingly good, so i'd put it in the "underrated" folder.

[Fearless Freep]

My vote goes to a movie called ANGEL OF THE NIGHT (or NATTENS ENGEL), a Danish vampire flick from the improbably named director Shaky Gonzalez.

Saw it last week.  Low budget and poorly dubbed but suprisingly energetic and fun