Last week, in one of the discussions, the film
Ice Pirates came up. This was a silly but quite enjoyable film which never made it big and has all but been forgotten. Nevertheless, those of us who recalled the film had good things to say about it. Rather than discuss some weighty film topic today, why doesn’t everyone share some of their favorite forgotten films?!
80 comments:
Before Silence of the Lambs became a huge hit, there was Manhunter. Having read the novel by Thomas Harris, I must say that Brian Cox is more true to the character of Hannibal Lector. Also, this movie put Michael Mann on the map as a movie director, and not just another tv guy.
Excalibur by John Boorman. It and Conan the Barbarian are probably the best sword and sorcery flicks pre-Lord of the Rings. Excalibur was a decent sized hit back in the day, but I almost never hear anyone talk about it. Best of all, young Helen Mirren.
The Hollywood Knights- a coming of age teen comedy about a "car club" of teens whose drive-in hang-out is about to be closed and some of them are about to go their seperate ways- some to college, some to war.
The Man Who Knew Too Little. One of Bill Murry's best comedies, in which he is mistaken for a spy while on vacation in England.
Hell Comes to Frogtown. Everyone remembers Rowdy Roddy Piper for They Live, as well the should, but this post apocolyptic tale is pretty darn entertaining. Also includes a scantily clad Sandahl Bergman.
Starman by John Carpenter and staring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen. A heart-warming film about first contact.
My Chauffeur- A lot of familiar faces, a lot great lines and lots of fun. "All I need to find is a one legged nun walking a goat and I win".
Young Einstein- Yahoo Serious he makes the film a whole lot of fun.
Mannequin- It's one of my favorites, most of us who know the film can't stop laughing at Hollywood. One of the best gay performances by a straight man.
Treasure Planet- It killed Disney animation(for a time), but I thought it was one of their best.
Titan AE- Another film I enjoyed, it really reminded me of this one-
Starchaser: The Legend Of Orin- It did appear to take from Star Wars but it didn't disappoint. My favorite aspect of the film was all of the places it took one to, and it kept on story.
The Finale Countdown- Time traveling USS Enterprise from 1980 back to WWII on the eve of Pearl Harbor with Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen.
Time After Time- H.G. Wells builds a time machine and must pursue Jack the Ripper to modern San Francisco after the Ripper uses it to escape arrest. Good fish out of water romantic adventure with Malcom Mcdowell, David Warner, and Mary Steenburgen.
"How I Spent My Summer Vacation" 1967 starring a young Robert Wagner. TV movie impossible to find now. Coming of age plot smashup with humorous spy thriller.
"Listomania" Musical Biography featuring Vampire Richard Wagner vs Franz Liszt with a flame throwing piano. Yowsa!!
Metropolis - the Giorgio Moroder version. Brilliant silent Fritz Lang futurist movie set to a catchy disco sound track. Hated by film school professors everywhere.
Simon: Alan Arkin as a failed professor whose ego leads him to join an unscrupulous think tank. There he's brainwashed to think he's a space alien as a social science experiment. Hijinks ensue. Great Marshall Brickman satire of TV, academics and government science funding.
C Max: Yes, Treasure Planet was excellent. One of my favorites.
Titan AE:not so much.
Great topic! I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it myself. :-)
Into the Night - John Landis' first box-office bomb, after the success of Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and Trading Places (and the Twilight Zone disaster). It stars a young Jeff Goldblum and a younger Michelle Pfeiffer and tells the story of an insomniac who falls in with a model who has smuggled jewels from the Shah of Iran's treasury into the US. It's a weird little movie, with the usual Landis-style violence and gratuitous nudity and a ton of director cameos. David Bowie plays a hitman and Landis himself plays a member of the Shah's secret police (!).
Watch the trailer here.
Dick Tracy - I don't care what anyone says, I love this movie! It's beautiful to look at and has a very old-school "cops vs. robbers" thing going on. It managed to create this comic book world just before CGI made such things common.
Dragnet - Ah, the 80s, when Hollywood could still make an inconsequential "stupid" comedy but the final product would still be entertaining and quotable. I've said to Andrew that we don't seem to have middle-brow comedies anymore - everything's either a stupid parody or gross-out fest or an Apatow production. "Pagans!"
Airplane II: The Sequel - If you can forgive the Reagan jokes, this film is actually pretty funny. It was not directed by the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team but most of the same actors show up. It's a bit dated and not all the jokes work but it's worth it for Shatner.
I agree with The Final Countdown that was an excellent and totally forgotten film.
The Yakuza -- Directed by Sydney Pollack, Starring Robert Mitchum, Ken Takakura, Brian Keith. Featuring a very young Richard Jordan, and veteran character actor, Herb Edelman. I know I have mentioned it here before. This is the Samurai movie before the spate of Samurai movies.
It features a bloody battle for the climax and an very intense ending just before it lets you off the roller coaster.
ScottDS,
On Air Plane II: The Sequel I love the Shatner sequence.
"Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" - Springing from the superb "Batman: The Animated Series" TV show, "Phantasm" is the only animated film from DC Comics to be released to theaters. It came out in 1993, between "Batman Returns" (1992) and "Batman Forever" (1995), and did rather poorly thanks mainly to lousy marketing. Outside of rabid Batman enthusiasts like me, it's largely forgotten.
It's a great film with superb writing, acting, directing, music and storyline. Roger Ebert (before he lost his marbles) and the late (and much missed) Gene Siskel reviewed it after "Batman and Rubber Nipples" destroyed the first Batman movie franchise in 1997. Siskel and Ebert thought so highly of this film that they said "Phantasm" was the second-best of the five big screen Dark Knight films between 1989 and 1997, with Tim Burton's "Batman" being number 1.
"High Road to China" (1983) -- Not the greatest of movies by any stretch, but a fun one that was well-written, acted and filmed.
Tom Selleck stars as a drunken ex-WWI pilot named O’Malley who is hired by a rich socialite (Bess Armstrong) out to find her missing father before dad's former business partner steals his fortune.
Memorable character actors appeared here: Wilford Brimley as the father, Brian Blessed as the Afghan Kahn and Jack Weston as O’Malley's mechanic (Weston is probably best known as Max the resort owner in Dirty Dancing). Famed British stage and movie actor Robert Morley plays the chief bad guy to great comical effect. And Armstrong and Selleck played pretty well off each other.
The cinematography was gorgeous, as were the flying and dog-fighting sequences. The biplanes were flown as biplanes do, instead of twisting, turning and burning like modern fighters (like in the James Franco flick "Flyboys).
Can't Hardly Wait. IMO, the last of the great teen comedies.
Excellent lists folks! I'll be back later with more comments. Still feeling under the weather.
Andrew, it's not a computer virus, is it? Because I'm feeling under the weather now, too, and I think you gave it to me. ;-)
Thank you, Commander Max, for mentioning YOUNG EINSTEIN. I loved that movie as a kid, it was a great but stupid comedy, like HUDSON HAWK was for me.
ERIK
Andrew: Dude, you shouldn't have watched the DNC. There was a wave of virulent and contagious memes just spewing from the TV till I shut it down and mentally disinfected.
Caveman- 1981. Ringo Starr, Dennis Quaid, Shelly Long, John Matuszac, Barbara Bach, Richard Moll.
Hilarious! And only a few words throughout the entire film (literally).
Directed by Carl Gottlieb.
Hope you feel better soon, Andrew.
Big Mo, I loved High Road To China! Also, Her Alibi, 1989, another Selleck film and his funniest, IMO.
This is fairly new, but Adopt a Sailor (2008), with Bebe Neuwirth (Cheers, Frasier), Peter Coyote, and Ethan Peck is a gem of a short film.
tryanmax, If it is a computer virus, then my virus scan didn't pick it up. But I certainly did. :(
K, I didn't watch. I couldn't take it.
Thanks Ben!
MURDER, HE SAYS (1945) Fun comedy of pollster Fred MacMurray, who goes to a rural community looking for his missing predecessor, and gets tangled up with a feared clan of local yokels, The Fleagles, headed by whip-weilding matriarch Marjorie Main. Plays like Li'l Abner/The Beverly Hillbillies by way of Charles Addams, directed by George Marshall (THE GHOST BREAKERS, DESTRY RIDES AGAIN).
SAILOR OF THE KING (1953) Royal Navy signalman Jeffrey Hunter (THE SEARCHERS) is captured after his cruiser is sunk, and is held on a damaged Nazi warship. Stopping at a deserted island for repairs, he escapes, and wages a one-man war on the crew, until British forces can hopefully find them.
SANDS OF THE KALAHARI (1965) Excellent adventure-drama, in which a cargo plane with passengers hits a cloud of locusts and crashes in the middle of the Kalahari desert. The survivors manage to find a rocky oasis inhabited by baboons, and try to find a way out of their situation, as danger grows from within their ranks. Stars Stanley Baker, Susannah York, Stuart Whitman, Nigel Davenport and Theodore Bikel. From Cy Endfield, the director of the previous year's classic epic, ZULU, and Ray Harryhausen's adaptation of Jules Verne's MYSTERIOUS ISLAND.
THE OUTFIT (1973) Neo-noirish goodness as career thief Robert Duvall is released from a prison stretch, and schemes to destroy the mob organization (headed by Robert Ryan) that killed his brother. He's aided by his girlfriend (Karen Black) and his old partner (Joe Don Baker, in good form).
SKY RIDERS (1976) After the police fail, mercenary James Coburn leads a group of hang-gliding experts in a mission to rescue the wife (who's also *his* ex-wife) and children of a high-profile industrialist (Robert Culp), who've been kidnapped and held in a mountain-top retreat (Meteora, the same location as the action climax in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, made 5 years later) by a vicious gang of Left-wing terrorists (proto OWS types, though with a knowledge of firearms) in Greece.
THE SILENT PARTNER (1976) Bank teller Elliott Gould ends up in a battle of wits with an intelligent, psychotic thief (Christopher Plummer) when Gould short-changes him in a Christmastime robbery. One of Gould's co-workers at the bank is John Candy, in a small role.
USED CARS (1980) Great, pre-BACK TO THE FUTURE comedy by the team of Zemeckis & Gale, in which aspiring politician Kurt Russell works for used car dealer Jack Warden, and uses every trick in the book against their main rival, Warden's unscrupulous twin brother.
QUEST FOR FIRE (1981) Good attempt at a realistic caveman movie, starring Everett McGill, Ron Perlman and Rae Dawn Chong, only marred (in my opinion) by a brief scene where our troglodyte heroes somewhat-lamely avoid being attacked by mammoth. Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud (ENEMY AT THE GATES, THE NAME OF THE ROSE, THE BEAR).
MR. VAMPIRE (1985) Super-fun comedy/horror film, in which a Buddhist priest and his two goofy disciples must stop a formidable, Chinese-style 'hopping vampire' (or 'hopping ghost') that's on the loose, while one of the disciples is being seduced by a cunning female ghost on the side. Lots of great physical humor and some good gags, I put this in the same league as ABBOTT & COSTELLO VS FRANKENSTEIN.
THE HIDDEN (1987) An alien criminal reaches earth, inhabiting several human hosts, and proceeds to raise hell, for kicks, while an alien policeman similarly inhabits an FBI agent (Kyle MacLaughlan) and teams with an unknowing L.A. cop (Michael Nouri) in pursuit. A high-octane, over-acheiving B-movie that held its own at the time, and eats the lunch of most of its modern counterparts.
SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE (1996) A 10-year high school reunion brings together a group of John Hughes-era Chicagoans for a night of fun, misery and embarassment. A pre-anorexic, pre-plastic surgery Lara Flynn Boyle steals the show as a psychotic prankster. The film also features a number of fun cameos, and what happens to political comedy hack Jon Stewart, in one of the cameo bits, is worth the price of admission.
DINNER RUSH (2000) An actual *good* indie film, depicting a large ensemble cast in the crime-tinged story of a night in the life of a popular Italian restaurant in New York City, run by former bookie, Danny Aeillo. Lots of little sub-plots going on, but it all works as a satisfying, cohesive whole. Director Bob Giraldi is better known for rock videos (Michael Jackson's 'Beat It', Pat Benatar's 'Love Is a Battlefield', etc), TV commercials (the Miller Lite 'Tastes Great - Less Filling' campaign) and the Jon Cryer flick, HIDING OUT, but is also a restaurant owner in real life, and the film was shot at his place. So well done, even having Sandra Bernhard as a minor supporting player can't derail it.
Backthrow -
Good call on Used Cars! This may have come up before but if you're a fan of the film, you owe it to yourself to listen to the DVD commentary, with Zemeckis, Russell, and Gale. It might be one of the funniest things I've ever heard. :-)
And the gag with Gerrit Graham walking backwards on the road missing a car by inches still freaks me out.
I like Capricorn One and Top Secret.
Good call on Used Cars too.
Lots of great forgotten flicks here. I'll have to check out the channels on my Roku to see if any have them (or look on YouTube, Google video, etc etc.).
I like John Carpenter's original "The Fog."
Cutter's Way was a late 70's to early 80's Jeff Bridges film. It's not that it was all that good, but the way the protagonists solved the problems was a really nice twist.
Oops, just noticed two especially bad typos in my posts:
1.) THE SILENT PARTNER is from 1979, not 1976.
2.) It is, of course, ABBOTT & COSTELLO *MEET* FRANKENSTEIN, not 'VS' FRANKENSTEIN. To make things clear, the beloved A&C film is, overall, better crafted as a film, but I think MR. VAMPIRE brings an equal amount of slapstick fun, though more acrobatic.
An idea for another thread like this: Films you wish WERE forgotten. (Though I expect such a thread to have hundreds of candidates.)
Joel, The Yakuza is fabulous!
I'd say mine are
Thank God It's Friday with Jeff Goldblum and Debra Winger in early roles.
Stingray with Christopher Mitchum.
Doc Savage: Man of Bronze. Super silly, but fun.
Cry Danger. Dick Powell noir.
Hmmmm. How about Disney's The Great Mouse Detective? Sometime in the '80s, kind of the "dark period" of Disney production, but hey, I really liked it.
Three more, from the 1980s:
ROAD GAMES (1981) A really neat little thriller, starring Stacy Keach as a trucker driving his rig through Australia with his dog, who picks up hitch-hiking Jamie Lee Curtis along the way, while a killer is loose in the area. Mistakenly sold as both a slasher film and a ROAD WARRIOR-type action flick, it's actually more a Hitchcockian exercise in suspense, sort of a REAR WINDOW on wheels. Director Richard Franklin was a disciple of Hitchcock, and his work here subsequently scored him the directing gig on PSYCHO II.
REAL GENIUS (1985) The belated science-nerd version of ANIMAL HOUSE, starring Val Kilmer, back when he was still young and full of promise. William Atherton plays his patented authoritarian jerk figure, perfected in GHOSTBUSTERS (that'd make a fun little film festival theme; back-to-back GHOSTBUSTERS, REAL GENIUS and DIE HARD... lol!). Of course, since this was mid-1980s Hollywood, there's an anti-Reagan's 'Star Wars' theme in the background, but that's mostly left with Atherton.
MIRACLE MILE (1989) A meet-cute love story becomes a doomsday thriller, starring Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham, when Edwards picks up a wrong-number call on an L.A. diner's pay phone from someone claiming to be in a missile commander center, telling him that WWIII has secretly just ignited. Another film with an undercurrent of "Reagan/Bush's gonna blow us all up!', but wisely keeps the politics out of the way of exciting pre-apocalyptic mayhem. This is what a true 'TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE' would be like, if done right.
"Real Genius" was a great flick.
Black Robe.
Man, I hope Andrew's okay...
ScyFyterry - I almost mentioned Top Secret! but then I thought to myself, "Nah, that movie has fans. It's not forgotten!" Maybe I was wrong, but I'm a big fan of that film as well. It still has one of my favorite saloon fights, even if the film takes place during WW2 and the fight is underwater.
I've listened to the DVD commentary and Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker come across as a bit disappointed in the film.
Good call on Capricorn One, too. I read it was getting the remake treatment but that was a few years ago and it obviously hasn't happened.
Backthrow and Ed -
I've only seen Real Genius once and I think this is a situation I need to rectify. It's been a while and I've literally never read a bad thing about it. :-)
I'm alive Scott, I just don't have a ton of energy right now.
I've got some more... they're not necessarily favorites, though.
The Twelve Chairs, which was Mel Brooks' film after The Producers. It's an interesting movie and it's obvious Mel is still getting his directing sea legs but it's worth watching. Dom DeLuise is pretty funny in it and Frank Langella is always fascinating to watch.
Twilight's Last Gleaming, starring Burt Lancaster, Charles Durning, Paul Winfield, and many other familiar faces. To paraphrase the IMDb summar: "A renegade USAF general escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana and threatens to provoke WW3 unless the President reveals details of a secret meeting held just after the start of the Vietnam War."
I don't know how some of you folks would respond to it but it's worth watching. It's making its DVD/BR debut in the next month or so, after having been nearly buried by the studio.
Love Happy - this was the last "official" Marx Brothers film though it started out as a solo Harpo movie. It's a cute movie about a theater troupe in dire straights and some stolen jewels. Marilyn Monroe made her debut in this film and it's worth it for a climactic chase along the rooftops of Times Square.
Ah, good. Just checking!
Here's one, by the way, Three O'Clock High.
Andrew, I saw that movie once a while ago and I thought it was very good! It was nice to see a comedy, especially an 80s teen comedy, you know, with direction! There were actually good-looking shots and interesting ideas... and as someone who was made fun of in school, it scared the shit out of me!
I also love the principal's name: Voytek Dolinsky. (I may have misspelled the last name). :-)
Scott, It's a dark comedy, but still a good one. I love the book report. LOL!
Dark comedy is a difficult genre to pull off. I like one as much as the next person but I have a problem when they cross over into mean-spiritedness. Maybe it's a thin line but I look at something like Dr. Strangelove and, sure, the world blows up at the end, but it's not mean-spirited.
On the other hand, I made the mistake of watching Seth Rogen in Observe & Report a year or two ago... what a POS movie. It was dark but they forgot the "comedy" part.
Mother, Jugs and Speed. DC Cab. What's Up Doc? I saw Simon in the theatre when it came out. Richard Lester's versions of The Three (and Four) Musketeers. Top Secret I had on VHS. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. The Great Mouse Detective was wonderful (the first 50 or so times - my boys loved it). Big Trouble in Little China. Lords of Flatbush / Hollywood Knights. UHF. The Last Remake of Beau Geste.
Scott, Dark comedy is really difficult and few have pulled it off. It's a very hard balance to strike More often than not, it's just ends up dark and unpleasant.
Big Trouble In Little China, fun film!
Someone mentioned Manhunter above... great flick. I also recommend Mann's first film "Thief" with James Caan. Great film.
Sticking with James Caan I always liked Alien Nation -- maybe I was partial to the Dallas Cowboys T-shirt.
I cannot recommend John Frankenheimer's "Seconds" with Rock Hudson from 1966. Hudson is excellent in it as a man who wants a fresh start and uses an unorthodox method. He has one of the most chilling scenes ever in it.
Seven Days in May too. It often gets lost in the glow of The Manchurian Candidate, but is prime tin-foil hat paranoia.
Sticking with Kurt Douglas I offer Kubrick's Paths of Glory from 1957. An anti-war film done right... not preachy just well acted and directed.
Of more recent vintage I have two I love to recommend to friends ... OK three...
"Once" with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Whatever issues I've ever had with Nolte pale in comparison to the gratitude I feel towards him for turning me on to this movie.
Bottle Shock with Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, and Bill Pullman about the CA wine industry going up against the French big boys.
And Emilio Estevez's movie "The Way" from 2010. I saw this on Netflix a month or so ago and I was blown away. Maybe a tad overlong, but what a labor of love and Martin Sheen was great as the grieving father trying to understand his dead son walking the pilgrim's walk through Spain.
OK fine... Moon, In Bruges and from 2001 Bill Paxton's film "Frailty" about a serial killer.
I should say about Frankenheimer's "Seconds"... "recommend it enough..." See it. You won't regret it.
Here's a few I can think of:
Island of Lost Souls (1932). People probably remember the 1996 Island of Dr. Moreau with Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer that turned out to be a messy production. This was a much earlier production of H.G. Wells' story, and it is ten times scarier than the 1996 movie, by far.
When Worlds Collide (1951). Earth is on a collision course with a rogue planet. I think this is a more dramatically satisifying flick than Deep Impact, the movie it inspired, plus the effects are still pretty good.
Pinocchio and the Emperor of The Night (1987). I know a lot of people don't know this one. This was an animated movie made by Filmation, the folks that gave us the animated Star Trek series, and of course, He-Man. :) In the 1980s, Filmation wanted to do animated "sequels" to Disney films of classic fairy tales and this was one of two they managed to make. While the animation is hardly up to par with Disney's 1940 Pinocchio, I still liked this one a lot. The visuals were creative, and the ending featuring the titular Emperor of the Night and the boat was thrilling.
Space Raiders (1983). Okay, this movie is a hoot because it just shows how much Roger Corman will reuse and recycle to make a cheap flick. He earlier made a movie called Battle Beyond the Stars, a John Sayles-written movie that adapted the Seven Samurai in outer space, and featured special effects from a then-unknown James Cameron and a score by a then-unknown James Horner. So...Corman decides to reuse the effects and the score in another movie, this one featuring Vince Edwards as the leader of a band of space pirates who end up with a 10-year old boy in their care and try and get him home. Movie also features Thom Christopher (Hawk in Buck Rogers), and a guest appearance by Dick Miller as "Crazy Mel." Overall, this is a campy B-movie, probably only slightly better than you'd see on MST3K, but it's fun.
Warriors of the Wind (1980s). The first effort by America to dub Hayao Miyazaki, in this case, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The end result was a heavily edited movie that lost a lot of the original story, Nausicaä became "Princess Zandra" and sounded like Rocky from Rocky and Bullwinkle. Miyazaki was so displeased that he demanded a "no edits" clause for future American releases of his films. The WOTW version is also noted for having box art that features characters that don't even appear in the movie.
The Relic (1996). Big monster runs loose in a museum. LOVE this one! One of the better Alien/Thing-type flicks out there.
The Golden Child (1986). Someone mentioned Big Trouble in Little China. This similar-themed movie came out the same year, starring Eddie Murphy. This movie doesn't get mentioned much anymore, which is a shame, because it's quite funny, and gets a lot of comedy out of Murphy's reaction to all the mysticism going on around him.
Flight of the Navigator (1986). It's a kiddie sci-fi flick, but the first half is gripping in its mystery and the second half is a lot of fun. Alan Silverstri turns in a really good score. And the alien spaceship is voiced by none other than...Pee Wee Herman!
I frankly have no plans to watch any version of Wells' Island of Dr. Moreau. That is just way too many kinds of creepy for me.
On an entirely unrelated note (well, I guess the creepy thing is kind of a tie-in), anybody watching the DNC tonight? Because I'm not. Dallas is beating the Giants by only four points, so I'm not even gonna pretend about that.
Love Flight of the Navigator... in a similar vein I recommend The Last Starfighter and Jon Favreaus's Zathura
Also October Sky which I think has gained a following since it's release in the late 1990s.
Ditto Dark City
Floyd, Dark City is one of my favorite films.
Thanks to everyone who commented, by the way, and sorry for the lack of responses by me. I'm just not up to it today.
I was just talking to a friend this past weekend about Flight of the Navigator. I remember stumbling across it one day back when Disney had their free preview weekends. My brother and I ended up watching the whole thing.
There's a great sense of awe and mystery in this film and the spaceship effects were pretty good!
I'm surprised they haven't remade it yet. (Knock on wood.)
I made notes of the movies listed above I haven't seen to check them out. A few more of my favs not yet listed:
5000 Fingers of Dr. T
Surreal 50s musical written by Dr. Seuss and starring Hans Conried. A decade (or two) before it's time.
Batteries Not Included
Hume Cronyn.
Buckaroo Banzai
No matter where you go, there you are.
Champagne for Caesar
Super intellect Ronald Colman decides to break loopy CEO Vincent Price with his own game show.
People Will Talk
Unusual dramatic Cary Grant and Hume Cronyn movie dealing with professional jealousy and unwed motherhood.
The Forbin Project
The original computer takes over world movie
Point Blank
Lee Marvin 60s noir. Bit dated with 60s editing but still fun mainly because of Marvin's very understated performance. Violence was shocking at the time but now looks pretty tame.
A New Leaf
Elaine May directed and starred with Walter Matthau. Great romantic comedy about a wealthy playboy who loses his money and decides to marry an heiress and then murder her. This movie is not available except as pirates. If you haven't seen it, find it and watch it. Some used VHS tapes may be available.
ADD: Just noticed that "A New Leaf" can be downloaded from Amazon and is available on Blu Ray. I'll have to pick one up ASAP.
2 more that are hard to find.
Cast a Deadly Spell. Fred Ward plays private detective Harry P. Lovecraft in a film noir style alternate reality Earth in which magic is real. Only available on VHS.
Mr. Frost. Jeff Goldblum plays a mass murderer who turns himself into the cops, and while being evaluated for his sanity, tries to convince the psychotherapist that he is the devil come to Earth to prove that he really exists. On VHS and region 2 dvd.
7 Faces of Dr Lao(1964)
Tony Randall plays Dr Lao who brings a travelling circus to a western town.
Goonies!
Jason - "When Worlds Collide" is one of my favorite sci fi flicks from the '50s. I wonder, though: Is it really a forgotten film? (Or am I only questioning it because it's one of my favorites? :) :)
I've only heard of a couple of these - which was the point, I know...
Batteries Not Included was great! I haven't seen that in AGES! My dad had the VHS; maybe mom still has it...hmmm
Also liked Mannequin...
I can't think of any to add to the list. But "Big Jake" was on AMC this weekend - I had forgotten how much I liked that movie!
OH! "Jumping Jack Flash" - totally goofy, but I actually really liked Whoopi's character in this... and her trying to figure out the lyrics is hysterical. Every time the song comes on the classic rock station, I think of the movie...
I've never seen Batteries Not Included... I should check it out one day. It's one of the few 80s Spielberg productions I still haven't seen.
Mannequin is worth watching for James Spader and his bizarre mannerisms. Seriously, someone even put together a musical montage!
BIG MO: I don't know how forgotten it is. I know that it's not talked about much, although rumor had it Spielberg was going to produce a remake.
In no particular order:
Vibes - Cindy Lauper and Jeff Goldblum as psychics hired by Peter Faulk to find his lost son in South America turns into a search for the City of Gold.
Undercover Blues - Dennis Quaid and Kathleen Turner as former spies turned new parents brought out of retirement to catch an ex-KGB Fiona Shaw. You have to watch this just for Stanley Tucci as "Morty".
Father Goose - Cary Grant as non-suave drunken noncombatant drafted into being a plane spotter for the British Navy in WWII. Bribed with whiskey to cooperate until he's sent to rescue Leslie Caron and a group of teenage schoolgirls.
The Court Jester - Danny Kaye, Basil Rathbone, Angela Landsbury and Glynnis Johns in a humorous Robin Hood parody. "The pellet of poison's in the vessel with the pestle..."
Heartbreak Hotel - David Keith is Elvis Presley, burned out playing the same old songs and wanting to rock, but worried about losing his fans. He's kidnapped by a group of teenagers to cheer up one of their moms and regains contact with his roots.
Frequency - Jim Caviezel is able to contact his dead father, Dennis Quaid, 20 years in the past due to sunspots and attempts to change his future.
How about Captain Ron? I haven't seen it in awhile, but I remember a good solid comedy with plenty of heart.
Scott, RE Batteries Not Included, you're missing out, man!
Mycroft: The Court Jester is awesome!! "the flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true"!!
RE: Father Goose - I do not like Leslie Caron. I have not liked her in anything I have ever seen her in. I adore Cary Grant - and liked him as the grumpy drunk in this one, but her - nope.
Into the Night is a quirky, but thoroughly fun film. I watch it every time it is on!
A BIG THANK YOU to Backthrow for giving me the name of a movie I had seen originally in the theater, but couldn't remember the name: Sky Riders. I really liked that movie.
How about Duel with Dennis Weaver? I usually had to be in bed at a certain time, but whenever that came on my parents would let me stay up to see it. It was pretty intense.
Into the Night is one of my all-time favs! Love that film.
Let me through out another one I like a lot -- Doctor Detroit. That's a Dan Akyroyd film that is all but forgotten and I enjoy it a lot.
Jim and Retro, I don't actually know Into the Night, I'll have to look for it.
Andrew -
I mentioned Into the Night about 50 comments ago. It's an interesting movie... a bit slow-paced, and not laugh-out-loud funny like some of John Landis' other work.
The trailer is here.
It's got an eclectic cast and, per usual for Landis, many director cameos and inside jokes. And it probably wouldn't be made today, what with some of the political undertones. Hell, Landis himself plays a member of the SAVAK (the Shah's secret police) and the group is portrayed like the Keystone Kops.
Highwayman with Jim Caviezel was pretty good...Colm Feore, and Rhona Mitra were in it as well.
I need to check this site every day. i am always late to the party...
A big YES to these aformentioned forgotten films:
Colossus - The Forbin Project
Treasure Planet
Titan A.E.
The Relic
whitsbrain, Fortunately, people do watch the old articles for comments because a lot of people subscribe to the comments so they get them by e-mail.
The Forbin Project was an excellent film!
Voz, I must admit I don't know that one.
Okay, time to add a few of my own...
The Changeling(1980)- A very good and often scary movie starring George C. Scott. If you like haunted house stories, this is a MUST see. I really love the score, too.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow(1981)- This originally aired on CBS and I think it may be the most entertaining Made-for-TV movie I've seen. Corny fun with some over-the-top, disturbing characters. Charles Durning's Mailman is pure evil.
Patterns(1956)- I shouldn't have been surprised by how good "Patterns" was. After loving nearly everything Rod Serling has ever written, how this totally pulled me in shouldn't have been unexpected. This is very tense and really had me understanding the internal tug-of-war that Fred Staples was having between a man he respected and another man whom he detested that had the capacity to challenge and reward him. The ending was very satisfying. I did not expect things to turn out the way they did.
Identity(2008)- This is an exciting horror flick with many tense, even shocking moments. Jon Cusack's character is an everyday hero, so cool and calm under pressure that you know something is not quite as it appears. There really were a lot of twists and turns here. Many fans of shows like the Twilight Zone may really enjoy this. The ending was sort of a letdown when compared to the rest of the film.
4-D Man(1959)- Robert Lansing is a scientist who can walk through walls (and everything else) in this very good and quite different Sci-Fi B-movie. The brash jazzy score seems hopelessly out of place until later in the movie when Lansing's character is on the run from the law. The music then gives it a classic, gritty crime drama atmosphere. The special effects, which involve Lansing reaching through solid objects and walking through doors and walls, is convincing enough. Lansing's transformation from a brilliant, mild-mannered scientist to deranged killer is very harsh. His fall from grace is fast and hard as he almost immediately turns to the darker benefits of his newly acquired power. Fellow scientists played by Lee Meriwether and James Congdon also sell the remarkable story because they realize that they can't "cure" Lansing's character and join the fight to destroy him. I really liked the ending, too.
whitsbrain, I'm still not sure what to make of Identity! I agree about the ending being a letdown and that kind of undid the movie for me, but up to that point it was quite an interesting movie.
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