Lesser Known Movies Worth Seeing

[DonTadow]

Dark City - Roger Ebert rose considerably in my opinion when he picked it as his best movie of the year.

House of Cards, To Play the King, The Final Cut - 3 BBC mini-series from the 90's. Bitting black black comedy about a ruthless amoral politician scheming to become prime minister and then holding on to his power.

A Shock to the System - Very good black comedy staring Micheal Caine.

The Blood of Heroes - A post apocalyptic sports story. Juggers play "The game" the objective of which is to put a dog's skull on a stake at the other end of the field. Stars Joan Chen, Ruger Hauer, Vincent D'Nofrio.

The Big Hit - Very funny comedy staring Mark Walburgh as an assassin who can't stand the idea that people might not like him. And consequently gets walked over by all the people in his life. Talked into doing an "unsanctioned" job by his friends, the kidnapping of a Japanese Industrialist's daughter. Who also turns out to be the god daughter of the Mob boss (avery brooks) they work for. Things go down hill from there... And he has a video over due at the rental place.

Horatio Hornblower - BBC/A&E adaptations of the classic Napoleonic era sea saga. First 4 disks are the best. The Mutiny is also good, but the last two disks suffer from substantially reduced budgets. Stars Ioan Grunfeald (unspellable welsh name- Mr. Fantastic in the new FF movie).

The 90's Gamera Movie remakes (3) - What I always wished the newer godzilla movies had been. Good plots, damm near Hollywood grade special effects and interesting characters.

The Professional : International Edition (AKA Leon - Original title)- Recently re-released on DVD. Get it. One of the best action movies ever made.

Ultraviolet - Code V's are plotting against mankind, they drink blood, burn and explode when exposed to sunlight. A cop is caught up in this when his best friend and partner disapears on the eve of his wedding. However when he shows up asking for help claming that a death squad is hunting him down, he doesn't show up in mirrors.

Dark city is one of my all time favorite movies. I"d also suggest if you're a science fiction buff to watch 12 monkeys. I hate time travel but 12 monkey is time travel done right without the happy ending.

 

[Mark]

Identity

I agree. Here are some of my suggested ones (in alphabetical order, as links). Most are particularly good for gamers, and especially GMs, IMO...

The Affair of the Necklace

Dangerous Beauty

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, The

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Girl With a Pearl Earring

Identity

Juana la Loca

Lost In La Mancha

Luther

My Favorite Year

The Red Violin

Shadowlands

The Statement

Suriyothai

This Is My Father

Without a Clue

Wizards

Zero Effect

 

[Campbell]

Boondock Saints: This movie is a gem. Awesome gun fights, wonderful comedy. What could be a cooler than a movie about a couple of Irish meat packers who end up killing a bunch of mobsters for the fun of it. Willem Dafoe is absolutely freaking hilarious in his potrayal of a classical music inspired FBI agent. Americanized Gun-Fu at its best. Not particularly thought-provoking, but it doesn't need to be. It's cool.

 

[Rackhir]

Another vote for "My Favorite Year" Great, great film starring Peter O'Toole. "I AM NOT AN ACTOR! I AM A MOVIE STAR!!!"

Ghost Dog is definitely worth a watch.

Re: Twelve Monkeys. It is a great film, one of my all time favorites, but I didn't consider it a lesser known movie.

 

[Tanager]

Dark City - Roger Ebert rose considerably in my opinion when he picked it as his best movie of the year.

House of Cards, To Play the King, The Final Cut - 3 BBC mini-series from the 90's. Bitting black black comedy about a ruthless amoral politician scheming to become prime minister and then holding on to his power.

...

Ultraviolet - Code V's are plotting against mankind, they drink blood, burn and explode when exposed to sunlight. A cop is caught up in this when his best friend and partner disapears on the eve of his wedding. However when he shows up asking for help claming that a death squad is hunting him down, he doesn't show up in mirrors.

I'll second all of these. Can't comment on the others you mentioned as I haven't seen them other than The Professional but I'm not sure it qualifies as a lesser known movie, I know very few people who haven't seen it.

Ebert did an excellent feature length commentary on one of the older editions of the Dark City DVD.

How about Titus? A very good adaptation of what squeamish critics call Shakespeare's worst play. Very strange, but very good.

Good call, bizare but visually interesting.

City of Lost Children. It is a foriegn flick from the mid 90's but very stylized and quirky.

Another good call, gotta throw in Delicatessen with that.

Ok to add to the list off the top of my head, not all genre flicks though:

CQ, a quirky self-referential piece about fantasy and movie making.
The Duelists Riddley Scott directing, Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine as Napoleonic soldiers carrying a grudge against each other.
Century Hotel essentially a vignette piece connected by a location. But very well done.
After Life Romantic, quirky, perhaps a bit to saccarine. But an interesting Japanese (IIRC) movie about coming to terms with life while you try to choose the one and only memory of your life to take with you to heaven.
El Espinazo del diablo Guillermo Del Toro's masterpiece. I saw this in untitled in Sapnish while in Mexico. Now, I can barely understand a bit of Spanish here and there, but the film is so well crafted visually that I understood it anyway.

And now that I'm thinking of Mexican cinema, how can I leave out Amores Perros, El Crimen del padre Amaro, Y tu mamá también and Abre los ojos.

 

[Hijinks]

I wasn't too impressed with Equilbrium, I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars, but I do love Christian Bale in anything he does.

I've found that those who have seen Wizards either love it or hate it, there's no in-between.

 

[der_kluge]

If you want to a good tear-jerker, rent Cinema Paradiso. It's Italian. Really good flick.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Ronin: Great action movie, with one of the best car chase scenes ever filmed.

Boondock Saints: If you liked Pulp Fiction, you'll like this movie.

The Wind and the Lion: A throwback to the epics of the 1950s and 1960s, featuring great performances by Brian Keith (who plays Teddy Roosevelt) and Sean Connery (who plays a Berber shiek who draws the attention of the United States after kidnapping an American woman in North Africa).

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Blood Simple. The best film noir since the 50s.

 

[MonsterMash]

City of Lost Children. It is a foriegn flick from the mid 90's but very stylized and quirky.

The same people also made Delicatessen which is in a similar vein.
I also enjoyed Identity

Few more suggestions:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209933/ Beau Travail