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Didn't want to start a thread for a little seen film, but why not one into all those never heard ofs but worth a lookers you might stumble across?

I'll start with 'The Astronaut Farmer' which I quite enjoyed. Mostly because it's ripped off an old Eagle Armstor Computer story about a guy who builds a rocket in his back garden and it blows up. Nice Ian Kennedy art if memory serves.

Anyway Billy Bob Thornton, Bruce Willis, Bruce Dern and Virginia Madsen in a small man against the man stuggle. Well worth a look.

Link: The Astronaut Farmer

I'll bite.
This is a nice quirky film, bloke wakes up one day, finds he's the last man on earth.
Why he's still around while everyone (ish) has gone makes for a pretty engrossing film.
Which i'd give a healthy 7/10 for. But the KILLER last scene easily notches up a coupla more

Link: The Quiet Earth

I liked The Quiet Earth too - very spooky, good use of New Zealand.

Romulus My father is a new Australian movie with Eric Bana in it. It's quietly brilliant story about a kid having an atrocious childhood while his mum (Franke Potenta) goes a bit bonkers.  There's no way of making this film sound good through describing the plot but it is really good.

To Kill A Clown is an old psycho/thriller with Alan Alda as a complete bastard - it's a good one

This is a fine opportunity to mention Strange Brew, possibly the most mediocre film I've ever fallen in love with.

It's a Canadian comedy with lashings of beer and ice hockey, all based very loosely on the plot of Hamlet.
Max von Sydow's in it, which is never a bad thing.

It was a favorite of mine as a student and I continue to love it dearly. My strong family connections with that part of Canada, oddly enough, happened long after I got into Strange Brew.

Oh, and you're all a bunch of hosers!

- Trout

Link: Click here for the Great White North!

Frailty, which I believe is on film 4 this week. Good stuff.

Does God speak to him and tell him to murder people or is he a mad bastard.

Great wee film.

My favourite Hollywood musical: "Jupiter's Darling" Howard Keel as Hannibal, about to sack Rome when Esther Williams as the daughter of Caesar (played by George Saunders)- through an underwater dance routine with statues and various musical numbers tries to woo him and stop his plan to bring down the Roman Empire.

How can you not love it?

Can anyone tell me the name of a film that's been mentioned on the board and sounds good but I can't remember the name. It's about the day before a big disaster that's going to destroy the world. It's Canadian or Aussie or similar. I tried various 'last' names on IMDb and 'end of world' keywords without success.I'm sure it was made in the last 20 years and isn't one of those 1950's jobs like 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire'.

Button, funnily enough that is the film I was going to mention when I first read this thread last night!

It's called Last Night and is absolutely top notch, with the old Granny's "Fuck the cildren!" rant being  the absolute highlight. It's Canadian and features David Cronenberg as one of the group of characters we follow on their last day on Earth. The nature of the catastrophe is never mentioned, so there's no special effects or sci-fi technobabble, just people and how they deal with it.

It was also the last film on Film 4 on the eve of the Millenium (which is when it's set.) Class.

Good man Cosh off to Mininova...er HMV.

If we're talking end of the world scenarios, then i've got plump up with the following.
Bit dated, but still haunting. And a top notch Tangerine Dream soundtrack too

Link: Miracle Mile

Watched 'Last Night' just now and really enjoyed it. It seems pretty obvious the unspoken peril is a meteor impact given that the timing is exact and the big white ball appears at the end but it works as a character piece, with me relating mostly to the shagger guy (apart from the dudes!). I always thought the end of the world would be more mental but they are Canadians after all.

Good thought prevoking stuff.

Off to watch 'The Quiet Earth' - God bless the internet!

Let us know your thoughts BM

The Quiet Earth was pretty good too, although I'd agree 7/10 would cover it. The bit where he's going mental and dressing up like a chick and talking to the cut outs is a bit too wacky, but once it gets going with the girl it's good stuff. It's clearly pretty low budget, with the lab and dish explosion being the main event. The last scene is a puzzler Is he now in another world, heaven or something else? I thought everyone else would be there saying 'You took your time'!.

Good stuff although I could've done with less of his dangler.

Basically it's the Omega Man without Mathias and his gang - and they were the best bit!

   
   heres 3 films:

   O lucky man    [malcom McDowell]
   If  ...                      [Malcom McDowell]
   Sir Henry at Rawlinson End   [vivian Stanshall]

Vincent Wards "The Navigator" which IMDB sums up as
"A young boy in 14th century Cumbria keeps getting visions he cannot explain. His village has so far been spared from the black death, but the villagers fear its imminent arrival. With the boy as their guide, a group set out to dig a hole to the other side of the world, so as to fulfil the visions and save the village"

It's interesting to note that he was offered Alien 3 on the basis of this movie. Pity he never got to make it rather than the travesty we eventually saw.

Link: The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey

Good call. The Navigator is tops.
While we're on low tech fantasy:

Link: A Boy And His Dog

Alien 3 is a bloody good film, won't have a word said against it.

A boy and his dog is also great, even if Don Johnson is in it.

If you can get past the godawful acting and the lousy production, not to mention the pretentious dialogue, 'Shatter Dead' is probably the most intelligent zombie flick you could ever inflict upon yourself.

I was really creeped out by A Boy And His Dog, IIRC.

A decent film.

- Trout

Alien 3 is in fact brilliant. You may be confusing it with Alien 4, which is terrible.
  You may have missed Death in Brunswick, which is a great low budget comedy with Sam Neil, John Clarke and ummmm, some other people

Link: Spoilerific Wikipedia page

Anyone seen Primer? Excellent little low-budget sci-fi, confusing as hell, but well worth it.

Another vote for ALIEN 3, a spoiled work, but still well worth watching.

I watched Driving Lessons via Love film over the weekend, as I was out of the country when it was on telly. Really enjoyable and good performances from Grint and Walters.

Bolt-01

Floyd, I saw Death in Brunswick at the cinema years ago, so I'm glad to see that get a mention.  Have you seen The Club yet?

At the Bergen film festival last year I really enjoyed Brick.  I don't know how much of a profile this got when it came out, or how widely released it was, but it's worth a look if you like noirish mystery flicks.  Link to the wiki below.

Apart from that, one of the best things I've seen in ages was Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929; the BFI version with the Michael Nyman score).

Link: Brick wiki

Mingsta,

No, I haven't seen the Club. Do you mean the movie about football?

Also good is Bliss, based on a Peter Carey book

"I liked The Quiet Earth too - very spooky, good use of New Zealand."

Heh, yes I liked that movie, very interesting stuff for a low budget flick.  Is that the only good use of New Zealand you can think of, Floyd?  Anyway, I was quite pleased to find it at the bootfair earlier in the year.

Can I just suggest The Final Programme, the  Jerry Cornelius film made by Robert 'Phibes' Fuest.

Moorcock hated it apparently, but I think it's a demented little joy and caught the spirit of the books.  You can get it on Region One DVD and it crops up on TV rarely.

well, you could use NZ as the setting for an interminable series about Middle Earth, which everyone on the actual earth loves but which I can never get through more than ten minutes of despite the promise of seeing Liv Tyler with elf ears.
   I love NZ, me. I want to move there, but my spouse thinks she's already too far from Japan as it is.
 

I'd also recommend A Boy And His Dog and Death In Brunswick too! Saw D.I.B. at the Tyneside Cinema many years ago.

I love this film called The Specials, it's about a third rate superhero team and features the line "Jesus Christ! Nobody wants to hear your boring fucking origin story, ok?! " spoken by Jamie Kennedy dressed like Nightcrawler, blue face and everything. Rob Lowe is in it as The Weevil, and Tom Haden Church steals the whole film as super-square The Strobe.

I love Quiet Earth, I hadnt see it for many years!!! i got this the ending of the unforgetten ending!!!!!

Link: Ending of the Quiet Earth

Cheers for putting that up Goaty.
Said it before but, what a fabbo ending.
You wouldn't get that in a Hollywood film - everything would've been neatly wrapped up, explained and made happy

no problems Mangamax, there other film i would never forgot the ending, Jacob's Ladder.

Quite liked Miracle  Mile although it never quite shook off that Tv Movie for me. It was like some dreams I have where you get constantly sidetracked from your quest. Good downbeat ending - I was thinking it was going to be about the dangers of gossip!

Couldn't get beyond 10 minutes of Strange Brew hated the annoying Canadian habit of saying 'Ay' after every sentence. May dip back in later.

One I could suggest is  Shadowboxer which has some great casting in the form of Helen Mirren as a cancer ridden hit-woman with Cuba Gooding Jnr as her retarded help/lover. Entertaining, especially the scene where Cuba gives Helen the bang of her life!

Anyone seen Primer? Excellent little low-budget sci-fi, confusing as hell, but well worth it

primer was indeed excellent, a little confusing, but definitely one to exercise the brain

if you want to attempt to make some sense of it all, click the link to see a graphical timeline of all events

thinky

Link: f*cks up your brain

A movie you may have missed because it's way old and French is "the Tall blonde man with one black shoe", a very funny farce

I'm with you, Satchmo: The Specials is very silly but good fun. Definitely one for the superhero buffs.

Here's one of my all-time favourite movies that not enough people have seen: Napoleon Dynamite

-- Mike

I'm a big fan of Napoleon Dynamite, like duh!

The wife noticed I was watching 'Shooter' the Mark Wahberg sniper film (which was pretty good incidentally) and she suggested I look up TARGETS which was Peter Bogdanovich's first feature and one of Boris Karloff's last. Got it off Amazon for £2.97 so here's hoping for a goodie.

Anyway Karloff plays an old time horror star called Orlok. I take it this was the inspiration behind the East Meg assassin but it may be a coincidink. Any other old movie Dredd character names out there?

Link: TARGETS

     I wuld very strongly recommend one particular film by the Comic Strip Presents.


   It is called  Mr.Jolly Lives Next Door.     Directed by Stephen Frears.

    Its got Peter Cook and Nicholas Parsons in it.

   Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson are in it as two alcoholics running an escort agency.

    Its just a ridiculous ,drunken comedy /farce.

    Its the funniest most insane thing i have ever seen.

  Peter Cook as an insane Axe murderer.


  Ade.E :   "Whats in this bottle ? "      Peter Cook   :"Embalming fluid "          


     Ade .E  :   "Barmy   Fluid   !!!    That  sounds good !! "        Then knocks back an entire bottle of embalming fluid.        



    Wonderful.             You have to buy the comic Strip dvd set to watch it unless you can borrow it.

watched a new Mike Judge(King of the Hill and the massivly underated Office Space) movie last night, Idiocracy very funny and unfortunatly quite true(i can see the world going the way its portrayed in the movie).  Basic synopsis Luke Wilsons character(Joe I think his name is, not that it matters as he becomes known as Some Guy anyway) who is an absolute Mr Average(in fact the most average guy on the planet) gets put into crygenic freeze for whats supposed to be a year but due to a bungle gets forgotten, cue guy waking up in the year 2505 and due to a reversal of natural selection the dumb have completely outbred the smart and the world is populated by absolute morons, now Joe is the smartest guy on the planet and its up to him to solve all its problems.  Very funny and a warning to us all.

CU Radbacker

A Scanner Darkly was only shown briefly here in NZ.

Filmed to look like a comic book with some side - splittingly funny scenes. Ref: intro with guy infested with creepy crawlies.

Agree with peterwolf(!) about Mr. Jolly, currently loving Memento.

Bump.

After, reading through this thread about a week ago, I didn't really know wether I could contribute.

It's strange subject,'Films I may have missed.'.

Well, I have seen alot of movies and I have misssed alot of movies.

Alot of the ones I misssed, were on purpose. I just didn't want to see them. There was golden age in my life when I had just left school and started working earning enough money to splash around on this activity. When I started going  out on my own and fell into the habit of going to the pictures everytime I walked past the cinema.

Now this way, I sure remember seeing alot of bad films, simply because, I was willing to waste money on this pastime. Then I got into the habit of seeing just baout every film at the cinemas that had a Sci/Fi, superhero, action, adventure, based on on some other movie that was very good, part of popular series, Pixar, movie marathon and etc. If it didn;t have these elements. Then I would just go see the film the everybody was talking about.

These days, I still go to see the popular films with those same themes, but I might miss a few and hope they are shown on cable ( Box office channel or get them out on video.

This subject.

Which brings to my mind a film that was made in the dawn of the eighties when I was still in lower primary school. Back then, I didn't go to see film unless my parents were going and had agreed the film we were seeing was general exhibition.  I remember in those years, the movie E.T. was one that left lasting impression on me and at same time there were plenty of other weird and wonder films that were being shown, but I would never see. This film E.T, I went saw this and it was big, everybody was talking about it and I had to see this more than once. In those days we would only see one film a year. Maybe two if they were on a roll.

Theses other films that I remember missing may get a later veiwing as I would often visit the video store. Though I didn't do this for every movie. Some escaped my radar.

I'm thinking of film now that looks almost as trashy ( Trashy in a good way!!!!) as it sounds interesting to a 2000AD reader.

'Altered States'

About some guy ( William Hurt.) experimenting with LSD and sensory deprivation tanks.( Sounds abit like that 'Storming Heaven' GN.) Anyway, for movie shown at around about that time in the early eighties. The speical effects and other outlandish stuff seemed way too freaky for a boy my age back then. I wouldn't have dreamed of seeing this film. It's like that scene when the chestburster breaks out of Cain's ( John Hurt) chest in shower of blood and gore from the movie 'Alien'. I so was freaked out when I first saw that and for acouple times following when ever the movie 'Alien' showed. I would hide behind the couch or the chair afraid to look at this level of gore. Though I am okay with it now.

Back onto the subject of 'Altered States'. I have never seen this film and now I want to. But I will be hard pressed to find it on one of the channels we have cable access to and right now I couldn't be bothered to go down to the video store to see if they even have copy. I have a small fine to pay there and I 'm tool cheap to pay it just yet. Besides, my video only works once in blue moon at the moment.

Anyway, here's clip from this film that I never seen but would like to. Oh, there is some tastful female nudity, but thats not why I'm linking it. It's the other weird stuff.

Link: A lady's Bottom.

It's more about suggestions for others than for yourself Thryll as I've no idea what you've seen or otherwise. I thought the thread should be more about hidden gems rather than 'Have you seen Die Hard, Batman etc.' E.T. foe example could hardly have been missed by anyone!

I've got a couple of the suggestions to watch but am having trouble finding The Specials which I'd never heard of but quite fancy the concept of - Mystery Men being a favourite of mine.

I liked a lot about Idiocracy but it didn't quite work for me especially the overblown ending. The idea was that they were all thick yet they had these high tec scanners and tracers that shame anything we've got. The taped up buildings were good although the drawling language was a bit grating after a while - although I'm sure that will turn out to be the most accurate part.

I am familiar with Mr Jolly Lives Next Door but can't say I'm fond of it. As a kid I thought the Comic Strip was great but on buying the DVD I was sad to see how crap so much of it was. Only the Bad Newses, Gino and The Bullshitters really held up.

A Scanner Darkly really bored me and the stealth suit thing was plain confusing. Good idea using the rotorscope animation but I'd have prefered Winina without it!

if anyone hasn't seen The Ipcress File, I'd recommend they check it out. An old but very cool British spy fillum.

Last night the wife and I saw 'Cutey Honey', a part live/part animation thingy which was kind of fun. Sort of like Power Rangers with soft-core pr0n, if you like that kind of thing

really obscure film; The Mind Benders with Dirk Bogarde, is oddly similar to Altered States - a man changes a lot after being dipped in a floation tank about forty years before they became trendy

oh and if anyone hasn't seen the fantastic 'Hell Drivers' do yourselves a favour. A kind message boarder sent it to me when I was living in Japan - an excellent movie. Made in the early sixties, but looks as if it was made in the 30s, it features a very young Sean Connery, Sid James (as a thug), Herbert Lom (as another thug), Patrick MacGoohan as a psycho and the first Dr Who as a bit of a bastard

     Has anyone ever seen the  13 minute short film that went with    Weekender by flowered up ?            It was much better than Trainspotting ever was  as they were about similar things.           It  was directed by someone called  Wiz .

Link: Weekender

Mystery Men is a terrific film. If you've not seen it, make the effort, folks.

- Trout

Mmmmm. I've been wracking my brain to try and come up with something inetersting for this thread.

Best I can do is the childrens animation from last year Monster House which I was very suprised about. Remarkably dark in tone for a 'Hollywood' movie.

Iron Giant, always brilliant!

Oh! Good call Goaty!

yeah I am shock it wasnt well at Cinemas for Iron Giant, it very clever for itself, it for all ages, I think it better for adults, as it so emotions! :) other good film, that too not for children to understand, The Emperor's New Groove!

    Was this film based on that childrens book that i cant remember the name of  ?     A child befriends the iron giant that lived in a scrapyard.     the giant was misunderstood and shunned by people i think.

"A boy makes friends with an innocent alien giant robot that a paranoid government agent wants to destroy."

    Is that the plot to the film or something that you just made up ?   Either way sounds plausible.

well, it did happens, you better watch it, it brilliant film, The Iron Giant.

   I will look out for it.

Look out for The Iron Giant in the 5.00 at Lingfield tomorrow (Tuesday).

It's currently priced at 16-1, so it's worth a couple of quid!*

- Trout




















* It's not, you know.

Newsfront is beautiful movie. It's about the last days of newsreels (ie when you saw your news at the movies instead of on the TV) and follows a news crew around Australia in the 1950s, dealing with things like the Catholic/Protestant divide, the attempted banning of the Communist Party....., I realise I'm not making it sound thrilling here, but I really enjoyed it

I won't waste bandwidth by echoing the sentiments of those above, but I'd like to recommend Belleville Rendezvous, a marvellous animated film whose titular tune I've not been able to get out of my head for a year now, and definitely the best film about cooking frogs you'll ever see.

Anyone who enjoyed The Quiet Earth and hasn't got it yet, or hasn't seen it been interest has been piqued here, Woolies is selling for a ridiculously low 2 quid

what about Dear Frankie? very brilliant!

Pardon my grammer - hard to concentrate/type when giving a 10 month old her bottle.

Watched PRIMER and am very confused. At least it was only 77 minutes as I can bear to be confused much longer. That 'explanation' diagram frazzled my brain!

One the Cal-Hab set might like is THE FLYING SCOTSMAN which may still be in the cinema. It's teeny budget means he's cycling about 1980's Glasgow on a road full of Focuses and late model Puntos. In some bits the background is all blurry as it probably has signs saying 'Candidate city for 2014 commonwealth games' in the background.

It is a good story though despite the depressing depression bits. Liked how they redressed the 'Norway' velodrome as 'Bogota' by shoving some Chinese people to the front. They should have had sombreros and pan pipes!

Brick is a damn good film that everyone should watch. It's basically a noir detective story set in high school, starring that guy who played Tommy in 3rd Rock From the Sun. Handily, it's in HMV's sale at the minute.

SIGHT AND SOUND has a similar article this month; 75 little gems of films that you might not know of.  I had a quick butchers and, huge amounts of subtitled stuff that I didn't recognise aside, STIR OF ECHOES (Kevin Bacon) seems to be vaguely on topic.

But I've not seen it. Anyone agree/disAGREE?

I love Brick (I can't say that without thinking of Father Jack)

Definitely one of the best, and most infinitely quotable films of the past year.

Stir of Echoes is a good movie. Based on a Matheson novel or story, I think?

I'm sure to get a kicking for this, but I liked Tom Selleck's Innocent Man...there I said it!

Hell Drivers is excellent, so I'd recommend that too.

Yeah, Hell Drivers is great, well worth a watch. Another class old British film is Seven Days To Noon. Its about a well meaning scientist who goes a bit crackers and steals a small nuclear bomb, which he plans to use to destroy London to shock the world into giving up its nukes. Its a bit Quatermassy, and really intense.

Here's a real goodie: CASHBACK

Cracking British film with a great cast, some fantastic imagery, female nakedness and some interesting ideas. No wonder it never appeared at my cinemaplex! Have to keep it clear for Daddy Day Camp and Cheaper By the Dozen 2!

Link: Cashback

Dark City, by the Wachowski brothers before they did the Matrix.

"Dark City, by the Wachowski brothers before they did the Matrix"

Eh? Dark City is directed by Alex Proyas, after The Crow but before I, Robot (which I haven't seen). Somewhere in between those two movies was the rumoured re-make of Quatermass and the Pit, which I would have given my eye teeth to have seen.

Cheers!

Jim

Downfall

German made film about hitlers last 3 days. Brillant.

Downfall

German made film about hitlers last 3 days. Brillant.

Dark City, by the Wachowski brothers before they did the Matrix.


The movie they did before the Matrix was a lezza thriller called Bound, which is actually a very good movie too.

Dead Mans Shoes.

Filmed about ten miles from my family home. Paddy Considine thriller directed by Shane Meadows. Tense as hell and basically a revenge spaghetti western on a council estate.

Finn Sinn

I second Dark City, though. Brilliant film.

Cube.  A highly overlooked gem, and worth it for the opening scene alone.

  One of my favourite films :  Unbreakable   /  M.Night.Shyamalan.      Bruce  Willis after surviving a train crash meets Samuel .A .Jackson who is a comic art / comic / superhero film and who is convinced Bruce Willis is a superhero of sorts.


   very good ideed.

Don't miss the Bourne Ultimatum. If you liked the first two, this is how to finish a trilogy..

Bolt-01.

"I second Dark City, though. Brilliant film."

Damn straight. There are maybe a half-dozen films that have come out of mainstream Hollywood in the last twenty years that make you think: "How the Hell did that get made?"

Dark City is one of them. Sit down and try to put that synopsis on paper, and then try to imagine pitching that.

I have this mental image of someone saying:

"Jesus! Who's next?"

"I dunno - it's this guy with some script called 'Being John Malkovich' ..."

Cheers!

Jim

Dark City was recommended to me yesterday by a workmate who has mysteriously divined my nerdiness.  The same director did Bound? This I must see.

A lovely fillum you've probably never seen is "Nodo Jiman" (trans 'Proud of voice') about a Japanese tv song competetion and a professional enka singer who pretends to be an amateur and sneaks on it. That's almost perfect

"Dark City was recommended to me yesterday by a workmate who has mysteriously divined my nerdiness. The same director did Bound? This I must see. "

No, the Wachowskis made bound, Alex Proyas made Dark City.

I see.

an oldie but a goodie you may have missed is....

Three Days of the Condor

a spy story with Robert Redford and Max von Sydow

Great choice,

"Three Days of the Condor"

An absolute classic, obscure 70's film that's more relevant today, with all the middle east shennanigans etc.

I see.

an oldie but a goodie you may have missed is....

Three Days of the Condor

a spy story with Robert Redford and Max von Sydow (who is always a Good Thing in movies like the Trout says)

aieee! My apologies for the double post. Must be a senior moment.

You may well not have seen 'Running Out of Luck'. It's a made-for-video movie promoting Mick Jagger's first solo album. It's loads of fun and features Dennis Hopper as a deranged rock-video director.

 Stella Street :The film of the tv series.


   1.10am BBC2  Tonight or this morning.

   Well worth watching.

I don't know if this really counts as a film you may have missed, but it wasn't worth its own thread; I watched Virtuosity the other day. It was funny to see Russel Crowe from back before he was THE Russel Crowe. And, Lawnmower Man style cgi (because, of course, VR was still a big deal). It does kinda fall into the so bad it's good category though. One scene I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at involved a group of cops and politicians sitting around an office wondering about Crowe, saying "Where will he go?"

Cut to Crowe, the ultimate, computer designed serial killer, strutting down the street in a purple suit, to the tune of "Stayin' Alive". Says it all really.

I love one scene in Virtuosity, after opening scene of meet Crowe, two men just vanished, and all people in japanese restaurant applauded as Crowe very cool pose with his eyes. as moved back it was on the screens, and two men screamed in pain hooked to some machines! love that Crowe creep pose! :)

shutdown man, you means this scene?

Link: "Stayin' Alive"

Heh, yeah, that looks about right.....