Your 'hidden gems'

[rabidmonkeys]

Not sure if there's been a thread on this (please delete if there has)

What movies have you enjoyed.. that no one's heard of?


I'd have to think on this.. but the only one that immediately comes to mind is.... The Specials. I don't know if it was ever in theatres.. certainly wasn't big. It was a superhero comedy kinda like an R-rated version of Mystery Men with no action but funny dialogue. It wasn't GREAT.. but I enjoyed it for a movie I had no expectations for

Also this Canadian comedy called The Delicate Art of Parking.. about a parking enforcement officer. Just a sweet, unusual comedy about this guy's life and how he finds meaning in enforcing parking regulations

[RobOfTheDead]

2 excellent Korean movies - Attack the Gas Station! and Save the Green Planet.

Attack the Gas Station is one of the most anarchic movie I have seen. It's even more relevant today than back when it first came out in 1999.

Save the Green Planet is the best mishmash of different genres there is. It includes comedy, drama, sci-fi, horror, action and thriller, sometimes all at once. The tone changes greatly as the movie goes on. It makes it one of the most intereting movie-watching experiences. It reminds you that movies can still be great.

[Al]

Well, Creating Rem Lezar is one of my all time favorites.

There's also a great little Bruce Campbell movie that's on my To Review list called Running Time. It's a heist/love story that's designed to look like it was all filmed in one take. It's not spectacular, but pretty neat nonetheless.

Iron Monkey is a great little Yuen Wo Ping kung fu flick from the nineties that has one of my all-time favorite fight scenes. They gave it a US release back in 2001, but Miramax chopped it up, changed some dialogue, added some special effects, and removed the awesome original music so they could replace it with a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon knockoff. It still made for decent watching, but the original is a treasure.

[StarOpal]

Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam - My top "I've never met anyone else (outside my family) who has heard of, much less actually seen, this movie!" movie. Before any of the Ernest movies (though there is a cameo at the end) Jim Varney played a mad scientist with a hand growing out of his head, Dr. Otto von Shnick [-ick-ick-ick], who uses a machine to put on many guises in order to kill stupid "hero" Lance and destroy the world. I may be biased having grown up with the movie, but I love it.

The Price of Milk - is a good, but very weird, New Zealand movie (is there any other kind?). Really hard to describe, but it's a fantasy (sorta) love story (sorta) comedy-ish type thing.

Proof (1991) - Australian movie with a very young Hugo Weaving and Russell Crowe. It's sad and very often messed up, but it also has some moments of dark humor.

Perhaps Love (Ru guo · Ai) - A musical with a story within a story reflecting the lives of the characters. Think Moulin Rouge in Chinese. Takeshi Kaneshiro is hot, and yes that goes in its favor.

The Fall (2006) - Tarsem Singh's remake of Yo ho ho. It's a love story, but not a romance (at least that's how I feel about it). Kinda goes alongside Pan's Labyrinth in having fantastical elements mixed with a darker side. Lee Pace: see Takeshi Kaneshiro.

[dex]

Taxi (1998), a great little fun comedy.

[Opinion Emitter]

One of my favorites is Invasion! (1999) also called Top of the Food Chain. I "discovered" it on MRFH and loved it so much I bought it and have shown it to several friends. I also really like Oldboy which has one of the most awful twists I've ever seen (like The Sixth Sense except raw and grimy). And Everything Is Illuminated. I love the dialogue, the colors, the odd mix of characters.

[sergeofarnivillage]

I'm not sure if this movie is as obscure as I think it is, but one movie I really like that no one seems to have really heard of is Waking Ned Divine. I think it's a great movie (I've already recommended it in the Movies-To-Review forum)

[katoot]

Oldboy is awesome, as is it's precursor, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (haven't had a chance to watch Mrs. Vengeance yet).

Some of my favorites that haven't been reviewed yet here (and they're all Asian) are:

The Good the Bad the Weird (essentially a Korean remake of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)
Chaser (another Korean movie, similar to Oldboy, but with a pimp looking for one of his girls)
Quill (a sad Japanese movie about the life of a seeing-eye dog)
Chekeracho! [Check It Out, Yo!] (a coming of age Japanese comedy, along the lines of Waterboys, about a group of high school kids who want to start their own rap group)
and
Geroppa! [Get Up!] (a Japanese comedy about a Yakuza boss, who's about to go to prison, who has a wish to see one person one last time before he's put behind bars. It's actually his estranged daughter he wants to see, but his lackeys, one of which is Kawada from Battle Royale, think it's James Brown, who happens to be in Japan for a performance the next night. Unfortunately, an impersonator show is also going on and has a James Brown of their own, complete with a microfilm featuring risque pictures of the Japanese Prime Minister. Wackiness ensues.)

[StarOpal]

Nate and Hayes

It's an adventure comedy, written by John Hughes and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Michael O'Keefe, about a sorta pirate, an adventurous kidnapped damsel, and the damsel's beau who starts out wimpy but becomes all piratey.

And considering it was made in 1983 I'm not so sure Pirates of the Caribbean would have much of a leg to stand on in a court proceeding. Just sayin'.