What Are Your Favorite Hidden Gem Movies?

[Artman]

My wife and I own a small video store and there are several movies that are less than popular, but are still great films.

What are some of your favorite movies that aren't that well known?

I have a few examples:

"Lady in White." It's a great little ghost story set back in the late 50s (I think) sort of "Wonder Years" meets "The Shining." It has great characters, a good little mystery, and a creepy ghost story.

Another one would be "My Bodyguard." Again, good character development and a strong story.

What are some of your little known favorites?

 

[Zero]

I just want you to know that I've actually seen 'Lady in White'...*hangs head in shame*

 

[Artman]

Originally posted by Zero
*hangs head in shame*

Why shame? You didn't like it?

What I am hoping to get as responses are what they call "sleepers": good movies that just don't have the popularity of some of the others out there.

I am a little surprised that anyone knew that one though.

Here's one for true horror fans: "Re-animator." Grabs you in the first five minutes and takes you through some truly gruesome scenes to the "Oh my gosh" ending. It's not for everyone, but if you like gruesome tongue in cheek horror, this is for you.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Metropolis, Mind Walk, My Dinner with Andre, Kafka, Jacobs Ladder.

I have seen many others but it has been a very long time. By the way, I was buddies with the guys that created Phantasm; my brief encounter with Hollyweird... What a great success for an idea driven by failed rock star turned mailman.


Edit: You wouldn't believe how many times I have watched Metropolis. Also, this was the first cinema use of the idea "ROBOT".

 

[meteor]

You have to see "Fright night". A genial mixture of terror and humour

 

[spacemanspiff]

Six String Samurai.
A great and very funny film.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

PS. The one Sci-FI that I found shockingly bad was A Boy and His Dog. I knew someone else that like it, but I thought this was the worst I had ever seen. Also, there is a really bad Japanese movie called The Bear And The Eagle [I think in English].

 

[Kerrie]

mulholland drive is weird...
shawshank redemption, one of my favorites
can't think of any others right now...

 

[zoobyshoe]

Artman,

A good film that is not well known
is "Baghdad Cafe". It's about a
bunch of quirky characters who
hang out at this motel/restaurant
out west in the middle of the des-
ert. Definitly worth seeing if you
like good films that aren't well
known.Another one I saw recently was
called "Divorcing Jack", an Irish
film, also full of quirky char-
acters, but this one has a lot of
violence and bad language. The plot and situations were on the
"different" side. I enjoyed it.

 

[steppenwolf]

respect ivan seeking! metropolis rocks my socks! i saw the new anime one first and then recently saw the original, it was great! i laughed, i cried, ahh what a movie!

favorite little known movie? well there are heaps of australian ones that would be little known internationally, like 'Lantana', what a classic, and 'Priscilla, Queen of the desert'. 'Monsoon Wedding' is another great film, umm, 'Sexy Beast' is not so known. well i only really see little known movies so i won't go on!

 

[pace]

The japaneese version(the original version btw) of The Ring.

It's much more disturbing!

 

[iansmith]

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
A good film that is not well known
is "Baghdad Cafe".

I had to see that movie for some class. the teacher also said it was good and was suggested by many students. Yeah rigth, I fell a sleep during the movie.

A good movie that is not well known is "cube" and "Pi".

 

[Artman]

I thought of a couple more. These two have a physical science theme. "The Dish" a quirky little Australian film about the Australian satelite dish that brought in the first pictures of the moon landing. Funny and strange telling of a piece of science history.

The other was a little more popular, but lots of people probably haven't seen it: "October Sky" the movie is about the childhood of the man who trains the space shuttle pilots and his early interest in rockets. Great movie.

Thanks for the suggestions. I would love to see Metropolis, but we don't own that one yet. I know of it and from what I've seen in clips and such it looks great.

I've seen "Bagdad Cafe"(I don't remember it very well though.), "Priscilla, Queen of the desert" (funny movie), "Mulholland drive" (Yes, it is weird, but I liked it also).

Kerrie, Shawshank Redemption was good. Hard to believe it was based on a story by Steven King. Have you seen the Green mile? Also based on a story by Steven King. Although it is a little more supernatural than Shawshank, it is quite good.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by iansmith
I had to see that movie for some class. the teacher also said it was good and was suggested by many students. Yeah rigth, I fell a sleep during the movie.

A good movie that is not well known is "cube" and "Pi".

Iansmith,

Thanks for your response to my
movie suggestion. I would like to
respond in detail but every time
I try to read what you wrote I
fall asleep halfway through.

-zoob

 

[iansmith]

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
I would like to
respond in detail but every time
I try to read what you wrote I
fall asleep halfway through.

and I though I was interresting. Guess I was wrong

 

[Sting]

Legend of the Fist

 

[zoobyshoe]

Sting,

Do you mean "Fist Of Legend" with
Jet Li?

I googled "Legend of the Fist" and
nothing came up but "Fist of
Legend".

 

[Sting]

Perhaps but I clearly remember watching it as "Legend of the Fist" (we have a satellite dish and I have a bad habit of frequently checking out the title of the movie I happen to watch at that moment).

It could be a spoonerism typo with the satellite company.

 

[Sting]

Okay, I went to imdb.org and typed in "Jet Li" and one of the movies came out to be "Fist of the Legend"

So it must have been a satellite dish typo.

Bummer. I think "Legend of the Fist" sounds cooler

 

[zoobyshoe]

"Legend Of The Fist" is definitly
a better title.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Originally posted by iansmith
I had to see that movie for some class. the teacher also said it was good and was suggested by many students. Yeah rigth, I fell a sleep during the movie.

A good movie that is not well known is "cube" and "Pi".

I just saw Cube. This was very good! Really one of the better recent sci-fi movies I thought.

 

[Artman]

I'm going to try and find that Fist of legend.

I haven't watched it yet, but I hear that "The One" staring Li is pretty good.

 

[kat]

Eraserhead-mid 70's cult film, disturbingly different

Run Lola Run (german film with subtitles), not many people have heard of this film in my area, is it a little known movie in other areas of the U.S.?

Glengarry GlenRoss- this is great story of two crooked salesmen staring Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino, although you may never again hear the word F*** so many times in a movie as you do this one.

 

[FZ+]

Run Lola Run (german film with subtitles), not many people have heard of this film in my area, is it a little known movie in other areas of the U.S.?

I love that film! I first watched it during a German lesson too...

Shawshank Redemption was also good...

But really, I don't watch enough movies to give a real list.

 

[pace]

Originally posted by Artman


I haven't watched it yet, but I hear that "The One" staring Li is pretty good.

The story aint good, but Jet Li is really amazing. The last fight scene he fights himself, and it's maybe the coolest fight scene I've ever seen.

 

[selfAdjoint]

I don't knopw if this is unknown enough, but I really like Ghost Dog, Way of the Samurai. Funny, sad, noble, and silly all twisted together.

 

[jb]

boondock saints

it's really popular at my school (at least amongst my few friends) yet there's only one copy at the vid store.

 

[steppenwolf]

well to jump on the samurai bandwagon...

anyone seen 7 samurai? oh it was brilliant! ahh and on tv the other night there was a great movie called 'one armed boxer vs the flying guillotine' or something similar and it was hilarious.

the 'multiclutural' channel here in australia has a thing of showing a 'cult movie' every saturday night and they're all either pychotic german horror movies or really b grade samurai flicks, amusing stuff.

 

[Tail]

Buffet Froid, without any doubt at all. A French black comedy. It's priceless!

Nothing compares...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

LOLOLOL!

LOL! I just watched a real wingdinger:
Incubus
1966
William Shatner, Allyson Ames, Eloise Hardt.

An angry demon sends an Incubus to wreak havoc after a fellow Succubus falls in love with a mortal. Filmed entirely in Esperanto

Es·pe·ran·to [ èspə rán tō, èspə rn tō ]
noun
artificial language: an artificial language invented in 1887 as a means of making international communication easier. It is based on the root forms of certain words common to the major European languages. In general, the word order is similar to that of English, although the grammar is more highly inflected.

This is so bad it truly qualifies as a classic. A must see!