Great movies that you may not have seen... (1 Viewer)

[Christian Behrens]

Despite a really great cast, not a lot of people know about Grand Canyon. One of my faves.

-Christian

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Alex, believe it or not, I rented both May and Below based entirely on their DVD covers. So let this be a leason to you... Your film's movie poster and home-video box art are very important in hooking the customers that fall through the cracks of commercials and internet-webboard recommendations.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

how about happiness by todd solondz? i dont think its all that well known. great performance by philip seymour hoffman, and a VERY daring and brave role played by dylan baker. i have much more respect for him as an actor than before i saw him in this. also see three businessmen by alex cox, director of repo man.

CJ

 

[john davies]

The following are wonderful American classics that failed to make the AFI top 100 (fools!), though they're all highly rated by international critics.

Sunrise (Murnau, 1927)

To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch, 1942)

Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophuls, 1948)

The Band Wagon (Minnelli, 1953)

Night of the Hunter (Laughton, 1955)


And do try;

Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi, Japan, 1954)

 

[Matt_P]

Criterion is a great place to look for lesser known, but great films.

Two that stand out for me recently are both Wong Kar-Wai films: In the Mood for Love, and Chungking Express (not Criterion). Both are superb.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Just a bunch of randomly-thought-of (though alphabetized for your convenience) "relatively smaller" movies that I think people would enjoy:

After Hours
Angel Heart
Bad Lieutenant
The Boondock Saints
A Bronx Tale
Bubba Ho-tep
Citizen Ruth
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
The Chocolate War
Dark City
Diggstown
The Dish
Dog Soldiers
Eight Men Out
Election
Fear of a Black Hat
Flirting with Disaster
Frailty
The Frisco Kid
Gattaca
The Good Girl
The Great Train Robbery
Grosse Pointe Blank
The Journey of Natty Gann
Local Hero
The Lonely Guy
May
A Midnight Clear
Mute Witness
Paper Moon
Pleasantville
Quick Change
Ravenous
Restoration
Runaway Train
Session 9
A Simple Plan
Smoke
Sneakers
Soapdish
Sorcerer
Talk Radio
This Boy's Life
Threesome
Tin Men
Traveller

 

[Rob P S]

Strongly agree with:
The Dish
A Midnight Clear
Pleasantville
A Simple Plan
Smoke

Also add:
The Apostle
Avalon
Bad Boys ('83)
Badlands
Bang the Drum Slowly
Billy Elliot
Brassed Off!
Dominick & Eugene
The Emperor's Club
A Family Thing
Hearts in Atlantis
King of the Hill
Memphis Belle
My Bodyguard
One False Move
One Hour Photo
Racing With the Moon
Smoke Signals
Sounder ('72)
Tully
Waking Ned Devine

 

[Sean Ashley]

Jurassic Park
Titanic

 

[george kaplan]

Nothing really rare, but great films that lots of people around here probably haven't seen.

Hopscotch
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Out of the Past
Sorry, Wrong Number
Mr. Hulot's Holiday
Diabolique
Trouble in Paradise
Saboteur
My Man Godfrey
Rififi
Cause for Alarm
Odd Man Out
Sahara
Adam's Rib
The Talk of the Town
Open City
Dark Passage
Night Train To Munich
Passage to Marseille
Above Suspicion
Christmas in Connecticut
The Farmer's Daughter
A Stranger in Town
Up in Arms
Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House
Holiday
Once Upon a Honeymoon
In Name Only
36 Hours
Random Harvest
This Gun For Hire
The Blue Dahlia
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford
Berlin Express

 

[Arman]

"Two movies I've watched very recently that fit the bill are Memento and Donnie Darko. Both, in my opinion, GREAT movies that really get the viewer thinking.

Wondering if anyone else has any recommendations?"

Most of these might be very familiar or you may had already seen them (but I thought Memento and Donnie Darko are excellent films which not that many internet film buffs like us are not aware of too):

2003:
Of course, you already read their raving reviews but you also indicated lesser known great films not getting the publicity they deserve. These films are for the thinking fans ...

Raising Victor Vargas - most honest, affecting & one of the best/greatest ever made coming of age films
Lost in Translation - simply the best/greatest film ever made about loneliness in a foreign land; if the ending will not make you think (or be blown away), I don't know what will

2002:
Enigma - I thought this is a brilliantly written and excellent thought-provoking film of 2002 (but many people/film critics will disagree with me)

Modern:
Some of the most thought-provoking great films released recently

Wonder Boys
Being John Malkovich
High Fidelity
Before Sunrise
Mulholland Dr.
A.I Artificial Intelligence
Eyes Wide Shut
Requiem for A Dream
Dancer in The Dark
Remains of the Day
Blue Velvet

Classic:
Great American films that should be in the AFI Greatest 100 list -

Witness For The Prosecution
Anatomy of A Murder
To Be Or Not To Be
The Night of The Hunter
The Magnificent Ambersons - the most thought-provoking and provocatively greatest American soap opera of all-time

Modern Foreign Language:

City of God
Irreversible (love/hate film by many)
Read My Lips
Nine Queens
Late Marriage
Talk To Her
Spirited Away - the most profoundly thought-provoking animation film of all-time (yeah, yeah you have the DVD of this one ... just in case only)

Classic Foreign:

Barry Lyndon
Brief Encounter

I'm not sure if you are ready for this but if you'll survive (and love) the films above, this will be your ultimate (thinking while watching a great film) test (or should I say my ultimate set of recommendation)

Wild Strawberries (Bergman)
L'Avventura (Antonioni)
Pierrot le fou (Godard)
Rashomon (Kurosawa)
Tokyo Story (Ozu)
Rules of The Game (Renoir)
Stolen Kisses (Truffaut)

 

[Janna S]

Cutter's Way.

 

[larry mac]

"Great" is pretty hard to live up to. How about just some personal favorites that you may not have seen?

Cannery Row
Ballad Of Cable Hogue
High Road To China
After Hours

 

[Matt_H]

probably will get blasted for this but i think "Switchback" is underappreciated.
Pretty decent supense/thriller about dennis quaid hunting down a serial killerin the snowy mountains of Colorado.R. Lee Ermey actually turns in a decent non sergeant performance too as a local sheriff.It also stars Jared Leto, Danny Glover, and Ted Levine.

 

[Paul_Scott]

Black Robe a Jesuit priest travels up the Canadian wilderness with the intention of converting the Indians.
Stunning location photography highlight this 'dark' but very interesting story of the clash of civilizations and cultures.
MGMs disc is actually very good a/v wise.
Highly recommended!

Who'll Stop The Rain
Nick Nolte (back when he was a leading man) and Tuesday Weld in a story about drug smuggling and lovers on the run.
one of my favorite romantic/action/thrillers- unfortunately the MGM disc sucks- non anamorphic and the first 15 minutes are out of focus(!?) still, the material is so great, its worth a watch.

Tucker: The Man And His Dream
One of the finest, most fun movies ever about the creative spirit and the "little guy" against the system.
Jeff Bridges plays Preston Tucker, a man who was intent on desiging an automobile that was ahead of its time- only to run up against the Goverment(at the end of Detroits puppet strings). Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by George Lucas.
Great disc from Paramount!

 

[Ted Lee]

i'm a constant lurker at the indie/foreign thread. i've put a ton of those movies into my netflix queue and have rarely been disappointed. my most recent gems were the man on the train and laurel canyon - both great flicks.

but...my all time fave to recommend has got to be shallow grave - popular in europe...but not too many people in the states has seen it. definitely worth checkin' out!

 

[jimbo w]

1-Runaway Train - Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, intense thriller
2-Yojimbo - I know , I know . But theres gotta be some
besides me who just discovered Kurosawa films
3-Once Upon a Time in the West - Suprising how many hadnt
seen this before the new dvd. No excuses now

 

[Clay-F]

Equilibrium

I dont think I've seen it on here yet....(EDIT - I see this was previously mentioned)

Starring the soon to be Batman Christian Bale, and a little role by Sean Bean. Its a scifi version of Fahrenheit 451, more or less. Cool action, and a cool premise, with a few twists.

 

[Chris]

So many I'd love to mention have already been mentioned (Tokyo Story, Gattaca, Searching for Bobby Fischer)

Let me add two that haven't been mentioned:

The Sweet Hereafter (this is a shockingly beautiful, hard to really digest film that I find moving every time)

Bis Ans Ende Der Welt (Until the End of the World).... one of the best reasoned sci-fi of it's time.. and despite the conclusion, shockingly accurate (predicting in-car GPS in 1999 in a 1989 film? Great! Or active road maps? etc..)

The Ice Storm - some great performances in one of my favorite sleeper films.

Follow That Bird - for it's disasterous comic value; the only Sesame Street movie I know of as an absolute flop, if only for the moments where the cast encourages Big Bird to jump out of a moving car and tells him it's "OK" in this instance.. yeah, that's a kid-safe message Followed with a subplot about thievery and kidnapping, this makes for great family fare

 

[Marc_Sulinski]

Its a scifi version of Fahrenheit 451, more or less.

I thought that Fahrenheit 451 was science fiction.

 

[Shawn_KE]

Suicide Kings.

Picked it up at best buy for 6 bucks and love it. Walken is his usual cool self in it.