In other words: What’s a hidden gem I probably haven’t seen but totally should? And why is it a must-watch?
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Flight of the Navigator
Thunderpants.
Rustlers Rhapsody. A comedy western that mixes eras and has a genre savvy protagonist.
Late to the party but didn’t see it listed yet.
“But, it’s for school…”
Shows how wrapped up people become in their own stories they become totally disconnected from what’s happening around them. Sheriff doesn’t realize his son is kidnapped Bunch of teens run around with a kid they’ve kidnapped, even tell one of their moms, who gets too wrapped up in who his mom knows to take it seriously.Jamie Bell, Camilla Belle, Justin Chatwin, William Fichtner, Allison Janney, Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Carrie-Anne Moss, Rita Wilson, Rory Culkin
We saw it back when it was “new to dvd” desperate to see something new at the time, and have gone through a couple copies now because it doesn’t come back when we lend it out. Happy to spread it though!
My favorite: Stranger than Fiction
Also, Fandango, Passengers, Life or Something Like it, Birdy, Home Office
Some can be hard to find.
I give you lesser known movies that also have popular actors! (And I think they’re very good)
“With Honors”
“Renaissance Man”
“Regarding Henry”
Iceman is a 2017 German-Italian-Austrian adventure drama film written and directed by Felix Randau. It is a fictional story about the life of Ötzi, a natural mummy of a man discovered on 19 September 1991 in the Ötzal Alps.
The film, which was filmed in the Tyrolean and Bavarian Alps features almost no dialogue, with a minimal amount in untranslated language based on reconstructed Rhaetian, created for the film by a linguist.
@original_reader I feel like no one talks about Deerskin, which was an excellent low-key comedy/horror/satire/weird-ass film from a few years back.
Perfume: Story of a Murderer
The book is so much better.
The Nice Guys
Jacob’s Ladder.
A largely forgotten psychological horror film from 1990 with Tim Robbins and Macaulay Culkin.
Saw it on TV once by chance and loved it ever since.
I’d say it’s must-watch for being influential despite its moderate success and being incredibly gripping as you try to get your head around what’s actually going on.
Rubber.
Cashback I feel is pretty unknown. Maybe not but still very good. Also Gentleman Broncos is fantastic if you’re into the napoleon dynamite style of comedy, same creators.
Rampage, it’s such a good popcorn flick. It’s so over the top that I wouldn’t blame you for writing it off without watching it, but give it a chance, it’s ultimate action silliness.
Cabin in the woods, its a top 2 horror satire, but you may have heard of that one
Tucker and Dale vs evil, maybe watch this one before cabin in the woods, it’s the best horror satire.
Galaxy quest, easily the best star trek movie ever made, one of the top 5 movies ever made.
I’m not sure how many of these are hidden gems, it depends on your viewing habits (not many people would consider horror to contain much good cinema)
Yeah. Tucker and Dale vs Evil still gets way too little love.
It’s a must watch because:
- The twist is perfect.
- Even after the reveal, it’s just so dang fun and hilarious.
- Horror movies with a deep respect for life are often the best horror movies. Tucker and Dale has that, even if in a stupid goofy way.
“We’ve got your friend!”
Officer, we have had a doozy of a day!
Highly recommend that you go in to watching Tucker and Dale versus evil without looking up any information on the movie. Watching it blind is the best way because the less you know about it the more it will entertain you.
So many, so very many, classic lines to be found in that movie.
Watching it blind is the best way because the less you know about it the more it will entertain you.
Yes! I just tell friends that it’s a horror flick, and a rollicking good time.
As a horror fan, I disagree.
The premise gets old fairly fast and then the twist doesn’t really add anything or accentuate the spoofiness, just makes the film more generic.
If you’re a fan of a certain era of teen slashers, sure go for it.
《Little Monsters》 and 《The Rise of Leslie Vernon 》are recent takes on horror films I personally prefer.
I know that downvotes are not disagree buttons but I was strongly tempted to downvote you because I disagree with you so vehemently.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil is a brilliant film. As someone who quickly tires of being exposed to repetitive information, this movie is easily a once a year re-watch for me.
I’m glad you like it, as I think Mr Tudyk is grand I like to see him in things.
It’s just not for me, and seeing a film I felt to not live up anything close to the hype always praised I felt compelled in this case to show a dissenting opinion.
You do you and enjoy it annually.
Well, yeah, as a horror fan it’s likely a little too spoofy to be terribly engaging, but it sounds like you might specifically be ‘not’ a fan of that.
If it’s never occurred to you to label yourself a horror fan, but kind of like movies in general, you’ll probably get a kick out of it.
I dunno, I credit Scream with getting me into horror, and it’s hardly a genre known for being not-silly. Guess it’s a little more thinky though.
Braindead is brilliant, as is Army of Darkness and What we Do in the Shadows, which is not horror, but is silly.
filled in depth discussion:
I think my main issues with TdD Vs. E is that I didn’t feel any chemistry between Dale and the girl, which seems like it is meant to be a core part of the film. And then, after a good set up the second half of the film feels very paint by numbers, what happens and where they go dictated by genre tropes rather than what their trope inversion story needs.
It’s probably just a comment on the way that slasher film protagonists don’t get PTSD and keeping the film light, but the girl really doesn’t seem to care much about her friends dying. And never has her relationship with Dale challenged by anything.
Then the antagonist being revealled to be the son of a hill billy and that that’s probably why he’s really a slasher villain undermines what was more him being a prejudice burk leading to his maybe friends dying.
There was a lot of potential with it, but I feel the film decided to inverse a tropey premise and then rather than fully investing in that scenario - hillbillies surrounded by fatal accident prone horny teens - and taking letting its results grow organically, the rest of the script just reached for as many slasher tropes as possible to cram in to make sure the “satirical take” part wasn’t subtle, so even a bat with a blindfold and earmuffs on would be sure to “get the joke”.
Tudyk and the other guy had great chemistry and their relationship worked, I just found it the only thing to make finish watching the rest of the film, and in the last 1/3 they get previous little screen time together.
Once the core conceit of the film is obvious, it doesn’t do anything new, exciting, or interesting with it - just gore for its own sake. (Edit: this is probably exactly what you meant in your post by “too spoofy”, so yes. You’re right, it is and I am. Sorry it took me too long to clock your meaning. As Soccy himself told us “written words are hard”.)
Now maybe I’m missing that the flat romance subplot or nature of the killer, along with gore without substance are high brow meta critiques on the state of horror at the height of the slasher era… And sure, I can dig that. But if you make a film that’s deliberately weak in areas as a joke or comment on other films’ weaknesses, you’ve still made a film that’s not going to hold folks attention.
That said, clearly it’s a very popular film amongst a lot of folks so it’s probably me in the minority here. Thanks for giving me an excuse to organise my thoughts and present them. It feels better to get them out of my head in an organised way, and I’m glad you enjoy it as Alan Tudyk getting work that is a success is only a good thing.
So enjoy it, and don’t care what I say. But for those of you who felt it was missing a little something… Well know you’re not alone.
By Grabthar’s hammer, what a list!
Barring Rampage these are massive cult classics.
Which is generally defined as a lesser known movie that people consider worth watching?
Cult movies are well known but didn’t make money at the box office.
I will preface this with it’s not going to be for either of us to decide, there are plenty people with plenty more intelligence who have debated this topic, according to Wikipedia: “The difficulty in defining the term and subjectivity of what qualifies as a cult film mirror classificatory disputes about art.”
However the general definition according to Google has nothing to do with it’s box office success,
“A cult classic is a movie or other work that has a devoted following, but is often not well-known or popular with the mainstream.”
Further on,
"The definition of a cult classic can be difficult to define, and there are different interpretations. Some definitions include major studio productions, while others focus on more obscure films. Some definitions also exclude films that have been released by major studios, or that have tried to become cult films. "
So it’s open to interpretation, and I’m going to stand by my list, and reinforce the notion that even if they are cult classics there’s a good chance someone looking for movies might not have seen some on this list.
They are good movies. I’m not reading all that over such a slight disagreement, hope you have a good rest of your day if I bothered you with my comment.
(don’t want to edit my post so adding another in the reply)
Another somewhat mainstream movie that was very easily missed, “forward unto dawn”, if you know much about the Halo universe you’ll know this story pretty well, but if you’ve only heard of Halo in passing this is a great place to start (and probably stop unless you’re going to play the games or read the books) the series.
Repo: A Genetic Opera
I own Repo on disk and watch a few times a year ❤️
