. The White, The Yellow And The Black (1975)
AKA ‘Samurai’ and ‘Shoot first… Ask Questions Later’. A pretty funny and well written spaghetti western. Worth a watch if your looking for some light entertainment and a few laughs.
. Get Him To The Greek (2010)
Don’t understand why films like ‘Superbad’ (2007) and ‘21 Jump Street’ (2010) become beloved classics while this was forgotten. It’s got the comedy of a raunchy late-2000’s Seth Rogan like film and the action of a James Bond movie. The inclusion of Pedo Diddy didn’t age well but that can be forgiven.
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Arlington Road (1999)
Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, Jeff Bridges in a taut, pre-9/11 domestic terrorism thriller. I’d pair this with the much better known Denzel Washington film The Siege (1999). Last I checked, this film is not on any streaming platform. Good luck!
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)
This Inuit story captivated me. An all-Inuit cast portraying a fable from thousands of years ago. The nearly 3h run time will challenge many. The National Film Board of Canada
Brick (2005)
Fans of Knives Out should really see Rian Johnson’s first feature film. Smart and steeped in film noir, with a fantastic and unique script, this flick starring Joseph Gordon-Leavitt.
A Scanner Darkly (2006) is a rotoscoped movie based on a Philip K Dick novel set in future LA with a detective trying to find the supply of a dangerous new drug while being addicted to it and suffering from his addiction. The rotoscoping helps add a vibe of delirium to the movie and it is well acted including probably one of the best uses of Keanu Reeves as an actor.
Checking out more of Richard Linklater’s work is also highly recommended.
Waking Life (2001)
Philosophy and dreams combine for an enlightening journey. It’s a good rewatch if you’ve not seen it in a long while.
Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), Before Midnight (2013, I haven’t seen this one)
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy have beautiful explorations of love and the human condition.
One of Robert Downey Jr’s best roles. He was so detached and horrible in the role while being an absolute goofball (that silencer and the bike). He reminded me of a few tweakers I used to know.
It’s the only horror movie that ever gave me a nightmare, even as a younger kid than I was when I saw it.
My parents were willing to let me watch horror movies pretty young, depending on the exact movie. Like, old school fifties and sixties era horror I was laughing about at 5. So they had gradually loosened the limits up because it never bothered me, nor did I get obsessed.
So we watched this one one night after I picked it out at the video rental place (vhs). It wasn’t scary per se, I did way more laughing than anything else because the effects were not impressive.
But the core idea of it, that stuck in my brain apparently, because that night, and a couple after, I had the nightmare of the Manitou growing in me.
I’ve seen it as an adult a few times, and it isn’t exactly a great movie, despite being a fairly classic example of body horror. Decent, not not great, and you have to overlook the era’s film making style.
I’m not aware of where it might be available, but YouTube has a few clips.
I’ve never had anyone, online or irl, know that it existed, much less having also watched it.
A goofy, Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker-adjacent spy spoof from France. Stunningly, the same director and male and female leads wouldater collaborate on 2011’s Oscar winning The Artist.
Colin was a zombie movie told from the point of view of the guy turning into a zombie. Made headlines at the time because the guys that created it only spent 220£. I believe it was only shown at a film festive, but crappy copies are to be found online.
I remember liking it at the time, and it has a great ending! Not sure how it would hold up, but I finally found a watchable copy.
Dark Star(1974), directed by John Carpenter (The Thing) and written by him and Dan O’Bannon (Alien). Worth a watch for the low-budget effects and realistic depiction of what it must be like to be stuck in a spaceship for 20 years with the same people.
Zombie Strippers! (2008) is far better than it has any right to be, especially if they had kept in the deleted scene. The film has Jenna Jameson as a stripper at a club who turns into a sexy zombie, getting a lot of fans in the process. The other strippers as well as others tied to the strip club then have to deal with the consequences as more strippers become zombies to increase their earnings.
Two good movies my wife and I saw in the last year and we were pretty much the only ones in the theater:
The Last Stop in Yuma County, a tense indie crime movie set almost entirely in an isolated gas station diner. Loads of, “Hey, that’s that guy from that thing…” actors in it.
Outlaw Johnny Black, a comedic Western produced, directed, written by, and starring Michael Jai White as a revenge-obsessed outlaw who has to pose as the town’s new preacher.
‘Screamers’ is a 1995 scifi movie starring Peter Weller. There’s just something about the vibe of this movie that really draws me in. If you like sort of bleak mid budget scifi this is a good one.
‘Hell Comes To Frogtown’, a 1988 movie starring Rowdy Roddy Piper. A post apocalypse where there are frog people and Piper is playing a Mad Max type. It’s an absurd fever dream of a movie. ‘Big Trouble In Little China’ energy.
‘Soldier’ from 1998 starring Kurt Russell. This is like a forgotten Kurt Russell movie. It’s not particularly deep, but it’s a good popcorn movie to watch a simple plot of a super soldier taking out evil super soldiers.
‘The Spy Who Came In From The Cold’ is a 1965 movie. About, of course, a spy. An agent sent not East Germany during the Cold War. It’s not the normal action oriented James Bond kind of spy movie. It’s a lot talkier, and I find it kind of depressing. So if you like that sort of thing, there it is.
‘Observe And Report’ is a Seth Rogan movie about being a mall security guard. It is nothing like the awful ‘Paul Blart’ movies, which everyone assumes when I mention it in real life. This movie is more like Death To Smoochie in its dark comedy sensibilities.
Hell Comes to Frogtown is a fantastic movie if you can get over the premise of the movie “the government hires a rapist to help jumpstart the population boom after humanity becomes endangered.”
Man. Screamers was a regular on 10 VHS for $10 holidays. Must’ve watched Soldier 5 or 6 times on late 90’s cable. Watched it not long ago too. Still not great, but I still can’t look away.
Oscar. It’s a comedy set in the 1930s with Sylvester Stallone as a gangster. Directed by John Landis.
Also starting Marisa Tomei, Tim Curry, Don Ameche, Kirk Douglas, Harry Shearer, Kurtwood Smith, Arleen Sorkin.
Trailer:
I’ve anyways loved that movie!
Oscar is one of my partner’s favourite movies.
The Finucci brothers kill me every time!
I think “Get him to the Greek” isn’t more popular because it was a spin off of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” which was a better movie IMO.
Russell Brand didn’t age well either
I really like Gladiator (1992) which is an underground boxing film with James Marshal, Cuba Gooding Jr and Brian Dennehy.
James Marshal is a young boxer who’s dad hits hard times and moves to a rough area where he gets dragged into the underground boxing scene.
I was gonna say this Bosnian war film I caught on the public broadcaster 2 decades ago, but it apparently won a fuckin oscar, so I now recommend you watch Birdemic instead.
Birdemic is a bad movie where everyone does a bad job making it. The only part that makes it somewhat interesting is that it includes obvious wish fulfillment by the writer-director.
When an island off the coast of Ireland is invaded by bloodsucking aliens, the heroes discover that getting drunk is the only way to survive.
Also The Siege of Jadotville but probab
Irish Commandant Pat Quinlan leads a stand off with troops against French and Belgian Mercenaries in the Congo during the early 1960s.
Not exactly “hidden gem” but definitely not well known.
