So the overrated topic was one of the more active in here, even though there was some disagreements
This seemed like a logical followup and was also suggested in the overrated thread.

So list the movies you think are mostly underrated/underappreciated. Reason why you believe so would be great as well
I'll try to start, though this is not my strong side

Das Boot - Glorious 4 hours of the absolutely best submarine movie ever. For those of you that does now know, you follow a German crew in a WWII diesel submarine, the movie is german made and the actors speak deutch which put alot of people off, but it really is absolutely wonderful.

Alien 3 - Yes people will flame and hate me for this. If you look at this movie as a seperate entity, it really is a quite decent thriller, and certanly one of the better "we are locked in with something that try to kill us" movies. I personally do not get why people hate this movie so much.

Taxi - This might not be unappreciated enough to belong here but *shrugs*. Wonderful comedy by Luc Besson, but again the french probably put a lot of people off. The dialog is witty and silly and there is wonderful carchases!

Leon - Also a Luc Besson flic about the Assasin Leon who meets a little girl (Portman). Way too few people know of this wonderful gem of a movie. (apprently known as "The Proffesional" some places!

And now it's your turn!

I was really confused when you caled it "Leon", because I have always known it as "The Profesional". No matter what it is called, you are correct, it is a fantstic movie.

These are more overlooked than underrated.

Out of Sight
Three Kings
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Magnolia
Collateral
Miami Vice
Brick
The Lookout
Heat
Bottle Rocket
Chasing Amy
Cry-Baby

that's enough for now.

Feel like explaining why at some point, ss? I'd like to hear why. By Miami Vice do you mean the one with Farrel and Foxx?

I'm quite surprised that you'd consider Leon to be underrated, I have to say - I've seen it half a dozen times and it's still great, as says everyone I know who has also watched it

Okay, some of my picks...

Bubba Ho-Tep - Bruce Campbell stars as an octenagarian, cancer-of-the-penis-suffering Elvis, trapped in a Rest Home and fighting for his soul against an ancient Egyptian Mummy with only a motorised wheelchair and JFK (who had a part of his brain removed and was dyed black by the CIA so that no one would ever recognise him) for help. There's nothing that you can't like about this film; action, comedy, adventure and even a few tear-jerking moments throughout.

Aliens Versus Predator - Now don't get me wrong; the plot was terrible and there is no excuse in any of the 9 Hells that let them get away for making it a 12 Certificate, but at te end of the day I only went to see this film to see one thing and I got it. About half an hour in, an Alien and a Predator walk into a room and proceed to throw down and trash the place. I waited 12 years for that scene, ever since Predator 2, and it was worth every penny of admission just for that

RoboCop 2 - Everyone I've asked always consider this film vastly inferior to the original, but I consider that to be slightly too harsh. It's an entertaining film and follows a logical progression from the first (unlike, say, Alien3 where everyone dies for no obvious reason) and, despite not being *as* poignant, there are several good scenes and single-liners that capture the tone perfectly.



And finally, Big Trouble in Little China - If you've seen this film, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't, shame on you!

Better Off Dead - Just a really funny movie with a lot of great quotes.

City of God - This was an outstanding true-life gangster movie set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. It shows the ever increasing levels of violence as gang members vie to be the leader. Just a superb film.

I thought Citade was wildy praised, but okay.

Don't be a menace to south central while drinking your juice in the hood.

Easily the best comedy on the planet.

Paris sex tape

Altough some strange naked troll is moving through the movie at a slow pace, people don't apreciate the "realness" of the acting. Oscar worthy.

I don't know about Ney's list. Outside of Alien 3 (which I liked as well), those are all very well known and appreciated and respected films.

That's in the top twenty of imdb's top 250.

Cable Guy - Maybe the most hated Jim Carey movie. Even more hated than The Truman Show. I have no idea why people hate this movie so much. It's mildly funny and has an okay cast. I think most people went in thinking, "hey, he was in Ace Ventura, this must be like that."

Punch Drunk Love - I'm convinced that anyone who doesn't like this movie doesn't understand it. Anderson just undershot Magnolia with this film. Sandler gives one of the better preformances of the last ten years.

Boiler Room - Affleck actually gives a good preformance in this movie. Ganted his screen time is about ten minutes. What most don't realize is that this movie is better than Wall Street. Not that Wall Street is the greatest movie ever, but it's much worse than Boiler Room.

Ronin - People don't like this movie enough. Probably one of the better spy movies ever. It has the greatest use of a MacGuffin since Pulp Fiction. The chase scenes are the best of the last ten years. The cast is awesome and all give top notch preformances.

Malcolm X - Easy Denzel Washington's second best preformance. Spike Lee does a well enough job of not geytting up his ass with an anti-white message. It's just a really good bio piece.

There are more. Just tired of listing them.

My List:
The Lookout - Just amazing, the pacing is brilliant and the Jason Gordon-Levitt is fantastic
Brick - Just amazing, the pacing is brilliant and the Jason Gordon-Levitt is fantastic. A perfect update of the classic film noir genre
Rear Window - Well appreciated, but I personally feel this to be one of Hitchcock's best works. You are watching someone watch someone. How very meta. While its a common theme in his works this film brought it to a new level.
The Mummy - Oh god I love this movie. Its a wonderful send-up of the classic serials of the 30's and 40's. that alone should win points. Let alone that the movie is entertainment, pure and simple.
Serenity - I never feel like this got the attention it deserved. (This one is gonna cause problems)
Flags of Our Fathers - Yea it did decent and got good reviews, but I feel like it was largely ignored by the public. Its treatment of how America treats its heroes is incisive and insightful

I will have more eventually but I need to look at my movie collection





Alien 3.... REALLY?!? Underappreciated?

I feel like most of those on Ney's list are appreciated especially by the critics just not by the public at large. Even some of those like Leon and Das Boot are very appreciated even among the public. I will qualify that almost all my friends are heavy movie watchers so I may be getting a skewed perspective.

Same goes for City of God. Although, I will say RoboCop never gets the credit it deserves for being a good movie and a extremely potent comment on authoritarianism (right word?) and police/criminal behavior.

and COMPLETELY agree about Bubba Ho-Tep

I honestly do not know how this opinion is possible. The Mummy is the kindof work you'd expect from the guy wrote such classics as Deep Rising. Just 'cause you do a takeoff of something, does not mean you have accomplished anything. The movie is full of tired cliches and just really pendantic action sequences. The CGI is god awful. It's not even funny, which is the point of a campy movie! Is it too much to ask for a movie about a mummy to take itself seriously? I want a really dark and scary movie about a mummy. I was hoping The Mummy would take care of that want when I saw the preview so long ago, but no.

Any Bruce Campbell film is under-appreciated pretty much. He's one of the best actors/directors out there, but most people don't even know who he is.

Starship Trooper - Although it is cheesy at points it's still a decent movie that doesn't deserve to be considered so bad.

There's another one i was gonna mention but it slipped my mind.

The cliches are the thing that make it funny. It is a VERY deliberate mocking of those old mummy movies. Look at the costumes, dialogue, locations, and even those action sequences you were talking about. This movie is as much a mocking tribute as Army of Darkness is.
Campy Movies are funny not because of jokes within the movie based upon lines of dialogue but because of the way the movie comes together and how it's over the top. It's very hard to write campy, it comes from the finished product.
I think part of the problem is that you went in with the wrong expectations, Dent. You went in expecting a scary movie and got a comedic send-up of the old style movies, of course you are going to be disappointed.

I also think that it is damn near impossible to make a Mummy scary. There are just too many things working against it for it to truly be scary.

I just remember the movie i was gonna say... Dragon Wars, D-Wars. It came out and then forgotten within the span of a few weeks. The graphics in the movie were incredible, especially the dragon battle at the end. Even the one really simple stunt they messed up on had me laughing. (they had a guy get hit by a car where you saw the car coming at the guy then you could see the cut in the film and the guy laying across the hood...all in one shot...it was so badly done in a movie with amazing visual it was just funny)

Oh I completely forgot about Bubba Ho-Tep it's a gem amongst my DVD collection.

Let me alaborate a bit on my selections:

Aliens 3 - Everybody I talk to about these movies bash #3 saying it didn't belong, it was horrible, disgrace to the alien series etc. So I felt it belonged here because I still think it's a very decent movie. If the rest of you happen to like it, then hurray I found somebody who can appreciate it.

With regards to Leon and Das Boot, they have been praised by critics sure, and you may be right that most people that actually see them through like them. So they be more unknown that underrated, sorry

Starship troopers is a favourite amongs the guys I watch movies with so I didnt even think of putting this on, it's great and I love it!

Serenity (sorry it had to be done)

lol Ney. See Starship Troopers has that reaction for me. Its just painful to watch, theres very little understanding of military tactics or physics which bothers me throughout the movie. I can watch it like once a year and usually there is drinking involved.

Now, I must say what doesn't everyone like about Serenity? Just out of curiousity

First things first: Illusionist was spot-on about Big Trouble in Little China. That flick ranks very high on my all-time favorites list.

Secondly, for a moment I thought Ney was referring to that Queen Latifah/Jimmy Fallon debacle - the thought that someoned liked that thing gave me a full-body shudder. But I'm better now.

I'll add to the list:

Hudson Hawk - This movie is in my Top Ten Favorites of All Time. It's been called 'the greatest movie to almost kill a career.' It flopped in the box office, but I like the wise-cracking Bruce Willis that first popped onto the scene in the TV series "Moonlighting." It's a very quotable and rollickingly fun action-comedy.

Blues Brothers 2000 - Yup, it's just as corny and outrageous as the original. And while John Goodman can't replace Belushi, he does a decent job of filling in. Add two more new 'brothers' into the mix, and you've got an okay movie. However, the reason I include this movie on my list is the music. Awesome blues of every shape and size, a stellar musical cast, and then there's the Grand Finale concert: A Who's Who of blues musicians, with B. B. King and Eric Clapton center stage. I'll never get tired of this movie.

Stir of Echoes - Maybe it's just the Kevin Bacon fan in me, but I friggin' loved this movie. If you like a good ghost story, give this one a go. It'll probably keep you on the edge of your seat unless you're particularly calloused about these movies - but this one's got a good plot too.

Frequency - I really liked this movie despite the rather questionable premise: A father (Dennis Quaid) and son (Jim Caveziel) are able to talk to each other across time (thirty years apart!) via short-wave radio because of something funky going on with the aurora borealis. If you can look past that one small problem, it's actually a great action-cop thriller. Using their unusual communication, they have to stop a serial killer. I won't say any more - if you ain't seen this one, give it a rent. I've already told you the only bad part of the movie (meaning that there's lots of good stuff).

I know there are more that I want to add, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment. I'll take a look at my shelves when I get home.

Every time I watch the scene where they invade the bug planet. You know the one where they stack their starships in layers so if the bug misses the first two rows they are almost certain to hit row three? I always cringe and swear I will never watch the movie again. But I always end up doing it because beside all the horrid flaws, the bad acting and whatnot, it's still bloody entertaining!!

With regards to serenity, it's been a while since I saw it. And I knew jack about the whole thing when I put it on. But from what I remember: The acting was horrid, the action scenes meh, the story so bland that I can't even remember any details, except the girl was kickass, and they found that odd planet in the end. Add your default hollywood characters + love story to generate boring generic movie ... (I'd prolly have to watch it again to really be able to point out the stuff that put me of so take this with a grain of salt.)

Serenity... I have never seen, but i think it's craptastic from the firefly series which I couldn't watch more than the first epsode. it was just a bad story.

Final Fantasy: Spirits Within is another under-appreciated movie. It had major hype and then noone liked it due to it not being anything like Final Fantasy. It's a great movie and had it not been named Final Fantasy I bet you most people would have liked it.

Mighty Morphing Power Rangers: The Movie - Cheesy movie, but the more you know about the series/movie the better it is. Graphically it's beyond quite a number of other movies during that time, and the fights with the banter is just hilarious. the thing I hate most about it though is that they made it non-canon.

UTM I bow before you

Hudson Hawk and Frequency. Simply awesome.

hmmm.... I still don't see where you guys are coming from about serenity, but thats ok.

Probably not a particularly popular opinion, but I much preferred the version from 1998 starring Christopher Reeve.

Seriously, not only only did I never expect him to act again (this was post-paralysis) but he's bloody good as well!

*shrug* I like Jimmy Stewart, but I also like Chris Reeves. I haven't seen that version although if its similar to the other one it should be very good

Okay, now that I have access to the UTM Movie Library, I've got a few more to add.

Being John Malkovich - This is one Utterly Bizarre Flick, but the weirdness makes it Great. I'm a huge fan of the main actors - Malkovich himself, John Cusack, and Cameron Diaz (it took me a while to realize it was her - she really looks different in this one). Don't miss the Charlie Sheen cameo where he's done up to seem like he's in his sixties; he looks hilarious with a potbelly and shiny pate.

Maverick - I've watched this movie dozens on dozens of times, and I still love it. Much hilarity, lots of really big-name stars, and there ain't no way you'll guess how it ends if you've never seen it. This is poker the way poker oughta be played.

Hero (a.k.a., Accidental Hero) - This one is chock-full of outrageously cliched characters, and every damn one of 'em rocks. Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, and Andy Garcia star in this hope-filled, feel-good comedic drama. Yeah, I said comedic drama. Deal with it and go rent this one.

Turk 182 - I can't really say what my deal is, but I just love Underdog Stories. Timothy Hutton stars as a pissed-off New York kid who decides to take out his righteous anger against the mayor of New York (while he's trying to get himself re-elected). Robert Urich, Kim Cattrall, and Peter Boyle co-star.

Sneakers - This is another on my watch-over-and-over list, and another star-studded cast. I don't quite know where to place this one; it's not quite an action movie (though there's plenty of action), it's not quite a spy flick (though there are spies everywhere), and it's just a wee bit too serious to be a comedy (though there are LOTS of hilarious moments - the best of which is the James Earl Jones cameo scene at the end).



...And I'm sorry, but I just can't let this go any further without saying something. Durakken, if you think that Dragon Wars and the Power Ranger Movie = good cinema, you genuinely don't have the slightest idea what a good movie is. I'm hoping that it's just youthful exuberant ignorance. I really am.

Sneakers, MY GOD UTM you are the man

Dream a Little Dream - It had Cory Haim and Cory Feldman. It was a romantic comedy. Two strikes, right? I don't know. I have watched that one three or four times and loved it each time.



Miller's Crossing - It's the Coen Brothers movie that nobody has seen. I think that more people have seen Blood Simple than Miller's Crossing. Epic freaking movie.


UltimateTriviaMan's list is a good one. Some of my favourite flicks in there. Sneakers was greatly unappreciated. Malkovitch was a good/great/brilliant movie but did get much of the praise that it earned so I would not include it in this list.


Honourable Mentions: Devil in a Blue Dress (Denzel Washington), Stardust Memories (Woody Allen), Payback (Mel Gibson of all people), and She's All That (Freddie Junior Prince - yuck! But you will watch and enjoy it all the way through).


2nd Edit: Six Degrees of Separation deserves even more credit than it was given

How's this for controversy... Waterworld!

Alright, on first glance it wasn't a brilliant film. Kevin Costner did yet another "block of wood" impression and what little plot there was, was centred to much on an annoying little child and her ranting know-all guardian instead of a gloriously hammy Dennis Hopper.

Aside from that, however, you have ground-breaking sets, incredible stunts and genuine ambition to be even bigger than anything that ever went before. I also thought that the ending was rather poignant - Humans finally return to their rightful place on land and are spared death at sea, but the actual hero who did all the hard work has to return to the ocean, alone - separated from the people that he has finally begun to trust, and never able to partake in his long-sought reward.

It's an action movie with a sad ending. Now THAT is something worth remembering.

How is that worth remembering? Every Mad Max movie had a sad ending. At least they were good.

I like Kevin Costner movies so I don't know why people don't like him. He's perfect for the roles he picks and all the movies he's in are pretty good and done in a style forgotten by modern hollywood.

I'm mixed with him. Some movies, and he in them, are really good (Bull Duran, Dances with Wolves, The Untouchables, Field of Dreams), some are bad (Prince of Theives, The bodyguard, Tin Cup, Message in a Bottle) and then some are god aweful (Postman, Waterwold, For love of the Game).

Costner often emotes at the level of a corpse. The man has no need for facial expressions or tone inflection, he's Costner! He's a box office sure bet! Oh wait...

Kevin Coster is one the worst actors right now. He is as bad as Keanu Reeves. He's contributed two good preformances: Dances with Wolves and Open Range. Other than that, Costner's preformances are about as nuanced and subtle as a punch in the face. Then again, I haven't seen Mr. Brooks; he must be due by now.

No idea why you think Keanu is a bad actor...Perhaps you like the bandwagon

Dude, you've got to be joking. You like Kevin Costner and Keanu Reeves? It's like finding a unicorn.

and you don't?

I find it amusing that every time Costner makes a new film people go and see it yet almost every movie he makes they have the opinion it's trash. Considering he makes whatever the hell he wants and makes longer films than has been generally accepted you'd think he wouldn't make as much money making those films if they were so bad and people didn't like them. Get a clue. People say negative things about people because it is the popular thing to do and not because they actually think that way. One of their friends said it and they just agreed to not have an argument and that lie spread and soon it became what you think you actually thought.

If people would actually go back and figure out what they really think of something rather than relying on generalizations.

Oh my god, you're right! The Upside of Anger was really an awesome movie and I never saw that 'cause of peer pressure. You've opened my eyes to Costner's great preformances in such classics as 3000 Miles to Graceland, Message in a Bottle, and No Way Out.

Have you ever thought, "hey, maybe everyone hates Costner's movies 'cause they suck." Is that not a possibility? Everybody doesn't hate Gigli just 'cause that's the in thing to do. Gigli just sucks really, really hard.

I like that comparison. Kevin Costner is Gigli.

Now now.. if anyone is Gigli it's Keanu Reeves. His only 3 good performances were the same character... Bill and Ted, Parenthood, and I love You to Death.


And Durakken, you really need to stop trollling. Consider this your last warning.

Don't forget The Matrix. All he had to do was look thoughtful and confused. The confused he has down, but thoughtful is just inside his range

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User offers no basic for any of his arguments.

Waycos

Stardust. It takes the basic premise of an old school fairy tale, then fills in all the blank spaces with awesomeness.

Sneakers. Pure good. Just solid good.

Hmm, what about War Games? That was on the other night, I always loved it...

Going to a movie and liking a preformance are two different things. I saw the Matrix movies, and even liked the first one, knowing full well Keanu Reeves can't act. People actually went to see Catwoman.

According to psychology? What psychological principle are citing? I'm always interested in learning something new.

Again, you're assuming they won't like the movies instead of just the preformance of Costner's preformance. Val Kilmer, Keanu Reeves, and other terrible actors star in movies and people still see them.

My friends and I actually like to discuss movies and share our own opinions. If we all agreed, it'd be boring, very boring.


You what you are Durakken, you are a wolf among sheep. Your not mindless. Oh no my friend, you know what's going on. You're eyes are open to the world. Fight the power!

wargames, I agree. It was very interesting

It's so quiet in here... I don't know why.

...But did you remember to use fire or acid, Waycos? Them trolls have a nasty habit of regenerating...

Light, Light works too. Turns them to stone

GAG. I hate Being John Malkovich. I was going to put it on overrated movies but I didn't think enough people liked it. It's like a



Here are some of mine:


The Grudge: I really liked this horror, and everyone else seems to hate it. Which is totally backwards, I usually hate all horrors and everyone else likes them. I suppose people want the same crap spoon fed to them and don't like a little imagination and subtlety.

Dirty Work: It's stupid, I know, but it's supposed to be. I don't think a lot of people get Norm Macdonald at all, though.

Matrix Revolutions: I admit that Reloaded was a crime against cinema, but that doesn't automatically mean that Revolutions is.

Exorcism of Emily Rose: I could practically hear the morons around me in the theater saying 'I didn't know there was going to me thinking involved.'

Kevin Costner was pretty good in A Perfect World. It's a Clint Eastwood flick so it suffers from snail pacing at times but Costner was very damn good in that. I also have the hots for Laura Dern.




Being John Malkovitch was GREAT! I loved it!

See, Costner CAN do good movies! If everyone else recalls, I never said anything about Costner being a good actor - exactly the opposite, in fact - BUT despite it I enjoyed the film because it was something a bit different and it made an effort.

That's what I appreciate, instead of these dime-a-dozen, brainless shoot 'em ups like Resident Evil or Doom that are intrinsically trying to be exactly the same as something else.

Call me crazy, but I loved the Kevin Costner Robin Hood flick. Granted, he was helped (a LOT) by a stellar supporting cast, but it was surprisingly action-packed for just another Robin Hood movie. It ain't what I'd ever call Great Cinema, but it's always been a great bowl-of-popcorn-snuggled-under-the-blanket-on-the-couch action ride.

I thought it was a cool movie when I saw it as a kid. I tried watching it somewhat recently and it is horribly mediocre.

UTM.. you're crazy!

The best thing about that movie is it led to Men In Tights and the ever classic line from Carey Ewes, "Unlike some Robin Hood's, I speak with an accent"