Top 10 UNDERRATED movies EVER!

[MacGuffin]

I've been thinking about that movie Cellular and how good of a script it was.  I'm gonna rent it again just to be sure.  Has anyone else seen that movie?

Not much feedback in the thread:

http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=6327.0

But I liked it. As one of those race-against-the-clock type thrillers, it works. Is smart and takes those common cell phone cliches (no service when you need it; battery dying) and works them to its advantage.

[Gold Trumpet]

When I originally watched Cellular, I too thought it was pretty good. Re-watched it on TV a year ago and the original praise was a little overblown. I think a lot of it has to do with how extended the third act is with the consistent twists. Audience expectation with thrillers is to expect a certain number of twists, but Cellular managed to jam two film's worth of them into one film. The rest of the film is still standard thriller, but the third act redeems it a little.

[Neil]

Cellular? really? I thought we were discussing top 10 UNDERRATED ever I guess, but i guess we've geared towards "guilty pleasure movies of 04'" i am in need of this script. anyone want to email that? There is not a bone in my body that can believe this script reads any better than this film is.  YES the 3rd act is fucking awful, and as for the cast, a few favors must've been owed to ole FINAL DESTINATION 3 director Dave Ellis. 

I think jigsaw Cellular is defining 'guilty pleasure.'

[pete]

I haven't seen it since I saw it on TV in '06.  I thought it was gonna suck, but it delivered quite nicely - the script was witty, logical, and lean, if I remembered correctly.  That was I guess also during a time when we didn't have too many thrillers like that, we still don't.  It's becoming a dated genre - or at least thrillers in that format.  I hated the nina simone remix, that's all I remember disliking, and it never builds up to anything serious - just a bunch of witty reversals and sequences, but it was convincing the entire way through and contained very few shortcuts or cheats.

[john]

See, a recommendation like Cellular is much more interesting and justified here than a lot films that have been previously mentioned. Many films might be underrated in public regard, but most of them seem to have unanimous critical praise behind them.

Something like Cellular, which I haven't seen but will probably rent now, is much more exciting and deserving. Because it's recommendation means that it succeeds in it's intended genre, which is pretty easily embraceable by the masses - and yet was still pretty much ignored by active and passive film fans alike.

Just like last year when GT recommended Mr. Brooks, a film I would have otherwise never bothered with, and I'm still appreciative of that recommendation a year later. So lets go with that example a little further - it's a fantastic film, and the sentiment I have towards it has already been shared in it's proper thread. But it's very hard to find critical praise for the film. Even Stereogum, with their current "Hunt for the worst movie of all time" articles seem either stubborn, snotty, or clueless in their panning of the film. Not that I'd expect the writers of Stereogum to know better, but you think they'd be a little more open minded than most critical outlets. So, yeah, something like Mr. Brooks is completely underrated for what it is.

Which reminds me, I really need to see Paul Feig's Unaccompanied Minors - which I've been told is a really enjoyable, wholly underrated kids film.

I'm pretty tired, so if none of that made much sense.... just ignore it.

[Gold Trumpet]

Cellular? really? I thought we were discussing top 10 UNDERRATED ever I guess, but i guess we've geared towards "guilty pleasure movies of 04'" i am in need of this script. anyone want to email that? There is not a bone in my body that can believe this script reads any better than this film is.  YES the 3rd act is fucking awful, and as for the cast, a few favors must've been owed to ole FINAL DESTINATION 3 director Dave Ellis. 

I think jigsaw Cellular is defining 'guilty pleasure.'

I can't see how the script is better because the only times the film is inspiring is when it uses some decent filmmaking to tie together those final twists. The story becomes exciting and the film handles everything pretty well. There are some Jules Dassin-like moments of excellence here. I think of the film, Night and the City, and the way it made the final chases really click at an excellent and efficient speed. No, the film isn't that great, but it's a good surprise for the genre. On paper this movie would look a lot worse.

[New Feeling]

this is a good thread.  some that haven't been mentioned

Electroma
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
UHF
Phantom of the Paradise
Body Double
Grindhouse
Wicker Man
Orange County
Vixen
Batman Returns

[SiliasRuby]

My Picks...

Suicide Kings
Radioland Murders
Whats up Doc?
Key Largo
Arsenic and Old Lace
Death Becomes Her
My Blue Heaven
Hurly Burly
Memento
Casino

[polkablues]

Waking the Dead - not necessarily underrated, since most people who see it like it, but hardly anybody has seen it. 
Event Horizon - say what you will about Paul W.S. Anderson, but this movie has more moments that genuinely scare me than any other that I can think of.
Tigerland - Much like Waking the Dead, it's not that people don't like the movie, it's just that not nearly enough have actually watched it, or are even aware of its existence, it seems.
Bamboozled - Spike Lee's angriest film, and I love it for that.  I place it right below 25th Hour and Do the Right Thing as one of the best of his career.
Changing Lanes - I'll never understand why this movie was so quickly forgotten by everyone.  It's a master class in screenplay structure, and features Ben Affleck's best performance, the only one that's ever truly redeemed him as a dramatic actor in my eyes.
Roger Dodger - In a perfect world, Campbell Scott would have a shelf full of awards for this performance.  In this world, he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and ignored by everyone else.  Fuck this world.

[MacGuffin]

Roger Dodger - In a perfect world, Campbell Scott would have a shelf full of awards for this performance.  In this world, he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and ignored by everyone else.  Fuck this world.

I LOVE that movie.


And I totally agree with Bamboozled.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Going to have to agree with Silias about Death Becomes Her and especially agree with Polka about Changing Lanes.  The tension in Changing Lanes swells just as perfectly as you begin to feel for the two main characters.  It's a shame that it was overlooked like it was.

And I'll third that agreement on Bamboozled.

[Chest Rockwell]

Memento
Casino

Underrated?

I totally agree with Changing Lanes and Vixens.

[bonanzataz]

Going to have to agree with Silias about Death Becomes Her

the first 40 minutes are nearly perfect, but the movie just falls apart once they realize they're dead.

i know i like it mostly because it's bad, but there are SOME genuinely good moments in the movie "perfect."

the bicycle thief and citizen kane are pretty good too.

[hedwig]

the bicycle thief and citizen kane are pretty good too.

those are more guilty pleasures.

[Pas]

I believe all the following movies are not ''unliked'' but maybe not enough mentioned.

Southern Comfort : a New Orleans based Deliverance. I think I like it even more than Deliverance because Burt Reynold's look has not aged well.

Angel Heart : I discovered this movie recently after watching The Wrestler and looking for more performances by Mickey. There were few. But this one was good and I'd never even heard of it so I guess it's pretty underrated.

The IPCRESS File/Billion Dollar Brain/ My funeral in Berlin : This is the thinking man's James Bond. You got Michael Caine in a kickass performance, funny and strong yet subtle and ''beatable'' (in the sense that James Bond is never in real danger, Michael Caine here is)





Something you guys wouldn't understand because you have no way of knowing : some comedies, especially the 80s SNL-actors stuff and also the 90s silly comedies (Baseketball and some Adam Sandler stuff I have in mind) are so crazily translated in french that they are very much improved by the process. Like Eddie Murphy's french voice is so over the top and the language he uses is so inexistent that some expressions where actually invented by these films and subsequently used in society. So in a sense some of these are really underrated but only for frenchies like me.