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For me, it has to be Zero Effect. Still my favorite movie of all time, even despite the fact that Ben Stiller's heavily featured.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero_effect/

Drive.

Just don't watch the "this is a super super high octane action movie like the Fast and the Furious" trailers. It isn't. It's good instead.

The Ninth Gate; http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ninth-Gate- ... 00005AYET/

"The horror of a Roman Polanski picture is not about spectacle and shock but a goose-pimply sense of evil lurking just outside the frame and hidden behind the faces of slightly unsettling characters. Here, a calm, almost sleepy Johnny Depp plays cynical, unscrupulous rare-book hunter Dean Corso, who's hired by demonologist Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) to authenticate a rare volume that, legend has it, was co-written by Lucifer himself."

Under-appreciated bastardisation of The Club Dumas, which although substantially the same material is a very different story. Atmospheric, decent score, not in-your-face horror.

White of the Eye.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_of_t ... %28film%29

Super-underrated thriller from Donald Cammell. Sadly hard to find on DVD. Probably the greatest film next to nobody's seen, not least because it's genuinely enjoyable and well-made rather than OTT cultish genre sludge.

Honourable underrated mentions: Angel Heart; Juggernaut; The Stunt Man; Robin & Marian.

Halfshell wrote:Drive.

Just don't watch the "this is a super super high octane action movie like the Fast and the Furious" trailers. It isn't. It's good instead.

Rats. i was going to recommend this!

I shall recommend Ghost World instead. Which is awesome. And has Thora Birch in it, whom is all kinds of awesome. Oh, and some lady called Scarlett Johanssen. Its about friendship and stuff and leaving school, but isn't a lame comedy effort as it based on Daniel Clowes excellent comic book of the same name.

Save the Green Planet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_the_Green_Planet!

Absolutely mental, and I still don't quite get what I love about it. Weird Korean film about a man who kidnaps a businessman he thinks is an alien prince.

The Quiet Earth. Kiwi end of the world thriller where a man wakes up one day to find everyone else has vanished. Really great small scale film with an... interesting ending I can never quite decide on.

Lone Star State of Mind
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lone_st ... e_of_mind/

Very funny film about a guy and his girl, and the girl's bumbling cousin who must be saved from a drug lord who he accidently robbed.

Halfshell wrote:Drive.

Just don't watch the "this is a super super high octane action movie like the Fast and the Furious" trailers. It isn't. It's good instead.

This.

Because I have to set through an ungodly amount of romcoms and teen comediy type things, I can recommend the following (if you must):

Easy A - Bloody hell Emma Stone is very pretty isn't she? Anyway, its about how a small lie done as a favour for a friend spirals out of control before everyone learns their lesson and all is well again.

Sydney White - its Snow White and The Seven Dwarves done at a high school campus. Its really goofy, but seems to know it. the leads are all likeable i wont want to make you gouge your eyes out with a spoon. In a word: perky fun.

Drop Dead Gorgeous. Insanely good black comedy from 1999 with ace performances from everyone. I wish there were more stuff like this than say, your Austin Powers/Adam Sandler/Scary Movie 'completely-missing-the-point' crap.

Auntie Slag wrote:Drop Dead Gorgeous. Insanely good black comedy from 1999

Mmm, good pick. Occasionally you stumble across something wacky on TV* that probably vanished without a trace in cinemas, not attached to any kind of series or sequel chain, but is just good throwaway fun. The Convent is kind of in this vein, though probably more of a teen thing.

*Past tense, personally. Following recommendations accounts for more introductions these days, unless it's something someone else was watching on TV.

ZARDOZ

Sean Connery wanted a movie role that would help him get away from being typecast as James Bond - and boy, did it work.

Finally found an answer to this. Sucker Punch. Another one which is totally misrepresented in the DVD cover and promotional materials.

Thank you! I found it to be a great (and deeply disturbing, when you actually think about it) movie that was full of eye-candy but had some real depth to it too. Now that I've found at least one other person who agrees with me, I can feel snobbish instead of wrong. And the fact that you're European gives me extra snobbability points here in South Dakota.

I liked Sucker Punch. It's a decent little film. Kind of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest for the videogame generation.

I've watched Harry Brown, a great little low budget brit flick starring Michael Caine. He's a pensioner whom takes on the grotty little scabs on the run down tower block estate he lives on after they kill his friend.

I also bought Dredd and loved it. Okay, it's unfortunate that it does exactly the same thing as 'The Raid', but Alex Garland and chums have got the spirit and the feel of the character spot on. I liked that the relatively small budget meant they were more creative with moving Dredd's world closer to our time to create a properly grim believable world. This is probably what the future will look like - I like that the technology in this world feels real and isn't so far removed from what we have now. It's much better than the fanciful guff you get in stuff like this. Karl Urban is great as Dredd and Olivia Thirlby is superb as Anderson. Definately a film that deserves a wider audience...and has the same sort of grit that Robocop (which bears more than a passing similarity to Judge Dredd). Good stuff

I'm looking forward to seeing Dredd when I get the chance. Watching RED the other week has convinced me I'll enjoy Urban as Dredd.

I feel like calling Sucker Punch "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the videogame generation" does it something of a disservice, though I absolutely see where you're coming from. They're both based more or less in a corrupt asylum with a protagonist seeking freedom

SPOILER! (select to read)

and the character set free by the protagonist's sacrifice

, but a lot the thematic aspects are very different, the gender politics at play and the questions raised about what is real create a very different feel to the film. That said, it's a much more fair comparison than Inception, which is the obvious go to.

It's absolutely a deeply disturbing film, which is why it caught me off guard. The title in Japan is Angel Wars, so I was expecting some more akin to Tank Girl. Did not expect a contender for my top 10 movies. I feel half sorry for and half envious of anyone who can watch that movie and walk away thinking "eye candy".

Oh, and Sucker Punch is miles better than Inception, despite Inception being the slicker, more stylish of the two.

I liked Inception a lot, but I think they missed out on a huge opportunity. The whole thing where Juno could build and bend things on the fly never came into play in their real mission. I wanted her to make a desperate last ditch effort that involved moving the entire world, but it never really happened.

I liked it a lot too, it may have just been the overhyping that held it back. It wasn't nearly as clever as it seemed to set out to be. Wonderful stylish action suspense though.

Hard Candy. A dark little film about what should happen to all child molesters. The operation scene will make you cringe, which is a surprise as the film is completely gore-free.