Best Film/Series You Watched...That Nobody Else Did.

[SweetShark]

Being from Greece, all of my friends [sadly] don't know some unknown awesome movies I watched. If I tell them for a movie like "Soylent Green" or "Versus" [except one of my friends gladly], they don't know them.
Oh and Also Anime and Cartoons.....yeah, I have this kind of friends who if I tell them to watch them they will call me "malaka" for watching kid shows. Gladly again one of my friend LOVE Anime, so it is ok

 

[Starbird]

On the subject of 'they just don't make them like this anymore' movies, I adore old fashioned screwball comedies. The kind of thing that normally starred Cary Grant or anything the Marx brothers did. Modern day comedies just aren't the same. Yet, I don't know anybody my age who's into those kinds of films.

Yeah, there did seem to be a certain something (class? elegance? art?) to older comedies we don't see anymore, but OTOH, maybe that's because the worse ones have been forgotten.

I think it's that somehow older films could make a point or a statement without being either partisan or 'Look at me! I'm about ISSUES!'. I'm also a sucker for pure courtroom movies which just don't seem to exist anymore.

 

[Albino Boo]

I think it's that somehow older films could make a point or a statement without being either partisan or 'Look at me! I'm about ISSUES!'. I'm also a sucker for pure courtroom movies which just don't seem to exist anymore.

It was because they had much narrower confines of what was expectable. These days in comedies you can do dick gag and just general toilet humor but in the past you had to be subtler and work harder to get the laugh. The Marx brothers used to take the script of their films on the road to theaters around the country. Night after night of live performance refined the scripts and got the timing just right, compare that to the average gross out comedy of today. Movies like its a wonderful life had a political message smuggled in because the studios wouldn't allow the out and out preaching of today. You couldn't show sex but they managed to get much more erotic charge out by suggesting than showing


Its the limitations of what was showable that forced movies to be clever and smart and todays freedoms means that you can be lazy.

 

[Frezzato]

The Canadian series "Wonderfalls" come my mind.

The synopis is somewhat similar to My name is Earl in that a person is compell to do good to others from a higher power. In Wonderfall cased, it was a deform wax lion figure and any other inanimate animal items the main character come across.

Also the main hookto me is that I prefer the main character over Earl since I find her more relatable. She was an underachiver compared to each of her family member, she also worked in a dead end job at a gift shop and she had an apathy like personality.

Sadly they only made 6 episodes and the idea for season 2 sound promising (she would of gotten a perfect wax lion figure who told her to do bad things instead of good from the deform version).

Perhaps they only aired six episodes, but they made 13. The DVD box set is totally worth it.

For me I guess it would be the feature-length movie The Sound of Noise. It's not the best movie but I just love the fact that drummers--er, percussionists--made a movie where the prime theme is music for the sake of music, even to the point of absurdity. It had a needless romance subplot, but I'm willing to overlook that.

 

[Recusant]

Mine would be Babylon 5, although I wouldn't recommend it to anyone now. Its production values were terrible for its day, and time hasn't helped.

Only one person I know has even heard of it, and he hates it

What are you talking about? The production values were distinctly above-average for the time; have you even SEEN Star Trek: The Next Generation? I'll admit that the CGI does look rather dated; that's the price of being a pioneer.

At any rate, if you're watching B5 for the fancy graphics and complex set design, you're doing it wrong. It was a show about writing and character, both of which were great and still hold up just fine.

My contribution would be Interstate 60, the directorial debut of Bob Gale (who co-wrote Back to the Future). I have no idea why this movie isn't better known. Picture a modern-day, adult-oriented (and no, I don't mean pornographic) Alice in Wonderland by way of The Phantom Tollbooth.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

The Man From Earth.

Completely unknown to just about anyone I mention it to.
Superb movie. I've watched it ten-something times and still sit riveted to the screen.

And the kicker is that the majority of the movie takes place in just one room.
The dialogue on the other hand, takes you through a journey in time.

 

[Barbas]

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH0Wms5-oNg

Definitely only for a certain taste, but a great take-piss of some of the British dramas of the 80's.

Yeeesss...YEEEEESSSSSSS!

"So, what happened between you and this Renwick customeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrr...?"


OT: Operation Good Guys. It's a shame that the second and third series used a laugh track, but I still find it hilarious now. I was also going to say Red Dwarf, but that seems to have been more popular than I though - I hardly come across people in the UK who've never seen or heard of it now. Thanks, Dave!

 

[Fox12]

Apparently, I'm the only person on the planet whose see Saikano. It's too bad, since it had excellent presentation and execution.

Narutaru/shadow star. It had its issues, it's true, but the characters really blew my mind. It had a very unique tone and plot, and should really be experienced. Unfortunately it's not readily available, and even the fan translations are disjointed and out of order. It's a chore to read it in order.

 

[Lightknight]

I'm far from the only one but Australian stuff like stuff from a lot of other countries doesn't have *quite* the amount of reach...at least in most internet spaces

unfortunately didn't get even a limited release in theatres in the US (or the festival circuit? not sure how these things work) so it was exempt from any awards

[b/]Mary and Max[/b]

Australian stop motion animated film (from the people who did the Oscar winning short Harvi Krumpet) about a young Australian girls Pen Pal relationship with a 40 something obese jewish man with aspergers from new York...in the 70's. Both hilarious and sad...also has Phillip Seymour Hoffman in it who gave a great performance

EDIT: because something is "foregn" doesn't nessicaryly makes it obscure...its just not known in the US

for example I doubt many would be familiar with the crime show "a touch of frost" but if youre British/Australian you probably are

I turned that on one day on accident on Netflix and then I couldn't look away. It's a sad movie but it really sticks with you. Glad to see it mentioned because I'll agree that it really isn't known.

 

[Frezzato]

The Man From Earth.

Completely unknown to just about anyone I mention it to.
Superb movie. I've watched it ten-something times and still sit riveted to the screen.

And the kicker is that the majority of the movie takes place in just one room.
The dialogue on the other hand, takes you through a journey in time.

Love that movie! I saw it late one night back when I had cable (channels like HBO show the BEST movies at the strangest hours, between 1-5 AM during the work week) and I loved it so much I bought the DVD for the extras (with commentary), plus the Blu-ray, which...had no extras and didn't look any better than the DVD. Oh well.

I also hunted down the shooting location on Google Earth.

Latitude: 34°29'7.19"N
Longitude: 118°19'38.92"W

My notes:
Shooting location for the movie Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth, 2007.

The property to the North can be viewed in the extras section of the DVD. Note the tracks in the adjacent site, a dirt bike trail used by the property owner's sons.

This cabin has a chimney on the left side of the house, exactly where the fireplace is in the movie.

 

[DanielBrown]

Archer, probably.
Two co-workers are massive fans of movies and series. They also like animated series with more adult themes. They also also love Bobs Burgers. In spite of all this neither of them had ever heard of Archer before.
At a Friday post-work chill out session I showed them the first episode. Immediately both started screaming about how it's the same guy from Bobs Burgers(the voice actor of Sterling Archer apparently, not sure if it's also the guy who makes it as they said it was simular in many ways) and they fucking loved it.

Glad to have passed it on to them. It's a damn good show.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Apparently, I'm the only person on the planet whose see Saikano. It's too bad, since it had excellent presentation and execution.

Isn't that the one about the super weapon girl? I saw that one a long time ago. Can't remember too much of it though other than the cover with the guy holding the battle worn girl.

Narutaru/shadow star. It had its issues, it's true, but the characters really blew my mind. It had a very unique tone and plot, and should really be experienced. Unfortunately it's not readily available, and even the fan translations are disjointed and out of order. It's a chore to read it in order.

I have the first two volumes of that manga. It never made enough of a splash with me to wanna continue reading it. I remember there being sort of manta ray like pet creatures or something.

OT: Another obscure anime; A Tree of Palme. Similar to Angel's Egg in that it bombards you with beautiful but incoherent images. It's worth a watch just for the animation though.

 

[Mutant1988]

I watched "All Quiet on the Western Front" a few weeks ago and it's a fantastic movie. Highly recommended. It's from 1930 but it's extremely well done for such an old movie. It's a long movie, but extremely well paced and has great acting and an extremely strong message.

It should be public domain. You can find it on archive dot org for download. Give it a watch.

 

[The Raw Shark]

I think I'm the only one that watched Mind Your Language.
An English Sitcom that would otherwise be constantly called "RACIST!" all day by every idiot out there without them realizing the actual situation.
It's about an English teacher trying to help a class full of foreigners.....well...learn English!
And though it may SEEM racist it really doesn't pull punches on anyone.
I'm Pakistani, so seeing what Ali was like didn't even faze me, in fact since he was also Pakistani I was actually laughing a lot whenever he was on screen. It was hilarious because they were all really funny jokes that everyone was in on. The foreigners aren't complete racist interpretations based on Ethnicity, they're also mostly learning about the place they're learning another language from. And honestly it was just the best thing I'd ever watched. The Episodes are all on YouTube.

Another thing that I think besides me, my dad and MovieBob, NO ONE has watched is The Grey. I mean good God, NO ONE I TALKED TO ABOUT IT KNEW WHAT IT WAS, WHAT THE FRACK. And so much lack of enthusiasm for anything is probably the case for them but eh.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Justified: Set in present day Harlan, Kentucky, is the story of modern day US Marshall. Has the best fast talking villain on tv

I was going to post the same thing. It's a great show and Boyd is easily one of my favourite characters from anything.

OT: Well, I'd like to rant about Hannibal considering how few watch it, but seeing as it won the Escapist's show of the year...

The Guest -It only came out this year so I think there's a pretty good chance that it hasn't been seen.

It's a fun take on slasher films and pays homage to the 80s movies that inspire it by having an awesome synth score. Also, for the type of movie it is, it's extremely well acted. It's about a family who invites a man into their home who has retired from the army. They let him stay a few days since he was friends with their son who had died in the war. The movie shows how he impacts all of their lives quite positively. Then people start to die.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I've never met anyone outside my family that's seen The Fall. The film is seen as-imagined by a little girl's imagination and it's filmed in a bunch of amazing locations so it's fucking gorgeous.

Spoiler: Seriously, look at this shit

It gets a bit dull at times but jesus, it's just too beautiful.

 

[gorfias]

Biggest recent surprise is "Horns" on Netflix streaming now. No one saw this movie starring Daniel Radcliffe. It made under $200K domestic. Did make about $3 mil internationally, which for an indy flick, is not bad.

Fairly straight forward who dunnit. With big time supernatural stuff in it. Worth watching.

 

[jhoroz]

Caught this late night while staying at a hotel in Greece of all places (it was the only thing that wasn't dubbed over). It's weird and very low budget, but I decided to stick with it anyway. I dunno if I would even call it a good movie, but there are some really cool moments and Buddy is just such a cool character. A rock 'n roll samurai traveling through a post-apocalyptic Nevada desert, fighting communists and the incarnation of death itself, so that he may one day reach Las Vegas and become the King of Rock-how is that not awesome?

 

[Spider RedNight]

Hmmmmmm One of my favourite movies of all time that NO one I know has ever heard of (unless I told them about it) is Spider - Ralph Fiennes, Gabriel Byrne and Miranda Richardson are in it but I never heard about it 'til I went on a Ralph Fiennes spree after watching Red Dragon. It's about a schizophrenic man who leaves the asylum into a halfway home and visits his childhood house as the story of how he got to where he is unfolds. It's... meticulous, I'll give it that. It's based on a book and it was directed by David Cronenberg which I thought was strange but I think it's a nice movie (makes Russel Crowe from a Beautiful Mind look OP and Gary Stu-ish) with grimy colours and this empty feel to it. Not for everyone, certainly but it very well might be one of the reasons why I have "Spider" in all my usernames now.

The trailer is misleading as hell, though; it makes it out to be a suspenseful psychodrama when it's really much quieter and subtle.

I love it, though.

 

[Random Argument Man]

My favourite movie is "I'm not there". It's an artistic take on Bob Dylan's character (or characters). I never suggest anyone to watch that movie though. Most people who did either didn't get it or can't stand?"artsy movie".