Recent underrated movies

[Derived Absurdity]

Either movies that aren't as well-known as they should be or didn't get as good reviews as they should have.

I say "recent" because I don't care about movies that were released in, like, 1954.

Actually I don't care about movies that were released before 2006 or so. Only recent ones. I'm not a nerd.

Anyway...

1) Jupiter Ascending
2) Immortals
3) Halloween (2007)
4) Rango
5) Mad Max: Fury Road (you might not have heard of it)
6) Wreck-It Ralph
7) Speed Racer

there are more but I can't think of any right now

[CashRules]

That first one was meant as a joke just to see if anybody is paying attention, right?

[Gendo]

2, 3, 5, and 6 were great, but Mad Max was underrated? I thought it was universally praised.

[Monk]

5 and 6 were pretty highly rated, though. Jupiter Ascending....really?

[Derived Absurdity]

@Cash, yes. However, for all its awfulness, the Wachowskis should at least be commended for at least trying to make something creative, experimental, and original, especially when we're saturated in soulless reboots and assembly line-superhero movies, and no one is.

@Gendo, I'm glad someone else recognizes how great Immortals and Halloween were. As for Mad Max, it did receive universal praise, but there are some people out there who don't recognize it as one of the greatest films of all time, and that is simply not okay.

@Monk, 6 was pretty highly-rated when it came out, but it seems to me it was sort of just forgotten pretty quickly. IMO it should go down in history as on part with some of Pixar's best.

[Blade Azaezel]

Immortals is not underrated. Immortals was actually pretty lame and kinda ruined the mythology. lyk, what the hell was that all about with the minotaur? I'm not sure what you think could be underrated about it?

[Monk]

@Cash, yes. However, for all its awfulness, the Wachowskis should at least be commended for at least trying to make something creative, experimental, and original, especially when we're saturated in soulless reboots and assembly line-superhero movies, and no one is.

To be fair, many reviewers stated that these were the strong points of the film, but overall it was pulled down by a terrible, nearly incoherent story and awful dialogue.

[Cassius Clay]

Isn't there transhumanism in Jupiter Ascending? I'm guessing that's part of the reason you like it.

And Fury Road was aight.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Either movies that aren't as well-known as they should be or didn't get as good reviews as they should have.

I say "recent" because I don't care about movies that were released in, like, 1954.

Actually I don't care about movies that were released before 2006 or so. Only recent ones. I'm not a nerd.

Anyway...

1) Jupiter Ascending
2) Immortals
3) Halloween (2007)
4) Rango
5) Mad Max: Fury Road (you might not have heard of it)
6) Wreck-It Ralph
7) Speed Racer

there are more but I can't think of any right now

Wreck-it Ralph in my experience is not underrated. People just don't talk about it because it's 4 years old & didn't have a power ballad for everyone to latch onto. Also, WIR is not Pixar. It's Walt Disney Animation Studos. It somehow, however, did get beat by Pixar's Brave for best animated feature film.

And MMFR, an action movie nominated for best pic as underrated?

[Derived Absurdity]

Immortals is not underrated. Immortals was actually pretty lame and kinda ruined the mythology. lyk, what the hell was that all about with the minotaur? I'm not sure what you think could be underrated about it?

I'm not sure what's so bad about it, really. It's an original and interesting take on Greek mythology. The story has internal consistency, solid characterization, and a refreshing lack of idiot plots. The dialogue is generally very good. The style/visual aesthetic is absolutely phenomenal; it's one of the prettiest movies I've ever seen. The pacing is solid, and it even deals with sexism in a fairly thoughtful manner (for a Hollywood blockbuster). I just thought it was a really engaging, entertaining, well-made film and I don't see what was so bad about it.

Isn't there transhumanism in Jupiter Ascending? I'm guessing that's part of the reason you like it.

Yes, but I (sort of) like it for it being mostly creative and original. And if you don't really care about artistic quality, it's just really fun in a bizarre shlocky non-ironic way. I mean, bees recognize royalty! That's amazing.

WIR is not Pixar. It's Walt Disney Animation Studos. It somehow, however, did get beat by Pixar's Brave for best animated feature film.

I know. I was saying it was on par with anything Pixar has ever made. If Finding Nemo is going down in history as an unassailable animated classic, this movie should too.

And MMFR, an action movie nominated for best pic as underrated?

It should have won.

[Blade Azaezel]

Thing is, I only watched Immortals about 3 weeks ago (maybe more actually), and I've already forgotten most of the actual plot. It looks good, but that's really about all it has going for it. Theseus is essentially a useless hero. In virtually every scene he's being rescued by people/gods, until the last battle when, for some reason, everyone just decides to listen to him and they hold their ground. He doesn't even have that much heroic strength, considering he almost gets his ass handed to him by the minotaur and Hyperion. It all seems essentially pointless, because I don't think Hyperion would've found the Epirus bow if not for Theseus?

[Derived Absurdity]

I dunno, it's been years since I've seen it. I don't remember a lot of plot specifics. I just remember my thoughts on it generally. I'll have to see it again.

[BruceSmith78]

8) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

[Derived Absurdity]

thanks, you're the first person on this thread to do what you're supposed to do



just as a fyi to everyone, i didn't actually say this in the OP, but the point of this thread is for people to offer up their own personal suggestions, not simply argue against mine (even if, like bruce's, they're objectively wrong)

[Derived Absurdity]

To this I would add Peter Jackson's King Kong. I forgot about it. I still don't really even know why I like it so much, I just do.

And jeez I'm looking at my post numbers and I need to stop commenting on this board so much

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Swiss Army Man.

[BruceSmith78]

Winter's Bone

It's really only known as the flick that launched J Law's career (she was in something else before this but nobody saw it except me and it was pretty meh), but it was a really solid film.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Money Monster - Jodie foster directs, stars George Clooney & Julia Roberts. Timely suspense that knocks both capitalism & the 24 hour news cycle but gets rather over the top in the end. Still, I was curious how it was all going to play out.

The Hotel Transylvania franchise.

It's nowhere near pixar or even good dreamworks movies, but they're incredibly fun, fast, & the idea behind it is great even if some of tropes used are tired. I really think its low RT score has more to do with Adam Sandler being involved than anything else. Plus Genndy Tartakovsky directs, so you know it's not all bad.

Speaking of underrated animated movies:

Storks - Started out at 57% and went up to 65% on RT. I got more twinge of emotion from this than I did Zootopia. Maybe I'm just easier to manipulate, but this was a fun, zany, almost Looney Toons level of comedy that isn't afraid to go a bit dark. And there's still some good emotional moments in there too. Again, not Pixar, but worth a watch.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Another underrated animated movie:

Rise of the Guardians - Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman, the the Tooth Fairy must are protectors of children. They must recruit a reluctant Jack Frost into their ranks to help defeat Pitch (the boogeyman). It was decent. No top Pixar or Disney, but not bottom of the barrel Dreamworks either.

[thesalmonofdoubt]

@Cash, yes. However, for all its awfulness, the Wachowskis should at least be commended for at least trying to make something creative, experimental, and original, especially when we're saturated in soulless reboots and assembly line-superhero movies, and no one is.

@Gendo, I'm glad someone else recognizes how great Immortals and Halloween were. As for Mad Max, it did receive universal praise, but there are some people out there who don't recognize it as one of the greatest films of all time, and that is simply not okay.

@Monk, 6 was pretty highly-rated when it came out, but it seems to me it was sort of just forgotten pretty quickly. IMO it should go down in history as on part with some of Pixar's best.

If I had to pick a Wachowski movie that better reflected an attempt at being genuinely creative and novel, I'd be going for Cloud Atlas before even considering Jupiter Ascending .. especially given that Jupiter Ascending followed a pretty bog standard SciFi plot line dotted with a few novel twists that cluttered the whole thing up rather than made for a genuinely creative twist. Cloud Atlas was also incoherent but at least it was creative and reasonably fresh.

I'm going with Mad Max being almost too highly praised for what it was worth .. I enjoyed it, and it was a great way to carry on the franchise but, it was pretty thin on anything of real substance - ultimately it was a car chase in two directions with amazing visuals and a reasonably strong female lead .. I'm at a loss at to what makes this as amazing as people seem to think it is.

I'm also gonna agree that "Me, Earl and the dying girl" was a surprisingly good movie that no one seems to have made any noise about at all - in fact the only reason I even knew it existed was because it was on a flight I was on and I'd seen everything else.

Another movie I would enter in here as being vastly underrated is "Eye in the Sky" with Helen Mirren -

[Derived Absurdity]

I'm going with Mad Max being almost too highly praised for what it was worth .. I enjoyed it, and it was a great way to carry on the franchise but, it was pretty thin on anything of real substance - ultimately it was a car chase in two directions with amazing visuals and a reasonably strong female lead .. I'm at a loss at to what makes this as amazing as people seem to think it is.

I will fucking cut you mate, I swear to God I will

[thesalmonofdoubt]

lol - yeah, there's that and there's that they didn't actually film the movie here like all the others - I mean, I get that there were heavy rains where they intended to shoot and it all went too green .. but its not like we're short of desserts in Oz.

**edit**

Also - if it helps any, I totally agree with you on Rango - Johnny Depp unpleasantness aside, this was one fine CGI movie that was well made, well scripted and overall - really enjoyable but it seemed to have created almost no buzz at all.

[Gendo]

The Mist. I dunno how highly rated it was, but I don't generally hear people talking about it when talking about great movies, and it's a great movie. I re-watched it last night; holds up.

[BruceSmith78]

Rango was lame.

[thesalmonofdoubt]

I loved Rango ..ergo Rango was awesome

[Derived Absurdity]

So... I just saw Immortals again and I would like to reiterate my confusion as to why this movie was negatively received. I mean, yeah, the plot didn't really make a lot of sense in parts, but I didn't really care. It was visually beautiful; like, there wasn't a single second where I wasn't completely entranced by it. One of the best-looking movies ever. The action scene at the end was fucking sick. It may have messed up the mythology but I don't care. I thought it was unique and entertaining even if it was flawed and I LIKED IT.

The Mist is also good.

[BruceSmith78]

I don't understand the "it was visually beautiful/stunning" praise for movies. I mean, I guess it helps, but it matters very little to me. I go to the movies to get sucked into another world by a cohesive plot and story. If I want to see a bunch of pretty scenery I'll watch a fucking YouTube video, not spend two hours in the theater.

[Blade Azaezel]

The Immortals picked a colour scheme and stuck with it. Gold, brown and red if i recall. Basically what 300 did, similar style of action sequence too. Pathfinder did a similar thing with blues and greys. Nothing the Immortals did was particularly original and the plot was crap. I'm surprised you even like it considering your general taste in movies.

[Derived Absurdity]

I don't know why I like it either. I guess I'm just tired of movies looking bland.

People watch movies for a whole bunch of reasons. Sometimes it's just to be swept up in the spectacle, not to get sucked in another world (that may be why those crappy Transformers movies were so popular). And the physical texture of a movie can help some people get sucked into the world, I guess. It's probably similar to how the more detail a book puts into describing its setting, the easier it is to imagine it and fall into it.

[Gendo]

The Mist is also good.

I'm starting to regret making fun of your movie tastes.

Quick, say something about Christopher Nolan!

[Derived Absurdity]

He's the Stanley Kubrick of our time.