Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Ten on Tuesday: ten underrated movies

Link to other participants by clicking on the logo:




1. Water. This movie actually won some awards and was even nominated for an Oscar. Still I don't think it got the acclaim it deserved. Many people are turned off by foreign films.

2. Serendipity. There are a LOT of sappy, predictable love story movies out there, but this has to be one of my all time favorites. Eugene Levy as a salesman in Bloomingdales is hysterical and the romantic notion of writing info into a book and "putting it out there" completely sucks me in.

3. So I Married an Axe Murderer. As far as I am concerned this is the best comedy of all time. Yeah. I said it. HANDS DOWN it is Mike Myers best film. I think Princess Bride DID get at kinds of critical acclaim, but this movie was sorely overlooked. (Don't get me wrong, I love PB, but I think SIMAM deserves it's props.)

4. Highlander. "Connor McLeod of the Clan McLeod." I honestly haven;t watched this movie in ages and ages --- maybe since 1986 when it was released? It is probably corny now with the advances in special effects, but it was epic.

5. Bloodsport. This movie as far as I am concerned is the ORIGIN of ultimate fighting. Ultimate fighting nowadays has NOTHING on the fights when they started -- back when there were no rules and the fights were so brutal they were illegal. Don't get me wrong. I watch UFC, and I like it, but it is so "clean" it is not even comparable to the GOOD old days. I can honestly say this is the only movie I would EVER recommend with Jean Claude Van Damme in it.

6 .High Art Lesbian movies are ALL underrated. Let me clarify. Lesbian movies for the most part SUCK... but there are one or two or three that I would watch a few times and even tell my straight friends to watch. But for the most part - they are low budget and BAD -- and most of them don't even have lesbians as actresses which makes any kind of intimate scene "AWKWARD".

7. Bound Might as well tie me up right now. GREAT movie and totally under the radar. (Should I say gaydar? LOL) I crack myself up.

8. But I'm a Cheerleader So I am on a bit of a lesbian theme here, but I am not deluding myself. I know that most straight people won't ever watch either of the two previous movies I just listed. They MIGHT watch this one though and it wouldn't be half bad. I know it glosses over issues and there are some jokes specifically meant for a homosexual audience, but I remember thinking that there were parts that closely resembled real life and what it was like to "come out".

9. The Other Sister. Giovanni Ribisi is one of my favorite actors and he is excellent in this movie. I am also a huge fan of Diane Keaton who doesn's disappoint in this film

10. Fargo. This movie won a BOAT load of awards but I am putting it here because even though it won so much I have never met anyone who has said "Fargo, what a GREAT movie." I completely love it and I ADORE Frances McDormand.

Honorable mentions.

These movies actually won awards, but I still think they were underrated. Sometimes winning an awards doesn't mean the movie was "popular" or as highly rated as i think it should have been.....
Willow
. Willow was actually nominated for (and won) some awards, but overall it was underrated. Great family show and another predecessor to the fantasy movies hyped so much nowadays. I think credit should be given to movies who did so much with relatively none of the special effects available now.
Much Ado About Nothing This is one of my favorites of Shakespeare and a great movie. I don't think making a movie of Shakespeare is any easy task and I applaud the makers of this movie for doing a great job.
Good Will Hunting Another award winning movie. This is probably the movie I have watched the most in my life - and for a "one time only" movie watcher like myself, that is saying a LOT.
Spanglish This is my favorite of all Adam Sandler films. The cast is fantastic and it is written SOOO well. Award winner, but underrated.

5 comments:

Teena in Toronto said...

I love love love "Fargo" and "Seredipity"! Good choices!

I played too :)

Kim said...

This is a great list! I love all of these movies and for the life of me couldn't think yesterday and had a hard time getting my list together.

Thanks for coming over and leaving me a comment. :)

Anonymous said...

I've seen "But I'm A Cheerleader" and I LOVED it!!! Serendipity is OK, I've always loved Snatch and while it's got a reasonable following, I know a lot of people who haven't seen it, and it's great! The other one I thought was way underrated was Forgetting Sarah Marshall - that movie was HILARIOUS and it didn't do well. I have no idea, I own it and watch it all the time.

JCB said...

I haven't seen snatch ot forgetting sarah marshall. I realized as I was making this list I was delving into history quite a bit. That has something to do with the fact I think I have seen 5 movies in a theater in the last five years and honestly, dvds don't seem to make that big of an impact on my memorybank.

Anonymous said...

I should give you fair warning, Snatch is kind of violent, but very funny. It's kind of like a Quentin Tarantino film, but better. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is very raunchy, but really funny as well. I like my humor trashy. Lol