Underrated movies you probably missed

What are your absolute favorite movies that flopped for no good reason?

John Carter is still pretty fresh in my mind. Honestly, it did great overseas, but the studios here in the States didn't account for that, so they missed the mark financially.

Then you’ve got stuff like Postman or Hudson Hawk.

There are tons of them, obviously. Some people just assume if a movie bombed at the box office, it must be trash. That’s not always true. In fact, a lot of total garbage actually makes a killing at the theater...

Which ones are your favorites?

John Carter had plenty of reasons to flop (in my opinion). 🤷
I honestly have no idea where they blew that $250 million 🤦

Rachel Reed2 said:John Carter had plenty of reasons to flop (in my opinion). 🤷
I honestly have no idea where they blew that $250 million 🤦

It’s just way easier for Hollywood to dump a massive budget into some flashy blockbuster than to risk $50 million on a decent drama or thriller. They know a big spectacle will almost always recoup its costs—well, most of the time. I say most, because blockbusters like John Carter don't always hit the mark, even if I thought the movie was actually pretty solid. A bit of a slog, maybe, but solid.

I think Brad Pitt or someone along those lines mentioned something similar in an interview once. Over the last decade or so, Hollywood has basically been playing it safe, and I guess it works for them.

Midnight Meat Train was actually great. I thought John Carter was pretty solid and fun too; not sure why it flopped so hard.

A completely different topic just triggered a memory of this movie:

Shrink

Kevin Spacey plays a psychiatrist who caters specifically to Hollywood stars. Dealing with an endless stream of sheer stupidity from his clients every single day—not to mention his own personal baggage—he manages the stress by smoking about 50 joints a day. It's his coping mechanism, plain and simple.

It’s an excellent film. I’d classify it more as a drama, and honestly, Kevin Spacey is phenomenal here. In my opinion, it's easily one of his best performances.

Stumbled upon this one by accident—BASEketball, from the guys who did South Park. It’s a pretty hilarious comedy and totally fits that vibe of movies from back in the day. Kind of wild how much it cost, though. They dropped about 23 million on it and only pulled in 7. You see way stupider comedies making way more money all the time. Here's a classic example of a movie that isn't some massive epic but still fits the category

The killing of Jesse James by that coward Robert Ford

Made like 3 million at the box office when it dropped. Gotta admit, I skipped it back then and only caught up later. Probably one of the best flicks of the decade, if not better. That long title didn't really help him out much

yeah, was pretty overlooked back then, but feels like people appreciate it way more now...

frozenheron7 said:A completely different topic just triggered a memory of this movie:

Shrink

Kevin Spacey plays a psychiatrist who caters specifically to Hollywood stars. Dealing with an endless stream of sheer stupidity from his clients every single day—not to mention his own personal baggage—he manages the stress by smoking about 50 joints a day. It's his coping mechanism, plain and simple.

It’s an excellent film. I’d classify it more as a drama, and honestly, Kevin Spacey is phenomenal here. In my opinion, it's easily one of his best performances.

Thanks, thanks, thanks... watching it tonight.

Dredd. Honestly, it's such a killer movie—I have no clue why it didn't get more eyes on it.

Is there an existing thread for this?

http://www.forum.com/showthread.php?t=1143

Michael Ortiz68 said:Is there an existing thread for this?

http://www.forum.com/showthread.php?t=1143

Nah, there's garbage on that one too. This spot is strictly for the gems that just flew under the radar.

nimblemarlin6 said:Dredd. Honestly, it's such a killer movie—I have no clue why it didn't get more eyes on it.

See, I saw similar comments on the Dredd thread and read reviews that made me think this was going to be a masterpiece... but after finally sitting down to watch it recently, I was just let down. It isn't a bad movie, per se, but there's a gap between my expectations and the reality. To me, Dredd was just okay. The biggest issues for me were definitely the lackluster action sequences—I really thought they’d be more intense and hard-hitting and expertly directed. Then there was the predictable, overly simple plot and those tired clichés (SPOILER): like that ending where the corrupt Judge doesn't just take out Dredd after wounding him, but instead starts into some Bad Guy monologue right before he gets killed and how that guy escapes the telepath only to get caught again, and how she eventually breaks free... plus all that liters of fake-looking CGI blood. Before watching, I wondered why Dredd flopped at the US box office, but now I'm convinced it's because it's an R-rated flick that's only decent...

Rachel Ortiz33 said:The killing of Jesse James by that coward Robert Ford

Made like 3 million at the box office when it dropped. Gotta admit, I skipped it back then and only caught up later. Probably one of the best flicks of the decade, if not better. That long title didn't really help him out much

yeah, was pretty overlooked back then, but feels like people appreciate it way more now...

Man, you know I'm 100% on board with you there. I was actually about to suggest this exact movie myself.😉

goldenskipper72 said:Thanks, thanks, thanks... watching it tonight.

Go ahead, let me know what you think once you've seen it. Everyone's got different tastes, obviously, but if you find it even half as decent as I did, then you haven't wasted two hours of your life for nothing.🙂

frozenheron7 said:Go ahead, let me know what you think once you've seen it. Everyone's got different tastes, obviously, but if you find it even half as decent as I did, then you haven't wasted two hours of your life for nothing.🙂

Maybe it actually turned out better than yours, haha... It really hit its stride once the movie kicked in. Honestly, Kevin Spacey probably smoked more weed than Cheech & Chong, and the characters were freaking hilarious—just pure tragicomedy. Great flick, thanks for the heads-up.

Eric Patel7 said:It’s just way easier for Hollywood to dump a massive budget into some flashy blockbuster than to risk $50 million on a decent drama or thriller. They know a big spectacle will almost always recoup its costs—well, most of the time. I say most, because blockbusters like John Carter don't always hit the mark, even if I thought the movie was actually pretty solid. A bit of a slog, maybe, but solid.

I think Brad Pitt or someone along those lines mentioned something similar in an interview once. Over the last decade or so, Hollywood has basically been playing it safe, and I guess it works for them.

This isn't just an isolated phenomenon in Hollywood. I believe this article explains quite clearly why so much garbage is being produced lately.

Pearl Harbor comes to mind first. People expected some epic historical masterpiece, seemingly forgetting Michael Bay was behind the camera. :nezna: No matter how much people trash it, I find it incredibly fun to watch.

The Island is another Bay project. Even though he pivoted it into an action chase, it’s still a great flick. It’s a shame they left out some interesting premises—like two "adults" being completely lost in the world—but still.

raja also considers Reign of Fire a bad movie. My take is the same as it was for Pearl Harbor: it's great at what it is. Seriously? We're talking about dragons here. Dafuq?!

There are plenty of movies worth watching just for the sake of it. Most get trashed because of personal taste or audience expectations, but if you look at them objectively, they're perfectly solid ways to kill time. People brought up John Carter, which both critics and audiences hated, but as a film, it's just a fun adventure. Nothing more, nothing less.

John Peterson3 said:Pearl Harbor comes to mind first. People expected some epic historical masterpiece, seemingly forgetting Michael Bay was behind the camera. :nezna: No matter how much people trash it, I find it incredibly fun to watch.

The Island is another Bay project. Even though he pivoted it into an action chase, it’s still a great flick. It’s a shame they left out some interesting premises—like two "adults" being completely lost in the world—but still.

raja also considers Reign of Fire a bad movie. My take is the same as it was for Pearl Harbor: it's great at what it is. Seriously? We're talking about dragons here. Dafuq?!

There are plenty of movies worth watching just for the sake of it. Most get trashed because of personal taste or audience expectations, but if you look at them objectively, they're perfectly solid ways to kill time. People brought up John Carter, which both critics and audiences hated, but as a film, it's just a fun adventure. Nothing more, nothing less.

Good for you, I guess. For me, the whole movie was just a disaster—one of the worst, most boring things I've ever sat through, and I watch pretty much everything, I'm not picky at all... The best way to describe it was in Team America from 2004, which is also a great movie that audiences totally overlooked... plus, it's a masterpiece compared to Pearl Harbor... seriously, any movie I pick is better than Pearl Harbor...(except maybe G-2)

Yeah, Reign of Fire was great. The dragon designs were top-tier—easily some of the best ever put on screen. Solid acting, good locations, and the effects held up surprisingly well for its time. The plot had a few holes, but honestly, who cares when there are dragons involved? (Unless we're talking about Eragon.)

I’m not entirely sure which specific films tanked across the board, so I decided to dig through some lists to see if I could find anything interesting.

One movie that really sticks out to me—and honestly, it irritates me how much it was overlooked—is Death to Smoochy. I actually stumbled upon it by accident years after its release and ended up genuinely enjoying it. It doesn't exactly have a disastrous rating on >, but looking at the reception, it’s clear the general public just didn't connect with it. It leans heavily into a very particular brand of slapstick humor that might be a bit too zany or dark for mainstream tastes. Still, there's a real story here, > proves he can handle comedy just fine, > is consistently reliable in those types of roles (think >), and > is perfectly placed as well.