Need movie recommendations

jennontheisland · Apr 8, 2011

So, in a couple weeks I'm going to visit a friend who, like me, is a bit of a movie buff. We love flicks, but often end up rewatching things because between the two of us we've seen just about everything.

I need recommendations for the obscure, good or bad. We'll watch just about anything. Action, sci-fi, grindhouse, cheese, B-flicks, dreck, fantasy, and the ridiculous. We even watched "Killer Clowns from Outer Space" on one visit.

Hit me with your best, weirdest, shot.

(no rom-coms and nothing with Nicholas Cage please)

alleycat · Apr 8, 2011

Well, if you've seen "just about everything" it's hard to suggest anything you haven't seen. Just throwing out some ideas (and you've probably seen them, but they might be worth watching again):

The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah as his bloody best)

And Then There Were None (1945) with Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Huston

Cashback

Donnie Darko

Dead Calm (early Nicole Kidman)

Tender Mercies

Sling Blade (I'm sure you've seen it, but watch it again)

Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

Mulholland Drive

kuwisdelu · Apr 8, 2011

For so-bad-it's-awesome cheesy sci-fi B-flick, I recommend Plan 9 From Outer Space and any other Ed Wood movie.

For stuff that's actually good, I always find it strange that no one I talk to has ever seen Johnny Depp's best two movies: Arizona Dream and Dead Man.

thothguard51 · Apr 8, 2011

Agora, staring Rachael Weitz, highly recommended.

Crossroads, staring a young Ralph Macchio. Good music...

Alice's Restaurant, staring Arlo Gutherie. Good laughs...

The Wind and the Lion, staring Sean Connery and Candice Bergan.

The Ghost and the Dark, staring Val Kilmer & Michael Douglas.

Lawrence of Arabia, staring Peter O'Tool. Classic..

Kingdom of Heaven, staring Orlando Bloom. Maybe his best...

Tron, with a young Jeff Bridges.

Bullet, staring Steve McQueen, James Garner and many others...

Romeo and Juliet, (1960's version)

Taming of the Shrew, staring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Highly recommended.

jenelcc · Apr 8, 2011

Hmmm...I don't know how "obscure" these are, but they are a little less common:

Clockwatchers
Dear Frankie
Millions

Smileycat · Apr 8, 2011

For movies out now in theaters I would go see Jane Eyre, which I haven't seen yet but hear is good, or either Source Code or Limitless. Also, The King's Speech. I've seen and enjoyed the latter 3.

DavidZahir · Apr 8, 2011

Bubbah-Ho-Tep - Elvis and a black JFK defend their East Texas nursing home from a soul-sucking mummy. Really.
Kissed - A surprisingly romantic drama about a female necrophiliac.
They Might Be Giants - George C. Scott as a man who thinks he's Sherlock Holmes, with Joanne Woodward as the doctor assigned to commit him. Her name? Watson.
Start The Revolution Without Me - Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland as two pairs of mismatched identical twins in 1789 France.
Bound - Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon in the best lesbian movie of all time.
Let The Right One In or Let Me In (either one or both) - Imagine Twilight if Bella and Edward switched genders, were twelves years old, and there was no such thing as a vegetarian vampire. It is way cooler than that.
Strigoi - Another marvelous vampire flick, actually from Romania. For once the stupid characters are that way deliberately.
Ten Little Indians - Try and find the Soviet version, which is the best one. Really.
The Pirate Movie - A silly guilty pleasure based (very loosely) on the Pirates of Penzance.
The Man - A Rod Serling motion picture based on an Irving Wallace novel, with James Earl Jones as the first black President of the United States.

jennontheisland · Apr 10, 2011

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've built them into a list and we'll see what we can find.

And David, of course we've seen Bubba-Ho-Tep. It's got Bruce Campbell in it. You can't expect a couple of movie geeks to not have seen Bubba-Ho-Tep.

Diana Hignutt · Apr 11, 2011

Seconding:

Mullholland Drive (hello, weird)
Ghost and the Dark(ness)
Let the Right One In (great book too)

I love those movies.

How's about:

Lucky Number Sleven
Monsters
Zardoz

Noah Body · Apr 11, 2011

Baghdad Cafe was an interesting film in the 1980s. For something more recent but decidedly less offbeat, there's always The Mist, which I watched for the first time last night.

Bmwhtly · Apr 11, 2011

A horrorfying laugh?

Dog Soldiers
Shaun of the Dead
Severance

DeleyanLee · Apr 11, 2011

If you want painfully, laughably bad, try Dudley Do-Right with Sara Jessica Parker and Brendan Fraiser, whereas Fraiser's George of the Jungle got the cartoon adaptation nicely right.

Or how about the classic Attack of the Killer Tomatoes? Or pretty much anything Monty Python for "something completely different".

Diana Hignutt · Apr 11, 2011

Videodrome
Brainstorm
Brasil

Gravity · Apr 11, 2011

David Mamet's House of Games, starring Lindsay Crouse and Joe Mantegna. In order to aid a patient who's run afoul of a group of con artists, a psychoanalyst infiltrates them. Completely, utterly mesmerizing.

Kitty Pryde · Apr 11, 2011

So bad it's great:

Bad Taste
Cannibal: The Musical
Sleepaway Camp
Frankenhooker
Brain Damage
Hell Comes To Frogtown (this one is so bad it may be hazardous to your health!)
Even Dwarfs Started Small
Zardoz
Highway To Hell
Fantastic Four (1994 unreleased Roger Corman version)
Swordsman 2 (far superior to the original)

Sweet sweet martial arts movies:

Encounters of the Spooky Kind
Zu Warriors
Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters
Only The Strong
A Chinese Ghost Story (sweet cartoon version)

shawkins · Apr 11, 2011

Funny and overlooked:

Tune In Tomorrow - The ratings of the local radio soap opera ca. 1930 are slumping. In comes Peter Falk to fix things.
How to Get Ahead in Advertising - Erm...it's easier if you just watch it.
Eulogy - Zooey Deschanel is called in to give her grandfather's eulogy. One of the top 5 funniest movies ever made, IMO. That's probably got a lot to do with the circumstances under which I saw it, but if you like dark humor this is definitely one to check out.

Darren Frey · Apr 11, 2011

A Clockwork Orange
Pulp Fiction
Donnie Darko
Requiem For A Dream
The Shining
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

jennontheisland · Apr 11, 2011

DeleyanLee said:
Or how about the classic Attack of the Killer Tomatoes?

I've been trying to get him to watch this one. OMFG baaaad.

jennontheisland · Apr 11, 2011

shawkins said:
How to Get Ahead in Advertising - Erm...it's easier if you just watch it.

Yeah, there's really just no way to describe this one is there. I've tried. People look at me like I've grown a second head.

jennontheisland · Apr 11, 2011

Morningrise said:
A Clockwork Orange
Pulp Fiction
Donnie Darko
Requiem For A Dream
The Shining
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Um, see, this is the problem. None of these are really what I'd consider to be "obscure" and we've both seen them all. Multiple times.

jennontheisland · Apr 11, 2011

Kitty Pryde said:
So bad it's great:

Bad Taste
Cannibal: The Musical
Sleepaway Camp
Frankenhooker
Brain Damage
Hell Comes To Frogtown (this one is so bad it may be hazardous to your health!)
Even Dwarfs Started Small
Zardoz
Highway To Hell
Fantastic Four (1994 unreleased Roger Corman version)
Swordsman 2 (far superior to the original)

Sweet sweet martial arts movies:

Encounters of the Spooky Kind
Zu Warriors
Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters
Only The Strong
A Chinese Ghost Story (sweet cartoon version)

You, my dear, are cordially invited to movie night. <3

jennontheisland · Apr 11, 2011

Gravity said:
David Mamet's House of Games, starring Lindsay Crouse and Joe Mantegna. In order to aid a patient who's run afoul of a group of con artists, a psychoanalyst infiltrates them. Completely, utterly mesmerizing.

Okay, this. This sounds very interesting. Please tell me it's almost as good as The Usual Suspects.

Kitty Pryde · Apr 11, 2011

jennontheisland said:
You, my dear, are cordially invited to movie night. <3

Huzzah!!!!!

shawkins · Apr 11, 2011

jennontheisland said:
Okay, this. This sounds very interesting. Please tell me it's almost as good as The Usual Suspects.

Oooh, yeah. Good one, Gravity.

House of Games is *almost* as good as The Usual Suspects, IMO. It's absolutely, positively worth tracking down, even if you have to watch it on VHS. If you end up liking it, you might also try The Spanish Prisoner and mmmaybe Red Belt (same writer/director).

Gravity · Apr 11, 2011

Yowza, Mamet's the man.

Oh yeah, you might also like the first film by the Coens, Blood Simple, starring John Getz and Frances McDormand. Noir and then some. Very tasty!

Need movie recommendations

the world is at my command

Still around

Revolutionize the World

A Gentleman of a refined age...

A good kind of crazy

The Punk Cat

Malkavian Primogen

the world is at my command

Very Tired

Entertainment Ronin

Yes, I'm back.

Writing Anarchist

Very Tired

Seen 'em come, seen 'em go

i luv you giant bear statue

Ahhh. Sweet.

the world is at my command

the world is at my command

the world is at my command

the world is at my command

the world is at my command

i luv you giant bear statue

Ahhh. Sweet.

Seen 'em come, seen 'em go