I ran out of podcasts to listen to on the way home, so I had to move onto this weird old thing I used to listen to called music. Kraftwerk in particular, which was very relaxing as I walked home. I drifted off a little, my mind turning to my selection of films that I have to get round to watching again.
I am a lazy film viewer. My to watch shelf is well, pretty much a shelf. Lots of good intentions and all that, but just don’t seem to get around to it always.
Part of the problem with this is that it forces further down the list things I have seen one or more times before, and this was what I was pondering today, the less popular films from my list. What follows are some of the highlights:
Freddie Got Fingered
I’ve probably lost half the people reading this immediately. To the majority of people Tom Green is an terrible comedian, and even worse filmmaker. I see him as Cartman grown up and slimmed down, with a fucking huge dose of some things he should have left alone at college, and a terrifying set of issues with his parents. I have never found him easy to watch, but then why should everything be easy?
Okay, I’m not going to labour this one too long, but you should give this film a go because 1) Rip Torn is in it. Artie from the Larry Sanders show. As his dad. 2) It has got a cute charm (honest) in the Jerry Lewis, Adam Sandler feelgood mode. Sort of. 3) It is screamingly funny. IF you like South Park and suchlike when it is on the very edge of taste.
Subway
This is a great eighties French film set in the Paris Metro. I’ve got it on video tape, and only watched it once, as it is dubbed so badly it is almost unwatchable. I saw it on TV first of all, with subtitles and it was great. It has occured to me recently that the DVD version might have the subtitles restored, so I can watch it again.
It just has a fantastic sense of French eighties cool, Christophe Lambert with shocking white punk hair, dudes skating and playing funk bass, and a whole literally underground subculture. Well overdue another viewing.
Hudson Hawk
Again, a very maligned film. And I can’t necessarily defend it. The film is a battlefield between Bruce Willis and Michael Lehmann (the director of Heathers, a great little movie). it was rumoured that there was something like 147 script rewrites, and it looks like it. I believe myself every good idea is from Lehmann and every bad from Willis. There are some wonderful ideas in there.
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course
Okay, this is probably the hardest sell of the lot, and I’ve picked a couple of notorious stinkers there. This film is just absolutely barking, and paints Steve Irwin as quite barking too. I found it utterly hilarious, and I just need to see it once more in my lifetime to believe it was actually that funny. I may however have been drunk at the time.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
This truely is in a different league to the other films. I love them all, but this film is genuinely one of the best there is for me. Wu Tang Clan member making the soundtrack – check. Samurai philosophy – check. French guy selling ice cream – check. Ancient and useless Mafia guys – check. Forrest Whittaker being stunning – check. It is just designed to appeal to every part of me, also having many elements of French cinema that I love (and should be far more knowledgable about). It is great, but not many people seem to have heard of it.
So those are the underloved films that I love. What about you?
Comments
4 responses to “Underrated films I should get around to watching again”
Walker by Alex Cox – soundtrack put together by Joe Strummer, Ed Harris doing his mad-eyed thing, post-structuralist approach to historical narrative. Not forgetting people swearing in foreign languages but only conprehensible to the (english-speaking) audience reading the subtitles and not those on screen.
I haven’t seen it in about 10 years but I just remember it being this wonderfully odd creation. Actually it’s probably just another example of why people have tried to avoid giving Alex Cox money to make films that they then have to sell to an audience.
Mine is easy really;
National Lampoons Loaded Weapon 1 – Emilio Estevez, William Shatner, Tim Curry, Samuel L Jackson and Whoopi Goldberg all in the same film? How could it not fail!
I normally detest the National Lampoon films (they kept Chevy Chase in work for FAR too long) but this is a great little film. Worth it for the “Basic Instinct” scene alone.
IMDB linky: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107659/
I’ve heard of Ghost Dog but never seen it. I remember seeing the trailers for it when it came out and thinking “Yes, this probably is going to be something I need to see” but never have.
Walker I don’t know at all, obviously I know Alex Cox, as like everyone with any sense I loved Repoman. Will track it down.
I’ve actually happened upon Loaded Weapon quite a bit, I think Paramount must have bought rights for it here at some stage, cos I have definitely seen it a couple of times recently. And if I remember, you can nick Ghost Dog off me when I come down.
I’ve had the DVD of Blood Simple sitting on my shelf for about a year waiting for the right moment, well, evening, to watch. I remember loving it when I saw it, but can’t remember anything else about it. I hope it’s not a disappointment when I get round to it.