Surprising standouts
by JetFred | created - 9 months ago | updated - 1 month ago | PublicI should probably just call this list "almost a favorite." Each film here turned out to be better than it looked to me. A few were on my radar for a long time before I finally watched them, and I wished I hadn't waited. A few looked like they were made for mainstream and wouldn't be my style or not what I wanted, but whoa. A handful were obviously going to be praised, but most seemed like they'd be mediocre or bad and then won me over immediately. Some were never popular with critics, but I must be exactly the audience they were going for. These haven't quite risen to or stayed at the top in my massive collection, but they deserve more than "honorable mention."
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1. Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
R | 92 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
High-level demons collect low-level demons as warriors in attempt to obtain a key containing the blood of Christ. The key is guarded by immortal warriors called Demon Knights.
Director: Ernest R. Dickerson | Stars: Billy Zane, William Sadler, Jada Pinkett Smith, Brenda Bakke
Votes: 26,319 | Gross: $21.09M
2. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs and rock n' roll.
Director: Amy Heckerling | Stars: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Robert Romanus
Votes: 115,806 | Gross: $27.09M
3. Alice in Wonderland (1966 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 72 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A girl named Alice falls down a rabbit-hole and wanders into the strange Wonderland.
Director: Jonathan Miller | Stars: Anne-Marie Mallik, Freda Dowie, Jo Maxwell Muller, Wilfrid Brambell
Votes: 978
4. Masterminds (2015)
PG-13 | 95 min | Biography, Comedy, Crime
A guard at an armored car company in the Southern U.S. organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history. Based on the October 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery.
Director: Jared Hess | Stars: Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Ross Kimball
Votes: 59,466 | Gross: $17.37M
5. The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972)
101 min | Drama, Sport
Goalkeeper Josef Bloch is ejected during a game for foul play. He leaves the field and goes to spend the night with a cinema cashier.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Arthur Brauss, Kai Fischer, Erika Pluhar, Libgart Schwarz
Votes: 2,259
6. Toys (1992)
PG-13 | 118 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
When Lieutenant General Leland Zevo (Sir Michael Gambon) inherits a toymaking company and begins making war toys, his employees band together to stop him before he ruins the name of Zevo Toys forever.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, Joan Cusack, Robin Wright
Votes: 33,639 | Gross: $21.45M
7. Suspiria (1977)
R | 92 min | Horror
An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé
Votes: 105,484
8. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)
TV-PG | 42 min | Short, Comedy, Musical
An aspiring supervillain must balance his career and his pursuit of a beautiful do-gooder.
Stars: Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, Simon Helberg
Votes: 44,245
9. Side Effects (I) (2013)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A young woman's world unravels when a drug prescribed by her psychiatrist has unexpected side effects.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Votes: 197,168 | Gross: $32.17M
10. Candyman (1992)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 100,185 | Gross: $25.79M
11. Children of Men (2006)
R | 109 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine
Votes: 529,552 | Gross: $35.55M
12. Bernie (2011)
PG-13 | 104 min | Biography, Comedy, Crime
In small-town Texas, an affable mortician strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow, though when she starts to become controlling, he goes to great lengths to separate himself from her grasp.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey, Brady Coleman
Votes: 63,471 | Gross: $9.20M
13. Drive (I) (2011)
R | 100 min | Action, Drama
A mysterious Hollywood action film stuntman gets in trouble with gangsters when he tries to help his neighbor's husband rob a pawn shop while serving as his getaway driver.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks
Votes: 704,744 | Gross: $35.06M
14. Young Guns (1988)
R | 107 min | Action, Drama, Western
A group of young gunmen, led by Billy the Kid, become deputies to avenge the murder of the rancher who became their benefactor. But when Billy takes their authority too far, they become the hunted.
Director: Christopher Cain | Stars: Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen
Votes: 68,074 | Gross: $45.66M
15. 300 (2006)
R | 117 min | Action, Drama
In the ancient battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fight against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. They face insurmountable odds when they are betrayed by a Spartan reject.
Director: Zack Snyder | Stars: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West
Votes: 864,583 | Gross: $210.61M
16. Pi (1998)
R | 84 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Pamela Hart
Votes: 186,485 | Gross: $3.22M
17. Drag Me to Hell (2009)
PG-13 | 99 min | Horror
A loan officer who evicts an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Ruth Livier, Lorna Raver
Votes: 217,553 | Gross: $42.10M
18. The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
PG | 109 min | Adventure, Comedy
A comic allegory about a traveling Bushman who encounters modern civilization and its stranger aspects, including a clumsy scientist and a band of revolutionaries.
Director: Jamie Uys | Stars: N!xau, Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo, Louw Verwey
Votes: 59,468 | Gross: $30.03M
19. Glory (1989)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 144,493 | Gross: $26.83M
20. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
R | 161 min | Comedy, Drama
A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the final years of Hollywood's Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch
Votes: 848,453 | Gross: $142.50M
21. One Cut of the Dead (2017)
Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
Things go badly for a hack director and film crew shooting a low budget zombie movie in an abandoned WWII Japanese facility, when they are attacked by real zombies.
Director: Shin'ichirô Ueda | Stars: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya
Votes: 29,754
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