Odd Movies I Recommend for People to See...!
Maybe "Odd Assortment" is a better title.
I like to take chances, buy a dvd based on a hunch or just a brief review and I like to discover what I'll forever call cinematic "gems". Something out of the ordinary for people who are afraid of that sort of thing!
Maybe you've heard of the film but were never inspired to see it? I hope you try some! Here's my reasons why.
I like to take chances, buy a dvd based on a hunch or just a brief review and I like to discover what I'll forever call cinematic "gems". Something out of the ordinary for people who are afraid of that sort of thing!
Maybe you've heard of the film but were never inspired to see it? I hope you try some! Here's my reasons why.
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- DirectorSteve De JarnattStarsAnthony EdwardsMare WinninghamJohn AgarA young man hears a chance phone call telling him that a nuclear war has started and missiles will hit his city in 70 minutes.It's a love-it or hate-it romance. Yeah, I think it's romantic and I love it. Is it a prank, mass-hysteria or are we on the brink of a nuclear war? Look for ST-TNG's Denise Crosby and her monster suitcase 1980's cell phone!
- DirectorLewis GilbertStarsLiza MinnelliShelley WintersRobyn StevanA has-been Broadway performer gives tap lessons to a group of misfits who, through their dance classes, bond and realize what they can achieve.A predictable underdog story set in a dance studio but genuinely funny and just look at the cast! Liza, Shelley Winters, Bill Irwin(!), Andrea Martin. No explosions, just a nice film.
- DirectorDon RoosStarsChristina RicciMartin DonovanLisa KudrowA 16-year-old girl visits her gay half-brother and ends up seducing his boyfriend, thus wreaking havoc on all of their lives.Lisa Kudrow was robbed by not getting a Best Supporting Actress nomination for this film. Yes I think an Academy Award nod would've boosted the visibility of this indie film. If you can get through Christina Ricci's opening scene and narartion, then you're good to go. If not, stop it then!
Johnny Galecki, Martin Donovan & Lyle Lovett round out the cast. - DirectorPeter SegalStarsJack LemmonJames GarnerDan AykroydTwo former U. S. Presidents, hated rivals, join forces to expose the current, corrupt President at the risk of their lives.Not a box-office bomb but it didn't match the money of the Grumpy Old men films. James Garner and Jack lemmon are great as two sparring ex-presidents who get caught up in a "mad-cap caper".
"Hail to the Chief he's the Chief and needs some hailing...!" - DirectorThomas SchlammeStarsHolly HunterMary SteenburgenTim RobbinsCarnelle wants to escape her dreary life, so she enters a local beauty contest, much to everyone's dismay.Based on a play, (which I'd love to see someday), Holly Hunter is hysterical and touching and Mary Steenburgen, Tim Robbins, Alfree Woodard... what can I say. It's a small film with lots of heart.
- DirectorJohn MayburyStarsAdrien BrodyKeira KnightleyDaniel CraigA Gulf war veteran is wrongly sent to a mental institution for insane criminals, where he becomes the object of a doctor's experiments, and his life is completely affected by them.Another incredible cast, but it's also a sometimes slow and painfully revealing & haunting mystery.
I'm surprised the IMDb voters gave it a 7.0, that's pretty high for some flicks around here! So I'm not alone in liking this. - DirectorNick GomezStarsDanny DeVitoBette MidlerNeve CampbellWhen a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect.I don't know why I resisted watching this for 10 years! I love Bette but this somehow didn't grab me at first. Worth the wait.
Jamie Lee Curtis, William Fitchner, Casey Affleck... all great. - DirectorChristian AlvartStarsDennis QuaidBen FosterCam GigandetTwo crew members of a spaceship wake up from hypersleep to discover that all their colleagues are missing. Despite this, it appears that they are not alone.There'll be a lot of sci-fi and horror fans who probably didn't like this or felt some déjà vu to other alien films, and I didn't think much of it myself starting out. Glad I stuck with it because it is very different, and scary!
- DirectorMike MitchellStarsKurt RussellKelly PrestonMichael AngaranoSet in an era where superheroes are commonly known and accepted, young William Stronghold, the son of the Commander and Jetstream, tries to find a balance between being a normal teenager and an extraordinary being.NOT just a teen movie. It's for us baby-boomers, too. Something that Disney would've had Kurt Russell star in when he was a kid, except now he's the father.
A couple of stars of "Kids in the Hall", Lynda Carter, Cloris Leachman, and I will never see Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a nice girl ever. - DirectorNeil TaylorRob TaylorStarsMatt ZakGreg GosserKyle DayTough-as-nails adventurer, Neil Stryker, faces immeasurable odds in this madcap comedy bloodbath when he comes face to face with an EVIL CULT! Armed with a bag of tricks, Stryker unleashes the pain on Walter, the cult leader, and his brainwashed followers.This is NOT a general recommendation! You have to like indie movies, and maybe a taste for some early John Waters maverick filmmaking, but without the gross-factor. The tag line reads - "The best movie you will ever see... EVER!!!"
It's far above Ed Wood's style but a mite below an Arnold Shwarzxckwnegger action flick. Try it, it won't kill ya. - DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsEd HarrisGary LahtiTom SaviniA medieval reenactment troupe struggles to maintain its family-like dynamic amid pressure from local authorities, interest from talent agents, and their "King's" delusions of grandeur.Man, another film I dodged for a long time for no apparent reason. Maybe I associated George A. Romero with zombies and not knights jousting on motorcycles!
Whatever, I feel like I was spiritually moved by the extended family of medieval entertainers in this story. I feel like I just experienced a microcosm of human life as it interacts with each other. Over 2 hours, & mesmerizing.
Made my Top 10 list in it's first viewing. - DirectorCarl ReinerStarsSteve MartinKathleen TurnerDavid WarnerA brain surgeon marries a femme fatale whose life he saved, causing his life to turn upside down. Things go even more awry when he falls in love with a telepathic brain.It just LOOKS bad. But "Jerk" aside it's probably the funniest Steve Martin movie I own, and I own all his classics. Directed by Carl Reiner if that helps.
Again, a cast to brag about, Kathleen Turner, David Warner, Sissy Spacek and of course James Cromwell. Also the late Paul Benedict who was the memorable Mr. Bentley on "The Jeffersons". Just had to give him a shout-out! - DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsAshley JuddMichael ShannonHarry Connick Jr.An unhinged war veteran holes up with a lonely woman in a spooky Oklahoma motel room. The line between reality and delusion is blurred as they discover a bug infestation.Another film adapted from a stage play hence the small cast and solitary set. It's uncomfortable to watch, I imagine it was worse live!
Directed by William "The Exorcist" Friedkin, like that film this isn't as much a horror movie as a psychological drama. It's a claustrophobic drama, so not for everyone. And don't expect this to be "Mimic"! - DirectorPeter JacksonStarsMichael J. FoxTrini AlvaradoPeter DobsonAfter a tragic car accident that kills his wife, a man discovers he can communicate with the dead, and he uses that gift to con people. However, when a demonic spirit appears, he may be the only one who can stop it from killing the living and the dead.Another un-hit that no one I talk to ever seems to remember. I could call it "Beetlejuice" or "Ghostbusters" gone to a darker place. I thought more people would pursue pre-LOTR Peter Jackson films.
Great cast again, Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, John Astin, Dee Wallace Stone, Chi McBride and Jake Busey, yikes! - DirectorFrancis VeberStarsPierre RichardGérard DepardieuPedro Armendáriz Jr.A daughter of a millionaire, distinguished by incredible bad luck, goes missing. The idea how to find her is either insane or brilliant - to send after her an equally unlucky person.Okay kids it's foreign film time! So here's a duo of 80's gems starring Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu. La chèvre or "the goat" refers to the hapless Richard character. A businessman's perpetually clumsy daughter goes missing, so the solution is to send someone with the same bad luck and hope that macho detective Depardieu can follow the trail.
The pair together are still funny after all these years! It was remade in the US as "Pure Luck" with Glover & Short, but definitely avoid that and make sure you see this with subtitles and not dubbed!
Which leads us to... - DirectorFrancis VeberStarsPierre RichardGérard DepardieuAnny DupereyA woman, whose troubled son has left home, informs two different men from her past that each of them is a real father. Too different men....or the "co-fathers". The IMDb summary sums its up well, instead of a bumbling unwitting accomplice Richard is a willing & bumbling man on the same trail as Depardieu, but unknowingly.
More French comic sight gags and physicality and a great example of a buddy "comic romp". Less good (again) was the US version known as "Father's day" with Williams & Crystal. :( Find THIS instead. - DirectorRichard BenjaminStarsDan AykroydKim BasingerJon LovitzA creature from another planet tries to seduce a shy Earth physicist to gain control over his researches. The result of this important mission much exceeded her expectations.I just bet you've dodged watching this when it comes on cable! To me it's just an 80's version of those classic live Disney movies with Dean Jones, etc. Like "Million Dollar Duck" or "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes".
Just a harmless goofy scientist (Dan Ackroyd) and his daughter, and Kim Basinger is in her funniest comic mode since "Blind Date" (which depresses me a little). Family-friendly despite a lingerie dance by Kim. It always brings me back to when comedies were a bit innocent in their goofiness. No one has to get hurt, no true evil, nothing to knot your stomach up about. - DirectorBasil DeardenStarsOliver ReedDiana RiggTelly SavalasA woman causes a group of assassins to face their greatest challenge.Wow was this a fun spy movie to watch on TV when I was a kid! They played it a lot in the pre-cable days. It's very much a forerunner of the Steampunk genre though it really stays squarely within it's early 1900's setting. More of a S.P. "attitude" I'd say.
Diana Rigg is sexy and smart, Oliver Reed is the sexiest I can recall him being, plus the slick Telly Savalas and many wonderful international character actors. The action sequences and effects won't impress the young 'uns nowadays but who cares?
This is one film I'm really back and forth about wanting a remake of, because they could do it so great, or do it so poorly. It's got a sophistication that's hard to re-capture. - DirectorGareth EdwardsStarsScoot McNairyWhitney AbleMario Zuniga BenavidesSix years after Earth has suffered an alien invasion, a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the U.S. border.Much more an indie film about people rather than monsters this movie played out somewhat like a dream. No "Cloverfield" city-smashing but a bit more along the lines of "District 9", but not exactly like that either.
I had just seen Scoot McNairy in another small role the week before I saw this and was glad to see him in a starring role. It is scary, there's a lot of tense moments due to the mystery of the creatures. It's a time when less is more really works. - DirectorBigas LunaStarsZelda RubinsteinMichael LernerTalia PaulA controlling mother uses telepathic powers to send her middle-aged son on a killing spree.Known as "Anguish" when you find it here in the US. As surely as William Castle had horror movie gimmicks this film has them built in, the dialogue, the sounds, the filmwork, all make for a rather unsettling experience. In a GOOD way!
Even after several vieweing over the years awhile back I had to turn it off halfway through as I got queasy. Don't read too much or any of the synopsis's or reviews if you can, just see it, with a friend.
And yes that's dear little Zelda Rubenstein in it! - DirectorKaren ArthurStarsDiane LaneMichael WoodsCotter SmithCute Katya starts as window dresser at a Pittsburgh department store. She dates a reporter. A fan stalks her and is increasingly nasty.Exoctic department store window dresser with a gay buddy window dresser... not "Mannequin" but this very cool noir thriller features a young Diane Lane, post "Streets of Fire, "Outsiders" and "Rumble Fish". Not on dvd yet but I've found it on Youtube for now.
- DirectorCarl ReinerStarsSteve MartinRachel WardAlan LaddFilm noir parody with a detective uncovering a sinister plot. Characters from classic noir films appear as scenes from various movies interjected into the story.Without a doubt a groundbreaker predating "Forrest Gump" and others, but it's not just clever it's funny! Carl Reiner and Steve Martin, it is kind of hard to miss. A comedy film-noir detective story splicing footage of classic 40's stars into the scenes with Martin. Thanks to Barbara for reminding me, and for the other suggestions I'll look into.