Topic: The Best Movie You've Never Heard of!

[Najemikon]

A few years ago I lent a friend 'The Spanish Prisoner'. He loved it and said "It was the best film he'd never heard of" which I thought was a great line.

I think I agree with him because I bought the film with nothing to go on. I was browsing a sale on a Region 1 site and the overview intrigued me and that Steve Martin was playing a straight role. At the time, David Mamet meant nothing to me (now I look out for work he's associated with) and apart from Ben Gazrra there were no other cast that I recognised. I hadn't seen any reviews and no-one had mentioned it to me even in passing. I couldn't have bought a more blind title and I really liked it.

The Station Agent would be the next one. Marvellous film, bought blind again. However, I was vaguely aware of it through reviews. Then there are the Fox Film Noir releases. Despite knowing they were being released, I committed to buying them on the basis I recognised very few of them. Boomerang was the most expensive DVD I ever bought if you adjust for content versus value, but I hadn't heard of it and it's fantastic. House of Strangers, No Way Out and Shock stand out as real favourites now as well.

Pete reminded me of this rare situation in his classics marathon. He's apparently really struggled to even identify a couple of the titles! There could be a real gem buried in there.

So what are your favourite films, that you'd never heard of? 

[Touti]

There's a few.  I wouldn't be able to pick a #1 so in no particular order:

The House of Sand and Fog (No, I didn't know it was a Jennifer  movie, it was a nice bonus)
Perfume: The story of a murderer (Thanks again Sailor )
Pollock

[VibroCount]

I was a film student.

For a long time.

Yeah. A very long time -- from 1974 to 1990.

So there are very few great films I have yet to hear of, or more likely, have seen. (Digression -- I worked as an uncredited apprentice on two feature films which I would imagine some of you have in your DVD collections. One was a low-budget porn film which turned into a hard R feature -- for which I built props; the other starred Don Johnson -- where I took Polaroids for continuity. Both might be considered in the "science-fiction" genre.)

There was a time when I was best entertained by obscure gems, now I just look for entertainment.

[richierich]

Perfume: The story of a murderer (Thanks again Sailor )

Gotta agree to Perfume, it was a surprise, brilliantly crafted, atmospheric and watched purely on a recommendation.
Great when that happens 

[addicted2dvd]

This happened to me several years ago... it was a vampire movie (don't be surprised... you all know how big of a horror fanatic I am!) Near Dark. One thing I always liked about this movie... they never once show a pair of fangs... and never once use the word Vampire.

Here is my write-up on it from my Month Long Halloween/Horror Marathon:


Title: Near Dark
Movie Count: 24
TV Ep Count: 8
Time Started: 6am
Plot:
In the dusty heart of the American southwest, innocent country boy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar of MYSTERIOUS WAYS) is seduced by a beautiful girl (Jenny Wright) into joining a roving pack of vicious drifters led by the enigmatic Jesse (Lance Henriksen of THE TERMINATOR and ALIENS). But this is no ordinary band of outlaws; Caleb is now trapped in a nightmare of soulless evil that waits in the shadows, hellish mayhem that thrives on blood and absolute horror that begins NEAR DARK.

Bill Paxton (TWISTER) and Jenette Goldstein (ALIENS) co-star in this extraordinary shocker co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (STRANGE DAYS) that Entertainment Weekly calls "ultrastylish, ultraviolent and altogether brilliant." This is more than simply the most ferociously original vampire movie of our generation; NEAR DARK is one of the best horror movies of all time.

My Thoughts:
I will never forget the first time I watched this movie... was shortly after I first got my job at the video store (17 years ago)... I remember thinking... all the movies I can watch... and for free!?! I couldn't wait to dig in... and of course the first place I hit was the horror section. And I found this gem buried deep in the huge horror section. (our store had over 10,000 titles total) I must say this movie is one of my favorite (And one of the most underrated) vampire movies out there! Over the years I have watched this movie countless times. And I was completely thrilled when I first heard it was coming out in a 2-Disc edition DVD. This was one movie I preordered as soon as I was able.

One of the things I like about this movie is that even though while watching it there is no doubt in your mind this is a vampire movie... they never once use the word vampire in the movie... and you never once see a set of fangs.  Another thing I like in this movie is the awesome bar fight scene. I have seen a few bar fight scenes in horror movies... and this is one of the best. Then you have the added bonus that one of the stars of this movie is Lance Henrikson.... a great genre actor.

If you never had the opportunity to see this movie before... I highly recommend it. While working the video store I recommended this movie to countless horror movie fans and I seldomly (if ever) had anyone complain about the recommendation.