MetaChat - "25 Best Movies You've Never Seen."

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05 June 2007

"25 Best Movies You've Never Seen." Dude, I've seen like eight of these.→[More:]
1. Falling Down
2. Igby Goes Down
3. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
4. Bubble Boy
5. Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane
6. The Hidden
7. Bully
8. Grace of My Heart
9. The Black Cat
10. Breakdown
11. Chopper
12. Gojira
13. I Shot Andy Warhol
14. Three O'Clock High
15. Brannigan
16. The Ringer
17. End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
18. Real Life
19. Time After Time
20. Idiocracy
21. Girl 6
22. Female Trouble
23. Kurt & Courtney
24. The Boondock Saints
25. Heavenly Creatures

I've seen Falling Down, Buckaroo Banzai, Breakdown, Chopper, Time After Time, Boondock Saints, and Heavenly Creatures. I think I've seen Brannigan but I might be confusing it with McQ, and I'm pretty sure I've seen Igby Goes Down unless I'm confusing it with that other movie that was just like it that came out around the same time. And I knew about most of the other ones and actively avoided some of them.

post by: kirkaracha at: 15:53 | 39 comments

I'v seen 12 of them. I may have to look some of these up.

posted by arse_hat 05 June | 16:08

I've seen 10 or 12. I suppose they may be right for mainstream audiences but some of these are inescapable in the right circles.

Heavenly Creatures, incidentally, is one of my favorite films, period. I knew from this film that Peter Jackson was the right, indeed, perhaps the only director who could do LotR properly. Fantastic, bears repeated viewing.

I'll add one here: I Know Where I'm Going. I had barely ever heard of it, but it's a fantastic film from wartime Britain, a love story that overcomes some dangerously hokey elements and bathes itself in local color. Most of it was filmed on the Isle of Mull, but the male co-star never left London. It works. Martin Scorsese, of all people, had never heard of it and was transfixed when he saw it by chance.

posted by stilicho 05 June | 16:10

What stilicho said--I've seen at least a dozen of 'em, actively avoided a couple, and wouldn't mind un-seeing a few. There are some things I really like on that list, and some things I think are really, really awful.

In my trying-to-be-objective view, the best two on the list are probably I Shot Andy Warhol and Heavenly Creatures.

posted by box 05 June | 16:12

I have seen 8 of them. Everyone should watch Heavenly Creatures.

posted by gaspode 05 June | 16:16

If these are the best of what I haven't seen, I have already seen the best.

posted by mischief 05 June | 16:16

I hated Igby Goes down, so there.

posted by muddgirl 05 June | 16:22

I Shot Andy Warhol!?!?!?! You've got to be kidding me!

Well, I guess there's no accounting for differences of taste, but I've long maintained that this is one of the absolute worst films I've ever seen.

...But Heavenly Creatures r0xx0rz!

posted by pieisexactlythree 05 June | 16:33

Heavenly Creatures is one of my all-time favorites, too. Has anyone seen the real (and chilling!) photo that Peter Jackson recreated? And I've seen a lot of the movies on this list.

posted by interrobang 05 June | 16:34

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 05 June | 17:09

posted by stynxno 05 June | 17:10

I've seen four (3, 6, 24 and 25), one of which is Heavenly Creatures, which is easily Peter Jackson's best movie IMO. I was actually disappointed by LOTR by comparison.

Many of those I'm not going out of my way to see (The Ringer, e.g.)

If I were going to add a movie to this list it'd be Titus, the Julie Taymor adaptation of Titus Andronicus. I was the only person in the theater when I saw it.

posted by Prospero 05 June | 17:16

I've seen 8. And another thumbs up for Heavenly Creatures -- really, an extraordinary film. (When I was in Christchurch, NZ, friends took me to the house where the Hulme family lived.)

posted by scody 05 June | 17:19

So we start with "25 Best Movies You've Never Seen." But we've seen some of them, so it's "25 Best Movies ~~You've Never Seen~~." Except at least some of them are crap, not "best," so now we're down to "25 ~~Best~~ Movies ~~You've Never Seen~~."

posted by kirkaracha 05 June | 17:25

Now, if we can only establish that one of them isn't actually a movie, we'll be left with nothing but 25.

posted by box 05 June | 17:42

I've seen 12, and the only ones worth a shit are Heavenly Creatures and the Ramones movie, and Female Trouble. Bully and the Warhol movie were pretty good. But The Ringer? That movie was atrocious. What a joke of a list. Also, they should have added "American" to the title, as I don't see any foreigns here.

posted by Hellbient 05 June | 18:10

Taymor is brilliant. We saw Titus at the Art Institute, which had an exhibit of her stuff, and then she came out at talked about it. The movie was great and she was interesting to listen to. If she ever gets invited to talk near where you are, I highly recommend going.

posted by crush-onastick 05 June | 18:14

the only ones worth a shit are Heavenly Creatures and the Ramones movie,

Oh yeah, I loved the Ramones doc! Next to The Filth and the Fury, it's the best movie about punk ever (and among best movies about rock in general).

posted by scody 05 June | 18:30

I've seen 12. Despite our undying love for Lili Taylor, "I Shot Andy Warhol" is a legendarily bad film in our household. Mr. rossi just kept yelling, "For the LOVE OF GOD, would you please SHUT UP and SHOOT ANDY WARHOL already!"

posted by jrossi4r 05 June | 18:31

What a joke of a list. Also, they should have added "American" to the title, as I don't see any foreigns here.

Doesn't New Zeland count as foreign?

posted by pieisexactlythree 05 June | 18:32

I've only seen one of the movies (Igby, which is one of my favorite movies ever), but Heavenly Creatures has been on my To See list for ages.

But I'm mostly just commenting to say that Mr. rossi's comment cracked me up.

posted by occhiblu 05 June | 18:34

Igby Goes Down.
Heavenly Creatures.

Haven't seen a lot of the rest, but I Shot AW was kinda bad.

posted by rainbaby 05 June | 18:35

I like Boondock Saints a lot, although I can understand why some people find it trite and/or pretentious.

posted by muddgirl 05 June | 18:38

Have only seen Buckaroo Banzai and End of the Century.

Scody, be sure to check out The Future Is Unwritten when it goes into general release (he said, crossing his fingers that it actually does go into general release). We saw it Sunday at the Seattle Int'l Film Festival. I only wish I could go again tonight; Julian Temple will be speaking after the showing.

posted by bmarkey 05 June | 18:43

Mr. rossi just kept yelling, "For the LOVE OF GOD, would you please SHUT UP and SHOOT ANDY WARHOL already!"

That made me laugh out loud.

posted by interrobang 05 June | 18:44

be sure to check out The Future Is Unwritten when it goes into general release

Oh yeah, I can't wait to see this. So glad to hear you thought it was so good! (And thanks for the reminder, bmarkey -- I should check the L.A. filmfest listings to see if they'll be screening it as well.) I do fear dissolving into a hysterical mess, though, as I have rather, um, unresolved issues around Joe Strummer's death.

posted by scody 05 June | 19:05

I've seen Buckaroo Banzai (a favorite), I Shot Andy Warhol (kind of noisy; I didn't really enjoy it but didn't hate it like some of you guys), Heavenly Creatures (liked it very much except I found some of the animation to be a bit much), and Time After Time (MY that was a SEXY movie when I was in the 9th grade!!).

posted by JanetLand 05 June | 19:05

I'll add one here: I Know Where I'm Going.

That is indeed a fantastic movie, from the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (a.k.a. The Archers). They're perhaps best known for The Red Shoes, but I've loved everything I've seen by them.

What is it exactly about Igby Goes Down? I thought it was annoyingly derivative and not compelling, but a lot of people like it.

posted by Lentrohamsanin 05 June | 19:05

I have rather, um, unresolved issues around Joe Strummer's death.

He died on my 42nd birthday. That sorta took some of the fun out of the day, to say the least.

posted by bmarkey 05 June | 19:41

Since scody mentioned it, what are the best movies about punk, and rock music in general? Because I saw American Hardcore a little while back and, aside from some great performance footage, I was kinda disappointed. And because I'm wondering how Decline of Western Civilization holds up.

posted by box 05 June | 21:29

I haven't seen Decline since back in the day. I have fond memories of it, and The Unheard Music (about X) as well. More recently, We Jam Econo is worthwhile, as are the aforementioned End of the Century and The Future Is Unwritten.

posted by bmarkey 05 June | 21:36

I've seen more than half of those. "Bubble Boy" may be one of my favorite all time movies. I know, I know, but have you seen it? Much funnier than the trailers. Hell, Jake Gyllenlyllenhaaaalllllenhalll's haircut is funnier than some whole movies. I want to be careful here not to oversell it, but "Bubble Boy" deserves the same kind of cult status that "Office Space" found. Wildfire.

And Buckaroo Banzai gets better every time I see it.

Idiocracy was better in theory than in practice. One day, when I have time, I'll tell you how Idiocracy came thisclose to being the funniest movie ever, then lost it's balls.

posted by ColdChef 05 June | 21:52

And I found myself surprised that I liked...no, loved "The Ringer."

"Time after Time" still creeps me out.

posted by ColdChef 05 June | 21:53

I've seen half this list, but only Buckaroo Banzai was worth the price of admission. I must've fallen asleep 3 or 4 times during Heavenly Creatures before I finally gave up on it.

"Bully" was a movie that made me realize I was old and no longer in touch with what those damn kids are doing these days. It was casually brutal and violent, in a way that makes a carefully orchestrated spectacle of violence like Scarface or Taxi Driver just look old-fashioned and slightly baroque.

posted by ikkyu2 06 June | 03:27

11.

posted by safetyfork 06 June | 05:46

Seen a handful of them and based on what I've seen I wouldn't go out of my way to see the others.

In the never-ending quest to boil things down to essentials I'll throw out ONE movie you are unlikely to have seen but I think you should.

Black Cat, White Cat.

I would link to reviews of it, but they all give away too much of the plot, this is the most I'm willing to quote.

Three parts surreal slapstick to one part romantic comedy, Black Cat, White Cat tells the story of two extended gypsy families living on the Danube River.

absolutely fucking fabulous

posted by edgeways 06 June | 09:21

I've seen four of them (Buckaroo, Falling Down, Breakdown, Gojira).

posted by deborah 06 June | 11:43

I've seen three. #1 was the best though.

posted by Doohickie 06 June | 12:12

10 best rock movies ever made.

I haven't seen it, but Sid and Nancy could be one of the best punk movies.

posted by kirkaracha 06 June | 14:12

I've seen 12 of these films. Ditto on the chorus of love for Heavenly Creatures. I liked I Shot Andy Warhol, but then I also read the script and had heard a bit about Valerie Solonas and her SCUM manifesto prior to watching. So I forgave some of the badness instinctively.

posted by SassHat 06 June | 23:07

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