Offbeat, Sleepers, or Just Pleasant Surprises, Tier One
Submitted by jim on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 09:14
Tags:
- Zero Effect
- Out of Sight
- Waiting for Guffman
- Cold Comfort Farm
- Delicatessen
- The City of Lost Children
- Groundhog Day
- The Hudsucker Proxy
- Harold & Maude
- The Game
- Bladerunner
- El Mariachi
- Dr. Strangelove
- Run Lola Run
- Walkabout
- O Brother Where Art Thou?
- Ghost Dog
- The Professional
Author Comments:
I picked up up most of these on a hunch (and you know how poorly that usually goes) and thought they were great!
Most are slightly off-beat, and all are terrific.
have you seen Rushmore yet? it fell in this category for me--and it has its similarities to Harold&Maude, also a classic in my book.
Yeah, I did see it recently . . . I liked it, but can't quite bring myself to add it to the list. I couldn't muster enough involvement with Max to really get into the movie. Had some great moments, though!
Me again--just rented Pushing Tin and thought it would definitely fit in this category. Have you caught it? Pretty intense, if i do say so...
I'll have to check this out! Much to my chagrin, I haven't rented a single movie in over 2 months! Between the toddler, the house, and this site, I have been more than swamped. Sigh. Assuming the power is still on (and I am assuming that it will be), I expect I'll have a bountiful harvest of new releases waiting for me at the video store in early 2000 (looking forward to Blair Witch but fear I'll be disappointed from the hype).
I have a PAL tape of a supposed Director's Cut of The Professional in French with English subtitles and extra footage. I need someone to convert it!
Definatelty thought Out of Sight was well done. Good acting, good chemistry between Clooney and Lopez, decent story. I thinkit's biggest flaw is that it wasn't marketed well. Too bad.
Gatacca was a great film and amazingly enough Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman can act?!?! Great story about the triumph of the human will. It's one of my all time faves.
The Game was OK, and at times was less than OK, until the real ending which made it all worthwhile.
Groundhog Day is probably Bill Murray's best.
Agreed on almost all counts! Although I enjoyed The Game pretty uniformly throughout. The ending did clinch it for me, though. Just when I thought it was really over . . .
I thought Brain Donors was great -- as a tribute of sorts to the Marx brothers (it's a rework of Night at the Opera), plus the great animation sequences and the wonderful jailcell rendition of the Lion Sleeps Tonight. 8^)
Groundhog day was a lot of fun, I thought. I always have this problem, though, with romances based on extreme circumstances -- once they get home and things settle down, the excitement they mistook for love wears off and you end up in divorce. (Sorry, didn't mean to be so cynical.)
For those considering The Professional, it's pretty dark and heavy, not light like a Schwarzenegger or Stallone film.
Out of Sight
Cold Comfort Farm
Hudsucker Proxy
all were most pleasant surprises, i agree!
Have you seen
nellie and M. arnaud
oscar and lucinda
horse whisperer
they were better than i thought they'd be.
can't go with you on
The Game
just awful, though Fincher is accomplished at what he does that others can't. but just awful (read: predictable, tedious, whenz this gonna end awful)
there was that very sexy woman who played the waitress though.
I haven't seen any of those, thanks for the recommendations.
As for The Game, I watched it with some trepidation, as I'd heard very mixed reviews. But I thought it was terrific (and I love the Internet, because it allows me to know that I'm not alone :-). But of your criticisms, the only one that surprises me is that you found it predictable.
<SPOILER - highlight to read>
Do you really mean to say that you knew the game was not an elaborate plan to steal Douglas's millions? Or that you knew Douglas was going to live through the movie? Even when he jumped off the building?
</SPOILER>
When I find a movie predictable, I have no doubt as to the ultimate outcome or the direction of the various plot threads. If you had no doubts during The Game, I will freely admit that you're a much smarter viewer than I.
since you have gattaca on the list, you also need to have dark city.
guffman, babe, and zero effect were all great surprises
as far as sci-fi sleepers go, the arrival would rank with dark city as one of the best. sci-fi with actual science -- what a concept !
I enjoyed Dark City, but not quite enough to add it to this list. Close, but just barely shy. I will have to check out The Arrival. I have read in several places now that it is actually decent (despite how bad the previews made it look).
So taryn and/or mildew, if you're reading this, have you noticed my latest addition?
YAY! city of lost children AND lola. i'm proud of you, jim. (sorry i didn't notice sooner--it seems this list has grown quite a bit since last i checked!) so your next assignment is to see High Fidelity--which i'm sure you will after seeing my latest list. :)
:) Immediately after viewing them, I merely liked 'em. The next day, I liked 'em more. The more time goes by, the more I like them. I am now of the mind that both Lola and CoLC were excellent.
Unfortunately, I don't get out to the movies very often (Shakespeare in Love being the most recent!), but I am looking forward to High Fidelity on video. I actually wasn't that big a fan of the book (very funny and insightful at times, but ultimately I had a hard time relating to the narrator), but I love both Cusacks, and generally think highly of the rest of the cast as well.
Really enjoy your lists! By way of "Pleasant Surprises", have you seen "MY DOG SKIP"? I took my nephew to see this show and was pleasantly surprised that I really enjoyed it too. I found it to be a delightful, coming-of-age movie, and if you're a dog-lover as I am, you will enjoy it even more. -Chagal