Pimp the unpimped!

[Liam]

Ok, so we all know how wonderful the Godfather Trilogy is, and that Shawshank Redemption is a wonderful movie. But what about the poor unpimped? What about the films that get lost in the shuffle?

Well, pimp them here!

....ok, basically this just stemmed from a conversation I was having last night. What films do you love that are either under the radar and get no love thusly, or that is big enough but usually gets a big steaming pile of apathy?

My choice based on watching Forrest Whitaker in the Shield Season Five for the past week......Ghost Dog (The Way Of The Samurai). I don't really know how big a deal it ever was, but it easily falls into one of my own favourite films (even though I forgot about it until recently ). Seemingly one of the first Film Four productions, Forrest Whitaker plays an urban assasin living the way of the samurai. It seems to have a cult following with generally good feeling towards it, but I think it, on the whole, got lost in the shuffle. Good performance, great film.

So what are yours?

[MalaCloudy Black]

AND it (Ghost Dog) has a RZA soundtrack.

I'm gonna go with a little known documentary called Overnight. It's a film about Troy Duffy - the man who wrote and directed The Boondock Saints - and his rise and fall from stardom. It's a quality documentary that really shows Duffy's true colours - throughout the film he's a total dickhead to his friends and family, growing increasingly jaded with Hollywood and by the end of the film

Spoiler: Click here to view

He's nearly run over at one of the premieres for The Boondock Saints, and while it's thought to have been an accident, Duffy interprets it as someone attempting to run him down. After that he locks himself up in his apartment with a slew of firearms and loses all contact with his friends and, for some time, the majority of the outside world.

It's a crazy good film.

[Gazz]

Dead Mans Shoes

An earlier film by 'This is England' director Shane Meadows, I picked it up on a whim out of a Blockbuster bargain bin for £1.

Great, gritty British revenge thriller with a really unexpected twist ending you never see coming.

[Vendetta]

Ghost Dog was fucking awesome. I saw it the other day on Showtime and I was like, what the fuck is this, so I started watching it was great.

Suicide Kings is an awesome movie with some great plot twists, and Christopher Walken.

[Steeb]

Dead Mans Shoes

An earlier film by 'This is England' director Shane Meadows, I picked it up on a whim out of a Blockbuster bargain bin for £1.

Great, gritty British revenge thriller with a really unexpected twist ending you never see coming.

[Gazz]

Dead Mans Shoes

An earlier film by 'This is England' director Shane Meadows, I picked it up on a whim out of a Blockbuster bargain bin for £1.

Great, gritty British revenge thriller with a really unexpected twist ending you never see coming.

Amazing and very strange film. Kudos on the taste.

For me, The Interpreter is very underrated. I really enjoy that film, gotta say.

Steeb,

Do we have the exact same taste in everything?

Pendulum, Milk Teeth tooth paste, Alexa Chung?

Lets Bond ({)

[DMN in the House]

Ghost Dog is a very good film.

I'm not sure how pimped it is, but its not pimped enough... The Deer Hunter, awesome movie.

[Mysterio2000X]

The Way of the Gun. It's the directorial debut of Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote The Usual Suspects, and stars Benicio del Toro, Ryan Phillipe, Taye Diggs, James Caan, Nicky Katt and Juliette Lewis. A decent story which is catapulted by some great performances, a good script and some of the best shoot outs since Heat. I got this out of a Wal-Mart bargain bin a few years ago for $5.. some of the best $5 I've ever spent.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It's new, I know, so it's hard to gauge what kind of reception this movie will have in the long run, but jesus christ, the lack of attention it's gotten this past year is just criminal. Andrew Dominik's sophomore film is a true masterpiece much in the vein of Terrence Malick, is just as good as the other masterpiece of last year, No Country, in some aspects, and worlds better in others and features what, in my opinion, was the single best performance from last year in Casey Affleck, who also starred in the under-the-radar film, Gone Baby, Gone. The fact that it only received two Academy Award nominations (cinematography and best supporting actor) and lost both is just heinously insane. And it's not like Casey Affleck is the only bright star in this movie, everybody else - Brad Pitt as Jesse James, Sam Rockwell as Robert Ford's brother, Mary-Louise Parker as Mrs. James, Sam Shepard as Jesse James's brother and Jeremy Renner as Jesse James's ill-fated cousin shine. They meet and, in some cases, exceed the expectations you would hope for from them and from a Western.

[Steeb]

Dead Mans Shoes

An earlier film by 'This is England' director Shane Meadows, I picked it up on a whim out of a Blockbuster bargain bin for £1.

Great, gritty British revenge thriller with a really unexpected twist ending you never see coming.

Amazing and very strange film. Kudos on the taste.

For me, The Interpreter is very underrated. I really enjoy that film, gotta say.

[VerbalPuke]

Ghost Dog is a very good film.

I'm not sure how pimped it is, but its not pimped enough... The Deer Hunter, awesome movie.

It is regarded as a classic, but it does seem that a lot of folks forget about it. It is a great flick by the way.

Chopper is an awesome flick from Australia about Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read. He was a criminal in the Australian underworld that killed or attacked many other criminals in the same region. The story is based on his life but isn't necessarily a true story, more of a "events based on a true story" sort of film. Eric Bana (or the guy that recently played the Incredible Hulk) does a fantastic job in his role as Chopper, getting his mannerisms and speech down perfectly. He's witty, charming, and completely sadistic.

[Hellfire]

Last Man Standing. It stars Bruce Willis as a hitman for hire in prohibition era America who shows up in the middle of a war between the Mob and the irish. Oh yea, and it has Christopher Walken show up halfway through and be awesome. Best movie ever.

[Typical Phenom]

I just wanna say I'm shocked, but pleasantly surprised, at the Ghost Dog love. I've been loaning out my copy for years trying to get others to enjoy it, good to see EWB already knows.

Edit: After rummaging through my DVD's, wanted to bring up Deep Cover as another unpimped movie that deserves more props.

Edited February 29, 2008 by Typical Phenom

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

The Proposition

A History Of Violence

Death To Smoochy

The Cooler

Intacto

Equilibrium

[Plubby]

Intacto is absolutely fantastic.

[ROC]

While I'm sure it has a high profile among the art-house fans on the site, you must see Once. Amazing film, and one that actually makes the musical idea very tolerable even to the most cynical. The acting isn't that great, but Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are great at managing to play normal everyday people who like to play music.

[DMN in the House]

Death to Smoochy is awesome.

[Quom]

I detest A History of Violence. It ot major art-house praise so I checked it out. I found nothing redemptive and the plot lacking. I then watched it with a different audience thinking that perhaps I just wasn't up for it the first time. I still hated it, so did everyone else that saw it (fairly wide range including people who only watch blockbusters as well as those into art-house). Lost in Translation was fairly similar for me though so it could just be that I'm a philistine.

[Toe]

I mean, it doesn't get more Canadian then that really.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I detest A History of Violence. It ot major art-house praise so I checked it out. I found nothing redemptive and the plot lacking. I then watched it with a different audience thinking that perhaps I just wasn't up for it the first time. I still hated it, so did everyone else that saw it (fairly wide range including people who only watch blockbusters as well as those into art-house). Lost in Translation was fairly similar for me though so it could just be that I'm a philistine.

Well I agree about Lost In Translation...I couldn't see what I was supposed to love.

[supergrass]

I enjoyed Lost In Translation, but I've always found it hard to explain what exactly about it keeps me watching - so I can understand those who just don't want to/can't sit through it.

I watched Adaptation and Punch Drunk Love over the last couple of nights. I'd imagine that these are by no means small time or unheard of films to the masses on here, however I still do not know a single person who has ever heard of either one. In light of that, and ss I enjoyed them both very much (the latter film making me see Adam Sandler in a completely different light), I thought I would give them some love in this thread.