Underrated or wrongly-ignored movies

[Patriсk]

Did you ever watch a movie that you found absolutely stunning, but felt it had little recognition?

 

[The Hatter]

A lot of critics, fans, and casual movie goers hated X-Men: Origins Wolverine, but it is one of my guilty pleasures. I love the story to it, even though a lot of it doesn't follow the comic book. I think that it was very well done and the characters were accurate. I loved Gambit's actor and the way he played Gambit.

I also think that The Incredibles doesn't get the credit that it deserves. Yeah it isn't a "normal" Pixar movie, but it was still a fantastic children's film.

 

[Blazichu]

Big Stan, found it hilarious and I don't recommend it for kids xD

Also as The Hatter said, The Incredibles has been over-looked and deserves more credit.

 

[Houndour2005]

Both Alpha & Omega and Belka i Strelka was some of the most underrated movies last year.

 

[Sydian]

Okay, I just confused June and July fml.

Riding in Cars With Boys. Great film. Very touching, especially if you can relate to the characters like I did. I don't hear about it enough. Actually took me a while to figure out what I was watching when I saw it on tv one night. lol But yeah, give it a watch. Great performance from Drew Barrymore too. Probably her best, but that's just what I think.

 

[moments.]

Happy Go Lucky
I have never heard it mentioned by anybody or on anything, but it was such a fantastic film! It's one of those films that makes you want to get up and change your life as soon as you leave the cinema. Truly amazing cinema, and very funny!

 

[Alinthea]

Oldboy
Not a lot of people know about this film, but it is so amazing it is untrue. It is a Koren film released in 2003 and I highly recommend you to all watch it.

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

People underrate The Incredibles? Where are these strange, strange people?

I guess underration (is that even a word?) depends on the circles that you surround yourself with. Some of the films mentioned thus far - Happy Go Lucky, Oldboy - I tend to find 'overrated', in all honestly. But those are mainly film-centric websites/areas of discussion. In the general populace, you'd probably be hard-pressed to find people who have even heard of them, hence their inclusion in this thread.

For me, it's something like Mean Girls. Most people have heard of it, and all of my friends in real life love it. But, in the more cineastic circles I travel in, it's looked down upon. I guess it's just a matter of perspective, really.

 

[dannichols]

One of the most ignored movies I've seen this year is Winnie The Pooh. It already dissapeared fomr theatres here.

 

[TheUltimateSacrifice]

Yeah, and then I bragged about being one of the few people that knew it existed.

 

[LadyFaust]

The most recent such movie I saw was Megamind but I'm not sure if it counts. Opinions for the movie seem mixed.

 

[Rogue planet]

I guess underration (is that even a word?) depends on the circles that you surround yourself with. Some of the films mentioned thus far - Happy Go Lucky, Oldboy - I tend to find 'overrated', in all honestly. But those are mainly film-centric websites/areas of discussion. In the general populace, you'd probably be hard-pressed to find people who have even heard of them, hence their inclusion in this thread.

For me, it's something like Mean Girls. Most people have heard of it, and all of my friends in real life love it. But, in the more cineastic circles I travel in, it's looked down upon. I guess it's just a matter of perspective, really.

Yeah totally. I'd go with Romeo + Juliet myself, it's often hated by other film nerds. "Ruined a classic" "so pretentious!" "generic and boring" "that film is a joke". I honestly don't think I've heard a structured and valid argument about why it is so terrible.

I personally love it; you have to have some balls to mix Shakespeare and MTV.

 

[(=Nemesis=)]

Yeah totally. I'd go with Romeo + Juliet myself, it's often hated by other film nerds. "Ruined a classic" "so pretentious!" "generic and boring" "that film is a joke". I honestly don't think I've heard a structured and valid argument about why it is so terrible.

I personally love it; you have to have some balls to mix Shakespeare and MTV.

You do, but that doesn't make it great. Hitler needed some to invade Europe. And... that didn't turn out too well. Right, that's Godwin's Law out of the way.

Romeo + Juliet didn't "ruin a classic", no. All you had to do was not remember that the film existed when reading the script or watching a direct adaptation. Or you might start to burst out laughing because you just remembered Modern Tybalt's rather preposterous action scene. You see, that's what they mean.

I will say that no film can really be called "pretentious" AND "generic" unless all the world's directors start making films with gaudy dialogue and poetic drivel, at once, so that you can't avoid them. But, making a rapper-gangster-culture film entirely full of Shakespeare dialogue and playing it almost completely straight... I'd... call that a wee bit pretentious...

What I suppose I'm trying to say there is that they definitely weren't trying to make the film "relevant" (because that would mean modernising the lines), or even trendy and cool (that might also involve modernising the lines, but if you did that, it wouldn't be a trendy or cool film; I think it would just be rather mediocre and a bit gener- aha, I can see where those other guys were coming from now). It's more like they were trying to make lots of people see it and say a little way in "what the heck is this?" and either fall into a slump of depressed boredom, or, if more sensible, walk out and see about reclaiming some wasted time).


It's like taking the Mona Lisa and repainting it in block colours. And with a hoodie. And a cigarette. And then musing at it and pondering at its meaning, or worse, gawping at it and murmuring "cor, she looks cool."


Rant over. Now for an underrated film.


The Last Starfighter. It's like Star Wars: A New Hope in most respects, while also being unlike Star Wars: A New Hope in most respects. The plot was a bit thin, some of the dialogue was very cheesy, and I could nitpick a wee bit further, but the main character was believable and relatable and developed well over the course of the film, humour was spot-on, special effects were used to very good, heh heh, effect, tension was very real where it needed to be, the musical score was excellent, the romantic subplot actually had some proper relevance...

... sometimes I can't help but think, why doesn't anyone I talk to know about that film?

 

[TRIFORCE89]

I also think that The Incredibles doesn't get the credit that it deserves. Yeah it isn't a "normal" Pixar movie, but it was still a fantastic children's film.

The Incredibles is not a children's film, and yes it was incredible. It was a family film. And the family dynamic of it (not enough time at home, difficulties bringing up kids, wife is suspect of husband, husband's going through a midlife crisis of sorts) just sort of flies over the heads of younger viewers I think.

I like watching the Super Mario Bros. movie. It was not by any means a masterpiece. But, if you ignore the title and whatever expectations you have given the title - then you'll find yourself watching a pretty decent if not enjoyable spoof of the science fiction genre. Whether or not it was intended as that is an entirely different debate

 

[Rogue planet]

Oh dear here we go.

So where's this valid and structured argument "=Nemesis=" because all I'm seeing is you restating the simple criticisms I posted, except in a tl;dr format. The only new thing you seem to have brought to the table is that it won't appeal to Shakespeare fans or "gangster film" fans, well there are people who don't fall into either of those categories, and I'm one of them.

I think the best part is how after tearing apart R+J, you then go on to say you think a pretty much equally "cheesy" film is underrated.

 

[(=Nemesis=)]

Oh dear here we go.

So where's this valid and structured argument "=Nemesis=" because all I'm seeing is you restating the simple criticisms I posted, except in a tl;dr format. The only new thing you seem to have brought to the table is that it won't appeal to Shakespeare fans or "gangster film" fans, well there are people who don't fall into either of those categories, and I'm one of them.

I think the best part is how after tearing apart R+J, you then go on to say you think a pretty much equally "cheesy" film is underrated.

So I'm taking it you watched The Last Starfighter, then? Because I watched R+J before making my criticism, and you don't sound too picky about what you "tear apart".

I just gave you a valid argument. R+J isn't a good gangster film. And it's not a good Shakespeare adaptation. For a gangster film Shakespeare adaptation, where exactly do these other categories come in?

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

This is not turning into a debate on the merits of Baz Luhrrman's Romeo + Juliet. In the spirit of a disgruntled bartender: I don't care if you want to argue about this, just don't do it in this thread, mmkay?

 

[(=Nemesis=)]

Noted. Purely for the record, I was initially trying to quantify why naysayers (including myself) say nay. Wasn't expecting personal attacks. Eh, I guess I just ran into Vandek on a bad day? Sorry man.

I don't know if this is underrated, but I've never heard of anyone else who's heard of The Man Who Knew Too Little, with Bill Murray. It, um... the main character is single-handedly responsible for interfering with and ultimately foiling a bomb plot while confounding teams of the world's best spy units... catch being that he believes throughout that the whole thing is an open-scripted play. Because he's an idiot. Hence the casting of Bill Murray. It sounds like a pretty stupid slap-stick film, but actually it's very carefully and cleverly scripted to present a constant double-reality. Good watch. Unfortunately DVDs are region 1 only and... hard to find.

 

[Graceful]

I think some underrated films include the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost series of films such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (which are apart of the trilogy, Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy, and the third movie shall be released sometime in the future), because I find them quite funny despite the gore and violence and they do stock the comedy and build on it themselves. I find the editing rather humorous as well, because it adds up tension within the viewer.

 

[Rocket Grunt Cali]

This film got DESTROYED by critics, but I absolutely love the liveaction Sorcerer's Apprentice. Even I think Nicolas Cage is kind of a joke (see The Wicker Man remake for details), but he actually pulled off an entertaining and believable performance as Balthazar. The special effects are fantastic, as is the notion that science and magic are one and the same thing. I love how they managed to make Dave act like a typical, dorky kid and make him completely loveable. And now it's shameless fangirling time! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE DRAKE STONE <3 He's a failure, he's a moron, and he's got an ego that has no business being as ridiculously large as it is, but he's just so cute. And the way he dresses reminds me of David Bowie, which is never not a good thing.