Movies/TV Unusual film recommendations

[Kitasuki]

Hello there,
This thread is for recommending movies you love, but are usually not that well known.
I will start:
In another thread I spoke of a sweedish movie called 'Ondskan'.
The movie is simple in Nature, a troubled kid gets in a lot of trouble at school, gets expelled, but then, it goes to an extreme college where a lot of stuff (bad) happens.
At home he also has a being beaten up situation. To this day, what is mother does still surprises me. Of how people can just do that.
Evil (2003)
Watch this movie, you'll like it (I hope)
Now, what recommendations do you have?

 

[Tactician Karina]

Can I add made for TV movies as well? I've been re-watching some of them on DVD (and some are available online, mainly YouTube as well) and I think some of the ones I have seen are not as well known.

Made for TV movies (Lifetime, CBS, FOX, etc.):

• The Marla Hanson Story (1991) - based on a true story about model Marla Hanson getting attacked by her landlord's two friends after she rejects his advances, she has her face slashed three times as a result.
• Moment of Truth: Stalking Back (1993) - about a high school girl that deals with her former softball team's umpire stalking her, her mother does everything she can to push the law into actually helping her daughter and other people dealing with stalking. Based on true events.
• In Broad Daylight (1991) - based on a true story about Ken McElroy, a town bully that harasses anyone and everyone in Skidmore, Missouri. After having a confrontation in a small local grocery store Ken begins stalking the store owner and her husband, resulting in the husband being shot by Ken, when the law doesn't help due to legal maneuvers the town takes matters into their own hands through vigilante justice.
• Delirium (2014) - okay this was actually a pilot for the planned TV series based on a novel trilogy, but it was never picked up so this is all we got. It's about a world where love is illegal and can be removed with a procedure, a young woman has 95 days until her own procedure but in that time she falls in love. (I'm hesitant to recommend it though since it ends on a cliffhanger, and I still want this to actually get finished one day)
• Reviving Ophelia (2010) - based on a book, though it's not a full on adaptation since it only handles a small portion, and really the movie mostly just references the title (the book talks about pressures society puts on adolescent girls and the author's own experiences as a therapist). The movie is about a girl, Elizabeth, that is going through an abusive relationship with her boyfriend and tries to make excuses for him. Her cousin, Kelly, wants to help Elizabeth but she gets pushed away and told to mind her own business; later it goes on to show Elizabeth going to see a therapist at the urge of her parents and finally realizes her relationship with her boyfriend is toxic.

For theatrical movies:

• The Horse Whisperer (1998) - a teenager, Grace, and her friend go out on a winter morning horse ride, during this ride Grace's friend and her friend's horse accidentally hit Grace and her own horse causing them all to fall down a slope. Grace's friend and the friend's horse get hit by a semi and instantly die, Grace suffers from a partially amputated leg and becomes closed off. Both her and her horse suffer from trauma after the accident, and Grace's mother finds the horse whisperer to help both her daughter and horse overcome their trauma.
• Blood & Chocolate (2007) - based on the YA novel of the same name (though very different, both are great though imo). Vivian is a werewolf whose parents emigrated to the US from Romania, after the death of her parents and siblings from hunters she goes back to Bucharest and lives with her aunt that owns a chocolate store. Her aunt's former husband and current leader of the werewolf pack, Gabriel, leaves her to find a new mate, later he declares Vivian to be his new "wife". Later on Vivian meets Aiden (a human) and they soon start to fall in love after their brief interactions. Vivian has to keep Aiden (and her true identity to him) a secret lest he's forced to face the pack's group hunt, and possibly be killed as a result.
• Grease 2 (1982) - okay I'm not exactly too sure if this one is considered not well known, as some friends and family didn't even know there was a sequel to the first Grease (and I've surprisingly came across a few people online that thought the same) so I'm still going to add it. If you've seen the first movie then it's basically the same; just genderswap the cast, add in motorcycles instead of cars, and a school play and that's Grease 2, oh and the foreign kid is English instead of Australian. (fun fact, there was also going to be a third movie set in the 70's, obviously, and a more disco themed plot, but that fell off after the sequel's flop; glad it did, cause then the greaser style wouldn't even really work by then)

 

[Beth Pavell]

I'm inclined to say The Wicker Man (1973). Thanks to that damn Nicholas Cage remake - which misses the whole bloody point - whenever you mention The Wicker Man, 90% of the time somebody immediately hoots "THE BEES!", and that's it.

I'll admit I'm fond of the film as much for nostalgia value, and the tone changes quite sharply if you watch the director's cut. So, flawed, but one I enjoy rewatching once or twice per year.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

Gods of Egypt (2016). Yes.... I'm totally aware of the whitewashing controversy that caused this movie to really suffer financially, but, not gonna lie... The special effects were pretty cool. Hollywood really needs to give Egyptian mythology some more love.

This movie is based on what is arguably the most well-known story in Egyptian mythology... The story of Osiris, Horus, and Set.

 

[Juliko]

Do you watch any anime per chance? Most of the movies I've seen nowadays are anime.

• The Dog of Flanders (1997) - This anime movie is based on a short novella by Belgian authoress Ouida. It tells the story of a boy named Nello, who lives with his grandfather in their impoverished but happy home. They take in an abused dog, Patrasche, and make him part of their family, and the movie focuses on Nello's life. The novel itself is kinda flimsy and blah, but the movie is absolutely amazing. To me, at least. It's the perfect balance of funny, sad, heartwarming, delightful, heartwrenching, and uplifting. Unfortunately, the DVD and VHS releases are woefully out of print, but the English dub can still be found in places such as YouTube. But seriously, if you want a genuinely good movie aimed at children but doesn't talk down to them, check this one out. It's my personal gold standard for movies overall.
• Maquia: When The Promised Flower Blooms (2018) - A Tolkien-esque high fantasy movie about an immortal woman whose village is destroyed by an evil empire, but at her lowest point, she finds a lost baby and decides to raise him as her own, knowing full well that she will outlive him. It's a dense, beautiful movie brimming with emotion, with stunning animation and a new, fresh take on the themes of motherhood and immortality. It has a few plotholes and logical problems, but I wholly recommend this one if you're tired of the usual cliche fantasy movies that have been churned out.
• In This Corner of the World (2016) - Based on the famous manga by Fumiyo Kouno, it's a movie about a young woman who marries a man outside her hometown, with the movie focusing heavily on her life and adulthood, leaving the heavy war stuff at the very end.
• Ride Your Wave (2019) - This one's not out on DVD yet (And probably won't be for a long while in light of recent events). It's a romance movie about a surfer woman and a young firefighter who fall in love...then the main guy dies and the main girl grieves over him. But she finds that when she sings a song they heard on the radio, the guy can magically appear in bodies of water. If you're looking for a genuinely good romance movie that completely avoids all of the painful cliches that plague romance movies all the time (Such as having people have a misunderstanding and NEVER talk to each other about it!!!), I highly, HIGHLY recommend you check this one out. This is my personal gold standard for romance movies, and romance media in general!
• Ringing Bell (1979) - Don't watch this if you're looking for a light hearted kids movie, because this one is dark as hell. A young lamb's mother is viciously killed by a wolf, and the lamb, Chirin, tries to fight the wolf as revenge but finds he's not strong enough. So he decides to train under the wolf so he can be strong like him. This movie's got balls, and I love its dark atmosphere and uncompromising nature. Give it a shot if you want something dark.
• Millennium Actress (2001) - The second film by the late Satoshi Kon, it chronicles two filmmakers trying to make a documentary on a famous, reclusive actress named Chiyoko Fujiwara, who disappeared from the movie industry decades ago. When they meet her, she tells them her story, and the movie deliberately blurs the lines between fiction and reality, so you don't really know what's real and what isn't. But it's a fantastic movie with great characters, an engaging atmosphere, and the animation is sublime for the time period it was made.

As for non anime movies, here's what I can recommend so far.

• Unbroken (2014) - Based on the true story of Louis Zamperini, an aspiring Olympian who got drafted into World War II, though the movie mostly focuses on his experiences of being lost in the Pacific Ocean and the abuse and mistreatment he endured in a Japanese POW camp, . I thought it was okay, but if you're a history buff, this might be a good watch for you.
• The Ten Commandments (1956) - It's basically the story of Moses and how he freed the Hebrews from slavery, even though it didn't end all that well for him. This movie is long (Like, over three hours long), intense, packed with a massive cast of characters, and stellar actors behind it...though the scripting and writing are rather melodramatic and...Victorian by modern standards. But that never detracted from my enjoyment of the movie in any way.
• Mean Girls (2004) - Do I even need to explain this one? It's funny as hell, if a little dated, and insanely quotable.
• Anne of Green Gables (1985) - A long movie based on the famous children's book by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It's about an elderly pair of siblings, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who try to adopt a boy to have him help out on the farm, but through a mistake, they wind up with Anne Shirley, an imaginative, talkative, red-haired orphan girl who winds up turning their lives upside down. It's kinda sappy at times, but it's still a fun, sweet, charming movie with a lot of heart, and it's reasonably faithful to the book. I personally prefer the anime version from 1979, because it's longer, also faithful to the book, and adds its own touch as well, but this is definitely the best live-action take on the story...though I also admittedly like Anne With an E as well.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

• The Ten Commandments (1956) - It's basically the story of Moses and how he freed the Hebrews from slavery, even though it didn't end all that well for him. This movie is long (Like, over three hours long), intense, packed with a massive cast of characters, and stellar actors behind it...though the scripting and writing are rather melodramatic and...Victorian by modern standards. But that never detracted from my enjoyment of the movie in any way.

Not gonna lie, The Prince of Egypt (1998) is arguably the best interpretation of the Moses story. Although some of the celebrity cameos, like Patrick Stewart and Jeff Goldblum, can be quite distracting. Plus, "Playing With the Big Boys" is a pretty cool villain song.

EDIT: Hans Zimmer doing the score in a movie is ALWAYS a win! No exceptions!

 

[TwinklingCupcake]

Nocturna, an animated film from 2008.
A young orphan boy named Tim is afraid of the dark, but deals with this by keeping the star Adhara (which he has declared to be "his" star) in sight when he sleeps. But one night, after getting accidentally locked out of the room, he looks up and sees Adhara disappear before his very eyes - quickly followed by another star. Determined to find out why the stars are going out, he is taken by the Cat Shepherd to the world of Nocturna, where fantastical beings live, who are responsible for various things that happen in the night while you're asleep.

I feel like it's a crime this film isn't widely known in the US, because it's beautiful. The painted backgrounds are particularly-gorgeous, looking like living paintings at times, and both the character designs and the architecture give me both Hayao Miyazaki and Roald Dahl vibes. And the film's villain - known simply as a "shadow," is particularly creepy, a huge hulking mass of darkness with a gaping maw who can move within shadows itself.
And the world-building. When you learn that everything that happens overnight is due to someone in Nocturna, they mean everything. Missing socks, your hair getting messed up, dew drops on grass... Heck, the various nighttime sounds you hear outside your window are portrayed as being the work of an entire nighttime orchestra.

The film was a collaboration between a Spanish and French studio, and it does have an English dub as it was released in the UK. But no North American licenses picked it up, which, again, is a real shame.
It isn't a perfect film, but it's a sight to behold, especially for fans of 2D animation, and it always leaves me with a warm fuzzy feeling when the credits roll.

 

[Juliko]

Not gonna lie, The Prince of Egypt (1998) is arguably the best interpretation of the Moses story. Although some of the celebrity cameos, like Patrick Stewart and Jeff Goldblum, can be quite distracting. Plus, "Playing With the Big Boys" is a pretty cool villain song.

EDIT: Hans Zimmer doing the score in a movie is ALWAYS a win! No exceptions!

No disagreeing with you there! Though I personally didn't mind the celebrity voices. If they were badly acted, then it'd bother me. I like both movies on their own merits, though there's no denying Prince of Egypt is a masterpiece.

Reviving Ophelia (2010) - based on a book, though it's not a full on adaptation since it only handles a small portion, and really the movie mostly just references the title (the book talks about pressures society puts on adolescent girls and the author's own experiences as a therapist). The movie is about a girl, Elizabeth, that is going through an abusive relationship with her boyfriend and tries to make excuses for him. Her cousin, Kelly, wants to help Elizabeth but she gets pushed away and told to mind her own business; later it goes on to show Elizabeth going to see a therapist at the urge of her parents and finally realizes her relationship with her boyfriend is toxic.

Oh, I've seen this one a few times! It's relatively decent, especially by Lifetime channel standards, though I thought it was just okay.

 

[ReturnofMCH]

big trouble is one from 2002, it came out just after 9/11 and had a major plot point regarding bombs on planes (therefore limiting potential), but it still is a decently humorous film with a lot of martha stewart and fritos product placements.

barnyard is the most underrated of the classic nick films as most people just see how strange the show is and go nope, but the film is a deeply personal film about growing up and what it means to take charge and bear responsibility.

the sky crawlers is a 2009 anime film that is basically top gun as an anime, case in point it got the devs behind ace combat to do a prequel game for the wii using ace combat's famed gameplay.

prince of persia: the sands of time the only good live action video game movie until detective pikachu and the sonic movie came out, it faithfully adapts the 2003 classic while keeping it's tone more along the lines of something you'd see in the pirates of the caribbean films, which given the studio isn't surprising but it's still a fun little adaptation of a beloved western platformer.

the lion king 1 & 1/2 the only disney mainline film sequel that matters, it's about timon and pumbaa's story before and during the events of the original film, presented in a msytery science theater 3000 style complete with the occasional slapstick from the theater as shadowpuppets are shown.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

the lion king 1 & 1/2 the only disney mainline film sequel that matters, it's about timon and pumbaa's story before and during the events of the original film, presented in a msytery science theater 3000 style complete with the occasional slapstick from the theater as shadowpuppets are shown.

Don't get me wrong, 1 and 1/2 was hilarious, however.
I honestly enjoyed Simba's Pride a tad more. Zira is my favorite female Disney villain bar none.

I know it's not direct-to-DVD, but The Rescuers Down Under is way better than the original.


Other Disney movies I think need more love include
Brother Bear. It was decent, the most common gripe with this one is that it relied, quite a bit, too heavily, on the animal characters using modern terms like "dude" and "pinkie swear".
The Emperor's New Groove - Leaves me in stitches every time.
And the most surprisingly solid direct-to-video sequel.... Cinderella 3. I'm serious. Not what you'd expect at all from a princess movie.

 

[Kitasuki]

Pocahontas 2 is a nice disney movie to see. Specially because it changes so much in terms of story. 180° from the first

 

[Kitasuki]

big trouble is one from 2002, it came out just after 9/11 and had a major plot point regarding bombs on planes (therefore limiting potential), but it still is a decently humorous film with a lot of martha stewart and fritos product placements.

barnyard is the most underrated of the classic nick films as most people just see how strange the show is and go nope, but the film is a deeply personal film about growing up and what it means to take charge and bear responsibility.

the sky crawlers is a 2009 anime film that is basically top gun as an anime, case in point it got the devs behind ace combat to do a prequel game for the wii using ace combat's famed gameplay.

prince of persia: the sands of time the only good live action video game movie until detective pikachu and the sonic movie came out, it faithfully adapts the 2003 classic while keeping it's tone more along the lines of something you'd see in the pirates of the caribbean films, which given the studio isn't surprising but it's still a fun little adaptation of a beloved western platformer.

the lion king 1 & 1/2 the only disney mainline film sequel that matters, it's about timon and pumbaa's story before and during the events of the original film, presented in a msytery science theater 3000 style complete with the occasional slapstick from the theater as shadowpuppets are shown.

Saw Prince of Persia and did not like it all that much

 

[ReturnofMCH]

Saw Prince of Persia and did not like it all that much

Well each to their own I guess

 

[Kitasuki]

Well each to their own I guess

Obviously, but thank you for the recommendations nonetheless

 

[ProvinToady]

The old guard movie in netflix is quite good unexpectedly. I definitely recommend it.

 

[Kitasuki]

The old guard movie in netflix is quite good unexpectedly. I definitely recommend it.

Will give it a go

 

[zoroarctic]

The Mask of Zorro - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

One of my old favorites. Definite recommend if you like revenge narratives, intense action sequences and political intrigue. It’s pretty much Batman in the 19th century.

 

[Kitasuki]

The Mask of Zorro - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

One of my old favorites. Definite recommend if you like revenge narratives, intense action sequences and political intrigue. It’s pretty much Batman in the 19th century.

I love that movie!

 

[zoroarctic]

I love that movie!

You have good tastes.
Funny story: I don’t remember much of seeing it in the theater because my mom had her hand in front of my face most of the time. I was only 8 when it came out, and we both expected the movie to be like the old Zorro TV show from the 50s. My mom frequently jokes taking me to see it was one of the worst mistakes of her life. I didn’t actually see the movie in its entirety until 2005 when I caught it on television.

 

[ToxicWhiskers]

Here's a couple of mine:

The Big Bad Fox And Other Tales (2017): If you love animation and you're looking for something different, then look no further than this funny, beautifully animated French anthology film from the makers of Ernest and Celestine. It's about a group of animals who tell three stories set in the French countryside in the form of plays, the first seeing a rabbit, a duck and a pig delivering a baby human for an injured stork, the second sees a fox stealing chicken eggs to eat, only to end up raising the chicks that hatch and the last one being a Christmas story where the characters from the first play go on a mission delivering presents after they mistakenly think they've killed Santa. The animation looks like a kids' book come to life (it's actually based on a comic the creator wrote) and you wouldn't believe it's all digital. Personally, I feel this film is best watched in French with subs, but there is an English dub featuring a load of British comedians, although I feel it's not as witty or charming as the French voices.

The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2017): Just got round to watching this last night and for an anime film, it's very surreal and has a lot of funny moments. While the story is a bit slow, the animation is brilliant and so fluid and trippy at times, which I feel is a nice way of going against the grain and the music is great as well.