Your favorite overlooked films?

[JCVaughn]

I think Barcelona by Whit Stillman (Last Days of Disco, Metropolitan) is superb. I really enjoy it.

Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita is also awesome.

Someday I'll write the story of Uncle Siko's trip to see that movie...  ;)

[Weldon]

JC,
As you and Siko are aware, due to the unsual wiring of my Brain...  ALL of my favorite films are 'overlooked'.
It would really be too big a list to wade though.
And most would simply look at it and say "I've never heard of ANY of these flicks!"
Like "M".
Like "Freaks".
Like "The Snakepit".

you get the idea...

Although now that I'm thinking about it...
An evening of 'Well-Done's Fav Flicks' foisted upon a collection of N-N-N-Normal people would be very interesting to watch.  Even just those three flicks in a triple-feature...
I imagine that most would leave the Theater quickly and looking over their shoulder.

[BillyTucci]

I'm very jealous of Whit Stillman.  I saw Barcelona and though it quite boring.  Did any of you ever see a wonderful Italian film titled Mediterraneo?  

Heard great things about Snake Pit.
I do love Freaks.

[BillyTucci]

Wasn't...Nikita that blatant French rip off of the incredibly original Point of No Return starring Bridget Fonda?  God  sometimes your so silly and uncultured.  

Kill him Siko, KILL, KILL, KILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Lord of the Flies, Lord of the Flies...."

[JCVaughn]

Yes, Billy. Point of No Return was first.

And Social Security will be there when we retire.

And we're from the Government and we're here to help you.

[JCVaughn]

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME got raked by the critics and I think it's an amazing film. If it had come out after Spider-Man and not before it, it would have been another hit for Raimi. In fact, it's why I knew he could do a great job with Spidey.

Great baseball film.

[JCVaughn]

ALL of my favorite films are 'overlooked'.

Well, keep going! What are some of your others?

I just finally picked up RUSHMORE on DVD.

[JCVaughn]

I'm very jealous of Whit Stillman. I saw Barcelona and though it quite boring.

If a film doesn't have hockey in it, you just don't like it.

That's rather limiting, you know.

Oh, and congratulations on approching your 500th post. We're glad you could join us.

[sattch]

new to this - whattup.

had to chime in on this one.  here's a few that must be watched, starting with my holiest of trinities from recent japanese cinema:

Battle Royale
Shark Skin Man, Peach Hip Girl
Ichi the Killer

Tigerland
October Sky
The Sweet Hereafter
The Big Lebowski
American Movie
True Stories

...and more will keep popping into my head i'm sure...

like

Gattica
Miracle Mile
8 Mile (overlooked? - yeah - Best Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Film)
The Butcher Boy

Maybe there should be a thread for the most OVER LOOKED AT films.  you know, like any comic book adaptation since Batman.

sattch

[Skud_101]

Anything french (City of Lost Children, Wasabi (also Luc Besson) ect)

Anything from Japan (Animation that is)

And today I got a russian fur hat :D

(I'll post more later haha)

[JCVaughn]

Young Skud, Young Skud...

"Anything French" is way too big a net to cast...

Most modern French film is crap. Just like most film (period) is crap.

Since the French government increased the subsidies they've been making PONDEROUS pieces like Germinal. The same nation that gave us Jean de Florette, the 400 Blows and A Man & A Woman now sends us to sleep at the mention of their cinema.

Was Inodochine perhaps the last great French film?

Luc Besson is attacked as being too American.

Oy.

I spent a semester arranging the French Film course at my junior college, rewriting the course requirements, selecting new films, etc. Had a blast. Next semester I ended up teaching it. Again, a blast, so it's not as it I want dislike it.

But I'd rather be beaten senseless than watch Germinal again.

Still, there are some classics on DVD.

What happened to Australian film, btw? Early '80s there were quite a few good ones...  Man From Snowy River, Road Warrior, Phar Lapp (which bombed but was a decent enough film)... Was Coca Cola Kid an Australian production or was it just set there? Or am I just remembering it wrong. Saw it at University of North Texas, I think.

[JCVaughn]

new to this - whattup.

Welcome aboard, Sattch.

Is your name a jazz tribute by chance?

[sattch]

it's a jazz-ish reference.  the name's from Clarence Satchel - sax man from the Ohio Players.  i guess it depends on where on the sliding scale of jazz fusion funk you think the Players fall on.  and that depends on the album.

But moving on...*

Got a slew more:

Lost Highway
Go
Three Kings
Magnolia
Eyes Wide Shut (as far as Kubrick goes)
High and Low (as far as Kurosawa goes)
The Abyss (as far as Cameron goes)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (as far as Lynch goes)
Punch Drunk Love

I cannot stress how strongly, though, it is for everyone to watch those first three I listed last post.  i personally GAURANTEE that japanese cinema, and pop culture, will do to american cinema what chinese/hong kong cinema did to it in the last decade.  

remember the first time you saw Hard Boiled?

sattch



*-Rushmore line.

[Weldon]

Yeah, whatever happened to Aussie Flicks?
Here's a really good 'Overlooked' one:
"Heavenly Creatures"
It's funny in a dark-comedy way, but it really ISN'T a comedy at ALL.
It's darkly disturbing.
So naturally, I liked it!  ;D

[BillyTucci]

This is a great forum!  Welcome aboard Saatch.  There are some truly great Aussie films.  "Breaker Morant" and Gallipoli are among my favorites, but I've forgotten about those gems since you rarely hear about them in recent years.

[Weldon]

And today I got a russian fur hat :D

"You... are a wild man.
When you and your friend stole that cow?...
And your friend tried to make it with the cow?...
I wanna party with you!
You and me together?...Forget it!"
;D

[The Frankster]

Aside from Spider-Man I always loved watching Detroit Rock City.  

[Weldon]

O.K...Here's another one:
Spider-Baby
It was Lon Chaney Jr.'s last staring role
It was released with serveral different titles.
(I can't remember any of them off the top of my head, but there were WaCkY...)

The story was dark, disturbed, and HILARIOUS.
It really was a great flick.
I say find it, buy it, watch it!
---Wel

[flerk]

My new favorite film is a movie I saw over Memorial Day weekend, called "The Big Parade."

"The Big Parade" is a silent film shot in 1925 and stars John Gilbert as a rich kid going to war, (WWI), where he has to deal with the rejection from the "under-class", his fellow soldiers. Eventually he is befriended by two of the soldiers and falls in love with a French country girl while he still recieves letters from his fiance' back home.

This film accomplished many things for its time period and set a standard and formula for all future war films; especially that of the two working class war buddies. It was also one of the most successful films of its time, when the average film ran for a week at a theatre, this one ran for two years!

For a silent movie from the time of a very stylized type of acting, this film and the actors, are very understated and "real" it is engrossing and at times shocking with its use of footage from actual war exercises that make use of HUGE collumns of trucks and armament and stunt work that contained obvious dangers, (such as explosions occuring VERY close to actors.

If you haven't seen this film and are a war movie buff, I can't tell you how important it is for you to go out and find this gem, it is worth the time of the search and the time in front of the tube.


As a side-note, one of John Gilberts war-buddies is played by an actor named Karl Dane. Karl Dane has probably the saddest post-silent era stories of them all.

Dane was a very successful silent actor, playing in some sixty or seventy films. When talkies started, his extremely thick Danish accent was unfortunately revealed and the general American audience was unable to understand him and he was unable to get work of any kind, except for jobs given to him by friends such as Keaton. He ended up trying to get a plumbers license while he was selling hotdogs from a cart in front of his old place of employment; MGM studios. One afternoon, after putting up his hot dog stand he went home and shot himself with a shotgun.

See it for Karl.

[Doc Furious]

Hmm..interesting thread here and since its Errol Flynn's birthday Ill join in with some of his lesser known flicks.

"The Dawn Patrol" (36) remake of Howard Hawks war-is-hell Brit flying ace pic also with Rathbone and David Niven.  Flynn  excels as the rebellious flyer whos promoted and then must send his comrades on suicide missions.  Why? "Orders."  The flying sequences are lifted from the Hawks film but are great and since the earlier version is now lost-- this is the best and the one I grew up on.



"Dodge City" Flynn out west in lusicious Technicolor and other than the fact hes playing an Irish soldier of fortune, hes basically Wyatt Earp! The susual Warner character actor stalwarts are here and has several top notch sequences - a cattle stampede, an incredible barroom brawl (later lifted for A Bigs Bunny cartoon) and a train on a fire shoot out to be seen to be believed.
Costarred Errol's perennial love interest, the lovely Olivia D'Havilland.

"Captian Blood" Flynn's first starring vehicle is a great adaptation of the Sabatini novel.  Altho his performance is a bit stiff in parts, the action and the Korngold score make this one special...with Olivia natch and the villanous Lionel Atwill and the "french rascal Levasceur"
Basil Rathbone.  This one has a great beach duel and a rousing se battle finale.




They dont make them like these anymore.
:P

[JCVaughn]

A MAN AND A WOMAN, which I just picked up on DVD, is great. But I'm actually a little more impressed by its sequel, A MAN AND A WOMAN: 20 YEARS LATER.

It was not a success in France (I know, you're saying, "Isn't that reason enough to love it?"), but honestly it's a very cool film made by many of the same people who made the original, including director and principle cast.

[BillyTucci]

Robieson!
Errol Flynn is one (if not the favorite) of my favorite actor(s) of all time!  I spent many years of my youth trying to remake my own little, "Adventures of Robin Hood" which is still on my fav's list!  I used to go to the library and continually take out movie books, one being "The Films of Errol Flynn" and believe it or not, actually found a copy (which I still have) in someone's garbage about 5 years ago.

Why do I tell people these stoopid things I do? :-/

[BillyTucci]

Would "The Sands of Iwo Jima" be considered "overlooked?"

[Doc Furious]

Billy, "The Films of Errol Flynn" is one of the first film books I actually bought (I stole Eisenstein's book from my high school library) and still have to this day - whoch means it out lasted many a silver age DC/Marvel collection.  I got caught stealing "Robin Hood" VHs from the Wiz! LOL  Thus endeth my life of crime...



I had a great Flynn still photo collection which I amassed when I was illustrating and copying NC Wyeth
painting but puting Errol's face on the figures.  Kinda like what Howie Chaykin did back in his "Sword & Sorcery" period - the Grey Mouser was Errol! ;D  PS I saw him do this...long story...far away and long ago...

A bizarre Flynn western would be "Virgina City" 2which has Bogart as a Mexican bandito & lisping en espanol!


No. "Sands of Iwo Jima" is a WW2 Classic.  As is "Back to Baatan".  My fav would be "Air Force" by Howard Hawks and all star Warner Bros cast including John Garfuield, George Tobias, Arthur Kennedy, Harry Carey SR based on the true exploits of the B-17 crew"Mary Anne".  Great, great film... a good double bill with "Memphis Belle". ;D
Anybody here see "Enigma" - great film about the Brit WW2 Codebreakers with Dougray Scott & Kate Winslet directed by Michael Apted.

[Hack]

Two of my favorite films aren't on DVD yet, and if that's not overlooked I don't know what is.

People will talk(1951)  
and
A Face  in the Crowd(1957)  


I've been watching a lot of Takashi Miike's films lately.  Everyone talks (and rightly so) about Audition, Ichi the Killer, and the DOA series but his The Happiness of the Katakuris was one of the funniest foreign films I've seen in years.  

And while I wouldn't call Sam Fuller overlooked I have to mention the brilliant Naked Kiss and Shock Corridor...

...and The Steel Helmet... and Verbooten... and Pick-up on South Street.  Okay, okay, I'll stop.

Lets see, what else:

Peter Jackson's Dead Alive
Battle Royale
Scotland, PA
Fudoh, The New Generation
Breathless
Alphaville
Seconds
Novacaine
High and Low
Rashomon
M
The Third Man
Monkey Business (Marx Bros.)
This Gun for Hire
John Woo's Hard Boiled
The Limey
Hard Eight
Diabolique  -the original, dammit!

...I'm gonna stop now before this becomes just a list of every movie I've ever seen. :)