Category: Underappreciated Movies

Apr 06 2015

This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

IDeclareWar Melissa’s Pick of the Week: I Declare War

Armed with nothing but sticks and their imagination, a gaggle of 12-year-olds immerse themselves in a game of Capture the Flag as a summer afternoon passes. It starts innocently enough, but soon the film starts showing how they see themselves in the game: carrying real guns instead of sticks, and throwing real grenades instead of paint-filled balloons. Soon, their game becomes as serious as the real thing, as they emerge from childhood innocence by learning what their friends are truly capable of. I Declare War basically takes all the horrors of actual war, and then uses kids to start asking the hard questions. It’s like Lord of the Flies meets Platoon, and it is thankfully blessed with some decent child actors. It’s a fresh take on the war movie genre and a truly impressive low-budget indie film.

LongKissGoodnight

Windy’s Pick of the Week: The Long Kiss Goodnight

Writer Shane Black kicked off his career with Lethal Weapon. Then he wrote fan favorite Monster Squad. After Last Boyscout and Last Action Hero, what did he write before he knocked it out of the park with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3? This movie.

Geena Davis is the woman who lost her memory 8 years ago. Samuel L. Jackson is the low-rent private investigator still poking around for clues about her past. That past comes looking for her at the same time that a minor car accident causes flashbacks to the person she doesn’t remember being. And that person…was a violent, dark, cynical thing. When her old self fully snaps back, you’ll see why Geena Davis won so many acting awards back in the day. In an unexpected and satisfying twist, Sam the Man is not the ass-kicking savior of the piece – that role belongs solely to Geena, who saves Sam, her daughter, and the United States all on the same night.

Mar 30 2015

This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

courtjester

Windy’s Pick of the Week: The Court Jester

I’m conflicted recommending this as “underappreciated” since any fan of classic films will already know and love this movie. But – maybe you somehow missed it? Maybe you don’t think you like classic films? Maybe you’ve seen all the Big Dramas, and missed one of the best of the classic comedies? It’s medieval England and the throne has been usurped from it’s rightful ruler (a baby with a special birthmark) by evil King Roderick… I could try to summarize the plot but it’s slapstick, and farce, and word play, and spies. Glynis Johns is gorgeous, Danny Kaye is majestically adorable, and your eyes will pop out of your head at the young Angela Lansbury. Plus Basil Rathbone even! And he and Danny have one of the best sword fights ever put on film! It’s The Adventures of Robin Hood as a farce. With musical numbers.

Jodorowskys Dune

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Jodorowsky’s Dune

Back in the early 1970s, somehow the license for Frank Herbert’s space opera Dune fell into the hands of gonzo avant garde film director Alejandro Jodorowsky (the same man who started the midnight cult film phenomenon with El Topo). For the following two years, Jodorowsky gathered an army of “spiritual warriors” to design the artistic look and feel of the film. The project eventually fell apart, leaving behind an immense library of elaborate production art that has, until now, never really been seen by the public. Jodorowsky’s Dune is a documentary about the failed film production, and it is a fascinating oral history of a dizzying, bizarre project that had a profound influence on sci-fi films of the 1970s and 1980s. The documentary is fantastic: it is as entertaining and funny as it is profound and visually stunning.

Mar 23 2015

This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

short_term_12

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Short Term 12

I feel like Short Term 12 came and went without enough attention. It’s a quiet little drama, sure, but it’s one that hits every note well. Short Term 12 is the story of a young woman who works in a mental health treatment facility for kids and teens alongside her boyfriend. The film’s script is remarkable in that it treats every character with depth, and yet it handles the drama with a deft lightness. To match the script, the acting is honest and solid without being showy. This is not a drama that clubs you with sentimentality; instead, it welcomes you in.

smokin-aces

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Smokin’ Aces

Joe Carnahan directs this mob-hit hot-mess of a movie. This is the type of movie that you might want to pre-game, but while it may not make a whole lot of sense – it is definitely one hell of a ride! Jeremy Piven (a favorite of mine) plays Vegas magician-turned-mafia snitch Buddy “Aces” Israel, and now the mob wants him out of the picture. A contract is put out, and a grab-bag of hit squads descend upon him and his FBI minders. The cast will surprise you, as will the batshit insane shenanigans. Turn off your brain, and turn up the volume.

Mar 16 2015

This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

chef

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Chef

Unexpectedly, I’m picking a recent movie. Chef came out just a year ago, but I feel like most people completely missed it. Which is a darn shame, as this is a fantastic amuse-bouche of a movie. Jon Favreau wrote, directs, and stars in this movie about a chef who has unknowingly let his life go the wrong direction. When the truth about how unhappy he is finally crashes down on him spectacularly, he has to rebuild his life by reminding himself of what it is he truly loves. Favreau’s love of food is ALL over this movie, and you’ll definitely want to stock up on quality nosh before hitting play. But it’s on Netflix streaming right now, so you’ve really got no excuse. True fact: my husband watched this without me, and was willing to re-watch it within a week because he wanted to watch it again. P.S. John LeGuizamo too.

seven_psychopaths

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Seven Psychopaths

Brought to us by the same writer/director who brought us In Bruges (also great), Seven Psychopaths is bizarre, poppy, and loaded with great character actors doing great character actor things. Are there indeed seven psychopaths? Check. Are they chasing after a down-and-out screenwriter in Los Angeles? Yup. Is this all about a stolen shih-tsu? Sure is. Does this movie have Christopher Walken in one of his strangest roles? Oh yeah. It’s like this film was actively trying for cult film status.

Mar 09 2015

This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

dredd-2012

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Dredd

High octane and smarter than you might think, the 2012 cinematic take on the Judge Dredd comic is surprisingly good. It’s something like an extremely violent, futuristic, dystopian version of Die Hard, except there’s more for women to do and there are fewer wisecracks. Karl Urban is kind of perfect as Dredd: he is content to reside entirely in the trademark mask, like in the comics. He never shows his face, in a zenlike unity of man and job (if zen were really violent). However, if that sounds dour, it isn’t. Dredd doesn’t forget that it is essentially a satire, and the film never takes itself too seriously. If you can stomach the gore, Dredd is an action-packed goodie.

frequency-movie

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Frequency

I’m a sucker for time travel movies, and this one has at its center a father-son relationship anchored by Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel. Jim is a cop whose firefighting father died when he was a boy, and who has struggled with emotional distance ever since. When he uncovers his father’s old HAM radio, rare and freakish atmospheric anomalies have him talking to a stranger that sounds very familiar. The movie plays with the time stream (and would give Doctor Who with his “fixed point in time” conniptions) and the consequences of actions, eventually leading to the father in the past and the son in the present teaming up to solve a decades-old long serial killer case.

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