Highly Underrated/Unknown Movies - Page 13

Ten Inch Hero http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829297/

Don't know if this is posted yet but: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_See

Ip man 1 and Ip man 2.

NOT what I expected

David Mamet's Spartan. One of the finest american films from the last ten years or so. No one has seen it.

With Val Kilmer? I've saw it a few years back - liked it a lot. Speaking of underrated, I think Kilmer is very underrated as an actor. What say you?

I would have it somewhere near the bottom of the Mamet pile.

Agree, definitely. With the right script, he's amazing and Spartan might just be his finest performance ever. Some actors were born to do Mamet, I'd include Val in that club. And how good is he in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang! (also kinda underrated in the sense that very few people saw it, but most who did love it) Not a large pile, but along with Homicide, Spartan is right there at the top in my opinion. As a film it's got serious flaws as there are parts of the plot that make very little sense after you figure out what the hell actually happens in the film and the ending is a disappointment after everything that came before (however, the closing shot is brilliant), but everything else makes up for those. Val's performance, the abstract nature of Mamet's dialogue (he works very, very well with the kind of clipped military lingo that makes up a sizeable portion of what's being said in the film) and the whole structure of the film. Especially everything in the first hour or so is amazing. Kinda loses it's steam after the meet with the chinaman, but fantastic filmmaking nonetheless.

Zoo- if you can get past the subject matter, beautifully shot and an interesting, unexpected take GG Allin and the Murder Junkies- if you like watching a train wreck True Romance - obviously not unknown, but somewhat forgotten Someone mentioned The Thin Red Line- I second- New York Stories was also a good Nolte performance Training Day The English Patient Waking Ned Divine; Butcher Boy Down By Law The Conversation American Movie- hilarious

I love the hyper-stylised nature of "˜The Spanish Prisoner'. I'll probably get slaughtered for this, but I honestly think Rebecca Pidegon could have been a film icon of the "˜90s. Her performance is often described as "˜stilted' and 'wooden', but she works wonders with Mamet's verbiage. Her off-key performance harks back to the archetypal 'spider woman' of classic noirs. I find her completely unpredictable and quite intriguing.

I think it was Woody Allen that made a comment about Hitchock's films being well made but of no importance, no substance. That he ran out of new things to say from picture to picture. Granted, Woody Allen is probably the last person that should be making such comments, but he has a point. I feel this is the case with Mamet. The last decade simply saw him changing contexts and recycling a bunch of old ideas.

I don't disagree entirely, but in my book Spartan represents a pretty big departure from his other work. The whole structure of the first half is pretty amazing for a film that could've so easily been a standard spy story. The way the film moves is phenomenal. I've never really seen anything quite like it.

I hear ya on Pidgeon tho, I've always liked her alot. Does a great turn in State & Main too (Spanish Prisoner isn't a favorite of mine however).

^ I loved State & Main.

That coupled with the standard action movie plot number 32 (the furriners are taking our women, oh noes!!) made for an amazing experience in a delayed chain of meaning. Top Mamet for me too...

Whit Stillman's Metropolitan: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100142/

Maybe Chris Eigeman is an underrated actor. Whit Stillman is an underrated director, too.