Obscure or forgotten GREAT movies list.

Stonegiant · Post by **Stonegiant** » Wed May 02, 2007 4:22 pm

The ANdromeda strain
West World
The Viking Sagas

AxeMental · Post by **AxeMental** » Wed May 02, 2007 8:32 pm

Thanks and keep them coming. I just recieved "Sword and the Socerer" (a classic). I'll need to check out this "Hawk the Slayer" you guys keep talking about.

Hey, what was the name of that Charlton Heston movie with the army ants attacking his plantation, and the one where African natives chase Cornel Wilde (I think that was him) across the savanah on a man hunt? I remember both those from my yute.

I'm also awaiting to "the Gargoyles" (the 70s movie) and "Quartermass and the Pit". Another that just got released thats great is "The Nautalus Tapes" (a TV pilot movie, with Roy Thinnis directed by Dan Curtis).

thedungeondelver · Post by **thedungeondelver** » Wed May 02, 2007 9:23 pm

AxeMental wrote:Thanks and keep them coming. I just recieved "Sword and the Socerer" (a classic). I'll need to check out this "Hawk the Slayer" you guys keep talking about.

Hey, what was the name of that Charlton Heston movie with the army ants attacking his plantation, and the one where African natives chase Cornel Wilde (I think that was him) across the savanah on a man hunt? I remember both those from my yute.

The Naked Jungle

I'm also awaiting to "the Gargoyles" (the 70s movie) and "Quartermass and the Pit". Another that just got released thats great is "The Nautalus Tapes" (a TV pilot movie, with Roy Thinnis directed by Dan Curtis).

Oh and if you're in to '70's horror, try Burnt Offerings or Beyond the Door (not "Beyond the Green Door", that's a 70's movie of another stripe

)

T. Foster · Post by **T. Foster** » Wed May 02, 2007 9:46 pm

AxeMental wrote:Hey, what was the name of that Charlton Heston movie with the army ants attacking his plantation, and the one where African natives chase Cornel Wilde (I think that was him) across the savanah on a man hunt? I remember both those from my yute.

The Charlton Heston movie is The Naked Jungle. Don't know the other one.

Here's a selection of not-so-well-known favorites from my (embarrassingly large) dvd/video collection:

A.I.: Steven Spielberg, from story by Stanley Kubrick; much better than its reputation, but you might need to watch it a couple times to take it all in

A Nos Amours: French movie from the 80s about a severely dysfunctional family; very intense -- the director, Maurice Pialat, is hugely underrated (and, sadly, died a few years ago)

Aguirre, Wrath of God: Klaus Kinski as a conquistadore travelling down the Amazon; this was a big cult hit in the 70s, you might have seen it

Andrei Rublev: it's about a medieval monk, it's in Russian, it's black & white, and it's close to 4 hours long -- I won't pretend this one isn't a chore to get through, but if you can manage it there are tons of unforgettable sequences; there are images of both beauty and horror in this one that will stick with you for a very long time

Ben-Hur: 1959 version with Charlton Heston; you've probably seen it, but in case you haven't it's definitely worth watching, and not just for the chariot race (though obviously that's the best part)

Birth: psychological drama/mystery/horror/fantasy featuring probably Nicole Kidman's career-best performance; very atmospheric, very Kubrick-y, great music and steadicam tracking shots

Children of Men: just came out last year; Clive Owen in the near future; there's some political overtones you might not like, but this is some of the most skilfully executed filmmaking in recent memory -- several long tracking shots are absolutely stunning

The Children of Paradise: "the French Gone With the Wind" made during the Nazi Occupation; epic drama about theatre people in 19th century Paris, very Victor Hugo-y feel; plus, one of my old college profs (the late Brian Stonehill) does the audio commentary on disc 1

Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach: performances of J.S. Bach music by people in period costume crosscut with voice-over readings from his wife's diaries = perhaps the most unconventional biopic ever made; think of this more like a concert movie than narrative cinema and you'll have an easier time getting through it

Dead Man: Johnny Depp in the old west with Neil Young music; dreamlike, blackly humorous, and surprisingly violent; probably the last great Western

Duma: recent movie about a white boy in Africa and his pet cheetah; sweet story, gorgeous visuals, suitable for kids

Eyes Without a Face: French horror/surrealism from the 50s about an insane doctor who kidnaps girls and tries to graft the skin from their faces onto his daughter -- extraordinarily creepy; watch this one very late at night with all the lights turned out

Five Easy Pieces: classic Jack Nicholson performance, before he became a self-parody; clearly inspired by both Jack Kerouac and J.D. Salinger

Flirting: Australian kids in boarding school in the 60s; coming-of-age movie, featuring young Nicole Kidman and Thandie Newton

Gilda: Rita Hayworth at her apogee of sexiness lures Glenn Ford to his doom; classic "film noir"

The Harder They Come: Jimmy Cliff, spurned by the record industry, turns to crime and becomes a revolutionary folk hero; one of the best movie soundtracks of all time (helped introduce reggae to the U.S.)

Henry V: the original Laurence Olivier version made during WWII, better than the Kenneth Branagh remake

Hoop Dreams: documentary about high school basketball; one of the best sports movies ever

The House of Mirth: Gillian Anderson (Scully from "X-Files") does Edith Wharton; slow moving but very well acted and filmed and packs surprising emotional weight; much better than Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (also from Wharton)

Jailhouse Rock: Elvis!

Josie and the Pussycats: much smarter and funnier than you'd think, and the music's even pretty good

The Last Detail: more classic Jack Nicholson, this time as a navy man escorting a very young Randy Quaid to prison, with life-lessons along the way

The Last Seduction: black-comedy film noir from the 90s about the ultimate ball-breaking femme fatale and the hapless men who stand in her way

Lifeforce: sci-fi/horror/action/semi-spoof from Tobe Hooper (who also made the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Salem's Lot) about vampires from space that take over London, starring the awesome Steve Railsback and French actress Matilda May (who spends a good portion of the movie buck-naked); I suspect you've probably already seen this

Lilith: young Warren Beatty as an orderly at a mental hospital gets the tables turned on him by patient Jean Seberg; intense psychological drama, last movie by Robert Rossen (who also made The Hustler and the original All the King's Men)

I'm going to stop here, not because I'm out of movies by any means (I could list literally hundreds more) , but because I'm tired of typing, and 25 recommendations is probably enough

Stonegiant · Post by **Stonegiant** » Wed May 02, 2007 11:31 pm

The Royal Hunt for the Sun- Charlton Heston as Pizarro (very good IMHO).

@Foster: Maybe you might remember the name of the B/W 1950's Swedish film about a Knight returning from the Crusades back to Europe during the time of the Plague; won lots of awards, I thought it was excellent myself.

Must also recomend-

Chinatown w/ J. Nicholson

The Blue Max

It's a beautiful life (Italian Death camp/WWII)

All of the Mad Max films

Oh yeah (Myth will agree w/ this one

) can't forget Ice Pirates

northrundicandus · Post by **northrundicandus** » Wed May 02, 2007 11:43 pm

Time Bandits.

Friday.

Young Frankenstein.

Blazing Saddles.

Mordenkainen · Post by **Mordenkainen** » Thu May 03, 2007 5:43 am

Stonegiant wrote:@Foster: Maybe you might remember the name of the B/W 1950's Swedish film about a Knight returning from the Crusades back to Europe during the time of the Plague; won lots of awards, I thought it was excellent myself.

Det sjunde inseglet (The 7th Seal). Excellent movie. Watched it in college for a course. I also recommend Gycklarnas afton (Tinsel and Sawdust, lit. "Evening of the Clowns"?). Another Bergman classic: Tystnaden (The Silence). Very eerie.

Mathilda May (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000528/) was stunning in Lifeforce!

*pant, pant, pant*

Great Anti-Western:

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067411/

Classic SciFi:

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052948/

First Men in the Moon (1964)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058100/

20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046672/

AxeMental · Post by **AxeMental** » Thu May 03, 2007 6:30 am

Foster, Its always funny reading your posts about movies and music, I usually only recognize 20-30%.

Thats funny you should mention BenHur, that was one of the very first DVD I ordered from Netflix (being so near Easter and all).
Foster: "The Charlton Heston movie is The Naked Jungle. Don't know the other one. " I did a search, its called "The Naked Prey". You must have seen this one, they reran it every year when I was a kid.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/5 ... AA280_.jpg

blackprinceofmuncie · Thu May 03, 2007 11:09 am

T. Foster wrote:Hoop Dreams: documentary about high school basketball; one of the best sports movies ever

This reminded me of another documentary that's absolutely great... Dogtown and Z-Boys. It is ostensibly about surfing and the birth of modern skateboarding in Venice during the 70's, but the appeal of the movie is much, much broader than that. I have no interest in either surfing or skating and never have, but I absolutely loved this documentary. Note this is NOT the fiction movie Lords of Dogtown, which covers the same subject matter but didn't get nearly as much critical acclaim as the documentary IIRC.

TRP · Post by **TRP** » Thu May 03, 2007 12:15 pm

The Warriors (1979)
The Omega Man (w/Chuck Heston, The Last Man on Earth remake)
The Last Man on Earth (Vincent Price)
Colossus: The Forbin Project
Clockwork Orange
The Andromeda Strain
One Million Years B.C. (Welch in a bikini the whole movie)
Sleeper (Woody Allen)
Slaughter House Five
The Terminal Man
The Dunwich Horror (major deviations from the story, but well done)
Altered States
Cat People (w/Malcom McDowell and Nasty Kinky)

OMG! OMG! Zardoz w/Sean Conner and Rollerball w/James Caan are musts!!.

What the heck: Anything w/Vincent Price

Anyone mention Heavy Metal (1981) yet?

EDIT: Barbarella

thedungeondelver · Post by **thedungeondelver** » Thu May 03, 2007 1:22 pm

How about The Ultimate Warrior starring Yul Brynner?

Mordenkainen · Post by **Mordenkainen** » Thu May 03, 2007 2:24 pm

Dagon with Macarena Gomez.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264508/

themattjon · Post by **themattjon** » Thu May 03, 2007 3:17 pm

thedungeondelver wrote:
themattjon wrote:Don't forget Krull and John Carpenter's They Live. Who's the guy that did Battle of/for the Planets (with John Boy and a space cowboy)? All his films were great.
I think you mean "Battle Beyond the Stars" and that would be the awefusome Roger Corman .

Corman's one of those guys who's been in the business so damn long that virtually everyone has gone through his production company or worked with him in some way or another, and I'm talking about some distingushed actors: Robert Vaughn (in more than one pic.), John Hurt, Jack Nicholson - people can fault him all they want for his cheesy movies but the fact is that he finds backers and folks watch them.

That's that one! Has that spaceship-with-breasts that was in another of his films. Mmmm, cheese...

rogatny · Post by **rogatny** » Thu May 03, 2007 3:53 pm

I am the only person in the world who likes the following movies...

Bonfire of the Vanities: Largely panned at the time because 1. it was thought that Tom Hanks couldn't handle a serious role, and 2. it wasn't enough like the book. Not having read the book and maybe being a little ahead of the game on the whole Tom Hanks thing, I dug the movie and thougth it was a nice dark comedy on the end of the 80's.

The Burbs: Another Tom Hanks dark comedy about serial killers in the suburbs.

The Zero Effect: Ben Stiller before he was famous as the straight man for a seriously whacked out Bill Pullman. Dark, dark, dark and funny in a desperate, claustrophobic, manic sort of way.

Punch Drunk Love is a really good movie that people just assumed was another dumb Adam Sandler move and then didn't like because it wasn't or did go see becaue they can't stand Sandler.

Heat is hardly obscure, but tends to be forgotten among De Niro's and Pachino's other work. Fan-freakin'-tastic.

Touch of Evil - Charlton Heston as a Mexican (??) lawyer and Orson Wells as a corrupt border sheriff.

T. Foster · Post by **T. Foster** » Thu May 03, 2007 4:41 pm

rogatny wrote:Bonfire of the Vanities: Largely panned at the time because 1. it was thought that Tom Hanks couldn't handle a serious role, and 2. it wasn't enough like the book. Not having read the book and maybe being a little ahead of the game on the whole Tom Hanks thing, I dug the movie and thougth it was a nice dark comedy on the end of the 80's.

This is one of 3 Brian De Palma movies I haven't seen (the other two being very obscure works from the early 70s that aren't available on video). I actually just bought this DVD (for $8, IIRC) a couple weeks ago and have been meaning to watch it. When I do perhaps I'll report back. I'm a huge De Palma fan and don't think he's ever made a truly bad movie (though Wise Guys with Joe Piscopo and Danny DeVito comes awfully close) so I suspect I'll probably find at least something to like in it. FWIW a recent De Palma full-career retrospective at Slant magazine give it 3 1/2 (out of 4) stars.

Touch of Evil - Charlton Heston as a Mexican (??) lawyer and Orson Wells as a corrupt border sheriff.

What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis? This movie is a grade A certfied Classic (at least among that certain brand of auteurist film-snobs who consider Orson Welles a virtual demigod). Plus it gained contemporary cred as Chilli Palmer's favorite movie in Get Shorty.