Movies that fly under the radar
 

I was thinking about this during class today.

I was going to rent Blackhawk Down tomorrow and I got to thinking how much I love that movie. I was talking to some other friends, and have talked to others before, and everyone loves the movie. However, no one I know owns it and it didn't do a huge box office, didn't get huge press. Its just there, but whenever someone mentions it everyone I know think its the greatest thing.

So it got me wondering, what movies do you and your friends love that no one ever talks about? Movies like Swingers or Clerks don't count, since everyone always thinks of those as low key movies that are huge. What movies are there that everyone you know really likes, but its just kind of there, not really cracking top 10 lists or even top 50, just for the sheer fact that no one thinks to include it.

I brought up Quiz Show a couple months ago as I had just seen it on cable and there were a few people that posted in the thread who all liked it.

Office Space (just watched it again tonight)

Yeah, I'll second that. Quiz Show is one of my favorites.

Black Hawk Down made over 108.5 million dollars in the U.S. alone...not sure I'd say that it didn't do huge box office.

A movie that me and my friends love that nobody ever talks about or seems to have seen (except here at FOFC) is Mulholland Drive. 7 million box, but probably was the best film of 2001.

I loved Mullholland Drive too, but it wouldn't have been quite as good w/o Naomi Watts having her fun...

Office Space is pretty well known, its often referenced in my classes for no apparent reason.

Office Space did nothing at the box office or even on video when it 1st came out I don't think. There was an interview with Ron Livingston about it on a site last week I think.

Just a couple that I can think of off the top of my head -

• Willow
• The Big Lebowski
• Galaxy Quest
• Oh Brother, Where art Thou?
• American Psycho

Not really sure if these all qualify, but they're movies that I have really heard nothing bad about, that didn't really get all that much publicity.

easy......

American Movie. Just classic....

In addition to some already mentioned (BlackHawk Down/Office Space, both of which I own) most of these are movies me and my friends like, but I haven't heard mentioned much outside.

Victory
Enter the Dragon
Boondock Saints (well, not at this forum)
Blow
Princess Bride
Private Resort

Couple of my favorites that I don't hear bunches about

True Romance
Spun
Big Lebowski
Titanic(just making sure you read)

I think that the two main subjects are the absolute gold standard for unintentional comedy. That really was a great movie.

edit: changed characters to "subjects" as it was a documentarty, not a work of fiction.

High Fidelity
Gross Pointe Blank
Say Anything

You know, you should probably take that John Cusack poster down. It's just not right for a grown man to have one of those. ;)

dola.... (almost)

here's the original thread:
http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/for...ead.php?t=9074


It comes in handy when I need a few selections from Columbia House....

I really liked the movie where Dennis Quaid's dad dies in a fire and he picks him up on his ham radio. I know the title is something like Radio or transister or something to do with radios but not the movie with Cuba Gooding. I really like Andre Braugher (sp.) in it and never really understood why his career has never really taken off.

EDIT: Frequency

I'd second Galaxy Quest and American Movie. Both excellent choices.

A few of my own:

Buffalo 66
City of the Lost Children
When We Were Kings (documentary)
Three Kings (a bit better known than the others)

Quaid was the dad in the flick, but it is one of my favs.

I freaking love My Blue Heaven! That is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen! :D I would definitely say it's "under the radar."

Some of my faves that don't get a lot of hype or end up in the $4.99 DVD bargain bin:

187
Krull (it's cheesy but I loved it)
Hitler: The Rise of Evil (was TV special, best Hitler biography I've seen so far)
Blindspot: Hitler's Secretary (for WWII history buffs, another interesting perspective)
Crimson Tide (what is it about sub dramas? they just make for compelling movies, Hackman vs. Washington is intense as hell)
Field of Dreams (didn't exactly avoid attention but I've never though this move got its proper due, might be one of the few movies thats ever made me cry like a baby at the theater)
Westworld (See Krull :D )
Deathrace 2000 (See Krull :D )
Logan's Run (See Krull :D )
Gallipolli (before Braveheart and Passion of Christ, there was another moving Mel Gibson movie)

Almost Famous?

And where he could actually act ;). And it didn't escape attention, really :D.

You didn't think he did a good job acting in Braveheart? I know I was ready to lift my kilt and moon the English after watching and listening to his speech. :)

Ever seen Dark City w/ Kiefer Sutherland? I enjoyed it, even though it confused me the first time. Sci-fi type movie.

AgPete: He was decent, but nothing which really lifted my head up and say "Give that man an Oscar!" The movie was great, but that speech was blatant rah-rah cheesiness ;).

I've never seen it but I read somewhere that the Matrix ripped it off.

The one and only Vincent Price in The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again, two "horror" films that are so "unscary" that they should be classified as comedies. Vincent Price was the man though.

Dark City came out before the Matrix, and has similar themes, ideas, and villians, but both were filmed around the same time. I think they were both interesting in their own ways, but Dark city had a more stylistic feel, whereas the Matrix had the better action via the choreography.

Dola, two of my favorite movies that were well recieved by critics and people I've talked to, and yet didn't do that well at the box office:

Wonder Boys
Almost Famous(which was mentioned above)

Darkman
The Rocketeer
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
UHF
Singles
With Honors
Iron Eagle

The Citidel
Once Upon a Time in America
Best of Times
Southern Comfort
Mothman Prophesies

Buffalo 66 is great, esp. since his new stuff is nearly snuff.
City of the Lost Children is good, but his first movie Delicatessen is a lot funnier.
The Dark City dvd is good because it comes with commentary by Ebert to help make sense of it.
Here's a few off beat ones I liked:
The Good Girl
George Washington
Rabbit Proof Fence
Tully
Stevie and Murder on a Sunday Morning (doc's)
These movies take place mostly outside, away from the studio and computer generated mode.
BTW, if you haven't seen It Happened One Night (1934) you should, every romantic/road trip comedy is a rip off of this Best Picture

What about

Dead Poets Society
Clue (everyone I know refuses to buy it, but whenever it is on, they have to watch it)
The Private Eyes (My wife hooked me onto this Don Knotts and Tim Conway movie)
Ninth Gate (Johnny Depp does a good job, Movie rocks, Ending Sucked though)
Double Jeopardy
Watership Down (Cartoon, done by the same company that did the cartoon version of the hobbit, however, this one follows the book really closely)
Full Metal Jacket


Older Classics:
Guns of Navarone
Tora Tora Tora
Dirty Dozen (One of my all time favorites, I always have to watch it)

A few of my favorites that were never really popular:

- Dead Poets Society
- The Changeling (My favorite under the radar movie ever)
- Tucker
- Princess Bride (mentioned above, is similar to Office Space. It wasn't very popular when it came out, but has earned notariety over time)
- Manhunter (prequel to Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal Lecter's first appearance, stars current CSI Gus Grissom (William Peterson)) {This was re-made as Red Dragon not too long ago - the original title of the book.}
- The Last Boy Scout

You know your movies, bro.

Their (all three were made by Jeunet AND Caro) first movie is "Le Bunker de la dernière rafale" not Delicatessen. But I agree Delicatessen is their best movie.

I thought Blackhawk Down was a huge hit, as was the book before it. Didn't Jerry Bruckheimer make it? I don't think anything he does can be considered low key.

Slacker
Being There
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Down By Law

I am putting together kind of a 'American History" lesson for my kids thru movies. The criteria: I want to cover as much history as possible with as few movies as possible, events need to be real although characters can be fictional.

Here's what I have so far: 1. Last of the Mohicans 2. The Patriot 3. The Alamo 4. How the West Was Won 5. Eight Men Out 6. Seabiscut 7. Tora Tora Tora 8. Midway 9. Patton 10. The Right Stuff 11. (maybe) Forest Gump to round it out. What would you do different?

The Patriot. You mean the Steven Seagal one? ;)

Two movies from my all-time top 10:

The Name of the Rose
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

I absolutely ADORE the Name of the Rose. Of course it is hard to go wrong with Mr. Connery. Another couple of lower key movies that are very good:
Secretary
The Hidden
The Hudsucker Proxy (THE best Coen bros movie ever!)
How to Succeed in Business without really Trying
Wake Island(really not low key at the time but it has been a while...1942 I believe )
and a very underrated Best picture winner
The Best Years of Our Lives

Suicide Kings has a great all around cast.

And, yes the Matrix completely ripped off Dark City. I think they stole the phone scene word for word. It is a shame that Dark City does not appear on more peoples monitors. Don't feel bad when I saw the Matrix 2 all I could think of were Jet Li's fight scenes in "The One".

For shear joy of a terribly rated movie I must admit that I laughed my ass off to Kangaroo Jack when it came out on pay-per-view.

Oh, and a couple more. Both Tarantino's

Resevoir Dogs
Four Rooms (Tim Roth at his best)

Bubba Wheels: It seems to me that war moments are not all that unique, and certainity don't account for the greatness of the US. IMO, you should show the kids more movies of people and events outside glorified battles.
A few humble recomendations:
(As mentioned) Best Years of Our Lives
Grapes of Wrath
In the Heat of the Night
Giant
As far as the war movies go: Glory and All Quiet on the Western Front could lead into some great talks

I appreciate the input. I think though, that world war 2 was the defining event in U.S. history, with the isolationists being discredited and the U.S. being vaulted into the role as defender of democracy during ww2 but also as protector/defender of the free world afterwards.

The three movies I picked then, I feel highlight the three most important phases that the U.S. was involved in. Tora Tora Tora was obviously the trigger event that got us involved, Midway was actually the 'end of the beginning" where the U.S. stopped Japan's advancement and began the 'beginning of the end," where historians generally agree that Japan could only hope to keep from losing afterwards. Patton for numerous reasons, he symbolizing America's transformation from green disorganization (Kasserene Pass) into the most disciplined, well trained and equipped army in the word at the end (very much leading into the cold war role the U.S. took on afterwards)

Seabiscuit covers the same territory as Grapes of Wrath (thought about that one), without some of the leftist slant though. Heat of the Night and Giant are interesting choices. Forest Gump would cover more ground up to the present though (including Vietnam). Best Years of Our Lives I know is a classic and will have to see that one again. Thanks! :)

Some of these choices are great. If I was to do something like this, I probably would include:

1)Revolutionary Patriot (especially for the French and Indian War references)
2)Post Revolutionary period Amistad
3)Civil War Gettysburg
4)Manifest Destiny How the West was won
5)early 1900s Yankee Doodle Dandy
6)WWI Seargant York
7)Depression/ more manifest Destiny Grapes of Wrath
8)WWII Patton( more time coverage)
9)post-WWII soldiers returning home The Best Years of Our Life
10)Vietnam/Watergate All the President's Men
11)Modern the Right Stuff


I do think Grapes of Wrath is a better telling of the Depression story than Seabiscuit due to the whole Manifest Destiny aspect..one of the motifs of American History in my opinion. Hope this give you a few more ideas

BW: After just finishing ernie pyle's book "brave men" i have come to like patton less. while it is one of my favorite movies, there seems a large disconnect between patton's vision and tactics and the GI's. one thing that gets us into trouble, esp. with the youth which i work with too, is seeing history as a top-down and neatly-catorgized story. the further "down" one goes in the telling of history the more i think youth can identify and respond to it.
also, if the coming out of isolationism of ww2 is a theme you want to hit then the battle of britian movie Ms. Miniver should be on your list.
BTW, i think i have reached my quota for post for the year.

There are some really good ones in this topic. Gross Pointe Blank comes to mind.

You all need to go out and get this one: DiggsTown

:)

If anyone says "Frailty", I'm going to poke them in the eyes.

Frailty.

Nyah, nyah, nyah.