Four-Star Classics
Great four-star movies you may have missed while you were waiting in line for that five-star blockbuster.
These DVDs aren't five-star classics, but they’re not too bad either... and they're not too low-budget to scare you off either. Here are our favourite undiscovered classic movies – with casts including stars like Christian Bale, Sean Penn, Natalie Portman, and that guy from Goodfellas.
ARLINGTON ROAD
Starring Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack. Directed by Mark Pellington (1999)
At least two years ahead of its time, this tight little thriller has Jeff Bridges as a widowed professor whose new neighbours are a pair of on-the-run terrorists. Or not. No, wait, they are! And Jeff Bridges has proof, but nobody believes him!
SHAUN OF THE DEAD
Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost. Directed by Edgar Wright (2004)
Your TV guide probably listed this minor classic as a "British romantic comedy horror"… which is another way of saying "Don’t Watch This". But your TV guide’s full of crap. This film has more laughs, more charm, and way more zombies than any movie rightfully should.
GALAXY QUEST
Starring Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub. Directed by Dean Parisot (1999)
It’s like Three Amigos… but in outer space! And if that concept doesn’t at least have you smirking in amusement, then there’s no joy for you on this or any other planet. Tim Allen leads a group of washed-up TV actors (including the absolutely brilliant Alan Rickman) who’re called to help a group of aliens who’re under attack from big, evil (and completely real) aliens. Mandatory viewing for sci-fi fanboys, and highly recommended for anybody who’s ever arched an eyebrow during a Star Trek episode.
RESCUE DAWN
Starring Christian Bale, Steve Zahn. Directed by Werner Herzog (2007)
Based on a true story (and based on director Werner Herzog’s documentary of that true story), this is a war movie like no other. (Unless you count Paradise Road. But we don’t.) Christian Bale is an American pilot trapped in a Vietnamese prison camp, who plots his escape. It’s absolutely harrowing, and – in a shocking development that no moviegoer could ever have predicted – it has Steve Zahn doing some actually acting. And doing it disturbingly well.
SNEAKERS
Starring Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Ben Kinglsey, River Phoenix and pretty much any half-decent early-90s character actor you can think of. Directed by Phil Alden Robinson (1992)
Okay, so the tech has aged horribly (the computer screens are all monochrome, for a start), but the thrills are as… y’know… thrilling as they were back in that innocent, pre-Window95 age. Robert Redford’s merry band of proto-hackers stumble upon a device that can decrypt any code on the Internet – leading to a cat-and-mouse game involving several shady US government organisations.
IDENTITY
Starring John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Alfred Molina, Amanda Peet, Rebecca de Mornay, John C McGinley. Directed by James Mangold (2003)
Another forgotten flick with a stellar cast, this one has a twisty-turny plotline involving 10 total strangers stuck in a remote desert motel. Who’s killing them off? And what’s the deal with the totally unrelated story of the psycho killer? Just when you think the twists have all untwisted, another comes along and twists it all up again.
LÉON
Starring Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman. Directed by Luc Besson (1994)
Also know as The Professional, also known as The First Time You Saw Natalie Portman. Leon (Reno) is a hitman. Gary Oldman is a crooked cop. The inappropriately lovely Miss Portman is a girl whose family gets killed by Oldman, and who seeks shelter (and revenge) with Leon. Though it’s more a five-star classic than a four-star below-the-radar flick, we’re astounded at how many people we meet who’ve never seen this movie.
U-TURN
Starring list of stars as long as your arm. Directed by Oliver Stone (1997)
A drifter (Sean Penn) on the run drifts/runs into a tiny town in the Arizona desert, where he encounters a crazy mechanic (Billy Bob Thornton), a murderous husband (Nick Nolte) and wife (Jennifer Lopez), a local thug (Joaquin Phoenix) and a crooked cop (Powers Boothe). One bad idea leads to another, and the plot boils over into a mangled mess of betrayal, counter-betrayal, counter-counter-betrayal and assorted sun-baked craziness.
THE MACHINIST
Starring Christian Bale going totally bonkers. Directed by Brad Anderson (2004)
Like Fight Club without the fists and Jacob’s Ladder without the monsters, this psychological thriller sees Christian Bale slowly unravelling in a maze of mysterious events, clues, red herrings, and men who aren’t there. The Internet Movie Database sums the plot up like such: "An industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity." That’s only half the story, as the weird stuff pushes Bale closer and closer to losing his marbles completely.
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