Movies you enjoy that nobody else does
Anyone want to offer movies they enjoy but nobody else seems to? I suppose you might call them "guilty pleasures", but I don't feel guilty about them. Sometimes weird crap appeals to you for some reason you can't quite explain. Maybe it's that there are ideas that in theory work but are implemented badly, bad casting that is still weirdly entertaining in some esoteric way, or a soundtrack that's honestly better than the film itself but oddly holds the whole thing together.
I'll go to bat for Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive. It's honestly a mess on film, but something about the combined schlock value of all the stuff going on made it weirdly endearing to me. There's plenty of memorable scenes, a great soundtrack (that musical sting when the machines attack somebody lives rent-free in my head), terrible but entertaining performances ("Curtis...is he DEAD?") to say nothing of the bizarrely inconsistent plot/gimmick with aliens causing machines to come alive. To me, it's the definition of "so bad, it's good" because clearly there was craft and intent involved, but when your co-director is cocaine (King admits he was deep in the depths of cocaine addiction at the time), the end result can be a wild card. I still watch it frequently after discovering it on late-night HBO as a kid.
My runner-ups are George P. Cosmatos' Leviathan and Paul W.S. Anderson's Event Horizon.
I love the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. It's so much weirder than audiences were expecting and I enjoy every second of it. I tend to enjoy everything John Leguizamo touches (I also loved The Pest), but you absolutely cannot beat the casting of Bob Hoskins as Mario. It's so on the nose. I love the weird creepy slime, I love the insane take on Goombas, I love the scene with the moon boots. 10/10.
I find the 1993 movie to be weirdly fascinating. I understand a lot of people hate it, but not having any emotional connection to Nintendo or Mario, I found it enjoyable as a weird melting pot of fun, goofy ideas. And yeah, Bob Hoskins is great as Mario. Similarly, Dennis Hopper as King Koopa is too weird not to enjoy.
It went through a ton of rewrites and you can find some of the rejected scripts online. We definitely dodged a few bullets even with the movie we got.
I saw it sometime in the mid-90s and was hooked. It was weird and didn't make sense to my 6 year old understanding of the lore, but that made it cool and uncomfortable.
I think it's become a cult hit that a lot of people simply enjoy these days, particularly because it is so unhinged.
There’s a fan-cut “directors” cut floating around online with unearthed deleted scenes, really been meaning to check it out
I always loved that movie, and now with the weird absurdist shit I’m into as an adult it makes sense haha
Super Mario Bros: The Morton Jankel Cut. It's up on archive.org at the moment. I watched it and the original very far apart but I didn't really notice a whole lot of difference. There is 20 extra minutes but a lot of it is rough cut and doesn't add a lot.
I have a very special place in my heart for that movie. I actually went out of my way to find and buy a copy of it on DVD so that I'd have it forever! My favorite bit of trivia is that apparently Bob Hoskins had no idea it was based on a video game, and his response when he learned that fact from his kids was "I used to play King Lear".
In a somewhat similar vein, I bought a copy of the 1999 movie Free Enterprise because of the absolutely buckwild version of himself that William Shatner plays.
I should really watch both of those again before I get rid of the last of my hardware that can even play DVDs...
I adore it too. I feel like people watch parts of it, go "this is nothing like the game, haha this is terrible!" and don't consider it on its own terms. It's such a wacky bizarre movie, like a fever induced nightmare. Everyone is committing to their roles fully, the set dressing of Dinohattan is incredible, the scale of the movie is huge, there was so much work the crew put in to creating the setting of the movie -- which is nothing like the game.
I got to see it recently on the big screen in 35mm at my local theater. Packed house that was having an absolute blast! There's so much fun (and weird) to be had watching it.
I very unironically love the movie. And not even in a "it's so bad it's good" way. I just genuinely enjoy the weird semi-realistic take on the series. Looking back, '93 was still very early on in the series life (World was the most recent game) and there wasn't really that much story to go off of. "Mario (and sometimes Luigi) save the princess from bowser" isn't much to go off, honestly. They made something truly weird, memorable, and entertaining with very little existing plot to go off of, so hats off to them.
Me too I love how weird it is! So much of it doesn't make really any sense. I get why they had to do it that way back in the 80s or 99s because cgi and all that other fun stuff didn't exist yet.
The fountain (2006) is heart achingly beautiful but seldom talked about still
While hardly a secret gem the first sicario movie is one of the best action movies ever.
Aaronofsky’s Pi and Requiem were the movies that really got me into movies when I as a young teen at the turn of the century. Seeing just what a movie could be instead of Hollywood stuff
When The Fountain was scraped, I was so heart broken. So when it did actually come back and come out, I had to see it - first time going to a movie opening night (mostly only ever went to the dollar theater before).
And man, did it live up to it for me. Just such a beautiful film, both literally and figuratively. I’m sad it gets a good amount of hate because it’s still one of my favorites - I was scared it wouldn’t hold up for me, but re-watching it as an older adult I still absolutely loved it
I followed the news and leaks for The Fountain with great interest, and also was also heartbroken when it was scrapped. And, while I adore the version The Fountain that eventually made it to theaters, its budgetary restrictions are readily apparent onscreen. Especially the scenes set in the New World, which can‘t escape that soundstage look.
But, you don’t have to mourn what might’ve been, because Aronofsky had a backup plan to turn his original script into a graphic novel. He talks about it in this archived interview:
The graphic novel came out right around the time the film released, and I don‘t it’s in print any longer. Used copies are kinda pricey, but Amazon sells a digital edition, too.
The Fountain is definitely one of my top 5 movies to date. It hits all the right notes in terms of cinematography, score, acting, story-telling, allegory. I just love it so much. And up until The Whale it was my favorite of Aronofsky's films (now they're tied).
The Whale was wonderful, but god was it emotionally exhausting. I’ll find myself thinking about it from time to time but I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again. ( I know that can probably be said about a lot of Aronofsky films. )
Haha yeah that's totally fair. That's how I felt about Uncut Gems. I think I would give The Whale another watch through, but I definitely need a year (or two) break before even considering it.
sorry to get off the movie track, but any time uncut gems is mentioned, i must share: the bear (fx series) is uncut gems in a slop kitchen (for the first season, at least). remember to breathe!
Oh goodness I'm not sure if I can handle that level of anxiety! I really want to watch the show, but Uncut Gems was so nerve-wracking.
Uncut Gems was brutal. Wife and I agree that it's a good movie but we both hated it. Caused so much anxiety from start to finish.
There wasn't a single likable person in that movie and I hated every character in it.
The sheer fact that I hate that movie so much is actually a testament to how well it was made. (and I hate that fact too, lol)
That's definitely Mother! for me
my man aronofsky, riding high after requiem, went full batshit with a love story about death. soundtrack still gives me shivers. my personal favorite of his.
Definitely not high cinema but Ten Things I Hate About You is one of my favorite films of all time and definitely my favorite of the teen dramedies of that era. The story is cheesy but heartfelt and there are so many great lines.
I don't wanna rain in your parade but 10 things I hate about you is an extremely popular cult classic with gen z (mwah). So a lot of people still appreciate it. Especially in the Seattle area (also mwah)
That makes me happy. It's much better than telling someone about a movie I like, but they've never heard of it, or worse they say, "Oh yeah, that came out the year I was born."
Because who doesn't want to run around Gasworks Park shooting paintball?
Am I that transparent? I want you. I need you. Oh baby. Oh baby.
This movie is etched on my soul.
I wouldn't exactly classify Maximum Overdrive as "high cinema".
I don't remember anything about the contents of this movie, but I remember enjoying it when I was a teenager.
I adore this movie. I've introduced so many people to it and they always underestimate how much they'll like it but they always end up loving it. It has such a special place in my heart and I've seen it so many times, I could quote it and know the soundtrack in order (a new romcom recently began with one of the songs from this and I instantly knew I would like it). Kat Stratford also introduced me to feminist theory so she's forever an iconic character for me.
I rather enjoy Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk. It's not perfect but I don't get why it was so panned.
I suspect it was so panned because people were expecting a lot more Hulk SMASH ... and not as much Hulk introspection on the nature of man.
I need to give it a re-watch. I remember enjoying it but also finding it utterly forgettable, particularly on the heels from Crouching Tiger, which I adore.
I didn't realize how much people (the audiences) love "Hulk Smash" until I saw the MCU Incredible Hulk, and then a few years later the first Avengers.
In the first, Hulk says his line "Hulk Smash" and the theater when apeshit. In the second, Steve tells Hulk to smash, and the theater again went utterly bonkers. Like in both cases, it was just an outsized audience reaction of joy, before we'd even gotten to action or results of the smashing. Just from the announcement of the smash.
So your thumbnail reaction of why Ang Lee's Hulk didn't connect might be onto something.
I feel like this one does not get nearly enough recognition as one of the earliest, decent Marvel adaptations—it’s definitely less mainstream than subsequent outings but it’s a great film, Eric Bana is so good at looking troubled lol, and the mutant poodles are only slight horrible lol. It is one of those where you can tell the people making it loved comics and movies, and honestly Hulk pre-MCU was pretty weird in general.
I am always internally shocked Event Horizon (1997) sort of counts (or does it? 6.6/10 on IMDb isn't bad). I find WH40K universe deeply poetic, and while the movie has flaws, it has the same heart.
Bloodshot (2020) was entirely predictable after the very first twist, but it was immensely fun. Almost Edge of Tomorrow kind of fun. I'm a fan of both concepts and see them related. I'm glad they're making a sequel. May even read the comics.
My feelings about Skyline (2010) are basically the same. Both are underrated.
But what really takes the cake, I'm sure, is Battlefield: Earth (2000). With its 2.5/10 and the irl connections, it's uh... difficult to defend. I mean, damn, from the costumes, to plot (?) holes, to casting, to characters, to character names... not good. And yet when I watch it I see what it could have been. Somehow, every flaw inspires me with oh-so-many ways to fix it, while a typical bad movie merely frustrates me.
The funniest movie review quote came from Roger Ebert about Battlefield Earth.
"The director, Roger Christian, has learned from better films that directors sometimes tilt their cameras, but he has not learned why."
Event Horizon has always been one of my favorite horror movies. It was actually the first horror movie I managed to sit through without having to turn it off partway through.
I think Event Horizon gets a better rep now, but I remember seeing it when it came out, and it was loathed by general audiences and critics for a long time.
Bit of a tangent, but I so wish critics were a more diverse group. Sometimes they're stuck in that narrow movie/literature/art analysis perspective, and while I'm sure it can help analyze a movie, sometimes it means they were never the target audience and have no clue. It doesn't necessarily help experience it as art—definitely not in a manner that would make their reviews useful. Then you get Rotten Tomatoes' Event Horizon at 33% vs audience's 61%.
I stopped paying attention to critics years ago. I used to be a snob about films who dismissed low-budget stuff like Troma until I realized there's nobody stopping you from enjoying whatever films you want. Now all a movie has to do is entertain me and not be insulting to your intelligence. Critics aren't the arbiters of what is and isn't good.
Some films are objectively bad (looking at you, Mac and Me) but many get a bad rap because film snobs feel they're 'lesser' for their content (look at how badly The Thing from 1982 was savaged in reviews of the period). There's a reason horror films never win Best Picture, that arthouse film snob mentality is still there.
Excellent example, and sadly one of many. Still upset about that.
I'm happy it finally got the recognition it deserved, but I'm sure Carpenter would have preferred it got the recognition when he made it. Same goes for Verhoeven's RoboCop and Starship Troopers; people didn't realize until decades later that they were ridiculous on purpose because it was satire.
Rather, the people who didn't get it at all (it feels obvious, though apparently it isn't) were the loudest at the time.
Not that today is much different.
I'd say that sentiment is worse in America, Land of No Self-Awareness. RoboCop was essentially how Europeans saw the US at the time, it made sense they would think it was ridiculous because they literally can't see the forest for the trees.
That would make sense. And honestly, as a European, I still basically see the US like this...
I think part of the reason people tend to disagree with critics, or feel a lack of diversity in opinion, is that there are so many that don't approach criticism from an "is it worth your money" perspective, and that's what most people are looking for when they look up reviews to decide if they should go see a movie. I get it, though. If you have to think about and engage with a movie to the extent of writing a thorough review (especially if you care about it as a line of work), you are separating yourself from the vast contingent of people who just see a movie to have fun and not get all philosophical about it. You also kind of naturally get more into talking about the medium the more you do reviews, so there's another separation from a layman's perspective. In the end, though, yeah, they don't provide a very utilitarian resource to moviegoers. They fundamentally aren't representative of the general population, and I don't think that's something that can really change much. I will say, at this point, I only really engage with reviews after I've seen a movie and had my own thoughts about it.
It also seems that some critics think every film should be Oscar-worthy or it's useless.
There have been quite a few times that I've seen a movie and then read reviews from critics and was left wondering if we saw the same film. The first such time was when The Matrix was released. it was a long time ago but I swear the day 1 reviews were widely negative for the original Matrix movie. This also made me aware of another thing that critics seemingly do.
Initially the reviews will be mid-negative about a movie right at release until it starts gaining momentum on its way to being a monumental hit at the box office. Then, suddenly, the reviews start getting better. Either the reviews are influenced by the box office numbers (afterall why would you follow a critic that dumps on every blockbuster?) or perhaps the early/day 1 reviewers are looking at it from a technically good movie vs an entertainingly good movie (think like lighting/editing/sound score vs "fun")?
Either way I stopped even thinking or caring about what professional critics had to say about things long ago.
I have to second Battlefield Earth. I understand it's a terrible movie but it hit at that perfect point in childhood. I just can't help but love it. I think the premise is just really fun even if it's stupid.
Battlefield Earth is my go-to rewatch. It's silly at times but looks cool and has great action.
Battlefield Earth is a rare achievement in filmmaking, because not only do I think it is terrible, but it actually (unintentionally) makes me queasy to watch it.
I thoroughly enjoyed Bloodshot, some really fun fights and character designs. In a similar vein, I really enjoyed Boss Level (2021) with Frank Grillo. Another fun action sci-fi romp IMO.
Just watched it. Exceeded my expectations several times in rapid succession. Good stuff, thank you for this recommendation—I don't think I'd ever find out about it otherwise.
Event Horizon is pretty good.
I especially enjoy when, upon seeing video footage of all the horrible things that happened to the original crew, the captain turns off the footage and just decides to blow up the ship.
Of course he's unsuccessful but it's nice when a character in a horror movie makes the logical choice instead of "hey let's investigate this further"
This is such a good, yet easily overlooked part. I hate "horror" movies about Natural Selection. There's just no way I'd find the victims relatable if they, for instance, hear a noise in the dark woods outside and decide to go investigate.
True horror is when you make all the available right choices, and still get messed up.
Warcraft (2016)
I have at times been a massive fan of the Warcraft series, including WoW (I'm 2 years free from its grasp so far). I really enjoy the lore and worldbuilding they've done with it over the years. So I probably should've hated the movie for screwing around with the Warcraft 1's lore. But I didn't! I absolutely loved seeing this world (of warcraft) I'd been gaming in for years brought to life. There were a lot of mistakes made in the creation of that movie, but I just loved it. Damn shame we may never get the an Arthas/Lich King movie because of how badly it bombed domestically.
This movie is on my long list of "This should've been a TV show instead of a movie".
They tried to shove tons and tons of lore and character background into a movie and ... didn't succeed. It worked if you had a casual knowledge of Wow, but you would be completely baffled if you knew nothing. And angry at all the changes if you were a superfan. Not optimal.
Being impatient and trying to cram years to decades worth of backstory into a film/shared universe immediately is a trap that studios fall into way too often, it seems.
The most egregious example is the DCEU. They were in such a rush to hit "Avengers" level money that they didn't bother to understand why that movie did so well. Only 2 of the members had their own movies released before "Justice League." Everything felt rushed and disjointed as a result.
Then there's the (1995) "Mortal Kombat" scenario where the first movie isn't overly ambitious (keeping itself pretty much to the first game), moderately paced and does well. Then the studio just threw everything into the sequal and like the next 4 games worth of story is shoved in there to awful effect. Annihilation was so bad it literally killed the movie franchise for over 20 years.
If Hollywood learns anything from the MCU I hope it is that fans are capable of having long-term memory and can be patient (as long as the product is good). This should be painfully obvious on properties like Warcraft which has been around since 1994. I imagine some alternate timeline where rich in backstory IPs like Warcraft get the MCU treatment--stand-alone origin stories for main characters in different movie genres (spy movie, heist movie, dark and gritty antihero movie, buddy cop movie, etc) making each one totally unique and fresh. Stay humble and realize you may need your "Captain America: The First Avenger" before you reach your "The Avengers" mega-hit.
I think one of the craziest things about the DCEU is that they were in a better position than anyone to jump in to the "story in progress" and just, decided to play copycat instead?
Marvel had to build up characters with origin stories because for the majority of them except for maybe Wolverine / Spider-man, the average person doesn't really recognize them or know their backstories. Which is why arguably the smartest decision of the MCU was to not introduce Spider-man with another origin story movie. Yes his movies eventually morphed into that, but they just had him show up in Civil War and didn't put out another 2 hours of the Peter and Uncle Ben show first.
DC, everyone knows who Superman / Batman / Wonder Woman are. My parents and grandparents and car-guy coworker could tell you their origin stories. There has been so much non-comic media about them that they're just in the zeitgeist. Not everyone is going to recognize all the other characters on screen, but if you just treat them like they should be there and show the main three interacting with them as equals / adversaries it could've worked just fine.
Absolutely. I'm still holding onto hope that we'll get an animated series some day. If not an entire retelling of the story of Azeroth, then at least an anthology series exploring different characters. Varian, Arthas, Thrall, Velen, Khadgar, and countless others all have really compelling stories that I'd love to see explored and expanded upon.
I think a big factor in Warcraft not doing well was the live action human half of the movie.
The orc half was done very well. Excellent CG, great performances, convincingly Warcraft. The human half on the other hand, at least to me, felt kinda hokey with less than stellar costuming/sets, and it felt like only some of the human cast was taking their roles seriously. Its runtime was also trimmed down a bit too much, which made transitions jarring at times.
Had it been fully CG with more enthusiastic actors in some human roles and a little bit longer it easily would've been the best game adaptation up until its release.
I've always been very fond of
Run, Lola, Run, but most people I know have never heard of it and the ones I've shown it to haven't enjoyed it nearly as much as I did.I remember seeing it years ago but don't recall anything about it. It was fairly big when it came out, but kind of disappeared after that.
I loved Run, Lola, Run! I was in art school so a bunch of us have seen it and many other less popular films. So I didn't feel alone.
I had to watch it for a class I took in college, and both myself and my then-partner enjoyed it, and I seem to remember my class's opinions on it being generally positive as well.
I had no idea it had maybe a middling reputation overall.
It's a well-crafted movie but I also think because of the frenetic nature of it, it's really not great to re-watch. The plot can literally be summed up in one short sentence, but the film is more about the delivery of the film and that's where it shines. An intense and well-shot film but it is a weak film for re-watching.
Luc Besson, the director of The Fifth Element, made an odd film in 2010 that few people talk about. It is The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec. I've always liked it, though it is one of the quirkiest movies I've seen.
It's based on comics by Jacques Tardi in case you didn't know. They're really good and worth a read.
I've always adored The Fifth Element and Leon. I'll have to give it a watch sometime.
I don't watch them often- for what I hope will be obvious reasons- but I've enjoyed a couple of video game adaptations, despite playing the superior video game.
First one is, Prince of Persia. Again, we're going for the fact that I personally enjoyed it, even if most people have tried to forget it, and will otherwise say it's not a great movie. Which I agree with, but i still enjoyed it.
The other movie is the Assassin's Creed movie with Michael Fassbender. Same idea: I don't deny it's not a great movie, but I DID enjoy it.
It seems to me that Fassbender is one of those very talented actors who can make any movie at least partially enjoyable. I'm excited for his return to acting in a few months! He's been on a kind of hiatus recently.
Hes been racing Porsche's. They made a documentary kind of series of his development, they are all on youtube I believe.
I remember liking Prince of Persia. It's fun.
I enjoyed both of those movies too.
Years ago, we had friends over and I got everyone hyped to watch The Phantom Tollbooth (1970). In less than an hour everyone was either asleep or on their phones. Even my wife was like, "Whhyyy are we watching this super old cartoon, again?". I was really surprised, I thought the movie was great but I guess it's another one of those that require nostalgia goggles.
I hyped up IT to my friend a long time ago. Before the remake was a thing. I told him how it was a very scary movie that was a huge part of my childhood and it made me frightened of showers and clowns.
He came over to watch the show with me and thought it was incredibly boring.
Honestly, I can kind of get how it was slow and boring. It's something you had to be frightened of as a kid I guess.
I saw it when I was 9 and thought it was cheesey.
The "spider" at the end had me and my younger brother laughing on the floor.
I think it might be more of an "are you scared of clowns?" thing.
I could be wrong.
I loved that movie! Also the book is one of my childhood favorites. I keep giving it to my nibblets every time one of them gets old enough to read at that level...I don't think any of them have read it yet, but I got three more little ones to go, so hope springs eternal(ish)!
No they just have bad taste. The Phantom Tollbooth is one of my favorite books of all time and the movie doesn't disappoint. It's the others who are wrong, not us.
Yeah, it's always tough when you hype people up for your fave movie and they all end up disliking it. It's why I now find it hard to discuss/offer favourite bad movies with people in real life.
Knight and Day. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. I think its fun action, funny, and there's never a boring moment in the movie. People either hate it or don't know it for some reason. But I feel like I can watch it on repeat.
I feel like the A-Team with Bradley Cooper is kinda the same way. I absolutely love it, but it seems to be mostly forgotten now.
Hey I like both of these too. Probably, largely, because I saw them as a kid.
The chemistry between Cruise and Diaz in Knight and Day is awesome.
I have on more than one occasion only partially ironically written an essay on why Knight and Day is the best action/comedy of the 2010’s.
Kind of sounds like my only partially ironic, constant arguments that Con Air is the greatest action movie ever made. I feel like I would like to read one of your essays.
I'd say the first three Spy Kids films, particularly the third. That one seems to get a lot of flack, but honestly? I just think it's fun.
I say that as someone who typically strongly values story and criticizes thin plots or bad writing, as well someone who hates kids movies that are stupid and obvious cash grabs that treat kids like idiots. Spy Kids 3 has a thin plot, and the special effects haven't aged well. But it's still fun. It's about kids entering a game world, with all the crazy levels and actions you'd expect from a game. The suits in the game feel unique and stylish, it's neat to see a badass grandpa, you have kids in most of the action roles, lava surfing, The Toymaker is a fun and zany villain—
All of it is just fun. Spy Kids 3 just taps into all the fantasies that kids have, and focuses on kids doing stuff first and foremost while leaning into some silly concepts without treating kids in the audience like idiots with no sense of taste. It got me all energized and excited to watch it, made me feel like I could play the game too. And it looks like most of the cast is having fun too.
Kids' movies don't need to be deep and complex, or have some moral. The most important thing for a kids' movie is that they're fun. I wish people would remember that, a lot of kids' films seem to forget that these days.
I never saw the sequels but I loved the first Spy Kids, completely wore out that VHS stale as a kid haha.
Your last point is one of the reasons I love the Star Wars prequels too — yes, 1 and 2 included. My siblings and I would just fast forward through the boring parts (for us that was basically just the romance scenes in 2) and enjoy the hell out of the amazing action set pieces.
Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, SLJ, et al were so freakin’ cool that even when they were just walking around gravely talking confusing politics and midichlorians it was awesome.
I don't know that I ever saw 2 or 3, but I adored the first one as a kid. And it holds up surprisingly well, based on the clips of it that have been dominating my FYP on TikTok lately. The CGI has that distinctly wonky early 2000s look, but otherwise I've still enjoyed the clips I've seen. A lot of decent humor, interesting plot, good character development, and kind of terrifying in a way? Minions that are literally all thumbs is both hilarious and slightly disturbing. And the agents-turned-monsters that appear on Floop's TV show are freaky.
Also as a parent, it's kind of funny to think like...what if the DJ Lance from Yo Gabba Gabba is actually a villain (or at least being being manipulated by one) using his TV show to create an army of robot children? I mean it's funny to me...You can't go years of watching these often mindless kids shows without coming up with some way to enjoy them.
Meet Joe Black
It’s always embarrassing to rewatch but there is just something about the film I love irrationally. It’s such a 90’s movie that has not aged well. The romantic chemistry is stilted and awkward.
But you get to watch Brad Pitt get brutally killed in the first few minutes and it always makes me giggle from the juxtaposition of the minute before it happens.
It’s such a great concept that falls flat on its face so many times. The soundtrack is amazing to me and the main score locks me into my first viewing immediately. Plus it introduced me to Somewhere over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole.
Obviously Anthony Hopkins steals the show and does what he can with the script. The awkwardness and ending always puts a smile on my face and it will always be my guilty pleasure at least once a year.
The man from Earth (2007)
I love the way this movie was done, it's just a group of colleagues sitting in a living room talking the whole time (also a scene outside the house), but the story the main character tells about how he's actually thousands of years old and that's why he moves away and starts over so no one will question why he doesn't age, it just pulls you in and makes you want to keep listening.
So many people will say this movie makes no sense or call out the mistakes they made and say it ruins it, but if you just let your imagination run wild for a bit it can be a really good watch, this is actually in my top 3 movies I would say.
I love this film, so low-key and understated. The premise is so interesting: a paranormal/supernatural story told as strictly an 'around-the-campfire' sort of narration.
I've not read anything about it regarding others' complaints, and frankly wouldn’t be interested to do so; I just like enjoying the story as told, imagining "what if?"
However I can't say the same for the 2018 sequel, Man From Earth: Holocene, which I found on Amazon Prime. I know I've watched it, and I recognize the synopsis, but for the life of me I can't remember it. That's a mark of its unremarkableness. I'd need to watch it again to remind myself of why it's so forgettable, but I've got so many yet-unwatched other films, and life's too short as it is (ha!)
I read positive reviews of it, but couldn't sit through more than about 30 minutes. I found the characters to be irritating. The main guy was okay, but the other teachers got on my nerves.
For another kinda similar "people sitting around talking" movie, I enjoyed Coherence (2013), although that one has low-visibility settings outdoors, as well as a few scenes in the kitchen. Totally different to TMFE though.
People recommend Coherence, but after watching it I feel they just plug it because they like the gut punch horror ending.
I found Coherence really boring and uninspiring. When I looked it up and read into its production, I figured out why. No script. Byrkit, the director, just had "ideas" and selected actors who could improvise if he gave them key notes to play with. This let him skip straight to the camera/pictures part, and ignore that pesky script thingy that gets in the way of the camera.
So most of the scenes are just the actors talking over each other, repeating things, a lot of incoherence. Even if that's what the director was going for (coherence, incoherence, nudge nudge) it still didn't work for me. The concept the movie was playing with (alternate dimensions) could have been interesting if Byrkit had let an actual writer spend even a weekend coming up with some sort of a script. In my opinion, obviously.
Miami Vice (2006) by Michael Mann. I enjoy the visuals, the realistic violence, the music and the admittedly "wooden" performances.
It was not well received by audiences at the time. Perhaps they wanted something more akin to the tv series, which was so popular when I was a kid.
I know many critical comments were aimed at the oddly detached "romance" between Colin Farrell's Sonny Crocket and Gong Li's Isabella. But for me I read it as: this is romance between two people that cannot let their guard down for even a second. Maybe this is what love looks like when you are surpressing your true identity? I dunno, lol. Probably reading too much into it.
The visuals are so beautiful, like those overhead shots of the cigarette boats cutting through the water.
Thing is I get why people wouldn't like it.... it's slow, the characters are not all that likeable. But I still enjoy it every time.
The immediate hurdle when I mention Miami Vice to someone is that they have a pre-conceived notion about Miami Vice the television show that is inaccurate. Most people think it was a cheesy 80s show with Don Johnson wearing a t-shirt and suit jacket, and that the movie must be some goofy / cynical studio remake like the A-Team.
Instead, the original television series was a gritty, violent take on police shows that often highlighted actual crime happening in Miami, and was a precursor to things like NYPD blue. It was executive produced by Michael Mann, who also wrote and directed the movie. More of a passion project than a studio film, and it was as heavy hitting and intense as Mann's other more-lauded crime films (Heat, Collateral).
Completely agree. I have a few seasons on DVD and it was gritty as hell, especially for tv at the time. I was just a kid but my very conservative parents made the exception for Miami Vice on Friday nights.
Yes there was the cars, the clothes and all of that, but the core of the series were some great stories with hard choices having to be made by our protagonists.
Not to mention a murderer's row of guest stars throughout the series and incredible synth work by Jan Hammer. Plus Edward James Olmos elevates everything he's in, Miami Vice the series is no exception.
Shyamalan's The Last Airbender. I watched the first season of the show and went into the movie. I did not think it was as bad as most people say, it was basically a Nickelodeon live-action movie the director made for his 10-year-old, and I felt it was an alright movie that only suffered from trying to condense 23 episodes of show into a less than 2 hour movie. I feel like adults who watched the show were mad at the movie and it became one of those great fandom circlejerks that infected the broader discussion.
As someone who watched the movie first then immediately looked to see if a sequel was coming out. I then learned it was a shitty movie and that there was a cartoon series it was based on. I can never hate the movie because it showed me the wonderful cartoon.
My mom thought it was great, at the time we joked that it was because the movie explained everything to her, but I guess it was inoffensive to those unfamiliar with the show and that's something valuable for adaptations of children's shows.
Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) - I have shown so many friends this movie, and no one has enjoyed it like I have.
I grew up from a very early age watching The Holy Mountain (1973) with my grandfather (seriously, I was probably 5 or 6 the first time he showed me). That movie is weird, excellent, and just wrong. Highly recommend it.
Edit: I also loved Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021) starring Nicholas Cage, this is by far his weirdest, strangest, most out there movie yet with just so many ideas happening all at once.
I really liked Beyond The Black Rainbow, but it's something I think is out of the reach of a lot of audiences. It's pretty damn weird. The director, Panos Cosmatos, is the son of George P. Cosmatos, who has directed some of my fave B-movies (Leviathan, First Blood: Part II, Of Unknown Origin.)
I appreciate the links!
Thanks man, I just added these to my watch list. I am a huge fan of the holy mountain.
Mission to Mars. It's not good but rather exceedingly mediocre but I love it. And Gary Sinise is always a treat.
The Postman. Heavily slated but there's just something about the story that I like. Dystopia man saves world by pretending to be a postman.
I often re-watch Mission to Mars, and Red Planet.
I love them both despite the fact that both are objectively bad.
I have nostalgia for them because I saw them in theatre with my friends in high school. There wasn't a lot of SciFi at the time so we'd take what we could get.
I'm the same with Mission to Mars. It's somehow so good. Looks like I'm going to have to check out Red Planet then!
The intro of Mission to Mars is pretty great, but I honestly don't remember anything else about it except Gary Sinise, and at some point Tim Robbins does his best impersonation of a popsicle.
Don Cheadle was left for dead on Mars way before Matt Damon!
I haven't watched the movie yet, so I promise this isn't a "the book is better" suggestion. But check out the book if you haven't. It's very, very good. Easily one of my favorite books I've read in the last few years.
I had no idea it was based on a book! Thanks, I've added it to my goodreads list :)
I love post-apocalyptic movies and Kevin Costner made a few I love, The Postman being one.
I don't hate Waterworld either. But not nearly as good as The Postman imo.
I can agree with that one. I think for me it's because I find The Postman more relatable and likely. And Tom Petty as himself doesn't hurt either. Lol.
I thought someone would have mentioned it but it seems I'm alone in this. The Crow, staring Brandon Lee, was awesome to me. The acting isn't great. The studio budget was low. The idea and the graphic novel was awesome. I really enjoyed the movie adaptation.
I loved The Crow. Damn shame Brandon died on set. He was great in it.
As a teen in the 1990s, I don't know anyone who didn't enjoy that movie. I saw more dudes dress as The Crow for Halloween than any other character until at least 2000. A pro Wrestler even stole the makeup and wore it for years.
I discovered Crow: City of Angels first, so it holds a special place in my heart. Both soundtracks are awesome and are in my regular rotation.
“Neighbors”, a John Belushi / Dan Ackroyd film from the novel by Thomas Berger.
Oh man, I haven't seen this in ages but for several years after it came out (or maybe after it first showed up on HBO) I thought this was one of the funniest movies ever. I loved how (at the time) Belushi/Ackroyd "reversed" what had up to that time been their typecast roles. Also, as I like to say, that was back when Ackroyd was still funny.
Last year's Skinamarink was that movie for me. One other friend and I thought it was the most revolutionary and downright piss-your-pants terrifying horror film to come out in the last decade, but I was super surprised that wider reception to the film was a lot of negative stuff.
It's for sure not for everyone, the film asks you to put yourself into an environment where you'll be immersed in it and many people don't go in knowing that. Watch it late at night, all the lights off, alone or with a quiet friend or two, and you'll be peaking through your fingers at the screen by the end of it. It's also a really good theater experience since that's already the kind of environment you're in. But, if you don't play on the films level, it will be an extremely different, and probably bad, experience.
It's also very slow, never gives any answers or conclusions, it's just pure child-like existential dread all the way through. It genuinely made me, a grown ass adult, afraid of the dark for a good two weeks after viewing and I still think about it's imagery (or lack thereof) very often.
But yeah, apperantly a lot of people did not connect with it the way I did and that's a big shame for me. It will still be my first recommended horror film to anyone looking for a scare!
I watched Skinamarink and I neither liked it nor hated it. It's ambitious, but it's also nearly two hours of staring at out-of-focus Lego blocks and grainy darkness with almost no dialogue or plot. That's not an easy watch for the majority of people. It was a bit unnerving and creepy, but I didn't find it scary. It is definitely what laypeople would think of when you invoke the term "arthouse film", which I think accounts for the negative response. When people don't understand something (or even attempt to), they just dismiss it as 'pretentious'.
The only movie that's come close to genuinely scaring me was Exorcist III, which despite the title (forced on it by the studio to connect it to The Exorcist, originally titled Legion after the Blatty novel) is honestly one of the creepiest horror films I've ever seen. All without blood and gore for most of the runtime. I recommend it to anybody who loves horror. That jump scare is the most effective I've seen in any movie, and it will stick with you for many sleepless nights afterward.
Yes, like I said it's a film that asks more than most of the viewer to really get into it. Sorry it didn't hit for you, though summing it up like that I think really minimizes the unique experience film has to offer for those who haven't seen it. It's special because of that grainy darkness, letting the viewer peer into the dark and asking them what they see as opposed to creating a monster that the filmmakers think will scare people. It makes the viewer go back to those nights they're almost to old to remember, when they were too scared of the dark to go downstairs at night, and too young to express that fear in any way but your imagination.
Experimental for sure, like I said it's 100% not for everyone, but I wouldn't discount it like that. If someone is willing to engage with it on the films level, they'll be in for a journey that you cannot get from any other movie. Obviously, I'm not in the majority opinion on that based on IMDB so maybe I'm also just looking too far into it, but I can't help myself but defend it a little lol
I haven't seen any of the Exorcist movies; I'll have to take you up on the recommendation! I'm making a list of things to watch come spooky season and that sounds perfect to add on.
Monsters can be scary, the problem is the people making the monsters now don't understand why they're scary. Mindless blood and gore like Terrifier isn't scary. Fear comes from the unknown.
For me, this movie used to be MacGruber. Every single person I knew who watched it thought it was stupid and awful.
At some point, people seem to have come around on it, and now it's considered stupid and hilarious. Kind of like Wet Hot American Summer. I guess it grew into a cult classic and in both cases they ended up getting TV continuations.
I like Will Forte but I haven't seen it. The bits he did on Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! are some of my faves.
If you enjoyed those, then I'd say it's safe to recommend MacGruber. It's not a particularly long movie but a real riot IMO. And if you like it then there's also the TV series, which somehow managed to get made against all odds.
I loved this movie as a kid. Everything you mention about it is great. I even had a miniature model of the ship that I kept on top of my dresser in my bedroom.
It was so disappointing to realize that it'd never get a sequel. I wanted to see where that escape maneuver at the end of the movie took them and watch the space adventures that ensued as a result.
Recently, Amsterdam. David O. Russell is one of the great American auteurs and in ten years time this is gonna get a better rep. It’s beautifully shot, the performances from Christian Bale and Margot Robbie are great. Really the only weak point is John David Washington, who’s always the worst part of any movie he’s in, and who’s character and story line would have been better served by Michael B Jordan who was originally cast.
Bubble Boy with Jake Gyllenhaal I think is pretty hilarious. Its fast, quick witted, and shows an early Gyllenhaal’s comedic chops, something he’d only bring out again later in his career..
The reason it doesn't have a good rep isn't because of the movie's quality. It's because David O. Russell is an abuser.
I thought I wrote about that when it came out but apparently I didn’t say anything about that.
But, yeah, the negative critical reception of it is because of O. Russell’s controversies. Which I think is annoying. But there’s a few of us that see through that.
The man is a serial abuser and has been for at least 25 years. According to Wikipedia here is some of his accolades. He has:
sexually assaulted his niece
assaulted Christopher Nolan
headbutted George Clooney and "shoved, pushed or humiliated people" on set in 1998
been sexist towards Lily Tomlin
in 2013 "He grabbed one guy by the collar, cursed out people repeatedly in front of others and so abused Amy Adams that Christian Bale got in his face and told him to stop acting like an asshole."
I'm sorry that you think his "controversies" are annoying but I find it worrying that you think it's a good thing to be able to "see through" it.
Here's another source to read about him: https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/david-o-russell-abuse-assault-allegations-timeline.html
I really disagree with the classification of Russell as an auteur personally. Watching American Hustle in the theatres was one of the most uncomfortable moving going experiences because no one seemed to have any idea when to laugh or if anything was actually intended to be funny. I feel like every film of his I've seen (SLP and Joy besides AH) has the same tonal issues.
Bubble Boy is such a fun movie. My brothers and I used to watch it every time it was on TV. I especially love Fabio’s cult group that wanted to save him.
I'll watch Margot Robbie in just about anything.
I love the Hellraiser franchise, or rather I have a love/hate relationship with it. Being a fan of Hellraiser (and The Hellbound Heart, the original book,) is a combination of pain and pleasure...
The book is much more well-written than the movies, but the first two movies did have a lot of elements that were groundbreaking for horror at the time - an older female lead/villain who was openly sexual, and BDSM (and sexuality in general) being used as a horror element. Unfortunately, those things were executed poorly in the films, with very little nuance. The whole concept is that the Cenobites tempt their victims with the full spectrum of pain and pleasure; Clive Barker intended there to be far more sensuality in the films, but the MPAA wouldn't allow it, and instead the film studio decided to just replace it with more obscene violence. I mean, damn, it's a horror movie about BDSM, and the MPAA wouldn't allow a scene with spanking to be included in it. Yet, they were fine with the countless scenes of human bodies being torn apart by hooked chains, so the films ultimately come across as cheap slasher flicks. There was no way for Barker to make much of an impactful or creative statement with the films, as much as he tried (when he was still involved with them.)
Despite all of that, Barker's unique take on horror still shines through in the first two films, and they are wonderfully strange films with great character design, fantastic special effects for the time (and budget,) and a lot of B-movie style charm. I re-watch the franchise most Halloween seasons, usually giving up somewhere in the middle of the franchise depending on my appetite for bad movies at the time.
It doesn't totally fit your original ask, since of course not everyone hates the films and some are considered cult classics. But I figured it fits well enough since the Hellraiser franchise is generally recognized as a joke, or at least it's seen as an over the top slasher franchise without much else of value to bring to the conversation. It is also one of the most obvious examples of a low-quality horror franchise that churned out absurd, direct-to-DVD films that have very little attachment to the original story. I believe there are more Hellraiser films that are just generic horror scripts with "Pinhead" shoehorned in, than there are Hellraiser films that were written to be about the Hellraiser story. And the bad films are really, really bad, some not even in a fun way.
The YouTube channel In Praise of Shadows has a fantastic breakdown of the strengths, flaws, and potential of the franchise. It's part of his series "Anatomy of a Franchise," where in each video he covers a different horror franchise. I cannot recommend his channel enough to people who are interested in films/horror/B-movies, how they are impacted/shaped by society and culture (and visa versa.)
I've been a Clive Barker fan for decades; I read his Books of Blood as a kid and he informed a lot of my horror writing and sensibilities since, because he wasn't afraid to go places other writers didn't have the stomach to. The Cenobites gave flavour to my own villains (which like the original Cenobites can't even really be considered "villains" in the traditional sense). I've seen all the Hellraiser films except the newest one which I just wasn't interested in, but my love will always be for the original film that Barker did himself.
The films after Hellbound definitely leaned into slasher territory, and Pinhead kind of turned into a joke similar to how Freddy Krueger changed over time from a really scary villain to a walking punchline wearing a bladed claw and fedora. I thought Bloodline had some cool ideas (I think Angelique is hot, I'm a bit of a ghoul I guess), and I'm interested to see what becomes of the workprint that Arrow Video is working on. I agree with you that a lot of the sequels feel like Cloverfield sequels; they took a generic script off the shelf, threw in some references to Hellraiser and called it a day.
I watched the new film, and it was a decent enough redemption from the previous crimes committed by the franchise. It doesn't resolve many of my complaints above, but it was well made, looked good, had great music, and was a genuine attempt at doing justice to the franchise, which is more than Hellraiser fans have received since the 80s.
If they make a sequel to the new film and it gets excellent reviews from fans due to improving on some of the issues the first one had, maybe check both of them out. Otherwise I'd say you're not missing anything particularly amazing by skipping it. (Edit: and because my main issue with the new film was that it is a good version of the older films, rather than being a good version of Barker's vision, it sounds like you made the right choice by skipping it, as a fan of his writing specifically.)
I've let go of hoping that anyone will ever make a Hellraiser film how I'd really want, but I'm open to seeing what they've got unless they start releasing the types of garbage movies they did in the 00s again.
Oscar
Not only have I met few fans of Oscar, I've met few who've heard of it. A 1991 comedy starring Sylvester Stallone as a Prohibition-era gangster going straight, and with Marisa Tomei, Ornella Muti, Vincent Spano, Chaz Palminteri, Peter Riegert, Tim Curry (among others) in his way. Critically panned, culturally unknown, but it's my all-time favorite movie.
The way you describe Oscar makes me think of one of my faves: Motorama, a forgotten 90s trippy dark road dramedy with Robert Picardo, Meat Loaf, Drew Barrymore, Jack Nance, Flea. It's so weird that more people should know about it, but nobody does. It used to be steaming on Prime but most of their films fall off quickly.
I love Oscar as well. I really enjoy how everyone is trying to get out on top of everyone else, all the meanwhile Oscar keeps getting pulled into events while wanting to go straight.
I love Oscar. It has an energy similar to Clue.
So this made me pretty curious and I exported all of my IMDB ratings, filtered down to just movies and then separately filtered all films with an overall rating <6.5, and those with fewer than 5000 votes. Then in each list I looked for films I rated >7, ignoring documentaries. It came back with a few films that clearly I enjoy and nobody else does, and one that apparently "nobody else" has seen.
Films I love with fewer than 5000 votes:
Films I love with low IMDB ratings:
Monsters was the very first movie I officially streamed to watch. I was captivated and fascinated by nearly every minute of the run time.
(Southland Tales was the second movie I streamed and I was left incredibly torn and conflictred by that movie--especially the ending)
Monsters was such a good movie. Supposedly they came out with a sequel but I haven't seen it.
The "sequel" (that I also haven't seen!) looks like much more of a generic monster movie.. but that could be a classic case of judging a book by its cover!
Congo (1995). Being based on another Michael Crichton book only a couple years after Jurassic Park came out I think this got an unfair amount of criticism. It's just good, cheesy 90s fun. And such an amazing cast! Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Joe Don Baker, also Joey Pants has an uncredited role, and of course the king himself Bruce Campbell... and you can tell they all had a blast making this. Its flaws are pretty obvious when I re-watch it but I still have a blast every time.
"STOP EATING MY SESAME CAKE."
I read the Chrichton novel as a kid after discovering him through Jurassic Park. The movie is hokey but I doubt people who don't like Chrichton's stuff would have liked it anyways. I thought it was okay, but I honestly haven't seen it in a while.
Also, I assume you're knowledgeable about RLM because of the Joey Pants gag.
I do follow RLM, but I think I first heard him referred to as Joey Pants somewhere else. Did RLM originate that or something?
They often refer to him as "Joey Pants" when he shows up in a movie they're talking about, specifically Mike.
End of Watch - I absolutely love that movie, it never disappoints. The bromance is fantastic.
Also I can never seem to get into any Wes Anderson movie, but the exception is Grand Budapest Hotel which I have probably watched 10+ times. The movie is perfect in every way.
Both of those were very well received both at the time and currently.
There's very few people I have yet to find that have even seen them. Certainly popular on movie forums etc. I guess
I haven't seen End of Watch, but The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is the only Wes Anderson film I think I've ever finished.
There's something about his films people seem to generally love but I just can't get into them. I've seen just about every Wes Anderson film once, but for whatever reason they just don't really hold my attention. I can't really say for sure why Grand Budapest Hotel captivated me so much but I go back to that movie at least once a year
They're a bit too artsy and colourful for me. I tend to gravitate to horror and science fiction films.
Megaforce (1982). I'm willing to bet that the cocaine budget for this movie dwarfed the production budget, but six year old me didn't care. The movie was made, as far as I can tell, to sell HotWheels toys, and I had all of them. Weaponized dune buggies, motorcycles that flew, and frickin lasers man! Watching it now is an exercise in restraint and fortitude, but it always brings me a massive dose of nostalgia. So I deal.
I've been meaning to see it after the name came up in various lists of unknown 80s films. The premise definitely sounds like a kid's show, like GI Joe or something.
It's exactly that. They're a military contractor for hire, fighting some nondescript force led by a mercenary commander. Loads of explosion porn and some incredibly interesting green screen work, combined with about 30 gallons of hairspray and enough gold Lycra to clothe a battalion.
Screamers (1995)
I haven't re watched it in a LONG time so I'm honestly not sure if I still like it. I do think about it a lot as an example of a short story turned into a movie as opposed to a book. IMO books rarely adapt well because of how much you need to cut.
Screamers is alright, I mostly like it because I adore Peter Weller, though. I'd recommend Of Unknown Origin which is another fairly obscure film that he's the lead in. He fights a giant killer rat in his house and it's way more entertaining than it sounds. The ending is pretty great.
Kyn Dza Dza
It's a soviet science fiction movie in which you, along with the two protagonists, have to learn just enough alien-speak to get by and hopefully back home. It's really funny, both in a slapsticky way and because it's clever. But it's pretty long, and most of the dialogue is in a made-up language, when it's not in Russian. Most of the folks I know are good with subtitles but for whatever reason can't do a long movie. The folks who aren't good with subtitles should steer far away.
What I enjoy is how committed it is to its premise. It begins pretty abruptly - two guys are on the street, a barefoot man approaches them, they touch a metal square, they're on an alien planet. From that point forward, they have to just figure shit out themselves, and you have to do it too. They meet folks along the way, and figure out what the hell they're saying and why they're doing what they're doing. The movie even takes time to show you a little glossary of terms about halfway through, keeping you up to speed. It isn't clear there even is a way home, but it's all they can do with themselves and the aliens already know how they'll treat a couple of outsiders (read: mostly beat them).
The entire movie is on Mosfilm's youtube channel, and there's plenty other stuff from that place and time there I've found really interesting. The environment for creatives was very different, and in some ways able to support projects that likely couldn't exist elsewhere. My understanding was moviemaking was at one point subsidized, on the condition of course the subject matter avoids a few particular things. Plenty folks ran with that. Tarkovsky is a director to check out if you want real serious-minded stuff. I was going to reply with Stalker originally but realized Kyn Dza Dza actually had a nicer overall impression.
Stalker is related to Roadside Picnic, and helped to inspire the video game. I got to it by way of that order backward - the game led to the book led to the movie. The movie is composed of long, slow shots to establish a really strong sense of place, and that place is somewhere people are not meant to be. I think that concept is the throughline of those works and the movie accomplishes it as well as the others, but if you're not like, really into how the film is shot or what the characters discuss, you're in for a real boring time.
I've seen Stalker as well as Tarkovsky's Solaris and plan to see The Sacrifice at some point.
Although beloved in the grand scheme of things, the Avatar movies are usually disliked in online forums. I like both.
In the opposite, I don't think The Batman is as good as people believe, and it is absurd to say it is better than The Dark Knight.
The Christian Bale Batman's were awesome! The Batman was meh, at best.
I firmly believe Magic Mike XXL is one of the best American films of the last decade. I haven't yet talked to someone who liked it, apart from my small circle of online friends I discuss films with, but even there there are a couple of dissenters.
I'll use my basic internet anonymity to finally admit that I found "Zoom" with Tim Allen rather likeable.
While certainly no masterpiece I did enjoy the twist on different super hero tropes and some of the "humanity" they gave characters..
Judging by the 4% on RT there might be dozens of us who like it..
I'm watching the trailer right now and honestly it seems like a fun, goofy super hero movie. It obviously doesn't have the best dialog or special effects, but as long as it's fun I don't think it matters.
Cats (2019)
I had a friend who is big into movies, and he watched it in theatres. He came back and got us interested and set expectations. We knew it wasn't going to make the most sense. So a group of us got together and went to the cheap theatre
For those on the fence, Cats is about gellical cars going to the gellical ball to decide the gellical choice, who gets to go to the heaviside layer. Do I know what a gellical cat is? No. Do I care? Also no. Do you want to watch a movie where Taylor Swift as a cat drugs a room full of people? If so, Cats is for you. Do you want Judy Dench to stare into your soul as she monologues about the difference between cats and dogs? If so, Cats is for you. If you are expecting a serious musical you will be disappointed. If you are expecting a nonsensical plot that barely makes sense being used to string together songs of cats introducing themselves, you may enjoy it.
Gellical! Musicals make me want to pull my hair out so I only interacted with the movie on the level of how terrible the CGI is.
I honestly do not remember the quality or the lack thereof of the CGI. I think part of that is due to my attitude and expectations going into it to not take it seriously, but to just have fun with it
One of my favorite comedies is Hot Tub Time Machine. I mostly wrote it off from the trailers, but I’ve now watched it countless times. Love all the 80s references. The running gag with the one-armed bellhop is great.
Shine
Watched this movie for the first time many decades ago in my high school music class, and since then have re-watched it a good dozen times. I am surprised not more people know about it.
Mister Beans Holiday. I remember the whole movie, I watched it so many times. I like these kinds of comedy movies and dont really understand why it has such bad ratings. It might be because nostalgia but I rewarched it like a year ago and I still liked it.
I've always loved Mr. Bean, but he can be very hit-or-miss for people.
The Greasy Strangler. It's like if Napoleon Dynamite was directed by John Waters. It's super weird and gross and I kinda love it. My wife hates it. I think most normal people would hate it as well. If you haven't seen it and are inclined to give it a shot, be forewarned there's a lot of gratuitous nudity, in the form of a ridiculous looking prosthetic penis, that is in a lot of shots. So... perhaps not the best family film.
I don't have kids or a spouse, so I watch whatever I want. I'm not exactly a stranger to gratuitous nudity.
Well, then give it a shot! I'm curious what you think about it.
I don't think I'm the only one who enjoyed it, because it has good reviews overall, but for the longest time I thought Martyrs (2008) was only a movie worth it only for the shock value because that's what most people usually talk about, however I was greatly surprised and it's actually a great movie with a very interesting concept and I was SO hooked.
So if you have ever been put off by people saying it's "sickening" or whatever (sure it has some rough scenes but imho it's not that bad) and you are not very easily put off, do give it a try.
Another movie that usually got bad reviews but I loved when I was younger was Halloween III: Season of the Witch which is usually considered the black sheep of the franchise, but I though it was cool. I'm also a fan of Saw and Final Destination which for many people, except maybe a few entries, are considered cheesy, cheap and bad.
Martyrs is a pretty nasty affair, but it's not as offensive as some of the other New French Extremity films that came out around the same time (Haute Tension, Frontière(s), etc.). I think I've seen pretty much all of them at some point.
Halloween III got a bad rap for its association with the Halloween franchise, I think. People were mad there was no Michael Myers. I think if it had been its own thing, it would have gotten a better reputation at the time, though people are now beginning to realize it's a pretty decent horror flick on its own.
Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
I know off-hand it wasn't a big box office earner, double-checked the critical response and:
And I don't really get it, I love that movie.
I think a lot of the attention it got on release went to the 120fps 3D 4K filming they did, mostly centring on the technical aspect of it. Lee followed it up with Gemini Man, utilizing (and marketing focusing on) the high fidelity aspect of it. Gemini Man probably makes a more natural fit for what you think a movie with absurd visual fidelity would entail -- a fast paced action movie. Billy Lynn is not that, its a war movie that centres mostly on these soldiers making their titular half-time walk, with little snippets of action from the Iraq War sprinkled in.
It's an anti-war movie, fundamentally, focused on the domestic aspect of a country at war. It's a parody of American thought towards the war and American society during the Iraq War, and I think it does an amazing job skewering it, while progressing through a character study of someone incidentally forced in to being a soldier.
The Blank Cheque podcast had a great episode on it (https://www.reddit.com/r/blankies/comments/9ibwbb/podback_mountcast_billy_lynns_long_halftime_walk/), with the hosts going out to see the full 120fps 3D 4K experience in a theatre. They did a better job of talking about the movie than I will, but come to the same conclusions: watching this thing in the highest fidelity possible brings this strange photoreal experience, going beyond watching a movie from a distance, and stepping in to being in intimate contact with the characters in the movie.
I think what did the movie in was a weird set of expectations set and marketing for it. It's a war movie, but its not really about the action. A lot of emphasis was put on the high fidelity aspect of its shooting, which is a huge positive for the movie, but not how most theatregoers would see it, and sets an expectation of it being more of a big epic action blockbuster. What it is when it comes down to it is a satirical book being adapted in to a movie, with the direct asides and eyewinks from the book left out. What you're left with is a character study of someone forced in to war, comes back a "hero", finds himself alienated by the society he comes from, and screwed over by people trying to use them for financial gain. I found it very touching, and left it a different person.
Robot Jox is a terrible 1989 dystopian futuristic film where the world issues are not settled by war, but rather by one on one combat with giant Gundamesque robots. Russia is the bad guy, the acting is terrible, tons of cliches, bad plot and shit effects, but I God damn love that movie. Almost no one I've ever talked to has heard about it.
Solarbabies is a 1986 film, also post apocalyptic dystopian future. The world has run out of water, there's apparently no parents and all kids live in a dessert prison like camp. They play a future variant of lacross against each other in gang like nomadic teams. Lucas Hass discovers an alien orb (think locnar rip off from heavy metal) and their quest to free themselves and restore the earth's water resolves in epic fashion... Everything about this movie is disjointed and priced together in editing but again I love this movie so much and no one knows about it.
I have digital copies of both is anyone really wants see, just message me.
I haven't seen your second pick, but I adore Robot Jox. It's really janky but the stop-motion mech battles are fun.
Oh man I'm so glad I'm not the only one who remembers this one. It's always crickets whenever I bring it up. Also you're right, flying rocket punch was pretty badass at the time.
Southland Tales. The director of Donnie Darko was given a blank check to make a dystopic thriller and ended up making a flawed and surreal comedy. Ensemble cast, soundtrack has some surprisingly wonderful choices. You're left wondering if so many of the choice lines are a put-on or for real. Explains a lot of the mid-2000's.
Oh yeah, and Speed Racer. Maybe the most digitally-composited movie I've ever seen; verging on a hallucinogenic art installation. Incredibly distant from the source material but that's alright, it kind of becomes its own thing.
I've never seen Donnie Darko but you piqued my interest!
I haven't either! You won't need to after you see Southland Tales.
Me and my friend really like American Animals, its a heist story based on true events
Everyone we tried to show it too didnt like it