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Three somewhat obscure movies, everyone should see


Lefty

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Terminator 2 wasn't a bad sequel either.

As too were the bourne Sequels.

I'm not much of an Ahnuld/Terminator fan. I think he is/was sociopath when he was a bodybuilder and recently just another good for nothing fucking Republican politician

Never seen any of the Bourne movies. The concept from what I could gather, didn't grab me I guess.

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I remember watching U-Turn years ago and immediately loved it, back then I didn't really know who J.Lopez was and thought she was stunning. I have it on DVD and have watched it numerous times.

A Bronx Tale is one of my all time favourites of the gangster genre, simply excellent. Years ago I went through a phase of buying almost any DVD with De Niro in and I don't recall being disappointed, although this one is a major stand-out movie and I've watched it many times.

Another of the gangster genre (my favourite genre) which could do battle for first place in my list (it's so hard to choose) is perhaps Once Upon A Time In America. For me this is a most excellent (but very long) movie. There are a few quiet periods in it, but I never get tired of watching it.

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I remember watching U-Turn years ago and immediately loved it, back then I didn't really know who J.Lopez was and thought she was stunning. I have it on DVD and have watched it numerous times.

A Bronx Tale is one of my all time favourites of the gangster genre, simply excellent. Years ago I went through a phase of buying almost any DVD with De Niro in and I don't recall being disappointed, although this one is a major stand-out movie and I've watched it many times.

Another of the gangster genre (my favourite genre) which could do battle for first place in my list (it's so hard to choose) is perhaps Once Upon A Time In America. For me this is a most excellent (but very long) movie. There are a few quiet periods in it, but I never get tired of watching it.

Considering our similar tastes in movies Dixon, I hope you will have a look at Miller's Crossing. I think you would like it. Even more so if you are a fan of Joel and Ethan Coen in general, as I am. Excellent unsung gangster movie.

I have not seen Once Upon A Time In America, though I have seen Once Upon A Time In The West which was very overrated IMO. Seen it once, and have no interest to see it again.

I had previously wondered if A Bronx Tale was a bit of a autobiography for De Niro, since he has been long known to have a taste for black ladies in his personal life. However the movie was written by co star Chazz Palminteri based partially on his own childhood. I just loved Taral Hicks, the actress who plays Jane Williams and wished she would have had a larger part in the film. Chazz always seems like the quintessential actor to use when you want to portray a bad ass mafia boss in your movie. He was a cop in The Usual Suspects (also a Kahuna recommendation for me) and while he was solid in the role it didn't seem to suit him like being a mafioso does. Chazz's given name is Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri and as you know Calogero was the name of De Niro's son in A Bronx Tale and Lorenzo was the name of De Niro's character. I was thinking he had a part in Goodfellas or Donnie Brasco playing a mob boss, but I must be thinking of someone else because he isn't credited in either movie.

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Now back to obscure after reviewing my movie collection...

Sin City is a good flick -probably not to everyone's taste

The Chronicles of Riddick is an excellent sequel to Pitch Black and a very enjoyable watch.

4 Layer Cake is a good english gangster flick.

Lucky number slevin (the wrong man) - gold! love watching this one again & again.

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I have not seen Once Upon A Time In America, though I have seen Once Upon A Time In The West which was very overrated IMO. Seen it once, and have no interest to see it again.

Don't let Once Upon A Time In America pass you by Lefty, I hope you like it as much as I do. You need to set aside plenty of time for it, it has a running time of 229 minutes.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087843/

It also stars James Woods, who when he's good is excellent, he has done a few poor films but in Once Upon A Time In America he was outstanding.

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U-turn was excellent,especially the scene at the end when Sean Penn looks skyward with that"FFS" look and says "Arizona!!!!!!!"

Once upon a time in America is a MUST watch(DeNiro's coffee stirring scene,and the kid waiting for the hooker,but decides to eat the cream cake for himself).

This is one of the better Brit-gangster movies

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119092/

Great track by Monkey,called "Subside"

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The Chronicles of Riddick is an excellent sequel to Pitch Black and a very enjoyable watch.

Agreed. I picked it up by chance and was so amazed I actually sought out the director and began an email conversation with him a few years ago. Great film, hopefully they will do another installment sometime down the road.

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What? No love for Chow yun Fat here? Grrrr :sorry:

Ok my 3 obscure "no-risk" flicks:

1- "St Jack" A sure thing for this crowd: an American brothel owner in Singapore in the 1970's, played by the great Ben Gazzara & directed by Bogdanovich near his peak. He gave the SNG authorities a phony script that was all flowers & rainbows & shot general scenes with the minders but shot the actual movie surrepticiously (sp?) after hours... including a scene on Bugis St with the ladyboys of the 1970's. All on location & shows the Singapore of the 1970's that's lost now. I think it's hard to find on DVD but worth searching for.

Ben Gazzara: (On Bugis Street): There was boogie street – they’d turn on all the transistor radios at about 11.30 nights and out would come these albums of very attractive women who were men, and they’d show up about midnight, and sit on your table if you wanted them to. The English guys, the English are rather kinky you know, they went home with two of them, knowing they were guys, but they were so pretty they didn’t believe they were guys, they went home, they woke up all their money was gone, their wallets, their ID, they had been had. They were living the part.

2 - (Tie) Blood SImple: The Coens first movie, very small budget, about people willing to cut some small moral corners & not taking other people at their word & the tragic consequences. Hampered by a miscast leading man, I wonder if they had gotten Nick Cage or William H Macy how awesome this would've been....

- (Tie) A Simple Plan 3 friends from a small town find a small crashed plane with a lot of cash & take the $$$ ... and it all starts to go wrong....about people willing to cut some small moral corners & the tragic consequences.... Sam Raimi did this & then went on to do the first 3 Spiderman movies.

3 - Darwin's Nightmare Ok, this is a bit of a gamble... a documentary ostensibly about the trade in a predatory non native fish in Lake Victoria eating all the native species, but profitably packed in factories by the locals & flown to Europe for restaurants by former Russian Air Force pilots who now need the work & are stranded in Africa with their prostitute girlfriends away from their families. But after a while you slowly realize their planes are carrying more than fish & the movie isn't about fish at all but survival of the strongest on all levels. (Sorry if this is too obscure... but it was nominated for an Oscar & I found it one of the most memorable films I've ever seen.)

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I've seen Blood Simple and A Simple Plan and I totally agree with you on both. M. Emmet Walsh is a heckuva fine character actor and he was great in Blood Simple. I basically watched A Simple Plan because Billy Bob was in it and I am a fan of his work.

Any mention of Billy Bob though should mention what an extraordinary job he did in Sling Blade which is an all time top ten movie in my book. Another good movie he did was The Man Who Wasn't There. Also the Coens and typical of their ability to produce such accurate period pieces.

St. Jack sounds great. I will download and watch it ASAP.

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don't know why i get hooked reading these threads on movies. spent three decades not working on good movies. though i have seen a lot of them.

i was just starting to get a feel for which posters i was going to agree with and which i wouldn't--when the tables twisted--then twisted again. i've learned through trial and error which famous "reviewers" to read--not because i often agree with them, but because i've come to understand when and how and why i consistently disagree with them. if leonard maltin likes a movie that has *anything* to do with god/church/family/america/republicans or law and order i know it's going to suck. but if he likes a movie that is opposed to all of those things--i'm going to love it.

unfortunately that never happens.

my only question on this thread would be--how do you consider movies by madonna's ex to be "obscure"? not since the sherlock holmes films certainly. i agree "snatch" was a barrel of fun. some great editing. and loved the subtitles. when i talk to karl (or sir dave) i sometimes close my eyes and imagine i'm in a guy ritchie film, but when i open them, i still can't understand a fucking thing they're saying. where are the subtitles when you need them?

as for "obscure movies everyone should see"--shit. i guarantee if i name my three favorite "obscure" films i'll get more flames than when i stand up in defense of nitwits. so how can i resist? easily. maybe next time.

ps

give that apparently superficial action trilogy based on ludlom's bourne character a look--they rank (imho) among the best of the genre of all time

ps2

anybody heard of "lawrence of arabia"?

it's no "A-Team", but it doesn't suck.

:character00218:

ok i'll name one that nobody who's ever been to new york would call obscure, but you europeans might, which just happens to be my second favorite film of all time:

"Manhattan".

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Agreed. Love the Bourne films. And Lawrence of Arabia - should be in everyone's top 20 list. I think I neglected it when I tried to do one recently, tsk tsk. But it deserves to be there. BUT: only if you see it on the big screen. Very few home video systems can do it justice, even Blu-Ray - the 70mm presentation just loses something when shown at home.

I'd still love to hear your 3 obscure pics.

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I have to say my favorite QT movie of all time is "True Romance"

[media=]http://youtu.be/QzPCcwChewM[/media]

Cannot disagree with you there iceberg, excellent choice, brilliant movie :hi:

An uncanny fact associated with you posting that second clip too...

I was sat in La Dolce Vita (my favourite Italian restaurant on St.172 in Phnom Penh) last night with PDogg and he mentioned the word "eggplant". I spent some time kicking myself trying to remember the movie from which that scene came, how could I forget!

True Romance... and it's what I'm looking for in Cambodia too :search:

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Hey, I saw "Dead Man's Shoes" over here on some movie channel a few years ago, it was pretty good alright. I never would've remembered the title tho so thanks for the trailer! I am definitely going to check it out again (bad memory... I barely remember anything about most films past a year... good part tho is I can always enjoy the same movie as if new every few years.)

Y'know... It reminds me in theme of another great, great gangster movie that no one has mentioned that I consider one of the best ever: "Get Carter".... the original with Michael Caine though, not the abysmal Stallone version. This really defines the term "hard boiled filmmaking", maybe not so obscure in the UK?

And.... thinking of Get Carter & it's theme of someone singlemindedly having to do something no matter what, I'm suddenly reminded of a real entertaining obscurity I stumbled across on late night tv 30+ years ago: "The Naked Prey".

Basically Cornel Wilde, a fading Hollywood romantic lead in the 50's, directed/starred in this film, shot entirely on location in (South?) Africa in the mid '60's: A boorish group of safari tourists insults a tribe, that in turn kills each member one by one in traditional very brutal fashion. The Wilde character, safari leader, had been more respectful than the others so the chief leaves him for last, strips him naked & gives him a running start before sending a hunting party to kill him. The rest of the movie is this chase between hunter & prey in Africa, very nicely done from what I remember, haven't seen it in a long while. I'm actually shocked no one has remade this little gem of the action genre, it is ideal for the "action leading man who takes off his shirt" genre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bQc_rZumOw

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True romance is great. Walken is God. ( not that i believe there is a god, but Walken would do).

The above mentioned scene with Hopper and Walken is a classic. Walken playing russian roulette in Deerhunter (shivers).

An old favorite of mine that might pass as obscure is "Bad lieutenant" from 1992. Directed by Abel Ferrara. Starring Harvey Keitel in maybe his best role ever. Great movie.

In recent years Alejandro González Iñárritus movies are my favorites. 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful ( ouch , this one is painfully depressing and for some reason didn't make it to cinemas in Thailand) and Amores perros.

DT, i agree about the new Sherlock Holmes movies. Boring.

But...best movie ever? Godfather 2. Hands down

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Some great movies mentioned here already I'm not too sure about obscurity but who cares ?

Godfather 1&2 , True Romance , A Bronx Tale , Deer Hunter , One Upon A Time in America, Taxi Driver ,Get Carter, are movies I've watched over and over again .... all classic's that would certainly make my top ten .

A few more ....

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Cool Hand Luke

The Wicker Man

Apocalypse Now

Blue Collar

Raging Bull

Chinatown

Casino

Five easy Pieces

City Of God

Cape Fear (Original)

Spartacus

The Night Of The Hunter

post-104-0-70946500-1342892873_thumb.jpg

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I don't recall if anyone's mentioned this one yet, but the Slim Man's mention of Casino jogged my memory.

I just watched Good Fellas on cable a couple of nights ago. Probably the 4th time I've watched it. Another minor classic from one of the masters of cinema. I'm looking to watch The Departed again as well, but can only find it on censored cable broadcasts lately. I'm sure it will turn up soon enough.

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U-turn was excellent,especially the scene at the end when Sean Penn looks skyward with that"FFS" look and says "Arizona!!!!!!!"

Once upon a time in America is a MUST watch(DeNiro's coffee stirring scene,and the kid waiting for the hooker,but decides to eat the cream cake for himself).

This is one of the better Brit-gangster movies

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119092/

Great track by Monkey,called "Subside"

Sorry to quote myself....but this is the movie trailer.You can watch the full movie on YouTube:

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