When you see a movie that got slaughtered at the box office and slain by critics, and you think “this is actually pretty good” – Have you become one of those strange souls that enjoy bad films ? Possibly . But possibly not. Maybe it’s a good film in disguise…
There are many legendary films that flopped with reviewers and moviegoers at the time of release, but got reassessed later. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Blow Out, Big Trouble in Little china, just to name a few. But there are still other movies that have been left out in the cold and are waiting for passionate cinephiles to rediscover the merits in them.
I talked to some movie loving friends and used my own viewing experience to come up with a list of films that should get another look.
These movies misfired with critics and audiences at the time of their release but they deserve a reappraisal because there’s some real quality in them – whether it’s provocative treatment of a disturbing idea, a brilliant setting and story, and some masterclass acting or maybe it’s just so bonkers unusual that another viewing with fresh eyes might totally change it for you.
So, here are my nominees for films that deserve a second chance:
1] The Chronicles of Riddick – director David Twohy’s followup to his successful low budget sci-fi film Pitch Black, took the enigmatic silver eyed criminal Riddick and thrust him into an intergalactic sci-fi story where he’s the last of his race, the Furians, helping colonies fight off a soul sucking warrior space invasion army known as the Necromongers. It’s full of fascinating new worlds such as Crematoria, a burning prison moon, interesting new characters with a world of backstory behind them such as Aereon, an elemental played by no less than Dame Judi Dench, and it has fantasy movie favourites Karl Urban and Thandie Newton playing the diabolical Commander Vaako and his scheming Lady MacBeth styled wife. There’s wonderful production design, incredible set pieces and striking action sequences, and to top if off – Vin Diesel carries the film as the anti-hero lead.
Yet in spite of all these assets, the film crash landed upon release and got pilloried by the critics. And each time I’ve watched it, I’m utterly confounded as to why ?!? It’s actually a good film that works on it’s own, not merely as a cash grabbing sequel. David Twohy always intended for the Riddick story to be a trilogy so there was thought put into this. It’s like the critics have a ingrained prejudice against sci-fi fantasy that doesn’t follow the infantilising efforts of the Star Wars formula or the light and trite popcorn humour of Marvel films. This film deserves a reassessment and an acknowledgement of it’s world building efforts using an original story.
it also makes me squirm.
It certainly didn’t sell the movie to cinema-goers.
2] Mother – directed by Darron Aronofsky. Kubrick should be grateful he died before the age of social media, and critical aggregates such as Rotten Tomatoes etc. Because any dark, confronting, challenging work is excoriated almost immediately and killed at the box office before its true merits can be perceived. There are many contenders for Kubrick’s crown but I’d argue Aronofsky takes the biggest risks of any of them. He’s not making films to please, he’s a genuine provocateur and what was Kubrick if not that . Or maybe it was watching the usually vibrant and brash Jennifer Lawrence play submissive and get beaten up and mutilated. It’s not an easy watch and even though it’s not a gore fest – it is disturbing and confronting – but it is supposed to be that. Great cinema isn’t always easy accessible cinema – sometimes it’s the films that fuck with you or haunt you long afterwards.
3] Impromptu – a 1991 film about the genesis of the love affair between authoress George Sand, and composer Chopin. This film is eccentric, unconventional and utterly charming, if a tad self indulgent. It got ignored by filmgoers and a received a prickly reception from critics who totally missed the gender reversal feminist themes of this radical story. It has brave performances from a brilliant cast including Judy Davis, Julian Sand, Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin and a young Hugh Grant attempting a french accent as Chopin [this was before Hugh Grant’s career blew up in the states after Four Weddings and a Funeral, so he took more chances with roles then].
There weren’t many films made back then where the woman is the sexual aggressor chasing a man who is in some ways, more feminine than she. It’s a comedy, a satire and a period romance drama all at once. Definitely one to enjoy with a glass of champagne and an air of bemusement.
4] John Carter – aka John from Mars – it bombed spectacularly but guess what – it’s actually pretty good for the first hour in. Solid actors, good integrated VFX, archetypal characters played with humour and conviction. I was watching it, waiting for it to get really bad aka Michael Bay Transformers flicks bad but it didn’t . So then I was mystified as to why it was so singularly maligned. After all the source material for John Carter, the Edgar Rice Burroughs Princess of Mars [the first in the John Carter on Barsoom novel series] inspired countless other big sci-fi fantasy franchises including Star Wars, Avatar, Flash Gordon etc. It’s a big epic story, like an Indiana Jones adventure on an alien planet.
A comment from Reddit gave me some clues:
“…John Carter didn’t get a fair shake right from the word go because the marketing was horrible. There was almost no buzz about it, no fanfare, and no explanation of what the film was really about. The average film has people making dozens of predictions and theories in the current era, but when John Carter came out there was barely a peep.”
Reddit sub
Look, There ARE faults.
The screenplay is structurally confusing, it starts with a flash forward and then tells the main plot as a backstory where John Carter is teleported to Barsoom [aka Mars] and caught in an intercontinental war, where several tribes of aliens are fighting for control of the planet, all of this is inadequately explained – so the many different species of aliens and the multitude of characters appearing, becomes a bit of a blur. Taylor Kitsch has zero chemistry with his leading lady Lynn Collins which is a problem when their love story is supposed to be the hero’s motivation. And in an age where all the blockbusters that were inspired by the Barsoom novel series, ended up getting released before them, the John Carter story may feel derivative. But in spite of these flaws, the film is still very watchable, if not great.
5] Valerian and the city of a thousand planets – I saw this the year it was released, in 2017 at a Q&A screening with director Luc Besson who actually took the trouble to turn up in person for the session. It had fantastic surreal wondrous visuals, a great supporting cast, resonant political and environmental themes, some stellar action sequences and a complex thrilling story. This should have been the followup fantasy hit to Luc Besson’s Fifth Element, his last effort in this genre. The problem = the two leads had all the chemistry of deadwood and about the same acting ability too. But don’t let that put you off – they aren’t on screen all the time and they are surrounded by much better supporting actors and visual paraphernalia that flies through at a snappy pace. the film isn’t slow. I found it highly entertaining if a bit jumbled. Give it a shot.
6] The Man from UNCLE – I’ll never understand how this film got overlooked when Kingsman got to the top of the box office. This is actually the better flick for me. It’s a homage to the 60s with a modern touch – it’s a stylish flick, with great leads who do have chemistry and are believable action heroes. It’s possibly the best thing Guy Ritchie has directed as it has his personality without his empty stylistic bombast. He’s reined in his flashy advertising cutting, and pulled back on his ultra-gangster violence pastiche here to let the action set pieces do their work.
This is the film where I really discovered Armie Hammer. His russian accent as Yuri is on point here – he sounds just like my Russian mechanic so I buy it, and the reluctant dance scene between him and the marvellous Alicia Vikander is a comic delight. He’s seriously sexy in this with his reined in tension, overly serious demeanour that hints at something warmer, and he has chemistry with his co-stars.
Henry Cavill does his best attempt at a yankee James Bond, and it’s a decent effort. He’s suave and he looks the part. Alicia Vikander is a talented agent and one hell of a driver. The car chase scenes in the opening are engrossing and masterfully executed, the boat chase scene where Henry Cavill’s Napoleon Solo swans it casually in a truck with a fine italian picnic as Hammer’s Yuri is doing all the work is a deft comic touch. Elisabeth Debicki’s ultra fashionable ice queen villianous is never less than compelling. It has fabulous settings in Italy, Germany etc. This film should have launched a franchise of several films, I don’t know why it didn’t .
7] Atomic Blonde – someone explain to me why so many people keep chiming for a female Bond when there is Lorraine Broughton. She’s smart, ruthless, calculating, sexually dominating and so kickass she makes Charles Bronson look like a pussy. It’s a powerhouse performance from Charlize Theron who’d already proven she could be an action star in Mad Max-Fury Road. Coupled with a entrancingly shifty, sly James McAvoy as her British contact with his dirty fingers in everything – this film is a breakout event that deserved a much better reception than it got.
8] A Cure for Wellness – directed by Gore Verbinski. Made on a $40M budget and reportedly returning only $25M, this psychological horror flick was seen as more proof that the once big budget star director has lost his mojo. How quickly folks forget that this was the guy who delivered The Ring – one of the few good remakes of Japanese horror, and also gave us the two best films in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. A Cure for Wellness is an intriguing film, with oodles of atmosphere and it’s not boring. Yes it features bad DiCaprio wannabe Dane DeHaan but don’t let that stop you, he’s decent here. It’s like a mystery wrapped in an enigma – it’s very watchable. If this had been a TV show on Netflix – the critics would’ve lapped it up the way they’re drooling over Lovecraft Country right now.
9] Free Fire – Ben Wheatley’s folk horror action film or as my friend called it – the shoot out in a barn. He came unstuck with this one. Up to this point, Wheatley had a good run with the critics and then this came out and it was like they’d punctured a balloon. But it deserves a second chance because it’s a gutsy, original, balls-to-the-wall shoot out flick with great leads – Brie Larson. Even at his flawed worst, a Ben Wheatley film isn’t dull.
10] Crimson Peak – a creation of Guillermo Del Toro -this is a splendid film that works best if you think of the film as less of a straight horror and more of a gothic romance like those old black & white films with Vincent Price such as Dragonwyck. The problem was the that Crimson Peak was marketed as a straight horror so that critics and audiences left bewildered and disappointed. Which is a shame because this film has a great story, brilliant gothic production design and standout performances by Jessica Chastain, and Mia Wasilkowska.
Oh, and Tom Hiddleston does a serviceable job as the tragic sinister romantic foil. It IS a ghost story and you do see ghosts but it isn’t primarily a ghost story, but more about the emotional traumas that attract ghosts. It’s creepy and atmospheric but not scary. That doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining and compelling to watch, as Crimson Peak is better the second time around when you approach it without the false expectations.
11] Odd Thomas – the last film that talented actor Anton Yelchin ever made before dying tragically at the age of 27, this is also the best adaptation of a Dean Koontz novel ever made. The bestselling horror writer has had no luck with adaptations up to this point – they’ve all been terrible until Odd Thomas. But critics and audiences totally overlooked this one.
12] Beautiful Creatures – this attempt to do a teen franchise backfired badly as many have done since studios have struggled to replicate the Twilight and Hunger Games franchises. This film has a great cast but hey, so what – other bad films have been gifted with that too, and sunk regardless. This film does have a twist on the girl meets ‘special freak’ boy story. It’s a boy meets ‘special freak’ girl story and the leads have real chemistry. Their story is sweet and touching until all the supernatural family hijinks begins to hijack the plot and smother the film. It’s well acted and well shot, and if they had toned down the magic mumbo jumbo CGI in the final act of the film, this might have been taken more seriously. It does deserve a slot on this list.
13] Cloud Atlas – the trailer was the best thing I’d seen in years and had loads of views, the cast looked amazing, the concept was both high concept and arthouse. A film permeated with deep spiritual themes [which did really well for Life of Pi] and the Wachowskis were onboard – so what went wrong ? and why ? The film is an intriguing look on how we are all connected and how our connected stories play out and repeat themselves over time and space. Based on a critically acclaimed literary novel, it was never going to be the easiest adaptation but did it deserve the shunning it got ? On watching it – I’d say no.
14] Man on a Ledge – every time I become convinced by my numerous film friends proclaiming that Sam Worthington can’t act, I’ll see a film that challenges that theory. Clearly he’s terrible at accents, and his range has definite limits – but he can hold his own in any ‘leading man trapped against the odds’ roles. He’s capable and watchable here. and this film is a decent thriller that got overlooked in the Worthington backlash. It’s got an interesting premise and the supporting actors are solid. It flunked upon release and got mixed reviews but if you can bare Sam Worthington’s atrocious non-existent US accent – it does manage to entertain.
15] The Beaver – a Jodie Foster film that had the misfortune of starring Mel Gibson when he was facing a public backlash against him for his infamous verbal rants. But is this a bad film ? I’d argue not. It dares to take a long look at mental illness and the difficulty a family has negotiating with it when an executive, played by Mel Gibson, suffering depression, starts communicating through a puppet beaver. I think also the title doesn’t do it any favours – too many sexual jokes.
16] Machine Gun Preacher – Gerard Butler acted in a biopic on Sam Childers – the extraordinary story of a former bikie gang thug who converted to Christianity and went to Africa to save children from being kidnapped and turned into child soldiers. It’s not on the same level as Blood Diamond but it’s worth the watch. This film is a bit long, a bit preachy, but it has heart and one of the best performances from Gerard Butler in the last decade.
17] Splice – a sci-fi film that the critics and the audiences didn’t get. [But later they’d respond to the same themes in Ex-Machina]. It has Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody as the lead scientists who splice together various genes to make a humanoid animal creature, and bring it up only to watch it revert to it’s primal nature. Writer-director, Vincenzo Natali is a talented genre filmmaker with some great ideas.
His low budget debut film Cube, launched his career and while some of his followup flicks have been uneven, even his most flawed pics are chock full of striking visuals and deep philosophical themes. Splice is certainly one of his more intriguing flawed creations. It’s a confronting flick that faces our nature to play god and ignore the consequences. It got polarising reviews and scared people away from the box office but I honestly think it will be a cult film one day.
18] Where the Wild things are – Spike Jonze. After his genius debut of Being John Malkovich and his sophomore feature Adaptation getting lauded, Jonze ran aground of film critics and audiences with this filmic interpretation of Maurice Sendak’s famed kids novel. The original story is of a temperamental young boy called Max who becomes the king of strange moody malicious creatures called ‘wild things’ but after he feels lonely and bored with his emotional subjects, decides he’s not meant to be a king and goes home. Jonze took this very basic story of a child’s imagination gone amuck, as a launchpad to create a film about childhood aimed at adults warning them not to overindulge in their inner child and let their emotions overrule their common sense. A very relevant message for current times where high emotions rule social media and obscure facts, but this underlying message got lost in the release of this film. Watch it again with new eyes.
19] Pandorum – when I ask sci-fi filmmakers and science fiction fans which fantastic film got totally overlooked by critics and viewers – this film always comes up. A sci-fi horror film that blends classic horror survival tales with an exploration of evolution and colonization – Pandora is hard boiled sci-fi which looks at what happens to the surviving colonists on a space ship when their attempt to save the remnants of the human race goes pear shaped.
It has the lot – space chambers, an imminent nuclear reactor meltdown, cannibalistic mutants, space psychosis, new worlds. It’s an original story with a twist ending you don’t see coming . It was badly promoted and misunderstood so it sank on release. It didn’t even make it’s budget back. In spite of that, sci-fi fans have sought it out, and it’s about time that critics put a fresh eye on this innovative original film.
20] American Ultra – a spy flick where a stoner dude discovers he’s a sleeper CIA agent who’s been targeted for termination. It’s like if True Romance got meshed with the Bourne Identity. Audiences were dubious and so were critics which was a shame as this flick with Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg, was actually…pretty good. Yes it’s written by uber-talented douchebag Max Landis, but don’t let that put you off.
21] Super – a violent superhero movie that came out in 2010 and was writer-director, James Gunn’s sophomore flick before he went all Guardians of the Galaxy on us. Unfortunately Kick-ass came out the same year, where Matthew Vaughn explored the same idea – ie. what would it be like if real life people tried to be masked vigilante superheroes [but without the super powers ]. Many people think Super is the darker, more realistic film. And maybe that’s why it got punished upon release. But do revisit it. It doesn’t pull its punches.
22] The Majestic – a old fashioned optimistic kind of film that feels like something Frank Capra would’ve directed instead of Frank Darabont, the director of the most depressing King adaptation of a horror film ever, The Mist. And we have Jim Carrey in serious actor mode – something he’s much better at than he was ever given credit for. A Hollywood screenwriter, and suspected communist, gets amnesia after a car accident, and is welcomed into a small town as a lost war veteran. After he changes everything for the better, the FBI swoop on him and try to charge him as a Communist stooge. There’s more to the film than that plot summation would suggest. A strong message about true freedom and an anti-fascist strain runs through it.
23] Reign of fire – this dragon film was the best realistic dragon film I’d ever seen before we got the beasts in Game of Thrones a decade later. It has a gangbuster crazy performance by Matthew McConaughy , trying to shake off his rom-com lead stigma at the time, [this was before the McConnaisance] , but the critics weren’t ready to recognise him yet, as a dragon hunting parachuting mercenary. Christian Bale and an early career Gerard Butler as the leaders of the small tribe of remaining humans bravely trying to survive in a now inhospitable world. They do solid work here. The story beats are all in the right place, the action sequences are a marvel – so why did audiences and critics come down so hard on this flick at the time ? beats me.
24] The Mothman Prophecies – a feature where actor Richard Gere plays reporter John Klein who explores the myth of the infamous Mothman – a supernatural creature or urban myth that appears to people in the rural towns of the midwest and is supposedly a harbinger of disaster. This film is like an extended X-Files episode, and I mean that in a good way. It’s got atmosphere, suspense and subtle supernatural implications. Richard Gere and Laura Linney lend the film some gravitas and they take the subject matter seriously to complement the unsettling mood.
It barely made it’s bucks back at the box office and audiences were bewildered but it has a growing fan base of appreciative viewers who like the subtle but spooky approach the film took to the creature. There are podcasts and youtube videos devoted to explaining the mysteries of this film. Now tell me that anyone would waste time doing that if this film was truly a ‘bad’ film.
25] Dune – Most people think this is a David Lynch misfire but I’d argue it isn’t. First of all, adapting one of the greatest sci-fi novels of all time, where writer Frank Herbert created an intricate mythic universe more vast than anything seen on screen, was always going to be a tough operation. And David Lynch gets more things right here than not – the vast cosmic power of the Spice, the monolith sandworms, the fanatical Bene Gesserit sect.
Yes the story onscreen seems as dangerously unstable as the quicksand of Arrakis’s deserts, and some of the dialogue is stilted – but the film is also immersive and compelling. It will be interesting when Denis Villenueve’s version comes out next year, to see how he has grappled with the challenging material. I think he might come unstuck as Lynch did on this novel but it will be great to watch, just as this version actually is.
26] Event Horizon – reviled by the critics and shunned by audiences upon release, this film has turned into a cult film because it’s the most convincing vision of hell ever put on screen. The basic premise is this – A lost spacecraft returns, a team of astronauts investigate, and hell is unleashed. It’s a dark, gory, terrifying film with some forceful portrayals from Sam Neill, Lawrence Fishbourne etc. I can’t stomach it but my hard core horror friends love it and I can’t deny it’s disturbing visceral power.
27] Passengers – a sci-fi film with Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt – two of the biggest names in Hollywood couldn’t launch the film in the stratosphere. Critics were divided and audiences bewildered – both stayed away from giving this film a fighting chance. It makes ugly moral choices that are true to life. Characters are selfish AND loving. On a colony ship full of people in hibernation on a 120 year journey in space, a malfunction wakens a man 90 years early. To stave off isolation anguish, he awakens a woman from hibernation to be his companion but their love and life is endangered when she discovers his deception.
There was a lot of backlash about the ethics of the film. Yes what Chris Pratt’s Jim does to avoid the fate of living and dying alone is unethical and selfish but it is human. It is possible that any of us might do the same when confronted with such a stark lonely destiny. Loneliness can drive anyone mad. So this is a love story built on false sand. But that doesn’t make it a bad film, just a morally perplexing one. It doesn’t dodge that moral question – it confronts it. And if we demand all films feature leads and characters that only do good and ethical things which they get rewarded for – well that will make for very predictable dull films in the long run. Morten Tyldum is also one of producers on the great sci-fi series Counterpart – which is also full of moral conundrums. He’s a master of his niche. Forget the naysayers on this film, and make up your own mind.
28] Twin Peaks – Fire Walk with Me – it’s a mess but what a brilliant mess. It took me a while to appreciate this film. I hated it like quicksand when it came out, but have since grown to steadily appreciate this overlooked David Lynch gem. It revisits the world of Twin Peaks, and the days leading up to Laura Palmer’s death. It stomps over familiar ground but there is an alluring dark atmosphere to it, and some great work by Ray Wise etc. It will always be the weaker sister in the Twin Peaks filmic family but it’s pretty engrossing viewing regardless.
29] In the mouth of Madness – we don’t deserve filmmaker John Carpenter – a misunderstood genius who was and is ahead of his time. Nearly every second film he made got shunned at release and then rediscovered later. Most are now considered classics, masterpieces or cult hits. This film of his however, is still overlooked. And I honestly think it’s one of the best genre films that Sam Neill has ever acted in [and he’s done a few]. Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance investigator tasked with finding missing horror novelist Sutter Cane, a writer whose books have driven people to madness and worse. But the more he looks, the crazier events become. This is a massive meta-film that folds in on itself like a horror diorama. Critics are still mystified but hopefully horror fans will seek it out.
30] Premium Rush – a racy thriller about a bike courier played by Joseph Gordon Levitt on the run from crooked cop Michael Shannon who’s chasing him for a package he has. It’s better than it sounds.. Got overlooked at the cinema and mixed reviews by the critics but it is getting another renaissance because it’s that rare thing we don’t make anymore – a good old fashioned action film without superheroes or excess spectacle that moves at breakneck speed. I won’t say any more. Just watch it and see what I mean.
31] Bright – a film that asks what if fantasy creatures lived in an urban jungle along us. Featuring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, it got absolutely soul crushing reviews but it is much better than reviewers will lead you to believe. Great chemistry between Will Smith’s Ward, and Joel Edgerton’s ork’ cop Jacoby. Great VFX, an action chase story wrapped in a buddy cop movie with LOTR trappings. Yeah there are a few inconsistencies – i.e. why do all the various gangsters want the wand when only a ‘bright’ aka a magical person can hold it without blowing up ? why does Will Smith show no remorse when he has to blow his teammates away ? But these are tiny potholes in a strong, funny plot driven film with a good buddy cop dynamic. It’s like the critics want to punish this film for daring to do a formula well, or because precious talented a-hole Max Landis wrote it. Almost as if there was a conspiracy to sink this film before it was even released and I don’t know why.
How come the snappy patter of Bad Boys was praised, and the genre twist of Hancock was recognised, but when Will Smith repeats the pattern here and it’s equally good – the critics trashed it. Naomi Rapace was a great villain as teutonic blonde dark elf bright, Leila. Even the supporting roles are a delight. It was denied a cinema release and it was released on Netflix where film reviewers promptly sunk their knives into it, but the audience score is much better which leads me to believe this film is getting its due.
And that’s all the entries I could come up with so far.
However, this list is by no means complete but it does make one reassess what qualifies as a good film ? And why some decent films or even half-decent films don’t get a fair shot. I might even reassess some of these and decide they really are as bad as they are portrayed to be, but for the present, I’ll stand by it, and I invite you to watch these films and let me know what you think.
There are other contentious titles out there that eagle eyed viewers may want to critically evaluate themselves, please feel free to add those films and the reasons why they merit consideration, in the comments.
Gita Irwin's Awesome Stuff that Matters 
Cloud Atlas is definitely my favorite of the misunderstood masterpieces. I’ll probably add Prince of Darkness to the list as well.
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you could probably add half of John Carpenter’s filmography. Was there ever a more critically undervalued filmmaker than him ? It’s ridiculous how shortsighted film critics were on the relevance of his work.
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That’s an exhausting but nonetheless interesting list, I don’t know, that I agree with all of your choices, I would’ve added Speed Racer and Hulk.
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the Edward Norton Hulk ? or the Eric Bana Hulk ?
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Eric Bana Hulk, it’s such a fascinating film.
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That was an exhausting but interesting list, I don’t necessarily agree with all of the choices, some I haven’t seen, I would’ve added Speed Racer and Hulk, personally.
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