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[Captain_Frisk]

Looking for some hidden gems to put on the top of my netflix queue, because after being a netflix member for so long, my queue is now stuffed full of random stuff that I thought i might want to watch some day, but I'm not super interested in.

While I'm not a super film buff - I do enjoy watching movies.

Generally - I use rotten tomatoes as my filter for going to the theater - but that's not quite as good for trolling for DVDs - since searching RT for best movies results in a bunch of documentaries reviewed by art snobs.

General guidelines:

Will watch any fiction movie rated 95% or better on RT
Will watch most dramas / romantic comedies over 80%
Will watch most things in genres I enjoy (thrillers, action, comedies) @ 60% or higher
Will watch trash that I love @ 40% and above (james bond, super hero movies, terminator movies, movies starring jason statham, arnold, etc.)
Will watch horror @ 20% and above (because lets face it... saw is never going to get a 97% rating)
Will watch anything with time travel - (Timechangers for an example of how bad this can get)

Examples of hidden gems that I'm looking for:
Memento, Triangle, Primer, 11 minutes Ago, Timecrimes, Drive, Source Code, Moon, American Beauty, The Ice Storm, Infernal Affairs, A History of Violence

Hopefully this will find some some new stuff - and if its a duplicate of things I've seen - maybe recommendations for other folks

[timchen]

You are pretty strict huh? I can watch romantic comedies in the thirties and think it is actually not that bad.

[Captain_Frisk]

You are pretty strict huh? I can watch romantic comedies in the thirties and think it is actually not that bad.

Yep, I'd rather try to figure out role madness mafia for 2 hours than watch http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/break_up/ again.

[WanderingWinder]

Wait, not wanting to watch something that 2/3 of people dislike is strict? Maybe I just don't know RT well enough.
I can give you recent here, but I have no idea why I would think you haven't seen anything I would suggest, particularly as I am pretty meh on movies in general.

[Captain_Frisk]

The baby has really cut down on seeing "recent" movies - so if you think you saw something cool - let me hear it.

[Kuildeous]

Memento is actually in my if-I-had-a-gun-put-to-my-head-so-I'd-choose top 5 list, the other movies being Brazil, Reservoir Dogs, Shallow Grave, and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Not exactly a homogenous bunch.

If you like Memento, then I have to suggest Inception. Same director even. Fight Club's another good one. The Usual Suspects and Donnie Darko also jack with you a little bit.

If you like horror, then you must watch Cabin in the Woods. It is not technically a horror movie, though there are some jumpy scenes. It handles horror movies in a beautiful fashion.

If you don't mind being grossed out by an overly amorous preteen Natalie Portman, the Professional is good. It's actually a heartwarming and sweet story amid a lot of bloodshed (and who doesn't like Gary Oldman?).

I'm a huge fan of Snatch. I think it's a cleverly written and filmed movie that perhaps has more style than substance, but both are pretty good. With all the unique and colorful characters, it's almost like Dick Tracy on steroids

If you like subtitles, I enjoyed these films from the same director: Amelie and the City of Lost Children. The former is whimsical and fantastical. The latter is bizarre and visually compelling. Some colorful characters here too. There is also Delicatessen, though I must confess I have not seen this one yet.

I say that Pan's Labyrinth is a good movie, but you need a shower afterwards. I saw it in the theatre and only recently could bring myself to watch it again. This goes in the category of "Movies that are so good I can't watch them more than once." The Road is also in that category, though I don't rank it as a particularly great movie. It was still enjoyable even though I felt like slashing my wrists afterward.

I know it's a slow movie, but I really enjoyed Unbreakable. It unfolds very slowly, but I found it satisfying. The Sixth Sense is good too, but it's been so talked about, I don’t know if it'd be as enjoyable for you as it was when I saw it in the theatre and knew nothing.

And yeah, I wrote up my list while glancing at IMDB's Top 250. Sue me. There are plenty of other good movies on there, but I wasn't sure enough to recommend you.

[Captain_Frisk]

--snip--

I wish I could give you +5 - for the 5 recommendations that I haven't seen. 


Shallow Grave
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Amelie
City of Lost Children
Delicatessen

Instead - I'll give you +1 for Fight Club - my favorite movie of all time.  Gets better on repeat viewings.

[eHalcyon]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind!

[Captain_Frisk]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind!

I wish i could erase the memory of watching it so that I could see it again.

[Lekkit]

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.

I think it's something like that.

[Geronimoo]

Just some movies I like a lot and have seen several times:

Being John Malkovich
Spirited Away
Fargo

And let me promote the only Belgian movie that's really good: C'est arrivé près de chez vous (very brutal and funny at times)

[yuma]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind!

Love... but always get confused with The Inevitable Lightness of Being--which I also throughly enjoy. I don't think I have seen Space Odyssey 2001 or A Clockwork of Orange (graphic and violent warning though) on here and Moonrise Kingdom should still be in theatres,


(sorry if any of these don't fit your RT demands, I don't use that at all, but probably should

[Captain_Frisk]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind!

Love... but always get confused with The Inevitable Lightness of Being--which I also throughly enjoy. I don't think I have seen Space Odyssey 2001 or A Clockwork of Orange (graphic and violent warning though) on here and Moonrise Kingdom should still be in theatres,


(sorry if any of these don't fit your RT demands, I don't use that at all, but probably should

Everything by kubrick should be watched.  I'll checkout Unbearable Lightness

[Ozle]

Machete!

Also...

Inception is not a PATCH on Momento! And I cant believe you have not already seen Fight Club.

However, " movies starring jason statham" means you pretty much are set for life the way he keeps churning them out nowadays! (Crank being possibly my favourite)

[michaeljb]

Even though Kuildeous already mentioned it, and Frisk has already seen it, I just have to mention Memento again for anyone else who might be reading this. Definitely in my top 3 (other two are The Godfather Part II and The Empire Strikes Back). It's Christopher Nolan's best movie, but all of his are pretty great--you should check out Following if you haven't seen it.

The only one of his I don't own is Insomnia. It's a good thriller (93% on RT) that doesn't really have any huge flaws, but on the other hand there was nothing about it that really stood out to me to make it great.

There Will Be Blood is a great character study, and Daniel Day-Lewis is just phenomenal as the oil tycoon going mad.

Se7en is another one of my favorite movies, great crime thriller, from the director of Fight Club for any who might not know.

The Deer Hunter is a great war epic, Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken are brilliant.

Hmm none of these that I'm mentioning are really hidden gems--they're all pretty critically acclaimed and (I think) pretty well known.

I'll second the recommendation for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. It's a weird one, but fun.

If you're interested in TV shows, check out BBC's Sherlock. There are two seasons of three episodes each out, and each episode is an hour and a half, so it's more like a series of movies than a standard TV show.

[eHalcyon]

I recently watched The Illusionist and quite liked it.

I remember Red was a fun film.

[Eevee]

I second Sherlock. I dont watch a lot of movies, so nothing there.

[Lekkit]

BBC's Sherlock is so good it actually got me to buy a full collection of the Sherlock Holmes books to read.

[Eevee]

BBC's Sherlock is so good it actually got me to buy a full collection of the Sherlock Holmes books to read.

Me too! The same happened with Game of Thrones.

[theory]

I second Sherlock. I dont watch a lot of movies, so nothing there.

I was fortunate enough to be in London when Season 2 aired; frustratingly, Season 2 hasn't come on Netflix so I can't watch it again.

In terms of episode rankings, I would go 4 > 6 > 1 > 5 > 3 > 2

[Davio]

Three semi-random suggestions: Pi, Cypher and One Point O.
All are mysterious sci-fi flicks.

I haven't seen Primer, but I suspect it fits in with these movies.

[Captain_Frisk]

Three semi-random suggestions: Pi, Cypher and One Point O.
All are mysterious sci-fi flicks.

I haven't seen Primer, but I suspect it fits in with these movies.

I've seen pi, but not the other 2.

Hidden gem recommendation:

The booth at the end.  It's on Hulu, and season 2 starts on Monday.  Watch it!

[dor]

Prestige is a must if you liked Memento and/or Inception

[michaeljb]

I second Sherlock. I dont watch a lot of movies, so nothing there.

I was fortunate enough to be in London when Season 2 aired; frustratingly, Season 2 hasn't come on Netflix so I can't watch it again.

In terms of episode rankings, I would go 4 > 6 > 1 > 5 > 3 > 2

You can watch it again! Just have to buy it on DVD or Blu-ray--I preordered as soon as I could, one of the few times I've paid to own something I hadn't seen yet.

I mostly agree with your episode rankings, except I think I'd move 3 up two spots. Definitely one. 4 was just crazy awesome. I was pretty disappointed that Irene Adler didn't show up again, hopefully she does in Season 3.

[Captain_Frisk]

Even though Kuildeous already mentioned it, and Frisk has already seen it, I just have to mention Memento again for anyone else who might be reading this. --SNIP-- It's Christopher Nolan's best movie, but all of his are pretty great--you should check out Following if you haven't seen it.

This is truth.  Following is probably the worst, but considering the budget its still worth watching.  If I had to rank:

Memento

Dark Night

Inception / Batman Begins

Dark Night Rises / Insomnia / Prestige

Following

Sherlock added to queue - added bonus: Instant!

[O]

Fargo
In Bruges
Mystic River
True Grit (remake)
obviously A Clockwork Orange (warning:extremely mature content) and Pulp Fiction if you haven't seen them.

[michaeljb]

Fargo
In Bruges
Mystic River
True Grit (remake)
obviously A Clockwork Orange (warning:extremely mature content) and Pulp Fiction if you haven't seen them.

+1 for half of those (Fargo, True Grit, Pulp Fiction)..haven't seen the other half

[Davio]

I actually found Batman Begins better than Dark Knight, but that maybe because of the immense hype after Heath Ledger passed away. And I don't like that Batman's voice gets deeper and deeper like he's suffering from throat cancer.

[michaeljb]

Yeah, his voice definitely wasn't as bad in Batman Begins. I think the absolute dumbest voice moment in the trilogy was in The Dark Knight Rises, when he's talking to Selina Kyle on the rooftop, then she suddenly leaves while his back his turned, and then he growls to himself "So that's what that feels like."

[Ozle]

Oh, In Brugge is fantastic, in fact, I would go so far to say, its like a F**king Fairytale!

[Qvist]

Three semi-random suggestions: Pi, Cypher and One Point O.
All are mysterious sci-fi flicks.

I haven't seen Primer, but I suspect it fits in with these movies.

Finally I found someone who thinks too that Cypher is a great movie.

I try to keep it short, but I recommend:
Nolan movies (mainly Memento, Inception and Prestige, ... see them all)
Fincher movies (mainly Fight Club, Se7en, The Game, Benjamin Button, Social Network, ... see them all)
Pixar movies (mainly Finding Nemo, Wall-E)
Kaufman movies (mainly Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation)
Gilliam movies (mainly 12 Monkeys, Brazil, The Fisher King)
Hitchcock movies (mainly Spellbound, Psycho, Rebecca, Rope, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Birds, ... too tired to write them all out)
Iñárritu movies (mainly Babel, 21 Grams, Amores Perros)
Tykwer movies (mainly Lola rennt, The Parfume)
Coen movies (mainly the comedies: Untolerable Cruelty, O Brother where are thou, Big Lebowski, but the dramas are good too)
Natali movies (mainly Cube, Cypher, Nothing)
Aronofsky movies (mainly Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler) haven't seen Black Swan yet
Movies with Edward Norton (mainly Fight Club, Primal Fear, American History X, The 25th Hour) haven't seen Moonrise Kingdom yet

Other movies by Genre:
SciFi: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Cloverfield (2008), Children of Men (2006), Donnie Darko (2001), Frequency (2000), Abre los ojos (1997)
Drama: American Beauty (1999), Magnolia (1999), Time of Awakening (1990)
Music Drama: August Rush (2007), Once (2006), La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (1998)
Romance: The Notebook (2004)
Crime/Thriller: Brick (2005), The Machinist (2004), Gosford Park (2001), The Usual Suspects (1995)
Comedy: Stranger than Fiction (2006), Garden State (2004)

Older ones, by year, see them all:
Paris, Texas (1984)
Network (1976)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Once upon a Time in the West (1968)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
The Appartement (1960)
Witness for Prosecution (1957)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Le salaire de la peur (1953)
Dark Passage (1947)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Maltese Falcon (1941)
M (1931)

I stop here, I think now you have something to do... 

[Arya Stark]

pride and prejudice with keira knightly & count of monte cristo 

[eHalcyon]

pride and prejudice with keira knightly & count of monte cristo 

The Count of Monte Cristo was in P&P?  I guess Dantes is a pretty good actor.

[yuma]

pride and prejudice with keira knightly & count of monte cristo 

If you are going down the P&P route, go with the 6 hour BBC version... Keira knightly is fun, but the longer version is wonderful.

[Captain_Frisk]

+1 for Sherlock

S1e1 exceeded expectations!

[michaeljb]

+1 for Sherlock

S1e1 exceeded expectations!

Glad you liked it! My graphic designer friend loves pointing out their excellent typography. (just finished S1e3 with him--time to go bully my other friend who has my S2 Blu-ray...)

[Grujah]

Even though Kuildeous already mentioned it, and Frisk has already seen it, I just have to mention Memento again for anyone else who might be reading this. --SNIP-- It's Christopher Nolan's best movie, but all of his are pretty great--you should check out Following if you haven't seen it.

This is truth.  Following is probably the worst, but considering the budget its still worth watching.  If I had to rank:

Memento

Dark Night

Inception / Batman Begins

Dark Night Rises / Insomnia / Prestige

Following

Sherlock added to queue - added bonus: Instant!

Dark "Night"?

I mean, "he is the vengeance, he is the night", but you are misspelling some titles here
Plus, Batman Begins is the best of the trilogy.

Memento is awesome.

[michaeljb]

Older ones, by year, see them all:
...

Yes, absolutely see M, Night of the Hunter, and 12 Angry Men. I'd also add To Kill a Mockingbird, and some Hitchcock movies--Psycho and Rear Window (sadly I haven't seen more of his movies...I need to get on that).

[Kuildeous]

I caught a Spanish (I believe) movie called Fermat's Room. It wasn't a great movie, but the concept kept my attention. It's a bit contrived, but I guess it has to be in order to get the plot moving. The idea is that this puzzle was sent out to these four people as a sort of sweepstake. They believe that the puzzle was sent to the general public, but it was a trick to lure them into a trap. The problem I have is that the puzzle is not that difficult, so how do these geniuses figure they were the only four people who got it right? Minor quibble. Like I said, it's not fantastic, but it's not badly done.

Although, for Spanish movies, there's also Intacto. It has a really cool premise of a secret society that siphons luck off of other people. And they prove their worth by demonstrating just how lucky they are, sometimes with lethal results.

I had another thought about a horror movie. Well, it's not really horror. It's a zombie gore fest. Dead Alive (or Braindead) by Peter Jackson is a fun watch. Actually, early Peter Jackson is pretty good in general. He showcased quite the variety before he signed on to Lord of the Rings. Meet the Feebles is a horribly hilariously twisted movie that must be watched…even if you swear to never watch it again. By contrast, Heavenly Creatures is a haunting emotional piece where knowing what's going to happen really doesn't help you.

I watched the Bank Job once, and I enjoyed it. I felt like a genre bait-and-switch. I was expecting madcap hijinks like in Snatch, but this movie has a serious side to it.

I second A Clockwork Orange, though I think reading the book is a far more rewarding experience. Part of the fun of the story is deciphering the youths' lingo. There is some of it in the movie, but it's pretty heavy in the book (and don't use the glossary if it comes with one). But the movie is a grand array of visual delights. Kubrick was a batshit crazy director. Poor Malcolm McDowell suffered cracked (broken?) ribs and a damaged cornea from filming that movie.

Speaking of books-to-movies, Catch-22 is fun to watch. Again, I have to say that the book was more fun to read. In fact, I question if the movie makes as much sense to someone who hasn't read the book. There is a lot in the book, and I wonder if the jumps in the movie might confuse the viewer. I don't really know, since I read the book first. And hey, it has Bob Newhart.

Some people recommend Irreversible. I'll mention it because it gets so much buzz, but I was not as impressed by it. It was an ambitious piece, and I can appreciate that the director made great strides by filming each scene in continuous takes. But that also shows; you can only handle so much of someone shouting at a cab driver where a club is and the cab driver shouting back that he doesn't know.  It is also horribly violent. It's not necessarily something I'd recommend, but you can read the synopsis and the reviews and get an idea of whether it's your cup of tea. For movies that take place backwards, I'll stick to Memento, thanks.

[cayvie]

Yes, absolutely see M, Night of the Hunter, and 12 Angry Men. I'd also add To Kill a Mockingbird, and some Hitchcock movies--Psycho and Rear Window (sadly I haven't seen more of his movies...I need to get on that).

I am so sad at how universally spoiled Psycho is these days.

[yuma]

Yes, absolutely see M, Night of the Hunter, and 12 Angry Men. I'd also add To Kill a Mockingbird, and some Hitchcock movies--Psycho and Rear Window (sadly I haven't seen more of his movies...I need to get on that).

I am so sad at how universally spoiled Psycho is these days.

Yeah... Before I had watched it my brother told me that the killer was actually the twin brother of Norman Bates... completely ruined it for me

[cayvie]

Yes, absolutely see M, Night of the Hunter, and 12 Angry Men. I'd also add To Kill a Mockingbird, and some Hitchcock movies--Psycho and Rear Window (sadly I haven't seen more of his movies...I need to get on that).

I am so sad at how universally spoiled Psycho is these days.

Yeah... Before I had watched it my brother told me that the killer was actually the twin brother of Norman Bates... completely ruined it for me

the real problem is that everyone knows the woman is going to get killed! it starts off as a crime thriller and turns into serial killer horror unexpectedly. except everyone expects it now, because if there's one thing you know about psycho, it's that a woman gets killed in the shower.

[Eevee]

I wish I could stop myself from reading all the spoilers I see.

..except I dont. Watching movies is boring, reading through their plots in wikipedia to know what people are talking about is fun.

[Ozle]

black Mirror (three in the series) if you can get then...

[michaeljb]

Yes, absolutely see M, Night of the Hunter, and 12 Angry Men. I'd also add To Kill a Mockingbird, and some Hitchcock movies--Psycho and Rear Window (sadly I haven't seen more of his movies...I need to get on that).

I am so sad at how universally spoiled Psycho is these days.

Funny thing, I'm pretty sure my film professor showed us the last scene in Psycho in the intro to film class, and I didn't actually see Psycho until a year later in the crime film class--and I think that somehow, I had made it to that intro class without it being spoiled for me. My own professor ruined it for me!

Unrelated.
Bruce Willis is dead the whole time.

[eHalcyon]

Bruce Willis is dead the whole time.

Way to spoil The Fifth Element.

Unrelated.
Snape killed Luke's father.  Rosebud was Earth all along.

[sherwinpr]

I'm going to recommend some foreign cinema (classics and contemporary alike), if that's okay.  These are very critically acclaimed movies, so I'm pretty sure they're okay on the RT front without even checking.  They span a variety of genres.  I've also tried to stick to mostly accessible films (they're not too avant garde or experimental).

• The Bicycle Thief (1948 - De Sica - Italy)
• Tokyo Story (1953 - Ozu - Japan)
• Seven Samurai (1954 - Kurosawa - Japan)
• La Strada (1954 - Fellini - Italy)
• The 400 Blows (1954 - Truffaut - France)
• The Leopard - Italian Version (1963 - Visconti - Italy)
• Fanny & Alexander - TV Version (1982 - Bergman - Sweden)
• Ran (1985 - Kurosawa - Japan)
• Wings of Desire (1987 - Wenders - Germany)
• Yi Yi (2000 - Yang - Taiwan)
• In The Mood For Love (2000 - Wong Kar-Wai - Hong Kong)
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007 - Schnabel - France)
• Still Walking (2008 - Koreeda - Japan)
• Carlos - Miniseries (2010 - Assayas - France)
• A Separation (2011 - Farhadi - Iran)

Watch Instant titles are bolded.

[Captain_Frisk]

Only 3 episodes of sherlock?  That's offensive.

[greatexpectations]

i will go ahead and second the recommendations for the following (anything by nolan, really), reservoir dogs, run lola run, primer, snatch, and the usual suspects.

here are some of my other favorites that i don't think anyone has mentioned yet. titles link to rotten tomatoes page.
kal ho naa ho - NR -  a pretty popular bollywood flick
slc punk - 63% - 80's/90's punk culture and growing up.
this is spinal tap - 95% - mockumentary comedy about a metal band.
once - 97% - indie romance/musical.
serenity - 82% - movie conclusion to the firefly tv series, but it stands by itself well too.
inglorious basterds - 88% - a little violent, but totally worth it.

[yuma]

slc punk - 63% - 80's/90's punk culture and growing up.

From someone who grew up in SLC I fully endorse this movie.

[ehunt]

Eraserhead!

[Ozle]

If you like Metal even a little the Anvil: the story of Anvil cannot be topped....