Movies that hit you like a Sledgehammer(Fuck the Radar)

[Rodent]

Darkman just hit me like a brick.

The last mask Liam Neeson puts on is freaking The Furry Who Shall Not Be Named Campbell. I hadn't seen that movie in like 8 years.

Wow, that was entirely uninteresting.

/me presses submit.

Dude, never use Campbells full name so long as the board censors like that. Campbell will shoot you with his boomstick, primate!

Edit: Damn that filter.

[Furiously]

Spirited Away - which is anime, my wife who hates anime, sat down, said, "WTF?" asked me to start from the beginning, and sat through the whole thing with her face making the cutest contortions in wonderment. Any Studio Ghibli movie is pretty darn moving. Dance of the Firefly's is just depressing, Princess Monokee is wonderful.  I love the little tree spirits.

Donnie Darko was another one we both watched 2 or 3 times. Just trying to figure it out. She was convinced he was off his meds and having split personalities the first time. Which was fun to watch. I really would like to see the director's cut.

Edit - Added Pie... (I think it might just be the symbol).  Very interesting movie.

Not quite under the radar, but I avoided Fight Club forever, nearly missing a very good film.

Also since Gwynith Paltrow seems to be the actress everyone loves to hate, he was quite good in Shakespeare in Love.  Plus who doesn't love Geoffrey Rush? Odd - I never realized she was the young Wendy in Hook.

[Nebu]

I have been following this thread and one movie struck me House of Games.  It's a suspense film that isn't overly deep or have an exceptionally surprising ending.  Somehow, it managed to stick with me all these years... I guess that has to say something.

[stray]

Somehow, it managed to stick with me all these years... I guess that has to say something.

Hell yeah. You may want to check out other David Mamet films or writings as well. They tend to do that.

[Murgos]

Edit - Added Pie... (I think it might just be the symbol).  Very interesting movie.

Pi.  Its a greek letter.

Π

html: Π or Π

edit:  Lower case
π

html: π or π

[Gong]

This is probably about as obscure as it gets, but I saw a very good movie at a local arthouse-type theater. It was named "The Story of the Weeping Camel", a docu-drama of sorts about a nomadic family on the Mongolian steppes who depend on their herd of camels and goats for their livelihood. One of their camels gives birth to a rare white camel, but doesn't recognize it as her own baby. The movie follows the story of this family as they try to unite the mother and child through a variety of means.

 The pacing of the movie is pretty slow, but I don't have a problem with slow pacing as long as it is appropriate to the story. To me, the movie is a fascinating look at a culture completely different from our own, and I thought the main story was quite moving as well. For some reason, it made me very happy to know that there are still people out there living such a simple yet fulfilling lifestyle.

[Margalis]

I will second Shattered Glass, it was very good. I also saw Waking the Dead and thought it was pretty decent, even on cable with a distinct lack of breasts. (Damn, didn't even know what I was missing)

[Jeff Kelly]

OK, this thread actually drove me to register here and actually delurk. Hi all :-)!

My not so comprehensive list of films which were under the radar but left an impression for me.

Mind you since I live in germany these might be films which might have been rather popular in the States but just didn't make it over here. There are also most certainly some german flicks in my list where I do not know the english title (if it even exists)

Disclaimer: english is not my mother tongue, but pointing out  spelling and grammar errors is not considered rude behaviour by me. (At least if one's not being anal about it)

In no particular order

"Das Boot" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082096)

One of the best world war II anti-war movies ever. Period. If you get the chance try to get your hands on the original tv miniseries. The film is just an edited and shortened version of said series. (The miniseries can be ordered on DVD and even has an english language track)

I never had the chance to see the series in '81 (I was five at the time) but got my hands on the dvds and it is still great.

"Lola rennt (run lola run)" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827)

Restored my faith into the german movie business. Before Lola rennt came out 99% of the films produced and directed by germans sucked big time or where just some cheesy pseudointellectual art house bullshit (or both). Notable exception Wim Wenders. I just love "Der Himmel ueber Berlin" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093191). Whoever made the sucky remake "City of Angels" just should be shot IMHO.

It astonished me because it showed me that german films actually could be cool if they tried to.

Ronin (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122690):

A little John Frankenheimer Flick with amazing car chases, with DeNiro, Sean Bean and Jean Reno and of course Natasha McElhone in it. Nothing really spectacular but the first DVD i bought and I like actually watch it from time to time. If only DeNiro could get through a film without mumbling unintelligibly.

Worst movie ever in this regard is Heat. Cool movie but a big DeNiro/Pacino mumblefest. I actually had to switch to the german dub because I couldn't understand these two most of the time. I never had to do this while watching trainspotting which had some awful english dialect in there.

Memento(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144):

Stumbled upon this film because we were bored at the time and just picked some random movie to watch. I very much liked the narrative and the premise of this movie. It imho shows how important our memory is for evaluating our next step and how easy it is to jump to wrong conclusions or how easy somebody can be manipulated if one doesn't know all the facts.

Pi (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138704): Same as for Memento I just stumbled across it.

Old Boy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364569): Saw it at the annual Fantasy Filmfest in Nuremberg.  Revenge is obviously a big topic for Mister Park since he also directed Sympathy for mister vengeance.

Jeff

p.s. honorable mention goes to Urotsukidoji for introducing me to the fact that the Japanese are very strange people indeed.

[Rodent]

Das Boot and Run Lola Run are indeed kickass movies. ( Although I needed ALOT of coffee to get through Das Boot ).

I really liked Old Boy until they revealed a plot that makes even the japaneese go "WTF is wrong with you people?!".

[Ironwood]

   I never had to do this while watching trainspotting which had some awful english dialect in there.

I don't know what you mean...


As for Mememto, you win a star.  It's easily one of my all time top ten films.  Stunning stuff.

[Hanzii]

I hate Memento - with a passion.

Ronin is one of Frankenheimers worst efforts. No story to speak of, but some truly great carchases, I still prefer Bullit ogr French Connection for those, though.

Heat is brilliant (but Pacino, de Niro and Mann... under whose radar?)and I had no trouble understanding the dialogue. (but I did grow up with only one national tv-channel and three German - which means that I've suffered through the horror of John Wayne speaking German all through my childhood)

I saw Das Boot when it first aired, and has still to see it as a movie. I must go buy it now.

Speaking of that weird accent. Shallow Grave is a slight favourite to Trainspotting, but both are great. Then there was two terrible efforts and the 'under the radar' favourite of 28 Days, which I like even less than Memento...

[Jeff Kelly]

I don't know what you mean...

??? I can't quite decide if this is a real question or irony.

btw. substitute english with scottish. Proofreading is not my speciality. Sometimes when I write in english I use german expressions and colloquialisms without realising it. And most germans just use the term english even when refraining to other parts of the United Kingdom such as Scotland

As for Mememto, you win a star.  It's easily one of my all time top ten films.  Stunning stuff.

We discussed the film with a group of complete strangers for nearly two hours outside the theater afterwards. It was november and quite cold outside but we didn't care.

Jeff

[Ironwood]

It was Irony.  I'm one of the Scottish posters on the board (at last count, there were 3 of us.  Like witches.)

I had little trouble understanding the film, but I'm not enough of a prick not to see how others might have.  I'm reminded of the scene in Goldmember where Caine and Myers talk entirely in Cockney Slang and even the subtitles give up....

[Jeff Kelly]

I hate Memento - with a passion.

I'm curious. Why exactly?

Ronin is one of Frankenheimers worst efforts. No story to speak of, but some truly great carchases, I still prefer Bullit ogr French Connection for those, though.

Heat is brilliant (but Pacino, de Niro and Mann... under whose radar?)

In germany Heat was not a high profile film when it was released.  It is that way sometimes. Sometimes something is big in the US but doesn't quite make it over here. Same with Alias. Big success in the US but has recently been cancelled here in germany because ratings sucked. Same with the sporanos and 24. But otoh we "enjoy" frequent reruns of "The Nanny", "Golden Girls", "The fresh prince of bel air" and "7th Heaven". Sometimes I do not understand my own people :-(.

(but I did grow up with only one national tv-channel and three German - which means that I've suffered through the horror of John Wayne speaking German all through my childhood)

Yeah the wonders of dubbing. At least the people who dubbed John Wayne movies still knew what they were doing and did an excellent job translating the text and selecting the right actors for the job. Nowadays you have to be grateful when there is no major language fuckup every three sentences. Quality of the dubs has declined so much that I stopped watching dubbed versions entirely. I wish they would do it the way it is done in sweden and norway and just use subtitles but that will not happen :-(

[Dark Vengeance]

But otoh we "enjoy" frequent reruns of "The Nanny", "Golden Girls", "The fresh prince of bel air" and "7th Heaven".

I now understand why Europe hates America. Fran Drescher is a Weapon of Mass Annoying.

Bring the noise.
Cheers............

[Hanzii]

Yeah the wonders of dubbing. At least the people who dubbed John Wayne movies still knew what they were doing and did an excellent job translating the text and selecting the right actors for the job. Nowadays you have to be grateful when there is no major language fuckup every three sentences. Quality of the dubs has declined so much that I stopped watching dubbed versions entirely. I wish they would do it the way it is done in sweden and norway and just use subtitles but that will not happen :-(

... and Denmark!

While subtitles are to be preferred to dubbing, the rise of more commercial tv-stations has also given rise to cutthroat competition between translators.
Movies in the cinema are still good quality (it's not just translating the movie: You only have limited space - two lines max - and the text needs to be onscreen for a set amount of time. It's an artform), but television shows are just full of stupid ass mistakes.
At least without dubbing, you have a chance to ignore the subtitles, but that doesn't work for those languages you don't speak fluently.

[HaemishM]

Yes, and my wife loves watching that fucking show. Drives me batty. I did manage to obstinately get out of watching the Nanny reunion they had recently. I can only watch the Nanny with the sound muted, and even then it's hard.

Pi was an excellent, but very cerebral film. Heat, however, really would suffer if you had a hard time understanding DeNiro or Pacino. The accents they spout are nothing to me, but to someone who hasn't lived here, I can see how it might be hard. The movie is incredible though; I think their performances are spectacular, even though they are both just rehashing character types they've played in many previous movies. The scene in the coffee shop with the two of them talking is just two acting giants playing off each other, and I absolutely love that moment. Doesn't hurt that it has Tom Sizemore, Val Kilmer and that crazy Mexican motherfucker from Desperado to boot.

[schild]

I love all you people discussing Pi. I might have to make a contest out of something pi-related.

[Abagadro]

The scene in the coffee shop with the two of them talking is just two acting giants playing off each other, and I absolutely love that moment.

The only thing that bugs me about that scene is that Mann never does a two-shot. Every shot during the major confrontation is an over the shoulder shot of one of them onto the other's face. For all we know the two of them didn't even shoot the scene together, but just did their dialogue with stand-ins because you only ever see the back of the head. Was a very odd choice.

[Furiously]

Run Lola Run - good film.  Been a while since I saw it but, now I might have to go buy the DVD.  

On the subject of foreign films - The Vanishing and La Femme Nakita the original versions were also both quite good. Shallow Grave, very very good. Trainspotting heck ya.

As for The Nanny. Fran is hot. Maybe dubbed she doesn't have an annoying voice/laugh and is watchable???

I disliked Mememto as well. It was a 15 minute movie that was wrapped around a gimmick.

I'd like to see how people viewed Jacob's Ladder. We had to watch it a couple times for a class I was in in college then write a paper on what was "real" in the film and what wasn't. (IE. Was he killed in Vietnam and the whole thing imagined, or was it all real, or what bits).

The discussion of Horror movies that treat you intelligently...I was going to suggest Seven, but then I think it did have a cat jump out at you... so much for that...

In general recommendations...Shawshank Redemption and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

As for Heat...I think I saw it twice in the theatre. Good action. And I agree it was extremely odd with how they "shared" the screen.

[schild]

I disliked Mememto as well. It was a 15 minute movie that was wrapped around a gimmick.

Correct.

I'd like to see how people viewed Jacob's Ladder. We had to watch it a couple times for a class I was in in college then write a paper on what was "real" in the film and what wasn't. (IE. Was he killed in Vietnam and the whole thing imagined, or was it all real, or what bits).

Imagined. I side with the people who say he was completely delusional. But then, it is VERY easily argued either way.

The discussion of Horror movies that treat you intelligently...I was going to suggest Seven, but then I think it did have a cat jump out at you... so much for that...

Se7en falls under thriller I believe. Gore does not a horror movie make. Eventually I plan on going through my collection of horror movies that I think are great (which will probably result in distilling a list of 100 movies down to about 9).

[HaemishM]

Jacob's Ladder was a sublime masterpiece that I've only seen once. I need to watch it again. I rented it years ago with a not-so-smart-former-friend of mine, my sister (also not booksmart), and my cousin, and NONE of them got it. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there grinning my ass off.

Some movies are just gimmicks, but they are cool gimmicks. Pulp Fiction probably wouldn't have had quite the punch without the skewed time line. Memento did its schtick well, I thought.

[sidereal]

Pi: I thought it was great just after seeing it, but it's waned in my memory.  The Rabbinical/Kabbalah/Government conspiracy seems kind of campy in retrospect.

Unrecognizable Scottish Accents:  The worst I've had to muddle through was an indie Scottish movie from a couple of years ago about a kid who gets caught up in the drug trade/crime and eventually stabs his mother's boyfriend.  I can't remember the name for the life of me, but it was a really good movie.  Too bad most of the dialogue went something like:
"Hae' mae fookin coolah mleh!"

On Jacob's Ladder and determining the truth:  I really hate it when the writer's too lazy to decide the truth.  I liked Donnie Darko alot. . enough to watch it again with the Director and Writer commentating over it.  And without spoiling anything, they basically said 'We don't know what really happened here' in some crucial bits.  Fuck that.  If the writer doesn't know, it's not a mystery, it's just imaginative masturbation.

Edit: The Scottish movie is Sweet Sixteen.  Dark, but recommended.

[Rodent]

Good film that not enough people have seen "Evil". Might not be under the radar since it was nominated for best forgeign film last year, but I have yet to meet a single non-swede who has seen it.

[Bunk]

Kudos on bringing up Run Lola Run. One of my favorite movies. Das Boot is currently available as a 4 hour directors cut on dvd - this would be the version I recomend watching (with subtitles of course).

My favorite little known movie would have to be Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Delicatessen".  He's the guy who did the much better known "Amelie". Great movie if you can find it, its not available on dvd yet though.

[Hanzii]

Good film that not enough people have seen "Evil". Might not be under the radar since it was nominated for best forgeign film last year, but I have yet to meet a single non-swede who has seen it.

Actually, my 'uncle in law' (if such a thing exists) produced that one. You helped him get that summer house in France, he always wanted...
But yeah, it's a very good movie (the book is right over there on the table waiting for me)

Lola Rennt is actually on the telly right now... and my machine is recording a Chris Rock HBO special... from the mesmerizing 10 minutes of Lola I just caught, I think I made the wrong choice. I'll put that on the dvd buying list.

Here's an old under the radar foreign movie (from before Weir went Hollywood). Picnic at Hanging Rock. Weird, but still deeply memorable after all these years (I haven't seen it in about 10 years time).

And speaking of Down Under. One of my guilty pleasures is Quigly Down Under with Tom Selleck. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Alan Rickman.

[Shockeye]

And speaking of Down Under. One of my guilty pleasures is Quigly Down Under with Tom Selleck. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Alan Rickman.

I'm a sucker for Laura San Giacomo's breasts. To each their own, I guess.

[ahoythematey]

Good film that not enough people have seen "Evil". Might not be under the radar since it was nominated for best forgeign film last year, but I have yet to meet a single non-swede who has seen it.

Since I was primarily interested in moving movies and not obscurity, the title has been changed.  And now for something completely different:

[Raging Turtle]

"Two Brothers" - a Korean film about (surprise) two korean brothers during the korean war.  Excellent acting, excellent realism, better than Saving Private Ryan IMO.  Good to see a movie about that particular war from a non-American perspective, as well.  I'm not totally sure its available for rent in America yet, but it came out a while ago here, and was Korea's entry for best foreign film for the Oscars.  

"Dog Soldiers" - Scottish werewolf horror movie.  Not perfect but damn good as horror movies go.  Been out for a while in America; if you like most horror movies you'll love this.  And no crappy CGI effects.  

Check 'em out

[Rodent]

"Dog Soldiers" - Scottish werewolf horror movie.  Not perfect but damn good as horror movies go.  Been out for a while in America; if you like most horror movies you'll love this.  And no crappy CGI effects.  

Check 'em out

Probably the best werewolf movie ever made.

[Bunk]

Dog Soldiers is great indeed.

Made me think of another movie while I'm at it. Canadian werewolf movie called Ginger Snaps. Won't be for everyone, its centered around two sisters hitting puberty and encountering a werewolf at the same time, but personally I found it really well written.  There are actually three movies in a series, and I was shocked by how much I enjoyed them all.

[pack1112]

It may be a bit more mainstream then i think, but none the less im blown away everytime i watch it is The Crow.  The whole concept of comming back to put right what was wrong and and do it in such away that wasnt just mindless violence was incredible.  I know they had to do a large portion of the movie with Computer for Brandon Lee, but that was just a killer story....Screw the guys that made the crap known as Crow 2 city of angels.....Brandon rolled over in his grave at least 3 times when the put that hunk of crap on the market!

[schild]

Hmmm, the title changed - so just movies that hit me like a sledgehammer? Off the top of my head:

Lost in Translation
Croupier
12 Monkeys
24 Hour Party People
The Quiet American
Twin Peaks
Poolhall Junkies
The Game
Frailty
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Eye
Phone
Charade
Exorist
Silence of the Lambs
Ringu
Event Horizon
Dead Ringers
Le Pacte des Loups
Igby Goes Down
Cure
Comedian
Cinema Paradiso
Bob Roberts
All the President's Men
A Better Tomorrow 1 & 2
Infernal Affairs
Battle Royale
Alive
Ichi, The Killer
Ley Lines
Adaptation
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I <3 Huckabees
Shaun of the Dead
Kikujiro
High Fidelity
Insomnia (Original)
Mulholland Drive
North by Northwest
Ping Pong
Zatoichi (2004)
Hard Boiled

If I can come up with more, I guess I'll add them later.

[Riggswolfe]

"Dog Soldiers" - Scottish werewolf horror movie.  Not perfect but damn good as horror movies go.  Been out for a while in America; if you like most horror movies you'll love this.  And no crappy CGI effects.  

Check 'em out

Probably the best werewolf movie ever made.

Four words: American Werewolf In London.

Best. Werewolf. Movie. Ever.

[Fabricated]

None of the movies I really like are all that obscure.

The Usual Suspects, Saving Private Ryan, Full Metal Jacket...

I do however really like "Seige of Firebase Gloria". My dad's a Vietnam vet and its his favorite Vietnam movie even over Full Metal Jacket, but that could be because it's about his company (Lima).