What are the most underrated films of all time?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Agreed on 1408, I'm fascinated by the entire premise.

Uh, the premise is just a twist on a standard haunted house plot. I thought it was a pretty decent film but no more. Actually found it a bit irksome how it kind of portrayed Samuel L. Jackson's character almost as a villain even though he was right about basically everything.

[Progressive Pessimist]

YES! One of the Coen Brothers' most underappreciated films. Maybe it's just me though because movies about Jewish identity always resonate with me.

Any thoughts on Brighton Beach Memoirs? I haven't seen in over a decade at this point so I only recall a few scenes, but I had a teacher who felt it was the quintessential film for the Jewish American experience. I thought it was just alright at the time. Expected a couple ticks higher but nothing egregious. Is that a part of your palate? If not, any other films you would specifically include in this category?

I actually haven't seen it. I'll keep it in mind though.

As for other movies that fit this category, admittedly there aren't many, but I would count some Woody Allen movies where it may not be the focal point but often comes up, 'Fiddler on the Roof,' and even the entirely spoken in Yiddish movie 'Menashe' about a misfit Hasidic Jew in Brooklyn who kind of just sucks at being a Hasidic Jew. It's an acquired taste but it's very intriguing.

[Mr. Smith]

Other underrated ones:

The first two Harry Potter films: Mr. Dule was just wrong. The direction had a certain whimsy and fun that the other movies lacked, ironic considering the upped budget. Richard Harris was iconic as Dumbledore. Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman were top notch... but so was Jason Isaacs [aka Zhukov], oh and Brannagh as Lockhart. But yes, the kids were actually quite well cast. It's lamentable that so much got lost after Columbus left.

Star Wars Episodes 1 and 3: The Phantom Menace is not the worst film of all time. It was deeply flawed, but really it was more like there were too many subplots as opposed to necessarily any one wrong thing. Finally, Revenge of the Sith was very well written, but very questionably directed.

Steven Spielberg's Hook: Often considered one of his lesser films, but sans two weird scenes, I found it to be one of the better interpretations of Peter Pan. Robin Williams was amazing, Dante Basco was an excellent character

Wide Awake: An early M. Night Shyamalan film about the exploration of an afterlife and death, the actin was actually quite amazing since it was back in the days when Shyamalan simply avoided overacting rather than simply no emotion.

Milk: Biopics tend to be looked at quite cynically, often treated as Oscar Bait...but this is one of the better ones. It's one of Sean Penn's far more sincere performances [he's simply too pretentious most of the time]

Ed Wood: Arguably one of Tim Burton's best, but also seriously not talked about. It's sad.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Even if Johnny Depp didn't give one of his better performances and Tim Burton was definitely less up to snuff than usual, it still had amazin' child performances and tried to give more depth to the story...as opposed to the 70's version, which has nothin' going for it except Gene Wilder.

The Godfather Part III: It was meant to be a coda, not a similar epic like the first two parts. With that, I'd say it mostly does the job well. Al Pacino did the Al Pacino-y thing, and the subplots with The Vatican were pretty good. Really, the only real hurdle to this film is the casting of Andy Garcia...and how badly written Mary Corleone was...that's right, I don't think anyone could have saved that role...so Sofia Coppola did no harm.

[KaiserDave]

Agreed on 1408, I'm fascinated by the entire premise.

Uh, the premise is just a twist on a standard haunted house plot. I thought it was a pretty decent film but no more. Actually found it a bit irksome how it kind of portrayed Samuel L. Jackson's character almost as a villain even though he was right about basically everything.

I don't know I like the idea of it being a hotel room in a 19th century style hotel. It just works. Sam was great in that movie, and I don't find he's portrayed as a villain.

[T'Chenka]

Steven Spielberg's Hook: Often considered one of his lesser films, but sans two weird scenes, I found it to be one of the better interpretations of Peter Pan. Robin Williams was amazing, Dante Basco was an excellent character

I watched this 100 times as a kid and love it so much. Dustin Hoffman having the time of his life playing James Hook.

[Mr. Morden]

The American Astronaut
Bubba Ho-Tep

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Rated on IMDb by 6.9 or lower, that got 8 or higher from me.

1. Mandy (I) (2018)   
2. Assassination Nation (2018)
3. Spring Breakers (2012)   
4. The Neon Demon (2016)
5. Revenge (II) (2017)
6. It Follows (2014)
7. Like Me (II) (2017)
8. The Guest (I) (2014)
9. Europa Report (2013)
10. Calvaire (2004)
11. Thirteen (2003)
12. The Beach (I) (2000)
13. Skate Kitchen (2018)
14. Blue My Mind (2017)
15. Anchiporuno (2016)
16. Las elegidas (2015)
17. 6 Years (2015)
18. Belgica (2016)
19. Der Nachtmahr (2015)   
20. Sangailes vasara (2015)   
21. As Above, So Below (2014)   
22. D'Ardennen (2015)
23. Crimson Peak (2015)   
24. Enemy (2013)
25. You're Next (2011)
26. Wolf Creek (2005)
27. 8MM (1999)   6,5

[Never Made it to Graceland]

"Grown Ups" got a lot of hate from the critics but was actually really funny imo. Yes, it was formulaic but sometimes cheap and familiar laughs are what you want from a summer blockbuster.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Other underrated ones:

The first two Harry Potter films: Mr. Dule was just wrong. The direction had a certain whimsy and fun that the other movies lacked, ironic considering the upped budget. Richard Harris was iconic as Dumbledore. Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman were top notch... but so was Jason Isaacs [aka Zhukov], oh and Brannagh as Lockhart. But yes, the kids were actually quite well cast. It's lamentable that so much got lost after Columbus left.

Star Wars Episodes 1 and 3: The Phantom Menace is not the worst film of all time. It was deeply flawed, but really it was more like there were too many subplots as opposed to necessarily any one wrong thing. Finally, Revenge of the Sith was very well written, but very questionably directed.

Steven Spielberg's Hook: Often considered one of his lesser films, but sans two weird scenes, I found it to be one of the better interpretations of Peter Pan. Robin Williams was amazing, Dante Basco was an excellent character

Wide Awake: An early M. Night Shyamalan film about the exploration of an afterlife and death, the actin was actually quite amazing since it was back in the days when Shyamalan simply avoided overacting rather than simply no emotion.

Milk: Biopics tend to be looked at quite cynically, often treated as Oscar Bait...but this is one of the better ones. It's one of Sean Penn's far more sincere performances [he's simply too pretentious most of the time]

Ed Wood: Arguably one of Tim Burton's best, but also seriously not talked about. It's sad.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Even if Johnny Depp didn't give one of his better performances and Tim Burton was definitely less up to snuff than usual, it still had amazin' child performances and tried to give more depth to the story...as opposed to the 70's version, which has nothin' going for it except Gene Wilder.

The Godfather Part III: It was meant to be a coda, not a similar epic like the first two parts. With that, I'd say it mostly does the job well. Al Pacino did the Al Pacino-y thing, and the subplots with The Vatican were pretty good. Really, the only real hurdle to this film is the casting of Andy Garcia...and how badly written Mary Corleone was...that's right, I don't think anyone could have saved that role...so Sofia Coppola did no harm.

I would argue all the ones you named are overrated instead.

How is Godfather: part III underrated. It has a 7.6 score. The first two HP movies are well regarded as well and good executed blockbuster or children/teenager film, but they're by no means classics. Ed Wood has a 7.8 score. That's very good. Milk is not underrated either, but it's another boring biography while Van Sant made much better movies.

Star Wars prequel trilogy is utter trash. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a remake it shouldn't have been made.

All the directors you name already are ridicilously overrated.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

The inverse of TulsiGabbardStan's (lol) thread.

- Fast Times at Ridgemont High (I'm a sucker for films that just depict life as it is in the time period it was filmed. there's not really a plot, but that's the beauty of it. the second of my top three favorite films.)
- American Graffiti (see above.)
- Treasure Planet (one of the few animated films in the 2000's not to be CGI-generated. basically a reprisal of classic Disney adventure movies.)
- Crimson Peak (box office bomb, but it stands on the gothic atmosphere it sets and the stunning visuals.)
- 1408 (based on a Stephen King short story, it's a nice horror film that doesn't rely on gore or gross-out sh!t.)

I agree with Crimson Peak. I haven't seen others.

None of these movies were really "underrated" by critics (they're generally accepted as either good or great), but they're somewhat less-well-known than they should be.



Lady Macbeth: Absolutely great film starring Florence Pugh from 2017. It manages to twist the "strong female character" trope into something incredibly disturbing. I have a feeling that this movie might've made some of the wokies mad simply because the central character is both female and a sociopath, which is just an added bonus.

Silence: Possibly Scorsese's best film, and I fully understand the meaning behind those words. A brilliant meditation on religion, depicting a fascinating period in history in realistic and honest terms. Even Andrew Garfield is decent in this, which is shocking. This film won zero awards and was hardly nominated for anything, but it was easily the best movie of 2016.

Nightcrawler: Oft-overlooked Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle from 2014. It's sort of an updated take on Taxi Driver, and possibly more accessible to modern audiences. The rest of the movie isn't all that exceptional, but Gyllenhaal's performance makes the entire thing worth watching.

Stray Dog and High and Low: Akira Kurosawa is mostly known for his samurai films, so in Western circles these two films are often overlooked. I think they are actually his two best movies-- better even than Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. They tackle complex moral and philosophical issues and feature powerhouse emotional performances.

In Bruges: Not exactly "underrated" these days because more people seem to be discovering it. However, most people still seem to know Martin McDonagh from Three Billboards which, while good, was not nearly on the level of this masterpiece of black comedy. Colin Farrell gives perhaps his one truly great performance in this, and virtually every line of dialogue is brilliant and witty.

The Hunt: A great Danish movie about the dangers of mobs and groupthink. I imagine the language barrier is part of the reason why it isn't more popular, but I think it actually has more to do with how uncomfortable it makes people.

Volver: Another foreign film-- this one is a bit of a mixed bag, but I find myself thinking about it even now, years after I first saw it, with a smile on my face. A Fellini-esque depiction of everyday life in a small southern European town, but mixed with an edge that helps it stand alone.

The Hunt and In Bruges are already rated very well, and The Hunt often returns in many "best of ... " lists and is 94th in the IMDb top 250. While I agree it is very good, it's not underrated. In Bruges is perhaps indeed (very slightly) underrated but it gets the recognition it deserves. Both are favourites of mine. Nightcrawler is a favourite of mine, but again only very slightly underrated. Sure, perhaps they deserve a top 250 position more than others, but that applies to many movies, and there's tons of trash in the IMDb top 250.

Silence is not my cup of tea, and not the best movie of 2016 (or even close). It's however indeed underrated. I believe it's because it isn't a movie for everyone, but it's indeed weird it didn't get more awards. It's more an awards / critics film instead of an audience one.

Haven't seen the others, but they all seem interesting and are already on my never-ending watchlist. Big fan of Florence Pugh though. Haven't delved in Kurosawa or Almovodovar yet.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

My top 5 most underrated for the 2010s decade:

Your Name. [Japanese] (Except in anime circles)
Swiss Army Man
Intouchables [French]
Sing Street
Coherence

I'll honorably mention Nocturnal Animals since somebody else mentioned it as well. Don't let the first 5 minutes deter you.

Your Name isn't really underrated. I would argue Intouchables is in fact overrated. Haven't seen Coherence or Sing Street. Swiss Army Men is weird, but yes, underrated

The Fast and Furious movies are underrated in terms of entertainment value. You can call them terrible and I’d wholeheartedly agree, but I can’t understand how you could find them boring (with some exceptions).


Revenge of the Sith is better than the Mickey Mouse Star Wars.


The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford is more overlooked than underrated, but still.

Passion of the Christ. Amazing film but the critics hated it for agenda reasons.

I'm one of the few who believe F&F is boring. LOL.

Assassination Nation (2018) - A film that pretty much came and went without making any dent at all, and although it's not a perfect film it deserved far better than what it got. Probably the most in-tune film with mid-10s online bullying/cancel/meme culture there is.

Paths of Glory (1957) - Deserves to be Kubrick's most well known film, well ahead of Full Metal Jacket, Clockwork Orange, The Shining, or Barry Lyndon. Although the final scene has brought me to tears many times and is well regarded, the scenes with the three accused men in prison are perhaps just as memorable.

Braveheart (1996) - A film that did very well at the time but has since been forgotten, perhaps its reputation has gone down with Mel Gibson's. However it's a remarkably entertaining film with some beautiful shots of the Scottish countryside. I suspect it also helped ignite a boom in the epic battle scene that lasted for about a decade or longer.

Network (1976) and Election (1999) - Both extremely prophetic films that chickened out in the end; had they each gone down the darker path, they would have been truly great. But I'll still put them here because the veins they tapped into have flowed well into the 21st century.

Your Name/Kimi No Nawa (2016) - Not underrated among the cult fanbase it's acquired, but sadly it never got a wide release in the U.S., was never nominated for any Oscar in the animated film category, and will forever be relegated to 'anime' even though it's a rare animated film that adults and non-anime fans can enjoy equally as well. Worse, it's slated for a live-action remake that will certainly fail to measure up. It's too bad most will never get a chance to discover this beautiful film.

Assassination Nation is one of my favourite all-time movies. Braveheart is boring and couldn't stand the test of time.

One of my favorite films of all time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Creek

Watch it. Seriously. I hope some streaming service makes it a cult classic or something because it totally deserves it. (Apparently it's available on Showtime's streaming now. Hope eventually makes it to Netflix or Hulu.)

Not surprising to see why it never picked up: massive buzz back in the day, very low budget, a cast that was mostly teens and whose most notable work prior to it was Nickelodeon shows yet it was very much not a kids' movie or something that would appeal to kids at all, (frankly to a child the premise is basically a horror movie), never got a non-limited art house release and in 2004 online distribution of movies was still pretty niche so if you weren't into the art house film scene you wouldn't even hear of it...it's still one of the most well made and emotional films ever, as well as "realistic". As in the characters act like people in real life would in a similar situation, not like movie characters. Also makes the acting VERY impressive, I wouldn't expect teenage actors with a background in Nickelodeon kid's comedies to display the emotional range needed here but oh boy did it work.

It's better than all of 2004's Best Picture nominees. If you have Showtime's streaming, watch it now. If you don't, then rent it on YouTube or Amazon or something. It's absolutely worth it.

(And don't watch the trailer first, it's very spoiler-y and doesn't really sell the movie well.)

Good call. One of my favourites too!

L.A. Confidential remains the most underrated film of all time.

It's a classic like how could it be underrated? It's not because a movie isn't in the top 10 of IMDb that it is underrated lol???

[LAKISYLVANIA]

-99 Homes.
-Under the Silver Lake.
-Deep Red.
-Ingrid Goes West.
-Bottle Rocket.
-Beasts of No nation.
-Adaptation.
-Anomalisa.
-Fateful Findings.
-Blade Runner 2049.
-Blindspotting.
-Paddleton.
-Nocturnal Animals.
-Uncut Gems.
-Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
-The Blackcoat's Daughter.
-The Exorcist III.
-Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
-Free Fire.
-Anthropoid.
-Swiss Army Man.
-The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
-Frank.
-All is Lost.
-First Reformed.
-A Simple Favor.
-Thoroughbreds.
-Doctor Sleep.
-The Old Man and the Gun.
-The Cable Guy.
-Doubt.
-The World's End.
-Weiner.
-Ex Machina.
-The Founder.
-War for the Planet of the Apes.

Several I want to see, and several I agree with
Ex Machina is perhaps slightly underrated, but I agree with most i've seen.

I don't know about all time, but I will echo your 1408 suggestion.  Cusack does an amazing job, and the symbolic layers are cool.  I'm a trippy sci-fi horror nerd, so here are a few more that are underrated, IMO:

As Above, So Below (same symbolism as 1408 in a lot of ways)
Triangle
The Endless (might want to make it through the somewhat worse Resolution first)
Oculus
Coherence

Good list too. Only saw As Above, So Below, so i second that

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Some others

Suspiria
Kreuzweg
Midsommar
Respire
Home
Heathers
Ex Drummer
Utøya 22. juli
Hjartasteinn
American Honey
Song of the Sea
Hereditary
Mean Creek
Grave
Darbareye Elly
Badlands
Mean Girls
Jigoku de naze warui
Shiki-Jitsu
Mustang
Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo
4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile
Hwal
Después de Lucía
Låt den rätte komma in
De helaasheid der dingen
Thelma
Lola rennt
Crimson Peak
En kongelig affære
Kokuhaku


Also HM to Eyes Wide Shut. Not underrated, but Kubrick's masterpiece, not 2001, FMJ, ACO, Strangelove or The Shining.

[GenerationTerrorist]

Not sure how many non-Brits have ever seen it, but "This is England" is one of the best British films of the past 25 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_England
The performance by Stephen Graham is up there with the finest of all time.

[John Dule]

The first two Harry Potter films: Mr. Dule was just wrong. The direction had a certain whimsy and fun that the other movies lacked, ironic considering the upped budget. Richard Harris was iconic as Dumbledore. Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman were top notch... but so was Jason Isaacs [aka Zhukov], oh and Brannagh as Lockhart. But yes, the kids were actually quite well cast. It's lamentable that so much got lost after Columbus left.

The first three Potter movies are... tolerable, and definitely ok to watch if you're on a long international flight. I can't possibly call any of those movies "good" though.

[Santander]

The first two Harry Potter films: Mr. Dule was just wrong. The direction had a certain whimsy and fun that the other movies lacked, ironic considering the upped budget. Richard Harris was iconic as Dumbledore. Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman were top notch... but so was Jason Isaacs [aka Zhukov], oh and Brannagh as Lockhart. But yes, the kids were actually quite well cast. It's lamentable that so much got lost after Columbus left.

The first three Potter movies are... tolerable, and definitely ok to watch if you're on a long international flight. I can't possibly call any of those movies "good" though.

I only watch Chinese movies when I fly intercontinental.