My 5 most underrated movies

Hey all FOC here,

There are many films I dislike, some I even hate (Michael Bay I'm looking at you). Then there are those movies that I love. Some are well known and yet others seem to be an afterthought for many people. These are my top 5 films that really should have a higher profile:

5) Wag the Dog

Robert De Niro is an odd case. Some people consider him to be a great actor but really in my opinion he plays the same character again and again (much like Michael Caine and John Wayne). So if you have a film that suits the gruff, always serious De Niro then you could well be onto a winner.

This is one of those movies. For those of you who haven't seen it De Niro plays an aide to a Clinton like president in the weeks before a presidential election. Unfortunately a scandal occurs when the president seduces a girl scout whilst she is on a tour of the Whitehouse. To avoid a political disaster De Niro decides to fake a war in Albania and brings in a Hollywood producer played by Dustin Hoffman to achieve this.

What's great about this movie is how De Niro and Hoffman play off each other. De Niro plays the straight man to Hoffman's eccentric producer and most of the humour comes from the way this preposterous situation is handled by both with dry humour and seriousness. It's that juxtaposition that makes the film a success.

4) Excalibur

When people are asked what their favourite fantasy movie is other than the Lord of the Rings they will usually answer with a 1980's production like Krull or Willow. Excalibur is very rarely mentioned.

I don't understand that. Excalibur is a vastly superior movie, more ambitious, more visually impressive and far better acted than any of the 80's fantasy offerings. To make a film about the entire Arthurian epic from beginning to end is a tremendous undertaking, one that they pull off with aplomb.

3) Master and Commander

"Hang on" you say, "I saw that film, it was awesome" and yes, yes it was. If this was a "films everyone thinks are sucky but I don't" post then Master and Commander would have no place here.

The point is that this post is about underrated movies and I think this is one. This is such a good movie that it should be regarded as highly as Gladiator or the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Yet it sits there as a movie everybody likes but then kind of forgets about. This is such a well acted, well directed movie that it deserves so much more.

2) Pitch Black

Much like Master and Commander this is an awesome movie that deserves more respect. Beautifully shot, brilliantly tense and well acted it's a sci fi classic that needs more support.

It's a shame that the grungy junk tech of the first movie was replaced by a gothic feel in the second movie but that doesn't invalidate the first movie in any way. Plus Riddick is awesome in this movie.

1) Tombstone

Man I LOVE this movie. It has "badass" stamped right through it. A truly magnificent film and it baffles me that it is not more widely respected.

From Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday to the brothers and the Cowboys the cast does a brilliant job. The gunfight at the OK Corrall is very well done, the dialogue is snappy and endlessly quotable and at the centre of it all Wyatt Earp is a spirit of vengeance played with perfect menace and drive by Kurt Russell.

This is a great movie, if you haven't watched it go find it now.

Your resident critic

Fall of Camelot