Unknown Good Movies

[grayle]

Title says it all, do you guys have any favorite movies that for some reason or another never got the aclaim or honor that they so deserved?

 

Of the top of my head:

 

A Walk to Remember - Very heart-wrenching movie that alot of people haven't watched yet. But for those who have, it's always been a personal favorite. I've had friends who still can't help crying when they watch this movie for the 90th time.

 

Glory - It didn't make much when it was first released at the box office. I recall watching this once when I was a kid, but I didn't understand the meaning behind it since I was still very young. I saw this one on HBO and automatically got hooked on the civil war. Did I mention that this was one of Denzel Washington's first movie roles?

 

Come on guys, let's hear your recommendations!

[FPJ_45]

For me Always ... Richard Drayfuss was very good... I think It came out on or before Ghost ... thats why there was almost no publicity for it ... and I love the song : Smoke gets in your Eyes

Edited April 12, 2007 by FPJ_45

[SoulMTC]

Alive... story of a football team that were stranded on the icy mountains

[agentSmirnoff]

Pistol Pete.. great movie, inspired me to play basketball

[Guest brutus]

but all of these films mentioned above were made commercially available here in the phils

 

will try to look in my DVD Collections re unkown/un heard of movie titles that were not shown commercially here

[Waterbearer]

Malèna is a 2000 Italian drama/romance film starring Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. It was directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni.

 

Criticised for its depiction of teenage sexuality, as well as the paucity of dialogue, Malèna was successful in Europe, but the movie itself was altered by its North American distribution company Fine Line Features, and several scenes were cut. The film did poorly in few United States movie theatres, despite good reviews. As of 2005, only the edited version is available for commercial purchase on DVD in North America.

 

The film nonetheless is credited with officially introducing Anglophone audiences to Italian actress Bellucci (whose career had previously been limited to European films), who went on to make a number of high-profile American film appearances.

 

The score by Ennio Morricone was nominated for an Academy Award.

 

 

Boogie Nights is a 1997 film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly and Heather Graham.

 

The film follows a young porn star as he enters the pornographic film industry in the late 1970s in California, and deals with the highs and lows of success into the 1980s. It also follows several other characters involved in the industry, and their downfalls.

[Waterbearer]

Silence of the Heart is a 1984 TV movie on Teen suicide. Troubled teen Skip Lewis (a strong and moving performance by Chad Lowe), depressed about getting bad grades on his SATs and being rejected by a hot girl (the gorgeous Alexandra Powers) he's got a crush on, commits suicide by driving his car off a cliff. His confused parents and friends try to figure out why he killed himself and attempt to come to terms with the sudden severe loss they feel they could have possibly prevented. This gripping and touching film tackles the explosive and pertinent subject of teenage suicide in an admirably tasteful and restrained manner; it's this subtle presentation of a delicate subject and the thankful complete lack of sappy melodrama which in turn makes this picture so strikingly effective and heart-wrenching. Ably directed with laudable tact and sensitivity by Richard Michaels, with a thoughtful and insightful script by Phil Penningworth, sharp, polished cinematography by Isidore Mankofsky, a moody, melancholy by Georges Delerue, and exceptionally affecting acting by a first-rate cast which includes Mariette Hartley as Skip's loving, exuberant mother Barbara, Dana Hill as Skip's compassionate sister Cindy, Howard Hesseman as Skip's sturdy denialist workaholic dad Carl, Charlie Sheen as Skip's loyal best friend Ken, and Elizabeth Berridge as Skip's sweet gal pal Penny, this remarkably poignant and powerful made-for-TV knockout is well worth watching.

 

On a personal note....this is one of the most moving TV movies i have ever seen.....ever. I had even written a song based on this film.

Edited April 13, 2007 by Waterbearer

[Waterbearer]

Trainspotting is a 1996 Academy Award nominated, BAFTA winning cult film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. The movie is about a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh and their passage through life. It stars Ewan McGregor as Mark Renton, Ewen Bremner as Spud, Jonny Lee Miller as Sick Boy, Kevin McKidd as Tommy, Robert Carlyle as Begbie and Kelly Macdonald as Dianne. Author Irvine Welsh also has a brief appearance as hapless drug dealer Mikey Forrester.

 

The screenplay was adapted from Welsh's novel by John Hodge. It does not contain any references to the non-drug-related hobby of train spotting. The title is a reference to an episode in the original book (not included in the film) where Begbie and Renton meet "an auld drunkard" in the disused Leith Central railway station, which they are visiting to use as a toilet. He asks them (in a weak attempt at a joke) if they are "trainspottin'". As they walk away, Renton realizes the drunk was Begbie's father (p309, Minerva edition).

 

Its release sparked controversy in some countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, as to whether it promoted drug use or not. U.S. Senator Bob Dole decried its moral depravity and glorification of drug use during the 1996 U.S. presidential campaign, although he later admitted that he had not actually seen the film. This echoed sentiments Dole had made three years earlier, attacking Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers while lauding more mainstream films like James Cameron's True Lies as being more "family friendly". Despite the controversy, it was praised as an inventive, highly effective film and received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay in that year's Academy Awards. In 1999 the film came 10th in a BFI poll of British films, while in 2004 the magazine Total Film named it the 4th greatest British film of all time.

 

The film's release was supported by an imaginative marketing campaign using flyers inspired by rave culture and posters of each of the main actors. Owing to illness, Kevin McKidd went on holiday having finished shooting for the film and did not attend the photoshoot for the posters.

 

 

Stand and Deliver is a 1988 film dramatizing the work of Jaime Escalante, a dedicated high school mathematics teacher.

In the film, he helped 18 Hispanic students (of mixed backgrounds) at Garfield Senior High School (located in the East Los Angeles area of Los Angeles County, California) to learn calculus well enough to pass the Advanced Placement Calculus Exam, even though originally many of them struggled with such elementary principles as multiplication and fractions.

 

Edward James Olmos starred as Escalante, a role for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Lou Diamond Phillips, Vanessa Marquez, Karla Montana, Rosanna DeSoto, and Carmen Argenziano co-starred.

 

The movie ranked #86 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers.

 

Edward James Olmos went through a hair thinning process and gained an estimated 40 pounds for the role of Jaime Escalante.

[Waterbearer]

Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro in Portuguese) is a 1959 film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus. It is based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes, which is an adaptation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, setting it in the modern context of Rio de Janeiro during the Carnival. The film was an international co-production between production companies in Brazil, France and Italy.

 

The film is particularly renowned for its soundtrack by bossa nova legend Antonio Carlos Jobim, featuring songs such as "Manhã de Carnaval" (written by Luiz Bonfá) and "A felicidade" that were to become Bossa nova classics.

 

Black Orpheus won the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival as well as the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the 1960 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film (in those awards the film was credited as a French production; only in the 1961 BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film, was Brazil credited together with France and Italy).

 

In 1999, the film was essentially remade as Orfeu by Carlos Diegues, this time with a soundtrack featuring contemporary Brazilian pop singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso.

Edited April 13, 2007 by Waterbearer

[Waterbearer]

Azumi (あずみ) is a manga (Japanese comic) series created by Yu Koyama. It concerns the title character, a young woman brought up as part of a team of assassins, charged with killing three warlords that threaten Feudal Japan with an agenda of war and bloodshed.

 

Azumi was adapted into a popular and extremely violent action film by Ryuhei Kitamura in 2003. A sequel, Azumi 2: Death or Love, directed by Shusuke Kaneko, followed in 2005.

 

The movie was produced by Mataichiro Yamamoto, and has been distributed to the US by his company, Urban Vision Entertainment, on their label AsiaVision. The film was given a limited nationwide theatrical release beginning in July 2006 with a DVD released November 21, 2006. Azumi has been broadcast on television in the UK, on the Film4 channel.

Edited April 13, 2007 by Waterbearer

[HoneyBoy]

Plot summary for Bound by Honor (a.k.a. Blood In, Blood Out)

(from www.imdb.com)

 

Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East L.A. gang known as the "Vatos Locos", and the story focuses on how a violent crime and the influence of narcotics alter their lives. Miklo is incarcerated and sent to San Quentin, where he makes a "home" for himself. Cruz becomes an exceptional artist, but a heroin addiction overcomes him with tragic results. Paco becomes a cop and an enemy to his "carnal", Miklo.

 

Plot summary for Stand by Me

(from www.imdb.com)

 

Four young friends set out on an adventure. Geordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern go looking for the missing body of a local teenager - found by a gang of older boys. A story of boys hangin' out and growin' up. Based on Stephen King's Short story "The Body", "Stand By Me" tells the tale of Gordie Lachance, a writer who looks back on his preteen days when he and three close friends went on their own adventure to find the body of a kid their age who had gone missing and presumed dead. The stakes are upped when the bad kids in town are closely tailing - and it becomes a race to see who'll be able to recover the body first. Unable to grasp the fact of his brother's death, Gordie Lachance feels compelled to travel with three friends to see a dead body that has been found near the railroad tracks.

[oniichan]

but all of these films mentioned above were made commercially available here in the phils

 

will try to look in my DVD Collections re unkown/un heard of movie titles that were not shown commercially here

 

agree, some of the movies posted above are not really that unknown.

 

try hard candy, i think this wasn't released in the phils, or at least not long enough. panoorin niyo ng maalis libog nyo :evil:

[Waterbearer]

Audition (Japanese: Ōdishon) is a 1999 film directed by Takashi Miike based on a Ryu Murakami novel of the same title, starring Ryo Ishibashi and Eihi Shiina.

 

This is torture at its finest!

[Larry]

hard candy - I have yet to buy this

 

Audition is some distrubing sh!t

 

American Me (Edward James Olmos) is much better and more realistic (so they say) than Blood In Blood Out >>>which is also not really an unknown movie as almost all of my HS friends knows Vatos Locos Forever!

 

Trainspotting is also not unknown as it's a worldwide cult phenomenon.

 

To add some:

 

El Mariachi - Prequel to Desperado

 

Irreversible - Stars Monica Bellucci and that French Dude from Ocean's twelve. Good concept. Slick filmmaking, also has two of the most violent and realistic scenes I've ever seen on film.

 

Ong Bak Muay Thai Warrior - how action movies should be made.

 

Rudy - the story of Rudy Ruettiger who played for Notre Dame for 1 season. Heart warming and should be done as an Adidas Ad; Impossible is Nothing.

 

The Original Assault on Precinct 13 - John Carpenter's non-horror work that I liked surprisingly. has a very realistic riot scene at the end.

 

Cinema Paradiso - arguably one of the best films I've seen. This is how movies are supposed to be made.

 

Red Dawn - a what if movie set in the 80s where the Russians do a land invasion of America

 

Deer Hunter - a story of the Vietnam War and how the war affected it's veterans

 

Pi - Darren Aronofsky's breakout film about a mathematical genius who can explain every phenomenon in the world with numbers. Gripping and is shot in black and white

 

City of God - Brazilian film about life in the harshest favela in Rio de Janeiro. Excellent film making

 

City of Lost Souls - Another film by Takashi Miike, although not a horror film, more of a ganster vibe than anything, I still enjoyed the Miike treatment of this seemingly Romeo and Juliet tale. Plus the girl is Hot.

 

Ichi the Killer - Takashi Miike's finest and bloodiest film IMO. Really trips you out.

 

Layer Cake - stars Daniel Craig as a coke dealer. Done in the style of Lock Stock and Two Smoking barrels. Really something different with Brit Film, and it's not just the accent.

 

Memento - Christopher Nolan's breakout work. Written by the director himself, this is the first of it's kind and I was kind amazed that they pulled off doing the story backward.

 

Thank you for Smoking - not the best comedy ever, but I liked it nonetheless. Aaron Eckhart did well with the character.

[Waterbearer]

Supersize me is a Morgan Spurlock documentary 30 days of eating only McDonald's items.....kinda terrifying IMHO

Edited April 13, 2007 by Waterbearer